From Problem Children to Wunderkinder: Some New Books on Puerto Rico

Abstract

SINCE PUERTO RICO caine under the aegis of the United States, the attitude of most continental Americans toward affairs oni the island has been olne of blissful ignorance. Those few who knew something about the colony were likely to regard its people with the ambivalent friendship-distaste of the missionary era. The distaste, reflected in impatience if not contempt for Puerto Rican ways, predominated and did a disservice to Puerto Rico and the United States. Today, with more and more Americans coming into contact with Puerto Rico and things Puerto Rican in a post-colonial age, the ratio has been reversed in the friendship-distaste syndrome, so that frienidship predominates. Yet an overabundant and uncritical friendship caln also do a disservice. Both are essentially condescending. Puerto Rico's economic progress since the 1930's is the most remarkable feature of its modern history. Arguments as to whether or not Governor Muinoz Marnn and his regime were solely responsible for this resurgence are beside the point. That a people made a great leap from starvation to supportable poverty (with the hope of more leaps forward in the future) is enough. Puerto Rico holds its head up now, but it is by no means an island paradise, however fragrant the gardenias along the road to El Yunque. Much of what has appeared in print on Puerto Rico in recent years gives too rosy a picture of Puerto Rican life for the island's good. No one can object to the time-honored exaggerations of tourist ad copy (who knows, the young socialite from the North sipping his rum-andtonic may actually like it). But we can ask that news reporting from the island show a bit more depth than what we have been getting, and that the books appearing on Puerto Rico go several steps beyond the status of extended semi-official publicity releases.