Hispanic American Intellectuals Publishing in the Nineteenth-Century United States: From Political Tracts in Support of Independence to Commercial Publishing Ventures

Abstract

The first major creative and non-fiction writing by Hispanics in the United States was mostly of a political nature and intimately related to the Spanish American struggles for independence from Spain. While at first the books and pamphlets were issued by early American printers in Philadelphia, New York and other cities, Spanish American intellectuals soon founded their own presses and, during the course of the nineteenth century, began issuing all kinds of books, not only as part of defining their national identities but also as non-political, commercial fare. Because of these efforts, many of the foundational works of Cuban and Puerto Rican culture were issued in the United States.