Mainland Passage: The Cultural Anomaly of Puerto Rico

196 Pages·2009·0.928 MB·English

by  Ramon E. Soto-Crespo

Mainland Passage
The Cultural Anomaly
of Puerto Rico
Ramón E. Soto-Crespo
University of Minnesota Press
Mainland Passage

Mainland Passage
The Cultural Anomaly of Puerto Rico
Ramón E. Soto-Crespo
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance provided
for the publication of this book from the Julian Park Fund of the College of Arts and
Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
An earlier version of chapter 1was published as “The Pains of Memory: Mourning the
Nation in Puerto Rican Art and Literature,” MLN117, no. 2(2002): 449– 80. Chapter 2was
first published as “An Intractable Foundation: Luis Muñoz Marín and the Border land State in
Contemporary Puerto Rican Literature,” American Literary History18, no. 4(2006): 712– 38.
The poems “nuyorican” and “against muñoz pamphleteering” by Tato Laviera are reprinted
with permission from the publisher of AmeRícanand La Carreta Made a U - Turn;copyright
1985, 1992Arte Público Press—University of Houston. The poem “Mongo Affair” by Miguel
Algarín was published in Mongo Affairby Nuyorican Press and Book Arts in 1978. Excerpts
from the poems “Puerto Rican Obituary,” “Suicide Note from a Cockroach in a Low Income
Housing Project,” and “The Old Buildings (1422amsterdam avenue),” by Pedro Pietri were
published in Puerto Rican Obituaryby Monthly Review Press in 1973. The author and the
University of Minnesota Press thank the Pedro Pietri Estate and Margarita Deida Pietri for
granting permission for the reproduction of Pedro Pietri’s poetry.
Copyright 2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Soto-Crespo, Ramón E.
Mainland passage : the cultural anomaly of Puerto Rico / Ramón E. Soto-Crespo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-5587-8 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-5588-5 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Puerto Rican literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Emigration and
immigration in literature. 3. Puerto Rico—In literature. 4. National characteristics,
Puerto Rican, in literature. 5. Literature and history—Puerto Rico—History—20th
century. 6. Politics and literature—Puerto Rico—History—20th century. 7. Puerto
Rico—Emigration and immigration—History—20th century. 8. Puerto Rico—
Civilization—20th century. I. Title.
PQ7428.S66 2009
860.9'3587295—dc22 2009006994
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of my teacher Rafael Añeses de la Rosa:
he taught me to think without blinders.

I am new. History made me. My first language was spanglish.
I was born at the crossroads
and I am whole.
—Aurora Levins Morales, “Child of the Americas”
In history an additional result is commonly produced by human
actions beyond that which they aim and obtain.
—G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxiii
INTRODUCTION
Neither Colony nor Nation 1
ONE
State and Artifice:
Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá and Puerto Rican Painting 23
TWO
The Mainland Passage:
Luis Muñoz Marín’s Borderland State 57
THREE
Escaping Colonialism:
How to Do Things with American Imperialism 82
FOUR
Out of the Mainland:
Nuyorican Poetry and Boricua Politics 119
Notes 145
Works Cited 153
Index 165