Puerto Rican voices in English

by Carmen Dolores Hernández

Puerto Rican writers living in the United States and writing in English find themselves astride two cultures, two languages, and two ways of looking at life. They also find two sets of prejudice: racial, cultural, and linguistic bias in the United States; and rejection from Puerto Rican society. In this vibrant collection of interviews, Hernandez presents portraits of 14 of the most prominent Puerto Rican writers living in the United States and offers the first chance for them to speak directly about their lives and their literary tradition. Taken as a whole, the diverse experiences of these writers provide an insight into the effects of early displacement from a national culture, and how perceived prejudice and hostility can breed, in turn, either violence and hate, or a wish to excel and to communicate.