LITERATURE OF THE PUERTO RICAN DIASPORA: AN OVERVIEW


His work, A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches (1961), much like
Vega's writing, engages in a literary representation of the historical/cultural
development of the Puerto Rican community in New York during the first
three formative decades of the twentieth century. His writing brings to the
forefront discussions of the lack of opportunities and difficulties brought
about by exclusionary and discriminatory labor tactics in the United States.
Col6n's sketches cut to the core of the idealism of the American Dream, the
driving force behind many migrants' initial inclination to leave their
homelands.
 Other less known but important writers who form part of this first wave
of Puerto Rican migration were the radical feminist and anarchist Luisa
Capetillo, the librarian and children's book author Pura Belpr6, and the
nationalist independentista Graciany Miranda Archilla. Pedro Juan Labarthe's
novel, The Son of Two Nations (1931), was among the first literary works
written in English to focus on the experience of Puerto Ricans and their
integration process. These works provide valuable insights into migrant
realities by exposing the nature of the authors' relations to their country of
origin and their distinctiveness from the wider Anglo American community.
 The second period in the process of Puerto Rican migration discussed in
Clara Rodriguez's article corresponds to the years from 1946 to 1964. This
stage marks the aftermath of World War II up to the Civil Rights Era. It also
encompasses the period known as "the great migration" in the 1950s when
the largest number of Puerto Ricans left the island and settled in the United
States. The new settlers not only increased existing Puerto Rican
communities formed by the first wave, but also began to disperse and
establish themselves in other states of the country such as New Jersey,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois.8 Increased migration to the United
States solidified the presence of Puerto Ricans as a social group and helped
promote the concept of a cultural citizenship marked by new denominations
(Nuyorican, Latinos/as), the establishment of defined social spaces, and the
rejection of images and stereotypes that ignored Puerto Ricans' contributions
to society.
 Writings of the so-called "sojourners" form part of this second period.9
These authors initially wrote in Spanish but their works have since been
translated and constantly studied for their vivid portrayals of migrant
realities. Authors in this group include Jose Luis Gonzalez's Paisa (1950);
Ren6 Marques's La carreta (1952)-whose production in New York City in
1953 marked the "birth of the modern Puerto Rican drama in New York;"10
Pedro Juan Soto's Spiks (1957) and Ardiente suelo, fria estaci6n (1962);
Guillermo Cotto-Thorner's Tr6pico en Manhattan (1960); Emilio Diaz
ValcArcel's Harlem todos los dias (1978); some of the poetry by Julia de Burgos
and Jaime Carrero's collection of poetry, Jet Neorriqueio: Neo-Rican Jet Liner,
which not only, as Juan Flores aptly claims, "foreshadowed the onset of
Nuyorican literature in New York,""1 but probably also looked forward to