LITERATURE OF THE PUERTO RICAN DIASPORA: AN OVERVIEW 9

8Data included in Adi6s, Borinquen Querida indicate that by the 1980s, Puerto Ricans
resided in each and every state of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Population demographics currently vary from approximately 1.5 million in New York
City alone to 325 living in Wyoming. Demographic projections indicate that soon the
number of Puerto Ricans living in the United States will surpass the amount of Puerto
Ricans living on the island.
9 In The Nuyorican Experience: Literature of the Puerto Rican Minority (Greenwood
Press, 1982), Eugene Mohr uses this term to refer to those writers who spent short
periods of time in the U.S. but did not permanently establish themselves there. Many
of them returned to the island and formed an important part of the celebrated national
authors.
"'John Antush, Nuestro New York xi.
I"Divided Borders 150.
12For a comprehensive, detailed account of these events, see The Puerto Rican
Movement: Voices of the Diaspora. Edited by Andr6s Torres and Jos6 Velazquez.
(Temple UP, 1998).
13 Important early works include Miguel Algarin and Miguel Pifiero, eds. Nuyorican
Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings (1975); Sandra Maria Esteves's
Yerba Buena (1980); Pedro Pietri's Puerto Rican Obituary (1973); Miguel Pifiero's La
Bodega Sold Dreams (1985) and Jose Angel Figueroa's East 110"' Street (1973) and Noo
Jork (1981). A more recent sampling of "nuyorican" poetry is Aloud: Voices From the
Nuyorican Poets Cafr (1994), edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman.
14 The writings of these so-called "Neo-Nuyorican Poets" has received wide attention
and critical acclaim not only through published works but also through other sources
such as school/university tours and workshops, poetry reading in and out of the
United States, internet websites, HBO programming like Russell Simmons Presents
Def Poetry, and Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and CDs and DVDs such as Yemayd y
Ochdn (2003).
15 For further information on Puerto Rican drama, see Recent Puerto Rican Theater:
Five Plays (1991), and Nuestro New York: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Plays, (Mentor,
1994), both edited by John Antush.
16Vega's most important work to date includes two collections of stories, Mendoza's
Dreams (1987) and Casualty Report (1991); and several novels, among them The
Comeback (1985) and Blood Fugues (2005).
17The effects are most dramatic in the urban areas increasingly inhabited by Latinos.
Various books have analyzed and discussed this phenomenon; most notable are
Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York (2001); Magical Urbanism (2000); Latino
Metropolis (2000); Barrio Logos (2000). For an excellent collection of essays on Latinos/
as and popular culture, see Latino/a Popular Culture (2002) and more specifically, on
Puerto Rican pop culture, Boricua Pop (2004).
18La guagua aerea. (Rio Piedras, PR: Editorial Cultural, 1994).
19 Aurora Morales Levins and Rosario Morales. Getting Home Alive. (Ithaca, NY:
Firebrand Books, 1986) 50.