READING PUERTO RICAN MIGRATION IN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANTONIA PANTOJA 83

elements of her premigration period is the conflict that leads to her departure.
This conflict can be defined in broad sociological terms by looking at the
social forces that led Pantoja and thousands of other Puerto Ricans to leave
Puerto Rico, or in individual terms: through an understanding of what was
happening in the individual's life that led to the decision to migrate. This
tension between the structural factors that lead to mass migrations and the
agency of individuals can be useful to this interpretation of Pantoja's narrative
or any migration narrative generated by a Puerto Rican migrant.

The Decision to Migrate

Pantoja recorded at least two versions of the reason why she decided to
migrate in her autobiographical texts. The first version comes in her oral
history and supports a structural analysis of her migration. Upon completing
a two-year diploma at the University of Puerto Rico, she began to work as a
public school teacher in San Lorenzo, a small town in rural Puerto Rico (oral
history, tape #1). 9 Her mother had since married a man, not Pantoja's father,
and had three children whom she was raising in her own home. Alejandrina's
husband had difficulty working because he had lost an arm in an industrial
accident. He didn't live full time in the house nor was he supporting the
family. The young Pantoja, a new member of the full time work force,
financially supported her mother's household.
 In constructing the parameters of her oral history, Pantoja's explanation
emphasizes the work dimension of her decision to leave Puerto Rico. The
Department of Education was unable to consistently pay her and her family at
home was poor. In the context of an underdeveloped colonized economy, the
inability of workers to find stable work that paid wages consistently would create
a great incentive, the push, for the worker to migrate, particularly if a migratory
path had already been established. Although she acknowledges that the decision
involved agency, particularly in that a friend of hers invited her to travel to the
U.S. with her, it is presented as a decision motivated by economics.
 The second version of the story about her migration comes in the
autobiography. She writes,

 I was so overburdened, carrying the major financial responsibility for the
 family. I was suffocating with emotions and responsibilities. I needed to find
 my own life. I felt that the culture was oppressive, demanding that I take care
 of my mother's family because I was unmarried. (48)

 In this version, Pantoja's decision to migrate emphasizes much more
significantly the social dimensions of her identity as a single woman wanting
to escape her family responsibilities, pressures that emanate directly from
her mother, but that she recognizes as a broader social force as well. In the
excerpt above, Pantoja speaks to the confining forces of feminine identity
and the filial duty of the single daughter in Puerto Rican culture, a feature of