90 VICTORIA NONEZ

Notes

' My use of the term migrant follows the current conventions of the field of migration
studies. It is used both for persons who move within a nation state as well as those
who move across international borders. I do not see this usage as commentary on
the status of Puerto Ricans or on the subjective experience as one that occurs within
national borders or across national borders.
21 define a United States Puerto Rican as one who self-defines in that way or one who
lives the majority of his or her life in the continental U.S.
3This statement is based on informal conversations with Latinos who have read the
text and email correspondence with one instructor who taught the text in an
undergraduate class.
4 See, for example, her explanation of why she did not enter electoral politics (Memoir,
123).
5Pantoja died of cancer in 2002.
6 Sizeable settlements of Puerto Rican migrants also grew in other parts of the
Northeast including urban and rural regions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania (see From
Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies by Carmen
Whalen); Connecticut (see Ruth Glasser's AquiMe Quedo, Puerto Ricans in Connecticut)
and the Connecticut River Valley (see Frank Borres' video "Puerto Rican Passages,"
which represents the lives of Puerto Rican agricultural workers in rural Connecticut
and Massachusetts).
7 Marqu6s was a prolific writer, and has achieved probably his highest level of fame
or notoriety for his essay, "El puertorriquefio d6cil" ("The Docile Puerto Rican").
8 I am grateful to Dr. Margo Culley for suggesting this as an important feature of
migration narratives.
9 Pantoja traveled by horseback to Cuchillo Cuatro, San Lorenzo to teach grades one
through three during the week and back to her mother's house each weekend (oral
history, tape #1).
10 Photo courtesy of the Antonia Pantoja Papers, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora,
Centro de Estudios Puertorriquehos Archives, Hunter College, CUNY.