A collection of first-hand reminiscences about the mid-20th-century migration from Puerto Rico to the US. The documentary importance of these testimonies is evident, particularly in their capturing of the actual voyage from Puerto Rico and arrival in New York, which dwell on the psychological and existential trauma of arrival and first impressions.

Studies the migration of large numbers of Puerto Ricans to New York in the early 1900's to study the social consequences including employment opportunities, housing, health, and adjustment.

Stories about the experiences of Puerto Ricans in New York.

The selections in this book aim to describe the experiences of the early emigrants to the U.S., before the mass emigration of the late forties and fifties. These early arrival stories are first-hand testimonies and the predecessors of the Nuyorican literature that became part of the city's English and Hispanic literary movement in the past quarter-century. The book is published in both English and Spanish to reflect the bilingual-ness of the city and its inhabitants.

First published in 1983, this book remains the only full-length study documenting the historical development of the Puerto Rican community in the United States. Expanded to bring it up to the present, Virginia Sánchez Korrol's work traces the growth of the early Puerto Rican settlements—"colonias"—into the unique, vibrant, and well-defined community of today.

Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Set amid the havoc of the War on Drugs, this New York Times bestseller is an "astonishingly intimate" (New York magazine) chronicle of one family’s triumphs and trials in the South Bronx of the 1990s. “Unmatched in depth and power and grace. A profound, achingly beautiful work of narrative nonfiction…The standard-bearer of embedded reportage.” —Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted In her classic bestseller, journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the world of one family with roots in the Bronx, New York. In 1989, LeBlanc approached Jessica, a young mother whose encounter with the carceral state is about to forever change the direction of her life. This meeting redirected LeBlanc’s reporting, taking her past the perennial stories of crime and violence into the community of women and children who bear the brunt of the insidious violence of poverty. Her book bears witness to the teetering highs and devastating lows in the daily lives of Jessica, her family, and her expanding circle of friends. Set at the height of the War on Drugs, Random Family is a love story—an ode to the families that form us and the families we create for ourselves. Charting the tumultuous struggle of hope against deprivation over three generations, LeBlanc slips behind the statistics and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and distinctly American true story.

This study examined the lives of 100 intergenerationally linked Puerto Rican families living in New York City. Each family consisted of two generations: the mothers and fathers in the parent generation and their married child and spouse in the child generation. Subjects investigated included the experiences of the migrant parent generation in their island home, their migration and settlement in New York City, and the experiences of their children, raised in the United States. Also investigated was the impact of the two generations' different life experiences upon the transmission of sociocultural characteristics from parents to their children and upon the structure of the relationship between the parent and married child. Among the major findings were the following: (1) intergenerational differences between the parents and their married children were pervasive and strong; (2) the greatest intergenerational change occurred in socioeconomic status, then in the language used, then in values; (3) the least change occurred in the subjective elements describing self-concept and bicultural preferences; (4) age at arrival in New York City and level of education were important determinants of ethnic identity; (5) when parents and their children were socialized in the same culture, or when they were similar in educational level, intergenerational continuity increased; and (6) intergenerational differences in early socialization settings and in educational attainment had no effect upon the strength of intergenerational solidarity. (CMG)