HLAS annotation: Acknowledging the existence of many Afro-Caribbean religious practices, the book examines religious art created by four 20th-century Afro-Caribbean women in the context of two belief systems, Espiritismo and La Regla de Ocha (Santería). The four women are Tiburcia Sotolongo y Ugarte (1861-1938), Hortensia Ferrer (1906-92), Iluminada Sierra Ortiz (1918-81), and Carmen Oramas Caballery (1933-). The four of them are related not by family ties but by reasons of familial connections associated with their practices. Hortensia was adopted by Tiburcia; Iluminada was born in Puerto Rico and immigrated to Cuba, where she became part of Tiburcia's "family," and later to New York (Spanish Harlem), where she became the mentor of Carmen who was also born in Puerto Rico. The author seeks to characterize modern Afro-Cuban religious art as a movement that expanded into a wide spectrum of contemporary Afro-Atlantic arts and, at its core, owes a great deal to the critical role women have played in the religion and the rituals and iconography they helped to generate. This role is even more remarkable considering that after the priestess' death most of the art related to her practice of Santería is destroyed and objects associated with Espiritismo are not preserved. Numerous notes help the reader to understand the cultural interactions among African, European, and American traditions. For instance, a useful table indicates how African deities correspond to Catholic saints in Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti; and the appendix "Food for the Oricha," lists a number of recipes for celebratory food offerings. [HLAS Contributor: Félix Ángel]

HLAS annotation: A nice collection of papers that examine the diversity and complexity of native Amerindians inhabiting Puerto Rico. Divided into 10 chapters written by many well-known Caribbean scholars. Touches on subjects related to the manufacturing of lithic tools, analysis of animal remains and diet, symbolic and functional use of the landscape, rock art, and the impact to traditional culture vis-à-vis European colonialism. [HLAS Contributor: Scott M. Fitzpatrick]

HLAS annotation: This work traces the Caribbean from precolumbian times through European contact and colonialism to the rise of US hegemony and the economic turbulence of the 21st century. The volume begins with a discussion of the region's diverse geography and challenging ecology and features an in-depth look at the transatlantic slave trade, including slave culture, resistance, and ultimately emancipation. Later sections treat Caribbean nationalist movements for independence and struggles with dictatorship and socialism, along with intractable problems of poverty, economic stagnation, and migrancy. [HLAS Contributor: Clifford E. Griffin]

HLAS annotation: Although primarily a work of philosophy whose major relevance to the study of politics is theoretical rather than empirical, this book is crucial reading for anyone seeking to understand the territory's present situation. In dialogue with both Puerto Rican and also numerous Latin American and Afro-diasporic and other authors, Zambrana asks what it would mean to examine Puerto Rico's "debt crisis" and recent "natural disasters" from the standpoint of the multiple overlapping vulnerabilities and violences afflicting most of its population, albeit to different degrees. The discussion is grounded in analysis not just of colonial and neoliberal legislation, but also including instances of public discourse and cultural production that illustrate the ways in which the violences of the colonial debt regime "land on" certain gendered and racialized bodies with greater force than others. By engaging with "decolonial" feminist activists as well as scholars, the book further gives voice to the complex interpretive frames informing the activities of an important sector of contemporary Puerto Rican social movements. [HLAS Contributor: José A. Laguarta-Ramírez]

HLAS annotation: This comparative study investigates the migrant labor recruitment program established by Hawaiian sugar planters in the early decades of the 20th century. The author illuminates the differing experiences of Puerto Ricans and Filipinos, examining the social, economic, and political factors that propelled contract migration to Hawaii, their struggles in the fields as an ethnic migrant labor force, and the impact of the larger US colonial policies over these territories. [HLAS Contributor: Luis González]

HLAS annotation: This welcome study addresses the origins and trajectories of the first Chinese migrants introduced from the Dominican Republic and Cuba to Puerto Rico as prisoners forced to work in public works projects since the 1860s. The author presents the social imaginary of the Chinese community in Puerto Rico. Fills a gap in the historiography of Caribbean immigration. [HLAS Contributor: Luis González]

HLAS annotation: Studies of Puerto Rican politics tend to focus almost exclusively on the "status issue," occasionally glancing at the underlying political-economic context of dependent capitalism or the most visible social movements that have emerged from it over the years. The micropolitics of identity and everyday life are usually left to cultural anthropologists or sociologists, despite the numerous ways in which they have shaped and been shaped by those "larger" structures, institutions, and dynamics. Deploying a "radically interdisciplinary" approach, in this groundbreaking book which includes material previously included or discussed in her articles (e.g., see item #bi2019003508#), Lebrón explores precisely these relationships with a strong focus on race (a category typically considered of little relevance to Puerto Rican political life). Examining policing strategies in Puerto Rico since the 1990s as a response by local elites to the ongoing crisis of the political-economic model of "colonial capitalism," the author provides a detailed description of how these strategies have functioned to shift attention and blame for a perceived unraveling of the social fabric onto marginalized populations, while avoiding any real accounting for the root causes of decline. She also makes ample use of interviews with community leaders and analyzes popular cultural expressions to illustrate how these institutional strategies have shaped the ways class, race, and space intersect in contemporary Puerto Rico and in the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Finally, she discusses examples of local social movements that have been imagining, proposing, and to some degree constructing "alternative futures" not necessarily centered on (although never altogether separate from) the traditional question of political status. The book concludes with a postscript considering the uneven impacts of Hurricane Maria and the local and federal governments' "reconstruction" efforts, as well as more transformational projects by grassroots communities and movements. [HLAS Contributor: José A. Laguarta-Ramirez]

HLAS annotation: This incisive investigation focuses on the development and implementation of a well-planned policy by the government of Puerto Rico not only to encourage migration from the island to the US mainland but also to promote the incorporation of Puerto Ricans as a migrant workforce in the US during the 1940s and 1950s. The Puerto Rican government's role in the management of migration is gleaned from careful research in local archives, particularly the records of the Department of Labor. [HLAS Contributor: Luis González]

HLAS annotation: Handsome catalog published on occasion of the exhibition with the same title organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford Univ. in California and curated by Bernard Barryte. The exhibition consisting of some 56 paintings, predominantly but not exclusively from the Cuzco School, opened in the Cantor Arts Center on Sept. 20, 2006, where it is scheduled to remain until the end of the year, to be followed by venues at the Tucson Museum of Art, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Santurce), Univ. of Toronto Arts Center, and Jack S. Blanton Museum at the Univ. of Texas at Austin, between Jan. 2007 and March 2008. The catalog makes available to the public for the first time the very fine private collection belonging to Carl and Marilynn Thoma from Kenilworth, Illinois, whose purposes were to introduce North Americans to the relatively unfamiliar field of Spanish colonial South American painting, and to help generate new knowledge about the pictorial traditions in the former Viceroyalty of Peru. Six scholarly chapters by Thomas Cummins, Thomas da Costa Kaufmann, Kenneth Mills, Hiroshige Okada, Ramón Mujica Pinilla, and Suzanne Stratton-Pruitt provide much more than an overview of the art of painting in South America from Conquest to Independence; the essays expand upon previous research and explore new ideas inspired by the works in the collection. Well-documented and beautifully illustrated with full color reproductions, this an important contribution to the field. The detailed catalog raisonné by Stratton-Pruitt discusses the iconography and morphology of each of the works, supplying complete information on authorship, physical description, date, provenance, and previous exhibitions. The selected bibliography at the end gives useful suggestions for further reading. [HLAS Contributor: H. Rodríguez-Camilloni]