The Puerto Rican Diaspora

"This is an innovative, if not singular, book on the formation and development of seldom studied Puerto Rican communities in the United States. The history of these communities yields a unique perspective on the racial dynamics, economic development, politics, and cultural life of the cities and towns that are included here. The contributors provide localized insights on the migration experience and help shape a detailed portrait of the Puerto Rican diaspora."
—Pedro Cabán, University of Illinois

"This is an excellent, comprehensive collection of community histories across the Puerto Rican diaspora. To gather such a broad spectrum of Puerto Rican life from Boston to Hawai'i is a major accomplishment. The narratives bring into focus central aspects of the migratory and settlement process, and illuminate the resilience of a community often overlooked."
—Andrés Torres, University of Massachusetts Boston

"Each study can be read alone, but taken together as a chronicle of a people scattered widely across the Americas over time and space, this collection of original essays produces a very satisfying encounter with a demographic phenomenon both familiar and new. Whalen bookends the volume with excellent historical overview and conclusion. The writing throughout is clear and jargon free, and select photos enliven the narratives. Summing Up: Highly Recommended."
—Choice

"In her introduction, Carmen Teresa Whalen provided an excellent social and economic history on the process of Puerto Rican migration to the United States during the twentieth century...This is an excellent book that will potentially serve a diverse audience in the United States of those who study migration and social microhistories of such communities. It is a unique and extraordinary effort, offering a brief and accessible social and political history of distinct Puerto Rican settlements in the United States. The contributors provided a rich amount of bibliographic sources, particularly in English, which will benefit undergraduate classes on migration and Puerto Rican communities."
—The Journal of American History

"One of the values of this book is its focus on the history of the many other cities and communities the nearly four million Puerto Ricans in the United States live and work in."
—Centro Journal

“Carmen Teresa Whalen and Víctor Vázquez-Hernández’s valuable anthology recognizes (sic) the growing dispersal and complexity of Puerto Rican migration….The Puerto Rican Diaspora draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including government documents, oral histories, interviews, memoirs, newspaper articles, participant observation, and photographs…. (T)his well-grounded collection manages to reconstruct the diasporic experience from the migrants’ standpoint. Thus, it paints a sympathetic, intimate and vivid portrayal of Puerto Rican community life both past and present. The Puerto Rican Diaspora is a well-chosen and carefully edited collection on immigrant settlements beyond their traditional core in New York City.”
—Journal of Latin American Studies

"The (book) seeks to correct two misreadings of Puerto Rican American history: the assumptions that Puerto Ricans are recent migrants and that their migration has been to New York City, the post World War II 'Newyorican' phenomenon. The book does that successfully, in the sense that it identifies the early individuals who located in the cities under examination, and, more notably, in its tracking of the rise of the Puerto Rican communities of the various cities and states.... The book is a good introduction to the history of Puerto Ricans in the United States."
—Historical Journal of Massachusetts