Sunday Sermon [Sex and Money]

Hola mi Gente,

I keep trying to finish a piece on environmental racism, but every time I turn to it, I become so enraged that I cannot finish it. 

* * *

Sex & Money

My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot.

-- Ashleigh Brilliant(1933– )

Imagine, if you can, going out and seeing a reasonably trustworthy-looking stranger you find sexy. Imagine giving this sexually attractive stranger some money, looking him or her in the eyes and saying, “I’m doing this as part of an assigned exercise. I’m supposed to give some money to somebody really sexy. Then I am to have no further discussion with you.”

As you imagine doing this exercise, how does it feel to give someone money while admitting out loud he or she is sexy? Most of us are more than a little conflicted about both sex and money. Essentially, these are forms of energy exchange, which can be as simple as an unexpected gift, or as complicated as a lawsuit.

Sex and money: the sources of our desire and disappointment, our hopes and fears.

To live fully, as far as I’m concerned, is to live every moment so that no residue remains except the free openness of love. Sex and money are most often our least lived domains. In other words, these are the areas smeared with the most residue -- the most baggage. Therefore, few people (if they are honest) can imagine doing this exercise without some lingering clinging of an emotional complication.

I have found that the best way to discover how live fully is to break the usual rules, in the least risky ways, in order to find out where the obstructions reside within us.

Repeat this exercise, or invent one of your own that requires you to imagine offering gifts beyond your comfort zone. As you learn to give despite your fears, your sexual and financial lives can be lived according to what serves openness the most, rather than being ruled by the consequences of living a fear-based life, holding your gifts back.

It’s easy to become stuck in our own personal soap operas of sex and money. What we cannot live as openness, offered without baggage, creates sickness in our lives. It gums up the works and makes it difficult to flow. This much I have found to be true: the price of discovering where you are stuck sexually and financially may be more than what you are willing to invest.

The core question here being do you maintain no sexual or financial secrets? You need to come to the realization that these secrets are among your most insidious refusals to live openly as love.

Are you willing to face, feel, confess, and open beyond your every sexual and financial complication now? My life has taught me that human birth is for those who are not quite ready but may be on the verge -- willing. This is the reason why you are here.

 

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Awakening

Hola mi Gente,

I am going to do something affirming today. After venturing into the belly of the beast of the criminal injustice system (prisons), I need to do something to wash off the psychic toxins.

The following is one of mine… 

* * *

Nows [XVIV]

Your sleep:
I have watched you wake --
a spectacle,
a spontaneous vision of honesty.

Your long legs
yawn open
and your arms reach out
for a missing star.

You are reluctant,
deserting your dream,
surrendering to the pink wound
of a new day.

And you reach out for me,
silently, without a plan,
and it is enough.

Your touching me
will always be enough.

It says what no poem
will ever say,
what no words could ever tell me.

 
My name is Eddie and I'm in recovery from civilization... 

The Friday Sex Blog [Sexual Peaks]

Hola mi Gente…

Today is the last day of what has turned out to be a marathon prison monitoring visit. We are headed to the super-max, Southport, to conduct a series of one-on-one interviews. I. Am. Tired.

* * *

Sexual Peaks: Men and Women

Today's post has to be a quickie (pun intended!).

I think that by now most of us are familiar with the cliché that knowledge is power. Clichés are clichés because for the most part they are true. I would like to spin that cliché a little and add that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. What I mean by that is that incomplete knowledge is dangerous because it leads to erroneous conclusions and assumptions.

The folk wisdom that women reach their sexual peak after age thirty; men during adolescence is one of those assumptions.

Mind you, after reading some of the literature, I can’t say I have come to a definitive conclusion. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't question this assumption. In fact, there are more reasons than not to be suspicious about this often-cited “fact.” 

I started where everyone should start: I explored the origin of this piece of accepted wisdom. I was able to trace it to the famous Kinsey surveys of more than a half century ago. Kinsey, I discovered, came to his conclusion simply by polling people on the frequency of various sexual behaviors. Based on the number of times the interviewees reported they had masturbated, had intercourse, or erotic dreams, Kinsey and his crew surmised that women reached their peaks in their mid-to-late thirties -- long after men who peaked in late adolescence. 

Sexual peak is not a clear-cut term, however. For example, the number of sexual experiences per year may be qualitatively different from how much one enjoys them, and this in turn may be different from how often one thinks about sex, or how much enjoyment one brings to one's partner. Who is to say which one these is most relevant to the idea of a “sexual peak” period?

Even if we were to decide to narrowly define sexual peak to one of mere frequency, the problem with using the Kinsey-style method is that it is unclear whether women are said to peak later in life for physiological, psychological, or social reasons. One possible reason, according to studies on human sexuality, is that giving birth may help women to become more sexually responsive because they develop more capillaries (and therefore more “feeling” the reasoning goes) around the genital area. However, another researcher observed that a crying baby in the next room may do far more to cool sexual desire than a few more blood vessels could do to stoke it. In fact, a good number of women report a loss of sexual desire immediately after giving birth.

One of the better-known researchers of sexual hormones and their effect on behavior (and with whom I disagree with in other areas) is John Money. He insists that how we are conditioned to think about sex is more relevant than how much estrogen or testosterone we secrete. He observes that while we need a little amount of hormone to get the system going, additional hormone do not add to the dynamic. If women enjoy sex more, or simply do it more, at forty than at twenty, this is probably more a reflection of the time required to break free from early social conditioning about sexual desire. According to Money, much of what we see as biological in women is intertwined with the concepts of how girls are educated sexually (i.e., the “Madonna/ Whore” dichotomy).

Women are taught to repress their sexuality. They are conditioned to think that if they experience sexual arousal that they are sluts. Women peaking later may be a consequence of the time it takes to get over the more than twenty years of early socialization before they can learn sex can be fun. An even better case against a biological reason for a later sexual peak is that from an evolutionary point of view, it makes no sense for women to become interested in sex just as they're nearing the end of their childbearing years.

If the issue is socialization, then the gap between men's and women's sexual peak should narrow (become more alike) as the impact of sexual double standards lessen. Sure enough, studies since the Kinsey Report are consistently showing that “women are reaching high levels of sexual arousal at earlier ages.” There seems to be a leveling out between the sexes these days in terms of enjoyability and frequency of sex. On the other hand, women are less likely to report a lusty motive (“I was horny”) until they are in their late thirties.

What all this points to is that there is a great need for a large national study that can shed more light on this subject, but politicians are naturally nervous about such a project and are resistant to allow government agencies to explore human sexuality. In fact, there are very few large-scale sexual studies these days.

There is a more important question regarding the claim that women reach their sexual peak at a later stage of the life cycle: a peak implies that something drops off after that milestone. The opposite seems to be true. Women tend to develop a greater ease and frequency of orgasm with more sexual experience. There is no evidence of a decline after the so-called peak.

Physiological changes in men are easier to predict than in women. Most forty year-olds ejaculate less than fifteen-year-olds, for example. However, the context in which the arousal takes place counts for much more here. How can one speak meaningfully about levels of sexual excitement without knowing who is on the other side of the bed?

More importantly, the idea that men have passed their sexual peak before their 20s should raise the question whether a state of a perpetual erection means someone is at their sexual “peak” in any real sense. The middle-aged man may win the race in terms of the sexual satisfaction he gives and receives. In fact, a study of healthy middle-aged to elderly men indicated that while sexual arousal and activity were indeed lower for older men, sexual enjoyment and satisfaction did not show a decline with increasing age. Furthermore, masturbation accounts for the majority of the huge surge early in life for men. That led Kinsey to talk about men reaching their sexual peak in late adolescence. Is that the measure of the kind of sexual peak we should be really interested in?

This much is clear from my own explorations and from personal experience: most men and women can enjoy sex at any time from puberty until death. Some researchers have found that some people don't reach their peak until they're in their late 80s! It would appear to me that there is no evidence suggesting that biology is dominant over social conditioning, psychological conditions, and individual situations. Which to me means there are no fixed sexual prime years or sexual peak.

Yes, sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Politics: Make it Personal

Hola mi Gente...

Getting political today! This is what I was thinking all day yesterday as I toured Elmira Correctional Facility and spoke to the men incarcerated there...

I will be in prison all day today. At the very least, I can be a witness and, working together with the voices of the incarcerated, we can bring a light to this dark underbelly of “America.”

* * *

Politics

Contrary to what you may believe, politics is not something you sometimes watch on TV in-between the tons of garbage reality shows many consume so blindly. Politics impacts your  personal life more than any dumb twunt that gets the date or the chance to debase him or herself for our cynical pleasure. Therefore, if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to implement policies that harm you or those you love, take it personally.

Get Angry. 

The “Machinery of Justice” will not serve you here -- it is slow and unfeeling, and it is theirs -- all of it. Only those without access to power suffer at the hand of Justice; the creatures of the power elite slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want Justice, or even fairness, you will have to snatch it from them.

Make it personal.

Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time -- of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, makes the difference -- the only difference in their eyes -- between players and the “little people.” The power brokers don't give a damn about respect -- respect has no value for them. You have to make them fear and loathe you.

Players they will make their deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again, they will justify your liquidation, your displacement, your suffering, and the brutal banality of it all with the ultimate insult that it is the way of the world, it is politics, it is a tough life, it is “just business,” and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck that...

Make it personal.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Ask a Nuyorican

Hola mi Gente,

These next few days I will be participating on a prison monitoring visit with my former employer, The Correctional Association of NY. I will be in the belly of the beast at Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate New York. It is often during these visits that I come face to face with the consequences of lead poisoning, environmental racism, and the disinvestment of Black and Latin@ men and women. More on that tomorrow (I hope).

In the meantime, I need to keep a sense of humor while doing this work, hence the following offered with tongue firmly in cheek… 

* * *

Ask a Nuyorican

Being a Primer on How to be a Nuyorican via Cuss Words, Sex, and Everything Else

So, a couple of years ago, I read ¡Ask A Mexican! by Gustavo Arellano and found myself cracking up throughout the whole read. I was thinking that since the messakins have such a reference source, then the second largest Latin@ demographic, people of Puerto Rican descent, should be similarly honored. After all, in the northeast and in places like Chicago, Puerto Ricans are most likely the majority of Latin@s you will run into. Shit, we even have a tight-knit clan in Hawaii, part of the unintended result of Operation Bootstrap. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here and I don’t want to give anyone a headache.

Notice the word in my title, Nuyorican? Well, a Nuyorican is a person of Puerto Rican descent or birth who was born or raised in New York City. Lots of Dominicans and Cubans and assorted other Latino/as try to pass themselves off a Nuyoricans, but you can tell us apart right away: we’re the first ones to speak up.

Now, if you’re from the South or the West Coast, you might not even know what a Puerto Rican is or that Puerto Rico is a colony of the good old U.S. of A. Yup, that’s right. Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean, is the oldest colony on the planet (a distinction we once shared with our Irish brothers and sisters). 

As a result of the Jones Act, Puerto Ricans are citizens of the USA. Not that we asked for it. In fact, we had nothing to do with it, since our little islita was part of the spoils of the Spanish-American War. But in any case, we are US citizens, so all you black and white Americanos who are too stupid to know your own country’s geography and who are about to ask me for my green card -- I got yer fuckin’ green card... 

::right here::

LOL! Seriously, I once had to set a southern educator straight while attempting to register my younger brother in a Texas school, dumb fuckin’ hick. A teacher should know America, right?

Okay! Now that we got that out of the way... we can move on to the juicier stuff! Let’s start with language. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I hope to continue adding to it, but it will have to suffice for now...

¡ <-- an="" blogs...="" exclamation="" exclamatory="" how="" i="" it="" my="" point="" s="" see="" sentence:="" start="" that="" to="" upside-down="" used="" usually="">¡Ho sweat, your ass is showing!

There are other important punctuation issues, such as the upside-down question mark and the tilde which transforms an n into something that sounds like enye (ñ) (like Enya, the gringa singer, except with a short e sound at the end), but I’m not getting into that today. I want to get to the important shit, like cuss words and shit. Now, some of these cuss words won’t have the same effect or meaning with other Latino/as. Bicho, for example, means mosquito for a Cuban. You hear Cubans all the time talking about some bicho bothering them, or how they want to swat a bicho away. 

::blank stare::

However, for a Nuyorican bicho means penis, dick, cock.

Alguinaldo: Puerto Rican jibaro (“hillbilly”) music. Often uses the cautro, a guitar of Puerto Rican origin. This music is played during the Christmas season.

Ame-Rican: Another way of saying Nuyorican. No really, it is a creation of the great Nuyorican poet, Tato Laviera.

Americano: an Americano is anyone from the US regardless of skin color. Nuyoricans use this term instead of the Mexican preferred gringo. Most Nuyoricans wouldn’t be caught saying something as corny as gringo (or “esai” for that matter. LOL!). If you ain’t Latin@ then you’re an Americano.

Aiscream: I’m sure I have the spelling wrong, but this is a Spanglish word meaning “ice cream.” The correct word is mantecado.

Barrio: Neighborhood, community -- analogous to Ebonic da 'hood.

Bellaco/a: A lustful or horny individual. That Eddie es un bellaco malo. Or, That girl has the eyes of a bellaca!

Bicho: A term used to denote a penis (also called a pinga). 

Bolas: Literally “balls” but used to refer to a man’s testicles (also called huevos)

Bomba: An African-derived (Afro-Rican) song form indigenous to Puerto Rico.

Borinquen/ Boricua: Borinquen is the original name of the island christened Puerto Rico by Christopher Columbus. A Boricua is someone from the island Borinquen. However, the terms have a more important psychological function for Nuyoricans. It’s the psycho-spiritual birthplace of all Puerto Ricans, whether they were born there or not. Some Nuyoricans use Borinquen to describe parts of the Bronx. As the poet, Mariposa, who seemed to be speaking for many of us when she wrote, “I wasn’t born in Puerto rico, but Puerto Rico was born in me.”

The word Borinquen translates to “the great land of the valiant and noble Lord.” Boricua has been popularized in the island and abroad by descendents of Puerto Rican heritage, commonly using the phrase, Yo soy Boricua (“I am Boricua,” or, “I am Puerto Rican”) to identify themselves as Puerto Ricans. Another variation which is also widely used is Borincano which translated means “from Borinquen.”

Cabron: A cabron is literally a castrated goat, but if a Nuyorican calls you a cabron you should take umbrage because it means that your wife is doing the nasty with another and you know it and put up with it.

Callejero: A street person. Someone who hangs out in the streets of el barrio. Often an individual who lives on the margins of society.

Cano: A light-skinned Puerto Rican. A PR with European features.

Cachapera: A lesbian. I forget the etymology but I think its origin has to do with a word meaning to rub, because the homophobic stereotype of two women rubbing their chochas together. Don’t ask... 

Cariño: love, affection. The phrase, Ay cariño, is a refrain popularized in a famous bolero.

Chancleta: a house slipper, but also a Nuyorican mother’s preferred tool for corporal punishment.

Chancletazo: Getting hit by a chancleta.

Chichar: To fornicate. 

Chiclet: A Spanglish word of Nuyorican origin meaning bubble gum. Taken from the company of the same name that produces bubble gum.

Chingar: Same as chichar. Nuyoricans do not use chinga in the same way messakins do -- as in chinga tu madre (motherfucker). You would never hear a Nuyorican say something like that, we consider it provincial. More likely, a Nuyorican would use it in the following manner, Vamos a chingar, negrita linda (“Let’s fornicate, you sweet thing you.”)

Chino/a: Literally “Chinese,” but chino/a is a phrase Nuyoricans use to denote all Asians regardless of their country of origin. It’s also used as a term of endearment. 

Chocha: A term used to denote a vagina (also called a toto). As with all the cuss words, here, this is a very vulgar term. User at your own risk.

Chulo/a: A term of affection -- someone who is sweet and attractive. Papi chulo, is a term of endearment.

Cocolo: In the USA, this was a pejorative term for African-Americans. In PR, it’s a term for PRs who embrace their African roots. So, you can be light-skinned and still be considered a cocolo.

Come Mierda: Literally “shit eater,” denoting a person who’s full of shit and kisses ass excessively. Often used by Nuyoricans in reasoned debate. Also used by Nuyoricans as a pejorative for Cubans.

Conflei: Spanglish for morning cereal (“corn flakes”).

Coño: The Spanish vernacular for “damn.” Nuyoricans use this as often as messakins use the word chinga. It’s an all-purpose curse word. It can be used when you experience pain: ¡Coño, that shit hurt! or when something fascinating or superlative happens: ¡Coño! She is beautiful.

Crica: I’m not sure if the spelling’s correct (it’s slang, so who knows), but it means vagina. Of all the words meaning vagina, this one is probably considered the coarsest. It’s often used to describe someone in a bad way, as in cara 'e crica (pussy face).

Cuero: Literally meaning the cured skin of an animal, like a leather. It is a slut shaming descriptor for a woman considered loose -- a woman of low morals. Esa mujer es un cuero.

Culeca/o: A horny or overly flirtatious person.

Culo: Every Nuyorican man’s obsession -- ass, Ass, MO ASS! LOL

De Cachete: Literally “of the cheek,” but meaning getting something for free. 

Dumb-in-a-cans: A pretyy much messed up way of referring to our Dominican brothers and sisters. A play on the word “Dominicans.” Three ethnic enclaves that are closely related culturally speaking are: Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans. As with all groups, there are inter-cultural tensions. The saying goes that Dominicans are the stupid ones, the Cubans are the shit-eaters (come mierdas), and the Puerto Ricans are the lazy ones. This is indicative of the worst of us. In reality, we are all more closely related than not and should be struggling for solidarity, not for divisive language.

Grifa: A term used to describe people who are light-skinned but have wiry/ wooly hair. Like some Jewish people would be called grifos as well as hinchos.

Hincho: Someone who’s so white, they’re pink.

Hola: A form of greeting, as in “hello.” No, it is not “holla” and it is pronounced with the h silent: oh-la.

Huevos: Literally eggs, but often used to denote testicles (also called bolas).

India/o: A term denoting Puerto Ricans who resemble the original inhabitants of Borinquen -- the Taino Indians. Also used as a term of endearment (Note that PRs use almost anything as a term of endearment).

Jibaro: Literally “hillbilly” oe “hick”.” At one time, Nuyoricans were ashamed of their roots and jibaro was used as a pejorative. Later, jibaro became an icon for young Puerto Rican people who were embracing their roots as part of a mass identity movement. In fact, during that era there was a very popular salsa hit song, ¡Jibaro Soy! (I am a hillbilly!), still popular today.

La Jara: Spanglish for, the police. The phrase came about because so many NYC police officers were called “O'Hara.” the J in Spanish has the H sound, so Nuyoricans would exclaim “la Jara, la Jara!” when the police were coming. 

Mami: An affectionate form of madre (mother). Nuyoricans also use to refer to their loved ones Mami Chula or women they find attractive (Oye Mami!) Oftentimes its diminutive, mamita, is used in this context.

Maricón: Literally an insult questioning a man’s sexual preference, a homoesexual, but often used as a substitute for the Anglo motherfucker. 

Me cago en tu madre: Literally, “I shit on your mother’s name.” Sometime it is used in a blasphemous context, as in, ¡Me cago en dios! (“I shit on God’s name”), or to let a misbehaving child know what one thinks of his/ her father, ¡Me cago en tu padre! (“I shit on your father’s name!”) Me cago en... is all all-around cuss phrase.

Messakins: A fucked up way of referring to our Mexican brothers and sisters.

¡Mira!: Literally “Look!” but used as an all-around greeting phrase as in ¡Oye mira! (“Hey! Look!” “Yo!”)

Morena/o: Originally used as a term for PRs who resembled Moors (mora/o) darker-skinned folk. In the US, a term also sometimes used to describe African-Americans. 

Mulata: Black Americanos often find this term offensive, but for Puerto Ricans a mulata is not a bad thing. In fact, there are songs and poems dedicated to mulata/os. It denotes a person of mixed race -- which is just about every Puerto Rican you’ll ever meet.

Nalgas: Ass cheeks.

Negro/a: Literally meaning black, but used as a term of endearment by Nuyoricans. Don’t ask me why, I once knew the origins of its use, but have since forgotten. I think it began as an homage to a person’s African roots, a way of calling to it and honoring it, not sure. Whatever the case, you can be white as a fish belly, but if you’re in a relationship with a Nuyorican, he or she will eventually call you negra or negro as a term of endearment. Regardless of your skin color, when we're feelin' you, you may be lovingly called negro, negra, negrito, or negrita. You may have skin the color of the midnight sky, have a heavy dose of leche in your cafe, or even sport the bluest eyes. Chances are that if we've determined that we want to be your friend, relative, or lover, you will hear, “Call me soon, negrita, so we can hang out.” The use of negro or negra as terms of endearment in the Latin@ community does not have a parallel to the use of the N word and its variations because they do not carry the same historical (namely racist) legacy. So feel good about it.

Nena/e: Literally meaning boy/ girl, but also often used as a term of endearment: Ay nene, you kiss me so well.

Nuyorican: Originally a pejorative used by Puerto Ricans from the island and other come mierda Latin@s. It was used to denote the poorer, supposedly stupider, more radical cousins of “true” Puerto Ricans. However, many persons of Puerto Rican descent use the term proudly today to self-identify. Nuyorican is part of an identity movement. Studies of Nuyoricans show that we share many cultural traits with African-Americans (which is probably the reason why other Latin@s, expressing internalized racism, use it as a pejorative).

Papi: Father. An affectionate form of Padre most often used to refer to your object of affection Ay Papi! or Ay Papi Chulo! Who says Freud is irrelevant these days? LOL 

Pasteles: A Puerto Rican staple meat dish, made of mashed plantains and root vegetables, and meat, wrapped in plantain leaves. 

Pendejo/a: Literally a “pubic hair.” It is used as an insult. Leave it to PRs to compare someone to something as insignificant as a pubic hair.

Pinga: A term used to denote a penis (also called a bicho).

Plena: An indigenous Puerto Rican song form.

Puñeta: Normally, it means to masturbate, but like coño, it’s also an all-purpose Nuyorican cuss word. Most often used in anger, as in ¡Puñeta! I stumped my toe!

Puta: Whore, prostitute, ho'.

Rockero: Assimilated Puerto Ricans (on the island) who’re into rock/ pop.

Roofo: Another Spanglish word meaning, yup, the roof. The correct word is techo.

Rumba/ Rumbero: An Afro-Cuban dance form, but also used by Nuyoricans to denote a party or partier. Vamos a rumbiar! (Let’s party!), or Esa nena es una rumbera! (that woman can party!).

Sabroso/a: Very tasty, delicious, as in Your rice and beans es muy sabroso.

Salsa: an urban folklore incubated in the barrios of New York City that influenced Nuyorican/ Latin@ literature, art, and music. Also a genre of Latino/a music.

Sangana/o: This word also has different meanings among different Latino/as, but for Nuyoricans, it means A person who is girlish. A dolt, an idiot, a fool. One who is easily taken advantage of. A naive individual. I often use it to mean the same as “silly.”

Spanglish: A merging of Spanish/ English -- or a form of code-switching -- having its roots mostly in Nuyorican and Chicano communities. Spanglish, at one time considered the parlance of the ignorant, has emerged as an influence in Latino/a literature, influencing many poets and writers of note. There is at least one college course I know of teaching the idiom.

Spanish: Spanish is a fuckin’ language ma’fuccas. It’s also used to denote people who come from Spain. I’m not from Spain, so don’t call me Spanish unless you like being called a cracker or an asshole! And Latin@s? Stop calling yourself Spanish!

Toto: Denoting a vagina (also called a chocha). This is more a kiddie word.

Trigueña/o: Someone with light brown skin coloring -- something like cinnamon or lighter with pelo lasio (wavy-to-straight hair).

Well, I have to run along to work, so this will be it for now. I will continue adding more, so come back and check it out. If you have a question about Nuyoricans and/ or Puerto Ricans, please feel free to ask. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Resources

Sofrito For Your Soul Online Magazine

Nuyorican cinema

Nuyorican Power, was TV program on the now defunct Current station. It focused on Nuyorican culture, featuring portraits of Pedro Pietri, Fat Boy, Rita Moreno, J-Lo, Macho Camacho and Giannina Braschi, among others.

War against all Puerto Ricans: Fantastic history of the troubled relationship between the US and Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico: The trials of the oldest colony in the world: The title speaks for itself. Yes, Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States.

Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Black Flag Boricuas: Anarchism, Antiauthoritarianism, and the Left in Puerto Rico, 1897-1921

Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings - An Anthology