BOOK PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION "Puerto Ricans in the United States" [Greenwood, 2000] Author: Maria Perez y Gonzalez

DR. MARIA PEREZ Y GONZALEZ SPEAKS ABOUT HER BOOK

If you notice on the back it says Dominican Americans, Korean Americans, etc. I objected to that. I guess you know why. There is a book already called Puerto Rican Americans by Fitzpatrick. I didn´t want it to be confused with that. That book stands on its own. But also it was the problem of what do you mean Puerto Rican Americans? All Puerto Ricans are Americans. They´re U.S. citizens, whether they live in Puerto Rico or the States. So it didn´t do justice to what the book was about. It was about stateside Puerto Ricans. Therefore, you know, after battling with them a little bit, then they accepted for this title to be different in that sense. And I´m glad that they bent, that they negotiated. What I found important about the work -- and, yes, I was humbled and honored and I know that I didn´t do enough justice to the people who are represented here -- I mean, look how small it is. In that sense, it´s a lot of work, but it´s small in the sense that, you know, I look through it and I say, I could´ve added this, I could´ve done this, I could´ve added that, I could´ve talked about that person, I could´ve talked about this other movement, I left out those details. You´re always second-guessing yourself or, at least, I am because I know I couldn´t capture the entire experience and it´s impossible, I know that, pero, hopefully, I did some justice to the people that are represented in this book that I´m a part of also.