Puerto Rican Writers, Artists, Activists

P
Puerto Rican writers at El Centro
Puerto Rican writers, artists, activists, and scholars at EL CENTRO

Puerto Rican writers, artists, activists, and scholars are the focus of CENTRO’s publications. Taking advantage of its vast archival resources and connections in the Puerto Rican community, CENTRO disseminates crucial information about Puerto Rican contributions to the political, economic, and social cultures of the United States.

CENTRO SPECIAL ISSUE: Back to the future: The Implications of Balzac One Hundred Years Later

VOL. XXXIV, NO. 1, SPRING 2022

Editores invitados / Guest Editors: Charles R. Venator-Santiago and José Javier Colón Morera

The year 2022 marks the centennial of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Balzac v. People of Porto Rico, one of the most consequential Supreme Court rulings that shaped the status of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans within the US empire. Balzac affirmed the federal government’s power to rule Puerto Rico and its residents separately and unequally within the US polity. This special issue of CENTRO Journal collects several articles about this monumentally important judicial precedent and its continuous presence in the most important and populated colony remaining in the world. The articles presented help us understand the enduring continuities and discontinuities of the application of the doctrine of territorial non-incorporation to Puerto Rico, a possession inhabited by US citizens. The collection examines different dimensions of the legacy and continued impact of Balzac and it captures many of the complexities of this century of colonialism by judicial decree. 

Ensayos puertorriqueños / Puerto Rican essays

INTRODUCTION: Back to the future: The Implications of Balzac One Hundred Years Later – Charles R. Venator-Santiago and José Javier Colón Morera

The Sword of Libel: Jesús María Balsac and The Quest for Equality – Francisco Ortiz Santini

The ‘New’ Insular Cases and the Territorial Clause: From Temporary Incorporation to Permanent Un-incorporation – Jorge M. Farinacci Fernós

Balzac v. People of Porto Rico and the Problem of the Liberal Narrative of Citizenship, Why Puerto Ricans are Not Second-Class Citizens Today – Charles R. Venator-Santiago

Balzac, US Citizenship and Territorial Incorporation in Puerto Rico – Edgardo Meléndez

Balzac v. Porto Rico: Dead Letter after Ramos v. Louisiana? – Joel A. Cosme Morales

The Undying Dead: Why a Century after Balzac v. Porto Rico the Insular Cases Are as Important as Ever – Bartholomew Sparrow

Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans/“Puerto Ricans without Puerto Rico”: A Comment on Balzac versus Porto Rico, A Hundred Years Later – Madeline Román

Libros de autores puertorriqueños: Reseñas

Reviews of Books by Puerto Rican Writers

Latino Orlando: Suburban Transformation and Racial Conflict, by Simone Delerme– Review by Alessandra Rosa

“El feminismo no es nuevo”: Las crónicas de Clotilde Betances Jaeger, edited and with an introduction by María Teresa Vera-Rojas – Review by Cristina Pérez Jiménez

Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and Tess O’Dwyer – Review by Carmen Haydée Rivera. On Puerto Rican philosophy and literature.

Revolution Around the Corner: Voices from the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the United States, edited by José E. Velázquez, Carmen V. Rivera and Andrés Torres – Review by Efraín Barradas. On Puerto Rican politics.