Love notes from Siel is a newsletter about love, writing, and the nomad life from me, Siel.
Dear friend —
A great way to learn about the history of a place is to read a book of history about said place. I am not, however, a fan of history books. I mean, I’ve tried to like them. Most recently I picked up Puerto Rico in the American Century, said to offer a “comprehensive historical picture of political developments in the island.” The book did indeed do just that — in long, dry sentences like this one:
Yet to the extent that the alleged incapacities of the dispossessed majority became a justification for limiting the participation of even the propertied and professional classes in a restrictive colonial regime, Muñoz Rivera felt compelled to reformulate his demand for self-government, not in the name of Puerto Rico’s “civilized” minority but in the name of a capable and wronged Puerto Rican people.
This was going to go on for 400+ pages. I threw in the towel around page 50.
I do better with novels. You can pick up a lot of cultural history from these too, and most are more entertaining. So with that, here are some novels I’ve read and liked lately — the first of which covers a fascinating chunk of Puerto Rico’s history.
The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera (Liveright, 2020)
Did you know thousands of Puerto Ricans moved to Hawaii to work for the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association back in the early 1900s — alongside Japanese workers who’d moved there for the same reason? What I found engrossing about this story is not just the migration itself but also the political and economic circumstances that led to it. At the end of the 1800s, Puerto Rico suddenly went from being occupied by the Spanish to being occupied by the U.S. — and the lives of the residents changed dramatically due to decisions made by the people in power: to devalue the local currency, to impose a new tax on coffee farmers, and so on. Once-land owners became destitute, the once-destitute started to starve to death, and desperate, many agreed to move to another unknown American territory in the hopes of a better life —
You learn all this in the novel through the eyes of two Puerto Rican sisters who grew up in a fairly well-to-do family but then married into vastly different circumstances, circumstances that then transform in the political turmoil of the following years. This sweeping saga made me realize just how much I still don’t know about the U.S.’s long history of colonialization, which still colors many American lives today. Pick this one up for an intro crash course on the complex history of this island.
The Guest by Emma Cline (Random House, 2023)
The best beach reads, in my opinion, take place on a beach, allowing the reader to imagine herself on a trip significantly more exciting than the one she happens to be on. The Guest takes place in The Hamptons where the rich people of New York are summering, surrounded by their nannies and servants and random hangers on — like our protagonist Alex, a thin and pretty twenty-something who gets by by glomming on to guys who’ll pay her way, at least for a time.
Problem is, Alex is in trouble. She’s got a little drug addiction, plus she’s technically homeless because her roommates have kicked her out, and also she’s stolen a bunch of money from a guy who’s sending her increasingly threatening messages. As if that weren’t enough, the rich guy she’d been sleeping with wants her out and buys her a train ticket back to the city. What to do? The solution, obviously, is to bum around Long Island by worming her way into other people’s lives in increasingly creative, self-destructive ways. Pick up this novel if you love getting into love-hate relationships with messy and deeply flawed protagonists.
Make It Stop by Jim Ruland (Rare Bird, 2023)
Ever been overcharged, mistreated, or otherwise fucked over by the American health system? Yeah, me too. In the world of this novel, hospitals have become an active part of the prison industrial complex, keeping people who can’t pay their medical bills locked up and using them as guinea pigs to test new drugs.
A vigilante group pops up to free the imprisoned — though this organization of recovering addicts has problems of its own. The resulting story ends up taking you all over Southern California, from punk shows to slums to massage parlors. I got to read an early draft of this novel a few years ago and it was incredible to see how much the text had transformed in this published work. Thanks for sharing your writing, Jim!
Three links you might love:
Why is persistent poverty so widespread among Puerto Ricans? Some experts argue that the island’s uncertain status is a key reason. “The consuming policy matter for Puerto Ricans, including mainland Puerto Ricans, is what’s known as the status question: the issue of whether Puerto Rico should become a state, become independent, or remain a commonwealth.”
Will Puerto Rico become a state? Northeastern University political science professor Amílcar Antonio Barreto thinks not. “The epicenter of Puerto Rican politics has been, throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, our status: What are we vis-a-vis the U.S.? But what Puerto Ricans prefer doesn’t matter. The only opinion that counts is the U.S. Congress. Congress has complete control over the territories and can do whatever it wants.”
Let Puerto Rico be free. Jaquira Díaz argues not for statehood, but for full independence from the U.S. “Every day, it becomes more and more obvious that the current government structure—Puerto Rico as a de facto colony of the United States, despite the official language referring to it as a ‘commonwealth’—is a failure. There is no benevolent American savior coming to help Puerto Rico.”
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Thanks for the shout out, Siel! I need to read The Guest!