Puerto Rico 1965-1990

Through his own newspaper articles and recollections of the time, Robert Friedman shows readers in this vivid and nostalgic memoir what it was like living in Puerto Rico from the mid-1960s through the 1970s and 1980s, the years he spent there as a journalist for the San Juan Star. The book is far from an encompassing history, but rather a personal timeline of the era, a journalist’s-eye view of life in the U.S. quasi-colony, whose island-born residents are U.S. citizens but who do not have all the rights of fellow citizens living in the States. Friedman gives readers an understanding of the humane, colorful, and difficult life lived by the island’s residents, as it was when he was there, and which, from all accounts, remains the same today.

Readers interested in history and the Latin-American-U.S. relations that bring Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics to the U.S. mainland in search of a better life, are sure to enjoy this memoir, as will the more than 5 million U.S. mainland residents of Puerto Rican descent and the 3.2 million living on the island.