Puerto Rican Identity, Political Development, and Democracy in New York, 19601990

By (author) José E. Cruz

Publication date:

21 July 2017

Length of book:

372 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498549639

Using Puerto Rican politics in New York City as a case study, particularly focusing on political elites, Puerto Rican Identity, Political Development, and Democracy in New York, 1960–1990 argues that ethnic identity is a positive force in political development. José E. Cruz suggests that in using ethnic identity to claim and exercise social and civil rights, to pursue representation, and to access resources and benefits, Puerto Ricans sustained and enriched liberal democracy in New York City. This book shows how in carrying out politics in this way, Puerto Rican political elites placed themselves out of the margins and into the mainstream of city politics as significant contributors to urban democracy.

Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 — Puerto Rican New York in Context
Chapter 2 — Out of the Margins
Chapter 3 — 1960-1965: Out of the Political Game?
Chapter 4 — 1966-1969: A Little Bit of Everything
Chapter 5 — 1970-1972: ¿La Comunidad en Marcha?
Chapter 6 — 1973-1979: Despite Everything, We are In
Chapter 7 — 1980-1985: If There Were More of Us
Chapter 8 — 1986-1990: Déjà Vu All Over Again
Chapter 9 — Decades End
Bibliography
About the Author

Dr. José E. Cruz has taken, head on, a controversial subject in attempting to better interpret Puerto Rican political history and its evolution from a uniquely diasporic perspective. The narrative represents a major advance in how we conceptualize and understand U.S. Puerto Rican politics in particular and ethnic politics in general. It creates a high standard by which future work in this area will be measured.