In Puerto Rico, Women Won the Vote in a Bittersweet Game of Colonial Politics

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Puertorriqueñas’ fight for suffrage shaped by class, colonialism and racism—but even today, island residents cannot vote for president

Cafecito con William D. Caballero: Big Stories with Small Figures

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Filmmaker William D. Caballero and Dr. Jillian M. Báez discuss William’s 2017 short film Chilly & Milly, which explores the director’s own experiences with his chronically ill father and his mother’s role as his eternal caretaker.

Ancient DNA reconstructs the genetic legacies of pre-contact Puerto Rico communities 

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September 2019 Abstract Indigenous peoples have occupied the island of Puerto Rico since at least 3000 B.C. Due to the demographic shifts that occurred after European contact, the origin(s) of these ancient populations, and their genetic…

Anthropological genetic insights on Caribbean population history

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By Maria Alejandra Nieves Colon, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Abstract As the last American region settled by humans, yet the first to experience European colonization, the Caribbean islands have a complex history characterized…

An Ancient Ceiba Tree Blooms Once Again After Puerto Rico’s Devastating Storms

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BY ALEXANDER C. KAUFMAN, MARCH 6, 2019 The island of Vieques is still struggling after the hurricanes of 2017, but its most famous tree offers hope. It’s been a year and a half since hurricanes Irma and Maria pummeled Vieques,…
This is an image of a petroglyph, or rock carving in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. It sits beside the shore of Ensenada Honda (Deep Cove).

What Became of the Taíno?

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Robert M. Poole October 2011 The Indians who greeted Columbus were long believed to have died out. But a journalist’s search for their descendants turned up surprising results If you have ever paddled a canoe, napped in a hammock,…

Women and the Puerto Rican Labor Movement

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MILAGROS DENIS AND RACHEL POOLEY In December 1898, at the close of the Spanish-American War, Spain surrendered control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States. Though Cuba achieved nominal independence in 1902, in 1917 Puerto…

Puerto Rican Labor Movement: Magazine, Eleanor Roosevelt

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Eleanor Roosevelt, "Puerto Rican Labor Movement: Magazine," 1934, Children and Youth in History

Whose Legacy?: Voicing Women’s Rights from the 1870s to the 1930s

In 1990 I interviewed Puerto Rican women--feminist critics, sociologists, and writers--for a project on Caribbean women's discourse.

The Dark History of Forced Sterilization of Latina Women

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Between the 1930s and the 1970s, approximately one-third of the female population of Puerto Rico was sterilized, making it highest rate of sterilization in the world.