Puerto Rico

War Against All Puerto Ricans tells an undiscovered story: the violent and shocking history, of Puerto Rico–US relations for the past 118 years.

Meticulously sourced with over 700 footnotes and dozens of photographs, the book is, in the words of one reviewer, “not just history. It’s history on fire.” It documents how the U.S. government invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 and, for over a century, quietly but systematically drained the island and its inhabitants through exploitation, repression and cultural death.

Two bills have been introduced to the US Congress that hope to resolve the contentious status of Puerto Rico. Will either settle the question of annexation to the United States? According to Ausubo Press’ latest book about Albizu Campos, what was breached cannot be restored by ill-suited bills.

While the Puerto Rican leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, studied in the United States between 1912 and 1921 his milieu was colored primarily with people, events, and ideas with one thing in common: a free Ireland. During those years much of Irish America was preoccupied with Ireland’s struggle for independence from Britain, and Albizu Campos was in the perfect spot–Cambridge, Massachusetts — to immerse himself in the history of the struggling Celtic island and the dreams of her revolutionary patriots. In this brilliant retelling of Albizu’s formative years in Harvard and beyond, the author sheds new light on the insurgent education he received from Irish nationalists known as Fenians, and how it seeded the nationalist revolution against the US occupation of Puerto Rico. If you ever wonder why Puerto Rico is not yet a state, this is the book to read.