Boricuas in Gotham

Book excerpt: This new and very important collection of essays reinterprets and updates the history of New York's Puerto Rican community and its leaders from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s to the present time. The collection also honors the memory of the late Dr. Antonia Pantoja, who was perhaps the community's most important and influential activist and institution builder during this period. The book is organized in chronological order and includes chapters by noted historians, sociologists, and political scientists, such as Virginia Sanchez Korrol, Ana Celia Zentella, Jose Cruz, Francisco Rivera Batiz, and Gabriel Haslip-Viera. These chapters focus on issues of culture, demography, language, economic status, politics, and community organization. Eminently useful in college-level courses that deal with Latinos and other ethnic groups in U.S. society, the book ends with essays by Angelo Falcon and Clara E. Rodriguez that assess the legacy, current status, and future prospects of the Puerto Rican community in New York.