Puerto Rican letters resist in the face of crises

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At the end of November 2022, a book published in 1946 climbed to the top of the bestseller list at La Esquina bookstore in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.

, by Emilio Belaval, became the recommendation transmitted by word of mouth among generations who are observing a rebirth of appreciation for Puerto Rican literature that, like so many other things, has been hit by the crises that the island has lived in recent years.

The book has regained relevance after seeing that, more than 70 years after its publication, Belaval recounts a Puerto Rico very similar to the present: a Latin American island where they try to instill American culture and deny the existence of a people who think for themselves. itself.

“It's a radical reality,” says Luis Negrón, the bookstore's owner, inside the store as his voice competes with Sylvia Rexach's songs in the background.

Luis Negrón (right) and his assistant at La Esquina bookstore in Río Piedras (Puerto Rico)Courtesy Adrian González

“It's not just being here.

It is curatorship, stop infantilizing the country and stop saying that this country is not worth it”.

Managers like Negrón deal with the gap created by the decline in educational institutions in the United States, one of the effects of the economic crisis on the island.

Entrepreneurs like him have opened bookstores and launched activities to promote Puerto Rican literature, a symbol of resistance to the daily tragedies that Boricuas have to face.

In the past five years, a US-imposed board to oversee the Caribbean island's multibillion-dollar debt has also brought austerity measures such as cuts to the public university budget and the closure of hundreds of schools in Puerto Rico.

In addition, Hurricane Maria, which hit the island in 2017, caused a decline in the education system as families and schools faced shortages of materials and infrastructure damage.

Elementary and higher level students currently suffer from an academic lag, according to the results of the standardized tests of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico.

Academic achievement in Spanish dropped from 45.1% to 35.5% in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Worrying shortcomings in science and English were also reflected.

Academic conditions for students have been uphill, even before the pandemic.

Puerto Rico has lost more than 600 schools in the last ten years, and more than 400 of them were closed shortly after the arrival of the Fiscal Control Board.

Before moving to Río Piedras, Negrón had the bold idea of ​​setting up his bookstore in a school closed by the government in 2015. The building now serves as a community center for the Santurce sector of the capital.

The cover of 'Tales to promote tourism', by Emilio Belaval.Editorial Cultural

Negrón emphasizes that the need to create a space that highlights Puerto Rican literature, in addition to simply offering books, is essential in these times.

Upon entering the bookstore, customers quickly see notable books by local authors such as Magali García Ramis, Cezanne Cardona Morales and Ana Teresa Toro, as well as biographies of illustrious Puerto Ricans and art compilations.

Ending the “ode to ruin”

“I'm fed up with the ode to ruin, that they keep describing us as needy,” says Negrón, who is a native of the southern town of Guayama.

“I don't like the idea of ​​Puerto Rico as defeated and incapable.

We are very capable.

We are not victims, and we should not act as such because that is when we lose."

In addition to La Esquina, Puerto Rico has seen a proliferation of bookstores and activities to highlight authors and reach communities outside of the metropolitan area.

El Candil, a Ponce bookstore, has begun hosting activities for authors with recent publications, and rural towns like Aguadilla, Camuy, and Barranquitas have enjoyed other openings.

There is also a greater demand for Puerto Rican books for the diaspora in the United States.

The economic crisis and Hurricane Maria expelled tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans to New York, Florida and New Jersey, as well as to countries in Europe and Latin America, although to a lesser extent.

Libros 787 was created for them, an online platform that sells books by modern and classic Puerto Rican authors.

Carlos Goyco, the co-founder, worked for a book supplier in Puerto Rico.

He was surprised by how little attention was paid to local writings.

Goyco lost his job after the hurricane, and took advantage of federal aid for entrepreneurs to establish in 2017 the virtual platform that marked more than 21,000 sales until 2022. "People think that because there are no bookstores here, people don't read" says Goico.

“By you giving local authors a platform, they can focus on writing.”

Goyco says there is even more market to explore as more Puerto Ricans leave the island.

After the hurricane, the massive exodus of Boricuas, which had its first wave in the 1940s after World War II, created and continues to create generations of Puerto Ricans who do not speak Spanish and live "out there," as they say.

Still, many second- and third-generation Puerto Ricans feel a strong bond with the island despite never having lived there.

Many “Nuyoricans,” as the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York is called, keep Puerto Rican culture intensely present and organize activities like the Puerto Rican National Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

For this reason, Goyco believes that the lack of translations of local publications is a missed opportunity.

Goyco constantly receives messages asking if they have books available about the baseball player Roberto Clemente or the singer Héctor Lavoe, but in English.

Some writers from the island are already entering that market.

Writer Mayra Santos-Febres, for example, has English editions of Sirena Selena and Nuestra Señora de la Noche available at Libros 787.

Santos-Febres applauds the efforts of Negrón and the new virtual platforms, especially after Puerto Rico's main literary festival held its last edition in 2018. The Festival of the Word, organized by Santos Febres, attracted more than 1,600 schools and around 16,000 people to celebrate the literature of the island and the Caribbean.

The funds for the festival were not enough for 2019.

“This sustained state of emergency has hurt all our institutions, especially the cultural one,” laments Santos-Febres.

"Yes, there has been, against all odds, a return to betting on the social gathering."

The author has directed her efforts towards the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras to establish the first Afro-descendant program and to highlight literary, historical and scientific works of black people in the Caribbean.

Santos Febres highlights the importance of "rethinking education" and obtaining cultural resources, as well as materials, after natural disasters such as hurricanes María in 2017 and Fiona in 2022.

“Where are the books and materials to do that?” asks the writer from Carolina.

“There is a budget problem and what is needed for a country to operate.”

Just a few minutes from the university where Santos-Febres works, Negrón will continue to organize the book stakes in accordance with his mission not to "remain isolated in the crisis."

“To arrive here is to arrive at a conversation,” said Negrón, who is also the author of the work

.

“We are not going to underestimate you at any time.

Neither the client, nor the country, nor the times.”