The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History

I've collected many books on PR history over the years in both English and Spanish. This is by far my favorite. A must to have for any Puerto Rican looking for a good start to learn about his/her history, but not just for amateurs or beginners.

The authors do a wonderful job of describing the history of Puerto Ricans on the island from the time before Columbus to the 1970's. They do a unique job of pulling from official transcripts which paint a very accurate picture of various subjects from the life of a "Xibar/Jibaro" to the arguement in cogress on whether to include Puerto Ricans in the military draft of the 1960's. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know about the history of the island and it's people.

It is a very well documented book, and provides proof or evidence of each historic event. It is objective and is not biased toward any political view. The best thing of the book is that it fills those empty spaces I had from my years studying PR history. With this book, I was able to see the "whole picture" or in other words "tie those loose ends". A real gem, in my opinion. I still refer to it a lot. When my kids have questions about Puerto Rico, I read passages from the book to them. I absolutely recommend it.There is one recommendation I would like to give to the editors. Given the number of significant historic events about the Puerto Ricans that have happened since the book was last published in 1994, I recommend the editors to revise this wonderful documentary to bring it up-to-date.

This book was amazing. I love the format the author used. Unlike other history books the author uses actual documents from Puerto Rico's history to tell her story. After reading this book, I now have an understanding of where my family came from, and more pride in us. Thank you Kal!

This book is a beautiful, engrossing documentary on the history of the Puerto Ricans. It gives the reader an insight into the real history of the island and it unfolds as you turn each page by sharing actual excerpts from letters written by people who were there from when the island was first discovered by Columbus through the days when it became a Common Wealth of the U.S. Every Puerto Rican or person interested in Puerto Rico who is not familiar with its history must read this book! I always look for books by Wagenheim and Jimenez de Wagenheim who truly have such passion for Puerto Rico and who feel it is the readers god given right to know as much as they can about the truth and not the propaganda. This book should be part of the history curriculum at all schools and especially those that have a large number of Puerto Rican children.