Following the saga of one Puerto Rican family through the Spanish - American war, colonialism by Spain and then the United States. After the hurricane of 1899, when Puerto Rico had already been hit hard by the high US tax, a group of sugarcane growers in Hawaii advertised what appeared to be a good job with housing for families.
The Vega family were coffee growers in the Utuado region of Puerto Rico. When the younger son, Vicente, went to the city for his cousin's wedding, he met Valentina Sanchez. Her family had a stationery and printing shop.
Life on the coffee farm was very different for Valentina than life in the city. They were also in for more changes as the US and Spain fought and the hurricane loomed.
Vera has written an important story that is not taught in US History - one more of the many that is skipped - of Puerto Rico's introduction to US capitalism. More than 5,000 Puerto Ricans moved to Hawaii to face the horrible conditions on sugar plantations.
Vera, Marisel. (2020). The Taste of Sugar. New York: Liveright Publishing.
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