Most studies of Puerto Rico's relations with the United States have
focused on the sugar industry, recounting a tale of victimization
and imperial abuse driven by the interests of U.S. sugar companies.
But in"Puerto Ricans in the Empire," Teresita A. Levy looks at a
different agricultural sector, tobacco growing, and tells a story
in which Puerto Ricans challenged U.S. officials and fought
successfully for legislation that benefited the island.
Levy describes how small-scale, politically involved, independent
landowners grew most of the tobacco in Puerto Rico. She shows how,
to gain access to political power, tobacco farmers joined local
agricultural leagues and the leading farmers' association, the
Asociacion de Agricultores Puertorriquenos (AAP). Through their
affiliation with the AAP, they successfully lobbied U.S.
administrators in San Juan and Washington, participated in
government-sponsored agricultural programs, solicited agricultural
credit from governmental sources, and sought scientific education
in a variety of public programs, all to boost their share of the
tobacco-leaf market in the United States. By their own efforts,
Levy argues, Puerto Ricans demanded and won inclusion in the
empire, in terms that were defined not only by the colonial power,
but also by the colonized.
The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States was
undoubtedly colonial in nature, but, as "Puerto Ricans in the
Empire" shows, it was not unilateral. It was a dynamic, elastic,
and ever-changing interaction, where Puerto Ricans actively
participated in the economic and political processes of a
negotiated empire.
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