Extract

Luisa N. Borrell and Clara Rodríguez

Given the history of slavery and racism in the United States, it is no surprise that race has played an important role in the lives of individuals living there, for Latinos as well as Africans and African Americans. Early ethnographic and descriptive studies of Puerto Ricans consistently noted the role that “race” or “color” played in their experience and socioeconomic outcomes (Rodríguez 1996).

Puerto Ricans of darker skin color were found to experience greater difficulty obtaining access to good quality housing, education, and employment, as well as other socioeconomic outcomes than lighter-skinned individuals. For decades, scholars and writers have described such disparities. For example, Gosnell-Aran (1945), who wrote about the Puerto Rican community in New York City’s East Harlem during World War II, and Chenault (1970), who described the period just prior to the war, both cited the important role that color played in Puerto Ricans’ life chances. Others examining the post–World War II Puerto Rican community found similar effects (Mills, Senior, and Goldsen 1950; Senior 1961; Padilla 1958; Berle 1958; Fitzpatrick 1971; Glazer and Moynihan 1970; Katzman 1968). Memoirs and literary works on the Puerto Rican immigration also noted the personal and social costs occasioned by darker color and race, as well as their influence on socioeconomic outcomes and psychological damage (Colon 1982; Iglesias 1984; Rivera 1983; and Thomas 1967).

The more recent literature on Latinos has also found similar but more...