Cuentos de la Pobre Piquiña

On the island of Puerto Rico, a United States colony, things changed after World War II. With the economic growth of the US, the socioeconomic conditions of the Island also changed. The short stories of La Pobre Piquiña view these changes from a perspective of an author who witnessed part of that transition. The Piquiña (the itch), a road made to facilitate the militarization of the Island, grew and died in these stories. In them, the reader sees a culture changing from agriculture to manufacture, a country that struggles to keep its own identity against the incredible push of the world's most powerful empire. In the pages of La Pobre Piquiña, which could be translated as the "poor itchy road", a widow decides to take the blame for her husband's death in Vietnam and isolates herself for 30 years, a farmer's grandson becomes a drag queen, a mayor sees his town taken away by a river, and a New York scientist finds his most unforgettable moment thanks to a tycoon's misfortune. The last 50 years of Puerto Rico's 20th century are depicted in these short stories that present the micro cosmos of one of earth's last colonies.