Author : Carmelo Esterrich
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN 13 : 0822983451
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)
Book Synopsis Concrete and Countryside by : Carmelo Esterrich
Download or read book Concrete and Countryside written by Carmelo Esterrich and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Puerto Rico was swept by a wave of modernization, transforming the island from a predominantly rural society to an unquestionably urban one. A curious paradox ensued, however. While the island underwent rapid urbanization, and the rhetoric of economic development reigned over official discourses, the newly installed insular government, along with some academic circles and radio and television media, constructed, promoted, and sponsored a narrative of Puerto Rican culture based on rural subjects, practices, and spaces. By examining a wide range of cultural texts, but focusing on the film production of the Division of Community Education, the popular dance music of Cortijo y su combo, and the literary texts of Jose Luis Gonzalez and Rene Marques, Concrete and Countryside offers an in-depth analysis of how Puerto Ricans responded to this transformative period. It also shows how the arts used a battery of images of the urban and the rural to understand, negotiate, and critique the innumerable changes taking place on the island.