“Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York” is a biography of Bernardo Vega and his observations of the events concerning Puerto Ricans in New York City during the end of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century. Though told in the first person, it is a compilation of his life, edited by César Andreu Iglesias. The book actually divulges very little about Vega. We’re not sure about the exact happenings in his married life (the two times that he married), about where his sister’s inclusion in the book comes from, and about how Vega came to help the mother who was forced to prostitute herself in order to feed her family. However, this book contributes significantly to the record of events about immigration issues in New York during the said time period.

Vega arrived in New York City in 1916, two years into World War I and the year before US involvement. WWI had a significant impact on the immigrant community. Many immigrants found employment in munitions factories, including Bernardo Vega: “the only place we would be able to find work was in the munitions industry”(17). Originally a cigar maker when he lived in Puerto Rico, his next job after working at the munitions factory was at a cigar factory. When Vega works at the cigar factory, there exists the issue of intellectuals vs. working class. These cigar factories hired men, named “readers,” to read to the tabaqueros during work hours: the reader “dedicated the morning session to current news events of the day…the afternoon sessions were devoted to more substantial readings of a political and literary nature”(21). Actual book learning that most intellectuals gained at universities was different than the education that tabaqueros gained from readers. Nonetheless, the fact that tabaqueros had readers at work showed that the working class may have been poor, but they weren’t dumb or incapable of higher skilled jobs. “The institution of factory readings made the tabaqueros into the most enlightened sector of the working class”(22). This book is one of the few that presents the working class in a good light as opposed to The Squatter and the Don or Ramona.

Another significant event was the struggle to begin and follow through with a revolution in the Antilles. There were many attempts made by Puerto Rican and Cuban intellectuals to initiate revolts and organizations for the independence of Puerto Rico and Cuba: at “…a meeting of Cubans and Puerto Ricans…the discussion centered on the possibility of initiating a revolution in the Antilles”(49). These attempts consistently failed until “the newly born Puerto Rican community, divided and discouraged, lost interest in the fate of the Antilles”(54).

Between 1929 and 1939, the Great Depression years, Vega’s memoirs also discuss the effect of this economic disaster on the Puerto Rican community. “The fact that the crisis extended clear across the country made it a little more bearable for people who were used to living at the edge of misery. Pulling the belt one notch tighter didn’t seem to make that much of a difference”(161). Vega’s biography says that he performed illegal activities in order to make some money when most people’s incomes were very low. “The first had to do with the numbers racket…I…helped save one of the most powerful hustlers in Harlem from ruin…[Second,] I performed the variety-show numbers [at a cabaret]”(164-5).

Near the end of the Depression years, the tensions between the Axis Powers and the Alliance Powers were coming to a climax. The German, Italian, and Japanese fascist governments and the American, Australian, and West European governments were about to begin World War II. Though the United States had declared a neutral position (they would only defend themselves from the war), their trade embargo against Spain kept the Spanish people from successfully revolting against the fascist military that threatened to overtake Spain. “But however heroic the struggle of the Spanish people, things looked worse and worse for the Madrid government. The fatal blow was dealt by the United States Congress on January 6, 1937, when it decreed an arms embargo, which froze all shipments to the war zone”(191). So just as Spain had its hard times, the New York Puerto Ricans had their own troubles. In New York, “a printed leaflet circulated…It was signed by Pablo Casals, and said: ‘The Spanish people are in no way responsible for a war that was begun by the military…I shall never betray my people or their cause, which is sacred and just’”(192). In short, many people of Spanish descent living in the New York either lobbied for support for Spain or fought in Spain.

During WWII, the many emigrants from Spain or those who felt the need to fight left the United States, which opened up many jobs. Thus, many more people came from Puerto Rico, as well as other places. “There was an urgent demand for workers in the United States. The flow of migrants from Puerto Rico increased considerably”(206). Also, Vega’s memoirs state that “the war absorbed the attention of everyone, and the Puerto Rican community in New York concentrated most of its energies on the war effort”(206-207). As for Puerto Rico itself, a quote in the book from Marcantonio’s speech claimed that “the cost of living [had] risen over 175 percent above normal”(210). However, “what happened in Puerto Rico, of course, was bound to repeat itself in the Puerto Rican community in New York. The sad truth is that the experience of World War II did nothing whatsoever to help resolve the problem of our colonial situation”(216). Though eventually the US economy would resolve the issue of Puerto Ricans' financial difficulties, another issue was more important after the war—the status of Puerto Rico. Would it become part of the United States or some other country? Would it become its own country? For Puerto Rican emigrants in New York, “the ‘status’ question, then, was a major issue in 1946”(225). However, before the book ended, the fate of Puerto Rico remained unsolved.

Vega’s memoirs do contain a few holes. For instance, the biography suggests that many working class members attended lectures at Columbia University, which is a bit hard to believe. Though this may have happened on a small scale, the idea of anyone who wasn’t an intellectual attending a lecture is an ideal. Also, as stated above, a complete background of Bernardo Vega is lacking. As for symbolism in the biography, when Vega supposedly threw his pocket watch into the Atlantic Ocean upon his arrival in New York because someone had told him that they were considered “effeminate,”(6) or for lack of a better word, homosexual, this merely shows that Vega was willing to completely join himself to a new phase of life. The fact that the style came back showed that he had nothing to worry about; no sacrifice was needed--only the will to become part of something new.

Our group believes that Vega’s emphasis on the labor movement was refreshing, though, compared to the way other writers portrayed the working class. Since our generation is usually the first or at least second to attend college, the emphasis on the working class helped to adapt the text to the audience (or rather, helped to adapt the text to us). Vega wanted to see change and progress in the working class community, especially his own, so this need to see change was perhaps what fueled his use of the idealized Columbia University lecture halls that catered to intellectuals and workers alike. We felt that this book would have been more interesting if more of Vega’s own experiences were in the book, rather than the membership lists of the dozens of organizations that popped up and petered out in New York during that time.