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Before Vieques became a cause celebre for Al Sharpton,
Edward James Olmos, Bobby Kennedy Jr, et el, there was USMAÍL...Now
for the first time USMAÍL is appearing in an English-language
edition making what is considered a Puerto Rican literary classic available
to a wider audience of English readers...San Juan Star ( for
full review click here)
…Still we must single out one novel, without
which no outsider can ever hope to have an inkling as to what makes
Vieques tick, USMAÍL, The Vieques Times
Take a Journey into the Heart and Soul of Vieques
In
USMAÍL,
Pedro Juan Soto gives us a masterful description of life on the small
Puerto Rican Island of Vieques during the 1930s, 40s and 50s as seen
through the eyes of the islanders themselves.
The story follows the life of a boy born to a poor, black woman from
the rural countryside, whose American lover, sent to Vieques to manage
a government assistance program, abandons her upon learning that she
is expecting his child.
But before her death, she bestows upon her newborn son a mysterious
name, a name which will prove to haunt him for the rest of this life.
The Historical Context
USMAÍL takes place on the island of Vieques
during the that 26,000 of Vieques' 33,000 acres of agricultural and
residential land were expropriated for the establishment of a US Navy
Base. Thousands of people, forced off land their families had occupied
for generations, were crammed into small plots on bulldozed cane fields
and left to fend for themselves. The influx of thousands of marines,
sent to Vieques on liberty, prompted drunkenness, street fights, rapes
and prostitution, disrupting even further the previously tranquil lifestyle
of the Vieques community.
Author's Biography
Pedro Juan Soto (1928
- 2002) was born in Cataño,
a seaport town in San Juan harbor. He started pre-med studies (in English
) at Long Island University but was seduced by literature courses: Hemingway — avoid
the adjective; Faulkner — let it all hang out; Zola — dig
deeper, through the pain.… He got his bachelor’s from Long
Island University, served in the US Army, went for a master’s at
Columbia and a doctorate at Toulouse (France).
But in spite of all these
dues paid into the system he would never be accused of being politically
correct. Puerto Rican artist/intellectual — ipso facto — politically
incorrect, obviously anti-colonialist — outspoken and oft-quoted.
Does he dare say “No,” when the establishment expects a “Yes?”
There’s
lots of information about Pedro Juan Soto on the internet — from
the Lonely Planet Travel Guide to San Juan to study courses at Wesleyan
and Johns Hopkins. Mississippi State’s Quarterly even offers a
book titled, Usmaíl:
the Puerto Rican Joe Christmas, that promises parallels between Light
in August and the Soto novel as well as a discussion of the Faulknerian
influence on Latin American novelists.
Be that as it may, some local info
may be in order. Usmaíl makes repeated
reference to the display of black banners. During a good part of Pedro
Juan’s
life the Puerto Rico flag, flourished these days by Miss Universe, boxers
and other stars and champions, was criminally outlawed by colonial occupying
forces.
Pedro Juan Soto didn’t come to Vieques on a chartered helicopter
as a guest of a five-star hotel. He came on the old wooden ferry, on
visiting days, to see his father who was an interned guest at the little
Queen’s (Isabel II)
lock-up in the castle. (Fortín de Vieques Conde de Mirasol)
Soto
was never a resident of Vieques, but during these visits he paid careful
attention to what he heard and saw and was thus able to carry away a
deep-felt and faithful impression of the plight of these island people
in such unnatural conditions.
The book grew in popularity. Vieques grew as a bone of contention in
Puerto Rico - United States politics. The Governor of Puerto Rico, a
statehood proponent, ordered special police units with leaders trained
at the notorious School of the Americas, to throw a scare into suspected
leftist groups on the island. On July 25, 1978, Governor Carlos Romero
Barceló, during a Constitution Day
celebration, praised the police action as “heroic” in foiling
a left-wing terrorist attack to blow up government communication towers
in the mountains by killing the two alleged terrorists, neither of whom
carried any explosives. One of them was Pedro Juan’s teenage son
Carlos.
Time Magazine quoted the author in May, 1979, claiming “outright
assassination.” He
filed suit against the commonwealth government and against Federal authorities
for their part in the cover-up. The governor stuck to his story. Soto
investigated. The press investigated and wrote stories and books; the
Puerto Rican Senate held hearings and brought in Sam Dash, the Watergate
investigator; Hollywood investigated and produced a feature-length film.
Years of investigations.
Political incorrectness was bucking the big guys.
But finally, the outright assassinations were established, the Federal
Marshal removed, five district attorneys disbarred and ten “heroic” cops
jailed. The commonwealth settled Soto’s
lawsuit for a million dollars to the victims’ families and the
FBI and Justice officials published letters of apology to the people
of Puerto Rico. Pedro Juan had originally only sued to gain plaintiff’s
rights to access official files.
Back on campus professor Pedro Juan Soto
was called “grouchy.” His
incisive wit was too keen and cutting? But wouldn’t a man who paid
such constant attention to details and nuances develop a natural awareness
of so much more to be cynical about? Is all humor gallows humor?
Soto
said students in his literature courses “...hate long books and
I’m
beginning to know what they mean.” Indeed his “Memoirs From
My Amnesia” (published
in 1991) contained only 134 pages. He told interviewers from the Caribbean
PhD Program “let’s do it (the interview) in English then,
I hate translators.”
by Charlie Connelly
Review
Pedro Juan Soto’s novel, USMAÍL, was recently translated
to English by long-time Vieques residents, Myrna Pagán and Charlie
Connelly. Originally published in Spanish in 1959, the novel is a literary
classic and stable of university syllabi throughout Puerto Rico. Charlie
Connelly asserts that “no one can understand Vieques without reading
it,” The translation offers the ever-changing population of Vieques
a glimpse of the historical complexities that still exist on the island.
USMAÍL is the story of a Viequense boy born to parents who come
from different worlds, His mother is a poor black countrywoman; his father
a red-haired federal government assistance administrator. They meet in
the opening chapter. Abandoned by both parents -- his father deserted
his mother when he learns that she was pregnant and his mother died shortly
after his birth -- , Usmaíl navigated his way through a confusing
life dependent upon his surroundings.
Though Connelly notes that Pedro Juan Soto was educated in the US and
Europe in his biography of the author, he emphasizes Soto’s life
as an anti-colonialist, an artist and an intellectual. Though from the
main island (Puerto Rico) Pedro Juan Soto regularly visited his father,
then a prisoner at the Fort. Connelly accurately writes that “[Soto]
paid careful attention to what he heard and saw and was thus able to
carry away a deep-felt and faithful impression of the plight of these
island people in such unnatural conditions.” The translation of
USMAÍL opens a window for English only readers to view the Vieques
of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s through the perspective of locals.
The novel is socially and politically relevant to today’s Vieques.
According to Connelly, USMAÍL is the seminal book regarding Vieques
to this day. Its been around for a long time and I’m shocked that
it hadn’t been translated.”
Read the St. John Sun Times article: "The Story Behind the Novel"
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