Hurricane Fiona devastated Puerto Rico last month, but it also brought focus, once more, to Puerto Rico's peculiar status within the United States... that it is a territory, not a state, despite the fact that more than 9 million Americans identify themselves as Puerto Rican.

To better understand Puerto Rico's rich history, I spoke with Dr. Jorge Duany, who was born in Cuba and raised in Panama and Puerto Rico. Dr. Duany is the Director of the Cuban Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University. And prior to that, he served as Acting Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico. 

Dr. Duany is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of twenty-two books, including the following 4 that I am identifying here:

In addition, below are links to other episodes about Caribbean nations: 

S1E24: Cuba's History, Dr. Lillian Guerra 

S1E23: Haiti's History, Dr. Robert Fatton 

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

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