November 07, 2008
Queens, N.Y. -
St. John’s University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean
Studies (C.L.A.C.S.), in conjunction with the University of Puerto
Rico’s La Editorial, held a significant academic event titled,
“Puerto Rico & The USA: Three Visions, Three Histories” at St.
John's University’s Manhattan Campus on October 20. Authors Jorge
Rodríguez Beruff, Anthony P. Maingot, and Hon. Judge Juan R.
Torruella presented their recently published books and discussed
the history of the relationship between the United States, Puerto
Rico and the Caribbean.
Michael Janeway, Professor of Journalism and Arts at Columbia
University, and José Raúl Perales, Senior Program Associate for the
Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars added their comments and questions as featured
panelists in discussing the scintillating subject matter. The
moderator of the event was Dr. Alina Camacho-Gingerich, Professor
of Latin American Literature and Culture and Chair of St. John's
University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
C.L.A.C.S. served as co-sponsor of the event.
The event was attended by a diverse audience of scholars and
students from national as well as local universities, including
Notre Dame, Columbia, New York University and Fordham in addition
to St. John’s administrators and members of the community.
Following the presentations and a lively question and answer
session, there was a well-attended reception in honor of the
presenters, authors, panelists and audience members had an
opportunity to converse informally.
The following are biographies of the presenters:
Dr. Jorge Rodríguez Beruff, Dean of the School of General
Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of
Puerto Rico, is the author of Strategy as Politics: Puerto Rico on
the Eve of the Second World War. He is the current Dean of
the College of General Studies at the Río Piedras Campus of the
University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Rodríguez Beruff has authored
numerous books including Las Memorias de Leahy (San Juan, 2002),
which won him “Best Book of the Year” award from the Atlantea
Poyect. He is presently working on the translation of
Stricken Land, the memoirs of Rexford G. Tugwell.
Dr. Anthony P. Maingot, author of Estados Unidos y el Caribe:
Retos de Una Relación Asimétrica (The United States and the
Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship) is Professor
of Sociology and editor of Hemisphere, a magazine of Latin American
and Caribbean Studies, at Florida International University. Dr.
Maingot has dedicated his professional life to the history of the
countryside and of cultures of the Caribbean as well as relations
between the United States and its surrounding region. He has also
published: Small Country Development and International Labour
Flows: Experience in the Caribbean, co-author with JH Parry and
Philip Sherlock of A Short History of the West Indies, and with
Wilfredo Lozano The United States and the Caribbean: Modidying
Hegemony and Sovereignty.
The Honorable Judge Juan R. Torruella, United Status Circuit
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, is the author
of Global Intrigues: The Era of the Spanish-American War and the
Rise of the United States to World Power. Torruella is a native of
San Juan, Puerto Rico. A lawyer by training, he has been a U.S.
Judge since 1974 and presently serves on the Court of Appeals for
the First Circuit. As a graduate of the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania, and of the Boston University School of
Law, he also holds advanced graduate degrees in public
administration, law, and modern European history from the
University of Puerto Rico, the University of Virginia, and Oxford
University, respectively. He has published numerous articles on law
and history as well as The Supreme Court and Puerto Rico: The
Doctrine of Separate and Unequal, a book dealing with the
constitutional and legal history of the United States-Puerto Rico
relationship.
For more information on the event contact Dr. Alina
Camacho-Gingerich, Professor of Latin American Literature and
Culture and Chair of C.L.A.C.S. by calling (718) 990-1932.