On October 20, 2008, St. John’s University’s Center for Latin American and
Caribbean Studies, (CLACS), in conjunction with the University
of Puerto Rico’s La Editorial, held a significant academic event,
“Puerto Rico & The USA: Three Visions, Three Histories” at St.
John's University’s Manhattan Campus. 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.
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 holds a Doctor of Philosophy in
Political Science from the University of York, England, and is a
member of the faculty and a former Director of the Social Science
Department. He is now the dean of the College of General
Studies at the Río Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.
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.
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.
The discussants were 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. 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.). The
Center co-sponsored the event.
There was a great turnout. The diverse audience consisted of
scholars and students from different universities, including Notre
Dame, Columbia, New York University, Fordham, as well as St.
John’s, diplomats and members of the community. Immediately
following the presentation, there was a lively question and answer
session.
Following the discussion, there was a reception in honor of the
presenters, where the authors, discussants and audience had an
opportunity to converse informally.