He was one of the first second generation Puerto Rican writers of the diaspora to publish an autobiographical novel about his experiences as a black Puerto Rican, born and raised in New York’s El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) during the years of the Great Depression.

The publication of her autobiographical memoir When I was Puerto Rican (1993) immediately gained Esmeralda Santiago critical attention as a talented and deliberate narrator of women’s oppressive experiences in a sexist cultural and social environment.

One of the newest and talented prose fiction voices in U.S. Puerto Rican literature to emerge during the 1990s was Abraham Rodríguez (aka Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.).

The name of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (better known as Arthur A. Schomburg in the U.S.) is probably better known to the African American community than among Puerto Ricans.