Hispanic Heritage Month

This book offers a concise yet comprehensive history of Puerto Rico, from the reign of Taino Indians through its centuries as a Spanish colony to its present-day standing as a thriving economic force in Latin America with a unique and ever-evolving relationship with the United States.

In Materializing Poverty, anthropologist Erin Taylor explores how residents of a squatter settlement in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, use their material resources creatively to solve everyday problems and, over a few decades, radically transform the community. Their struggles show how these everyday engagements with materiality, rather than more dramatic efforts, generate social change and build futures.