Borinquen MadePeriod
1950-1999
The entries in this magazine that fall in these years, in the order the events occurred. Freeze 2026-08-22. Not current events in these History essays; News is. Not original historical research.
Section 936 and the tax law that kept the boom going
Manos a la Obra's tax exemptions were meant to expire. Washington rewrote the federal tax law to keep the pipeline running another generation.
The New York-Puerto Rico roots of salsa
Salsa music was not born in a single place. It emerged from a two-way current between San Juan and the Puerto Rican neighborhoods of New York.
Fomento and PRIDCO
An agency lineage: the Industrial Development Company of 1942, Fomento as the popular name, PRIDCO as the letterhead that survives.
The jíbaro poster and Black Puerto Rico
The official face of the highlands against the African coast.
Public Law 600, 1950
Authorization to organize a constitution, in the nature of a compact.
Jayuya and Utuado, October 30, 1950
The Nationalist uprising of that day; Blair House is the next lesson.
The 1950 uprisings and Albizu Campos's long struggle
Before the Estado Libre Asociado there was an armed uprising against that idea, and the man behind it went in and out of prison three times.
Attack in Washington, November 1, 1950
Blair House, November 1, 1950: Collazo, Torresola, Coffelt.
René Marqués, La carreta
A 1952 play about leaving, not a migration table.
ELA Constitution, July 25, 1952
The Estado Libre Asociado is proclaimed; not a state, not a UN member.
What "commonwealth" does not mean
Commonwealth is a translation fight, not a proof of sovereignty.
The 1952 Constitution and the Estado Libre Asociado
July 25, 1952 is the hinge date of this whole era: the day Puerto Rico stopped being barely a territory and became, on paper, a Free Associated State.
René Marqués and La Carreta: migration on stage
While real families made the same move, a playwright put that journey on stage and helped found Latino theater in New York.
The Great Migration, 1940s-1960s
The mid-century movement to the mainland, counted here so that a cultural page does not have to recount the totals.
Julia de Burgos: the poet who named herself
The poet, born 1914, died 1953, wrote against a world that kept trying to rename her.
Shooting in the Capitol, March 1, 1954
Four Nationalists, a public gallery, five wounded representatives.
The 1954 U.S. Capitol shooting
Four Puerto Rican nationalists walked into the U.S. House gallery and fired into the chamber below, wounding five congressmen.
The Piña Colada question
Who invented the piña colada, and what does a drink have to do with this history?
Roberto Clemente: the man beyond the numbers
A Hall of Fame career and an unanswerable question: did the island's great outfielder have to prove more, on and off the field?
Agriculture after Bootstrap
From cane to factories, and what that did to the countryside.