Revolution Around the Corner: Voices from the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the U.S.

Active from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s, the U.S. branch of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) worked simultaneously to build support for Puerto Rican independence and to engage in radical social change within the United States.   Revolution Around the Corner chronicles this unique social movement, describing various mass campaigns and the inner workings of the organization. The editors and contributors-all former members, leaders, and supporters of the PSP-offer a range of views and interpretations of their experience.  Combining historical accounts, personal stories, interviews, and retrospective analysis, Revolution Around the Corner examines specific actions such as the National Day of Solidarity (El Acto Nacional), the Bicentennial without Colonies, the Save Hostos struggle, and the Vieques campaign. Testimonies recount the pros and cons of membership diversity, as well as issues of loyalty and compaÑerismo. In addition, essays describe the PSP’s participation in coalitions and alliances with Left and progressive movements. The book concludes with the editors’ reflections on the PSP’s achievements, mistakes, and contributions.

About the Author :
JosÉ E. VelÁzquez is a lifelong activist for social justice in the U.S. and Puerto Rican independence, and is co-editor with AndrÉs Torres of The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices From the Diaspora (Temple).  His opposition to the Vietnam War in the early 1970's resulted in an important legal case in United States v. JosÉ Emiliano Velazquez. JosÉ is a retired educator and curriculum writer from the Newark Public Schools. A presenter at the founding of the Amistad Commission of NJ, he often lectures on Afro-Latino issues. Carmen V. Rivera recently retired after having served as a Certified Life Coach and capacity building consultant for over 25 years. A public health policy advocate, she held top ranking positions in New York City government and for the City of Boston. Her activism has centered on women’s rights, national liberation and social justice movements. One of her personal passions is documenting the history of Puerto Rican political activism in the U.S. from the 1960s to early 1990s. She directs the Recovering History Project and its archival collection on the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the U.S. AndrÉs Torres is the author or editor of Between Melting Pot and Mosaic: African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the New York Political Economy; The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora, and Latinos in New England (all Temple). He is also the author of the memoir Signing in Puerto Rican: A Hearing Son and His Deaf Parent.

Review :
“[A]n intimate look into the organization and transformation of the U.S. branch of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP)…. The book uses primary documents from the ¡Despierta Boricua! History Recovery Project, and the richness of this PSP collection is one of its strengths. Equally useful are the organizational charts showing labor, university, and community nucleus and affiliates. The contributors’ self-reflection on the movement’s shortcomings (caudillismo, machismo, and sexism) is refreshing…. The authors of the essays seem hopeful, just the way they were during their formative years, that revolution is still around the corner.”-New West Indian Guide "[A] detailed and original study of the US Branch (La Seccional) of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) from its genesis in the late 1960s to its dissolution in 1993.... VelÁzquez, Rivera, and Torres dive deeper into the lived experiences of members of the PSP in an effort to provide readers with a more complex understanding of the organization’s history.... [T]his volume provides an important contribution to the understanding of both revolutionary activism by Puerto Rico’s Socialist Party and the future of the Puerto Rican Left."-Journal of American Ethnic History "This is a necessary and information-rich book that, with its political, historical and personal perspectives, serves to clarify a moment in our history…. We must thank Rivera, Torres, and VelÁzquez for this important contribution to the study of an organization and a moment in the development of the Puerto Rican community in the United States."-CENTRO Journal "Revolution Around the Corner is full of first-person recollections and detailed accounts of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party’s varied campaigns in the U.S., including shifts in organizational strategy as the group sought to prioritize community activism while also navigating the complicated terrain of independence politics and labor socialism. These narratives will draw in readers with even a modest interest in the history of Puerto Ricans and their politics in the U.S., and will prove essential to scholars seeking primary source material on anticolonial politics or radical community activism during the coda of the civil rights movement."-The Latinx Project “This book takes us back to a time when you had to earn the title ‘Socialist.’ It provides the reader with a comprehensive picture of a key organization in the Puerto Rican movement, written by actual participants. There is no better moment to read this book than today when we are all learning about each other. Revolution Around the Corner is a testament that Puerto Rico is a nation and that its culture and traditions should be respected. Each and every one of us has the responsibility to end the sin of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico.”-Luis V. GutiÉrrez, Former U.S. Congressman (Illinois) “The full story of the U.S. arm of the Puerto Rican independence struggle of the 1970s has never been told. In vivid eyewitness and scholarly accounts, former members of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party not only correct that oversight, but also provide important lessons for the young activists rising up today against systemic racial and economic inequities and injustice. Revolution Around the Corner shows how over five decades ago Puerto Rican activists linked domestic struggles with international battles for freedom and self-determination against U.S. imperial domination.”-Frances M. Beal, founding member of SNCC Black Women's Liberation Committee, Third World Women's Alliance Representative to Puerto Rico Solidarity Committee, and author of Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female