Publisher's Synopsis
Written in Spanish Second edition "Labradores y Desbandados 1898" is a Puerto Rican Spanish heritage story dating from the late nineteenth century when fundamental political changes lead to local and international trading struggles early on into the twentieth century. The peasantry of the coffee, sugar and agricultural industry of the Cordillera Central struggled for their survival following drastic changes in trading partners. The long established European commerce vanished, being replaced by the ever growing needs of the North American economy for produce and manpower eventually leading to a massive pre WWII migration to the United States of mostly farm workers. This intense historical period affected the lives of a population exceeding 950,000 by 1898 as Puerto Rico faced changes in the socio-political structure of two distinctly different cultures coming together after the Spanish-American war in the old colony. The story is set within the background of the massive mobilization of the Spanish military forces sent to protect the last two colonies of the Caribbean over a twenty five year period. Eventually the struggle of the Cuban independence leads to the Spanish-American War which subsequently culminated in the Cuban independence of 1902. The annexation of Puerto Rico as a territory resulted as a consequence of this 1898 conflict where the island was purchased during the treaty of Paris by the United States while Puerto Rico still remains in an unresolved colonial status. This fundamental change by annexation, the toppled Spanish parliamentary laws, the early on conditional status of the Caribbean colonies and the mindset of the Puerto Rican population is the heart of the action and scenario of this book. Puerto Rico is here where our story takes place as friends and family are revisited. The ever increasing exploitation by the Spanish crown over its Puerto Rican residents brings together Gervasio Torano Rojo the Spanish soldier and Francisca Reboiras Roman, a farmer's daughter into marriage as did thousands of other soldiers during the black gold rush of the Cordillera Central, these are my grandparents, my family. Randle Sloan Torano (author)
