FACT AND FICTION - STORIES OF PUERTO-RICANS IN US SCHOOLS

Puerto Rican communities have been a reality in many northeastern urba n centers for over a century. Schools and classrooms have felt their p resence through the Puerto Rican children attending school. The educat ion of Puerto Ricans in U.S. schools has been documented for about sev enty years, but in spite of numerous commissions, research reports, an d other studies, this history is largely unknown to teachers and the g eneral public. In addition to the research literature, a growing numbe r of fictional accounts in English are providing another fertile avenu e for understanding the challenges that Puerto Ricans have faced, and continue to face, in U.S. schools. In this article, Sonia Nieto combin es the research on Puerto Rican students in U.S. schools with the powe r of the growing body of fiction written by Puerto Ricans. In this wea ving of ''fact'' with ''fiction,'' Nieto hopes to provide a more compr ehensive and more human portrait of Puerto Rican students. Based on he r reading of the literature in both educational research and fiction, Nieto suggests four interrelated and contrasting themes that have emer ged from the long history of stories told about Puerto Ricans in U.S. schools: colonialism/resistance, cultural deficit/cultural acceptance, assimilation/identity, and marginalization/belonging: Nieto's analysi s of these four themes then leads her to a discussion of the issue of care as the missing ingredient in the education of Puerto Ricans in th e United States.