Jesus Colón’s
simple, compelling prose won admiration from peers and respect from
teachers, and eventually he was named director of the school newspaper
and president of the school’s literary society.
After Puerto Ricans were made US citizens in 1917, many arrived
on the south Brooklyn waterfront aboard commercial steamers. Among
them were some of the best artists and composers of the island.
Jesus Colón made the five-day journey aboard the S.S. Carolina,
working all the way to New York onboard ship. When he arrived, Jesus
wentto live with his brother Joaquin, not far from the Brooklyn
waterfront where the S.S. Carolina docked. Here where the first
Puerto Rican community in New York City was established, Jesus Colón
made his home.
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The letters that Jesus Colón
wrote frequently to his sweetheart in Puerto Rico provide a glimpse
into what life was like in New York City at the beginning of the 20th
century. Today these letters are part of the historical record of
how small town people from the tropics adjusted to a large northern
city, with an unfamiliar language and a different way of life. During
the Great Depression, also a time of intense racial discrimination
and violence, Jesus Colón worked at many menial and dangerous
jobs while attending night school at Boys High. He learned about the
dangers workers faced in the city, inspiring him to write “Easy
job, good wages,” one of his more famous vignettes or short
stories.
Although he never earned a living as a journalist, Colón
wrote for several language papers in New York and Puerto Rico at
the same time. By 1950, Colón had regular columns in English,
in labor and community newspapers. He wrote articles and news commentaries
as well as poetry, short stories and anecdotes. However, Jesus Colón
was masterful in the use of the cronica or chronicle to relate important
events to the community in an engaging and affecting manner. Because
Jesus Colón wrote in English and Spanish, he was able to
chronicle for English-speaking audiences how Puerto Ricans shaped
and were shaped by the history of New York City from his unique
vantage point. “A Puerto Rican in New York and other sketches,”
published in 1961, the first book written in English by a Puerto
Rican about the experiences of Puerto Ricans in New York City. A
“Puerto Rican in New York and other Sketches” is both
a collection of human-interest stories and a social history of New
York.
Jesus Colón was drawn to internationally progressive movements,
especially in Latin America. He learned first hand that workers
in all parts of the world shared a common cause in the struggle
for a living wage and humane working conditions. He also knew that
political power was key to creating better opportunities. Thus,
he ran for numerous public offices, including comptroller, city
councilman and assemblyman. Colón wrote about many topics,
but his constant concern was the social and economic conditions
of Puerto Ricans in New York City and on the island. Colón
was keenly aware that the migrants’ quest for equality in
the United States could not be separated from Puerto Rico’s
ambiguous relationship to the United States.
Colón’s work is reminiscent of Walt Whitman and Zora
Neale Hurston. But it was Langston Hughes, also a light-skin mulatto,
who had much in common with Colón. Both were active in New
York’s Black and Latino communities. Both portrayed the day-to-day
lives of ordinary people. Both wrote about racial injustice and
both wrote in English and Spanish. Although he wrote more than 400
pieces in his lifetime, little has been written about the literary
contributions of Jesus Colón. Unfortunately, most of his
writings and speeches are not accessible in bounded form. Even so,
the Jesus Colón collection of the archives of El Centro de
Estudios Puertorriquenos at Hunter College of CUNY makes accessible
a collection of documents about the life and times of this unassuming
man of letters who wrote to change the world. In his time, Colón’s
simple and incisive prose informed and entertained the masses. Today,
they give us a sense of historic continuity, connecting our present
to our past and our differences to a common humanity. |
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