Puerto Ricans in New York City already numbered in the tens of thousands by 1930. As Lorrin Thomas indicates, the fact that they were U.S. citizens did not shield them from discrimination and harassment. Thomas describes how, over the course of the twentieth century, young Puerto Ricans came to assert a new political consciousness and engage in radical community organizing.
Marinari, Hsu, and Garcia, eds., A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered: U.S. Society in an Age of Restriction, 1924-1965 University of Illinois Press, 2019
Lorrin Thomas, Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth-Century New York City University of Chicago Press, 2010