Concrete & Countryside Book Presentation

Columbia College Chicago Associate Professor Carmelo Esterrich presents his new book CONCRETE AND COUNTRYSIDE (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). The book examines the response of the arts in Puerto Rico to the modernization and urbanization of the island during the momentous 1950s. Dr. Esterrich examines a wide range of cultural texts--newsreels, songs, graphic arts, advertisements--but focuses primarily on the film production of the Division of Community Education, the popular dance music of Cortijo y su combo, and the literary and dramatic texts of René Marqués and José Luis González.