"All photographs dated 1941 or 1942 are from the FSA Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The photographs dated 1946 are from the collection of the General Archives of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in San Juan, Puerto Rico. All other photographs are from the photographer's own collection"--Title page verso.

Puerto Rico Mio is an extraordinary collection from two series of photographs: the first taken when Delano first went to Puerto Rico with the Farm Security Administration in 1941-42 and the second when he rephotographed those same places in the 1980s.

"Archival and modern photographs of scenes from around San Juan, Puerto Rico, shown side by side to show how the city has changed over the last century while preserving its heritage. Includes text in both English and Spanish"--

"Five centuries after Columbus discovered and the Spanish colonized Borinquen, Puerto Rico is today the oldest European settlement under the American flag. And yet, nearly a century after the Stars and Stripes were first raised over Puerto Rico, it remains the least understood part of America. Separated from the mainland by hundreds of miles of ocean and cultural, linguistic and historical divide of proportionate magnitude, Puerto Rico and her people remain enigmas to the vast majority of Americans on the continent. Paradoxically, those elements which contribute to this gap in understanding are the very factors which make Puerto Rico the most fascinating and complex of the many parts of the American whole, a unique cultural blend of the Spanish-Caribbean joie de vivre and the North American drive for organization and forward-thinking. In this new volume author-photographer Roger LaBrucherie (whose first book about the island, Images of Puerto Rico, has been a best-seller since its publication in 1984) has focused on his sentimental attachment for the island's natural beauty and cultural heritage. The result is a stunning and insightful depiction of this complex and beautiful island, a book which will educate those who are just getting to know Puerto Rico, as surely as it will delight those for whom Borinquen is home." -- Publisher's description

In 1940, as a young photographer working for Roy Stryker's Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA), Jack Delano traveled the length of the eastern seaboard recording the struggles of migrant workers still living in the shadow of the Depression. Late the following year, with the nation on the verge of war, Stryker sent him on a three-month assignment in Puerto Rico where the people he met radiated humor and generosity despite poverty worse than any he had seen in the continental United States. Back on the mainland, Delano traveled across the country photographing the homefront contributions of ethnic and minority groups and spent a month documenting the mobilized railroad system on freight trains between Chicago and California. After serving three years in the army, Delano settled in Puerto Rico, where for the last fifty years he has been a constant participant - as a photographer, filmmaker, television station director, book illustrator, cartoonist, and composer - in the island's cultural life.

Magic, sexual tension, high comedy, and intense drama move through an enchanted yet harsh autobiography, in the story of a young girl who leaves rural Puerto Rico for New York's tenements and a chance for success.