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University of Colorado, Boulder CU Scholar History Graduate Theses & Dissertations History Spring 1-1-2011 La Vida en Pobreza: Oscar Lewis, Puerto Rico, and the Culture of Poverty Steven Andrew Dike University of Colorado at Boulder, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.colorado.edu/hist_gradetds Part of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Latin American History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Dike, Steven Andrew, "La Vida en Pobreza: Oscar Lewis, Puerto Rico, and the Culture of Poverty" (2011). History Graduate Theses & Dissertations. Paper 6. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by History at CU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Graduate Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CU Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. La Vida en Pobreza: Oscar Lewis, Puerto Rico, and the Culture of Poverty By Steven Dike B.A., University of Colorado, 1995 M.A., University of Virginia, 1998 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History 2011 This thesis entitled: La Vida en Pobreza: Oscar Lewis, Puerto Rico, and the Culture of Poverty written by Steven Dike has been approved for the Department of History Mark Pittenger Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii Dike, Steven La Vida en Pobreza: Oscar Lewis, Puerto Rico, and the Culture of Poverty Thesis directed by Associate Professor Mark Pittenger Oscar Lewis was a cultural anthropologist whose work documented the lives of the world‘s poor. He developed a hypothesis called the ―culture of poverty‖ which held that the desperately poor in modern nations live within a distinct subculture that transcends national boundaries and separates the poor from the broader societies in which they live. Lewis also developed a novel ethnographic method that relied on a combination of tape- recorded interviews, material culture analysis and psychological examination. This dissertation traces the development of Lewis‘s theory and method through several of his works, focusing on La Vida, Lewis‘s final major work and most widely read book. La Vida examined an extended Puerto Rican family living in San Juan and New York City. The book was a landmark work in the War on Poverty debates, as well as the debate about the relationship of Puerto Rico to the United States. Lewis himself considered the book to be an anti-imperialist tract, though he did not make that clear publicly. The culture of poverty, in vogue in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s, was by 1968 under sustained attack. Scholars and the public retreated from it, and Lewis‘s star went into decline. Although the culture of poverty may be flawed, Lewis‘s work remains vital to understanding poverty in modern societies. In memory of Bob and Sonny v Acknowledgments This dissertation began as a seminar paper in Mark Pittenger‘s graduate intellectual history class. His advice to ―accept serendipity‖ in finding research topics led me from a chance encounter with La Vida one day in the library to a completed dissertation. His counsel as thesis adviser has been remarkable and I thank him for it. I also owe thanks to Jim Jankowski, who read early drafts of chapters and offered valuable criticism. Bob Ferry read the entire draft and offered good advice. Paul Shankman agreed to serve as a member of my committee on short notice and provided valuable editorial advice as well as his expertise in anthropology. I thank Virginia Anderson for helping me reenter graduate school. This dissertation would not exist without her. Ralph Mann and Lee Chambers served on my exam committee. Scott Miller is the best ally a graduate student can have and I thank him as well. Most graduate students are lucky if they find one great adviser. Somehow, I found three. Although they were not directly involved in this project, Nelson Lichtenstein and Julie Greene deserve thanks as well. Their influence is here. I visited New York City and the University of Illinois with money from the Bean Fellowship. I thank the funders for their generosity. Thanks as well to the staff at the University of Illinois archives and the staff at El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College. Finally, I thank Sherie and Charlie. My family has stood by me as this dissertation has consumed much of my life for the last three years. Sherie also edited the final draft of the paper. I owe them my all. vi - Contents Introduction 1 Chapter Outline 9 Chapter One 12 Chapter Two 41 Chapter Three 86 Chapter Four 134 Chapter Five 168 Chapter Six 208 Conclusion 252 Appendix One: Traits of the culture of poverty 267 vii As I looked, horror struck, from one death‘s head to another, I was affected by a singular hallucination. Like a wavering translucent spirit face superimposed upon each of these brutish masks I saw the ideal, the possible face that would have been the actual if mind and soul had lived. It was not till I was aware of these ghostly faces, and of the reproach that could not be gainsaid which was in their eyes, that the full piteousness of the ruin that had been wrought was revealed to me. I was moved with contrition as with a strong agony, for I had been one of those who had endured that these things should be. I had been one of those who, well knowing that they were, had not desired to hear or be compelled to think much of them, but had gone on as if they were not, seeking my own pleasure and profit. Therefore, now I found upon my garments the blood of this great multitude of strangled souls of my brothers. The voice of their blood cried out against me from the ground. Every stone of the reeking pavements, every brick of the pestilential rookeries, found a tongue and called after me as I fled: What hast thou done with thy brother Abel? 1 Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000—1887 1 Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, with an introduction by Sylvester Baxter (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1898c), 324-325. 1 Introduction This dissertation examines the work of anthropologist Oscar Lewis, focusing especially on his controversial ―culture of poverty‖ thesis and his most famous book: La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty, New York and San Juan. Published in 1966, La Vida told the story of an impoverished Puerto Rican family living in San Juan, Puerto Rico and in New York City. La Vida provoked an intense debate amongst academics, policy makers and poverty activists, as well as Puerto Rican political leaders and intellectuals. Lewis won the National Book Award for La Vida and the book sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The book was part of a larger discourse about poverty in the 1960s and was Lewis‘s most complete description of a mode of existence that he called the ―culture of poverty.‖1 The anthropological study of poverty and the culture of the poor, led by Lewis, helped to shape poverty policy for decades. The notion that poverty is at least partially cultural and that the poor might have a distinct value system and lifestyle remains one of the most controversial ideas in the debate over poverty in the United States. Lewis was also an important member of the new radicals of the 1960s academy who used their scholarship to spur social change. Lewis was concerned not only with describing the culture of poverty; he sought to alleviate poverty in modern societies through changing the fundamental relationship between the poor and the larger world around them. 1 Oscar Lewis, La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—New York and San Juan (New York: Random House, 1966). Although some editions of the book list both a 1965 and 1966 copyright date, the book did not appear until 1966. 2 La Vida brought a massive reaction from Puerto Rican political and community leaders. The book‘s primary subjects were the poorest of the poor. They had unstable family lives, gambled, and used profanity profusely. Additionally, the majority of the primary female subjects of the book either had been prostitutes in the past or were still working as prostitutes. Puerto Rican activists feared that the book, with its graphic language and descriptions of poverty, sexuality, and criminality, would create and extend negative stereotypes of Puerto Ricans. Much of the existing scholarship on La Vida has dismissed the book, at best as an example of poor research methodology and scholarship, and at worst as a racist screed. Lewis‘s critics sometimes label him as a bigot and reactionary. The existing literature on the history of poverty thought and policy does not adequately address Lewis‘s importance as a thinker on poverty. My dissertation will show how Lewis moved cultural issues to the forefront of the academic study of poverty. I will also address the more controversial aspects of La Vida. Lewis‘s work shows the difficulties of an anthropologist working across ethnic and class lines, working within an imperial context, and working as a political advocate for his subjects while at the same time criticizing aspects of their lifestyle. There are many themes in this dissertation, but I argue a few key points.

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