The literature of Puerto Ricans in the United States spans well over a hundred years, dating as far back as the nineteenth century, prior to the Treaty of Paris of 1898, by which Puerto Rico became a territory of the US following the Spanish American War. Many scholars have traced its origins and evolution, delineating its various stages of development within literary genres. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is not to provide another historical account of Puerto Rican literature in the US, but to highlight two prominent characteristics in recent US Puerto Rican literary production: the depiction of the island as the mainland, or rather its presence as a primary geographic and literary space, and the leitmotif of the Revolving Door. While this review is somewhat panoramic in scope, it is not an all-encompassing analysis of contemporary Puerto Rican literature in the US. Its intent is to examine these concepts in the poetry, autobiographical writings, and fiction by US Puerto Rican authors during the last twenty-five years, with a particular emphasis on the works of Puerto Rican women in the US in response to their rapidly growing number since the 1980s. In identifying both the island of Puerto Rico and the Revolving Door as prominent motifs in contemporary Puerto Rican literature of the US, I will also discuss how these recurring literary trends vary between authors and texts and how they reflect the diverse realities and experiences of Puerto Ricans living in the US.

The island of Puerto Rico has been a constant trope in US Puerto Rican literature since its emergence. In his essay entitled ‘“De lejos en sueños verla …”: vision mítica de Puerto Rico en la poesía neorrican’ (‘Seeing her from Afar in Dreams …‘: The Mythical Vision of Puerto Rico in Neorican Poetry), Efraín Barradas notes that a utopian image of the island can be traced back to the early chronicles written by the monks recording life in the Spanish colony, and that this idealized vision has a long tradition in the history of Puerto Rican letters (60–1).