Bibliography of Caribbean Migration and Caribbean Immigrant Communities

Brana-Shute, Rosemary, Bibliography of Caribbean Migration and Caribbean Immigrant Communities, Gainesville: Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida, 1983. {Another copy}

Reviewed in Journal of American Ethnic History © 1986

Brana-Shute was born into an Italian family, with a father who had come to America in an attempt to escape serving in the Italian army under Mussolini. Her parents then settled in a small town in New York where she spoke nothing but Italian until the age of five.

"I didn't fit anyone's mold," she recalls. As the first one of her family born in this country, she later went on to become the first to go to college, and later, the first to receive a Ph.D. "I always loved history, until I went to college. Then I decided I really hated history because they made us memorize all of these dates."

In the cinematic story of her life, she made the decision to change majors, focusing on Spanish literature and theatre, which brings us to her love of Latin American culture. This love and fascination propelled Brana-Shute to Puerto Rico, where, as a Lehigh University students, she taught in a slum with no blackboards, no books, or anything else that any American teacher would have as standard. Moreover, she says, half the class spoke no English- and the other half had migrated from New York and spoke no Spanish.