The Taste of Sugar: A Novel

The Taste of Sugar follows a Puerto Rican family from 1825 in Puerto Rico to 1902 in Hawaii. Valentina dreams of a life of luxury, but instead falls in love with a coffee farmer, Vicente. While it’s not the life she dreams of, she loves her little family. Valentina gives birth to three children, but unfortunately one of her daughters die of an accidental drowning and her son dies of an illness. In 1899, the great San Ciriaco Hurricane came and devastated the island of Puerto Rico. Causing people to lose their homes and livelihoods. After the Spaniards and hurricane, the Americans came in and stole the Puerto Ricans land. Charging them a fee to get their land back. This would be impossible as the Americans devalued their peso. Puerto Ricans set off to the island of Hawaii with the promise of jobs, homes, and proper schooling for their children, but all that was a lie. They were treated like cattle until they teamed up with the Japanese and fought back. This was such as good read, but also infuriating. Just witnessing all this family and more had gone through. American stole their country and hated them while they lived in it. They shipped them off to America to work and still hated them for being there. They were no longer Puerto Ricans and not Americans. They were men without an island. History continues to repeat it itself.