This a book about the US government's mistreatment of Puerto Rican laborers, recruited to build "Camp" Bragg and other army training posts in 1918. As Camp Bragg required the taking of my grandparents' farm and homestead, I bring clear insight into what happened there and how it impacted the lives of both the North Carolina farmers who were uprooted from a lifetime of hard work and the Puerto Ricans who came to build the Camp and were horribly mistreated as their reward. This is a compelling story of lives lived hard and often at great cost. And, it all takes place in the midst of the last great pandemic in 1918. This book brings a sad moment in history to life with compelling documentation and first-hand eyewitness accounts. And it closes with a plea for awareness and recognition of the contributions of these Puerto Ricans who had just become new American citizens. At a time of a global pandemic and acute systemic racism, this story resonates and brings us an opportunity to what are we doing today that repeats the sins of the past, what can we do to own and be accountable for those things, how can we learn and grow as human beings through love and compassion if we forget our past? This story brings all of this into clear relief. Read the book, reflect... start a conversation. Learn and grow.
