Journalist-novelist Robert Friedman, who was the Washington correspondent for the San Juan Star from 1992-2008, when the newspaper folded, will read from his latest novel set in Puerto Rico, Island Wildlife: Exiles, Expats and Exotic Others. The novel explores, among other things, the struggling humanity of its off-beat characters and how the personal and the political interrelate--specifically in the highly ambivalent,U.S.-Puerto Rico relationship and Cuban exile politics.He will discuss with the audience Puerto Rico's current critical situation, brought about by the continuing damages from last year's Hurricane Maria and the Trump administration's tepid reaction to the island's plight. The crisis has spurred a new "diaspora" as hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have left the island for a new home in the states, including the D.C. area.
Robert Friedman was a reporter, columnist and city editor for the San Juan Star in Puerto Rico for more than 20 years, and was the newspaper's Washington correspondent until it folded in 2009. While in Puerto Rico, he was also a special correspondent for the New York Daily News. Friedman is the author of four previously published novels about Puerto Rico, which have explored the colorful and often struggling lives of island residents who try to cope, both personally and politically, with the highly ambivalent relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Born and bred in the Bronx, New York, he now lives in Silver Spring, Md.
This event is co-sponsored by FDJ Solutions LLC, A consultant, lobbyist firm led by Federico de Jesus. a former Puerto Rico government official in Washington, and former national communications director for the Hispanic Media in Barrack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
Books will be available before and after the event. Please contact books@buboysandpoets.com with questions.Â
