she talks about activist ruth reynolds and her role in the reagan independence movement. this is about 20 minutes. >> lisa materson is an associate professor at the department of history at u.c. davis. you talked this morning about puerto rico and why it's important to historians. what did you tell your audience? >> i focused on the importance of placing puerto rico at the center of studies of u.s. by u.s.or work historians. so often puerto rico, particularly among u.s. historians is not seen as part of u.s. history, or it falls through the cracks of latin american history or u.s. history. the puerto rican studies association is a place where it's a very vibrant interdisciplinary conversation but because of the history of puerto rico as a colony, it doesn't fit neatly into the geographical categories so it doesn't get the focus for that reason among u.s. historians. >> right now puerto rico is in the headlines as it tries to recover from an awful hurricane that basically devastated the entire island, infrastructure. so many now are leaving and coming to florida and elsewh

d indeed ruth reynolds was sometimes in man hasn't. it's not just in puerto rico. diasphoric puerto rican community and she becomes involved in the independence movement and here you can really see a tremendous cross pollination of political movements at mid 20th century. she was in something called the harlem -- which was located in spanish or hem. -- harlem. she was there as someone who was involved in the black civil rights movement and the free india movement and she was living in a community that were predominantly puerto rican. she is with other members, both black and white, several rights free india activists, holding signs pro testing british imperialism in india and some puerto rican neighbors said, you know, if you're opposed to imperialism. you don't have to protest it in india but the u.s. has a colony here so this was some of the factors that contributed to her transition. but the other factor is that you have a lot of nagsist party members. that's hunt anyway in area of manhattan. and pedro decamp's is released from prison around this time and the na

now, ruth reynolds, she created the american league for puerto rican independence. puerto rico's independence. that involves non-puerto ricans. mobilizing in solidarity for puerto rico's independence. she spent two years in federal prison or in prison in puerto rico. there was another uprising in 1950. the two big uprisings for 1950 and 1954. she was caught in a drag net after the 1950 assassination attempt of president triumph truman. and she was convicted of supporting the overthrow of the u.s. government in puerto rico. this was something that was called the gag law and it made it illegal to have the idea to engage in the idea or the act of supporting puerto rican independence, which is the whole purpose of the insurance -- independence movement. >> even the idea? >> yes. i mean, so many people were political prisoners. who were involved in the nationalist party. it's often called the little smith act because the smith act was the vergets that was applied in the u.s. mainland towards subversives. ruth reynolds started to party that sought the end of u.s. control

offers a brief history of puerto rican starting with the spanish-american war and talks about ruth reynolds and her role in the puerto rican independence movement. this is about 20 minute. >> lisa materson is an associate professor at the department of history at u.c. davis. you talked this morning about puerto rico and why it's important to historians. what did you tell your audience? >> i focused on the importance of placing puerto rico at the center of studies of u.s. history or of work by u.s.

she talks about activist ruth reynolds and her role in the reagan independence movement.his is about 20 minutes. >> lisa materson is an associate professor at the department of history at u.c. davis. you talked this morning about puerto rico and why it's important to historians. what did you tell your audience? >> i focused on the importance of placing puerto rico at the center of studies of u.s. by u.s.or work historians. so often puerto rico, particularly among u.s. historians is not seen as part of u.s. history, or it falls through the cracks of latin american history or u.s.

she spoke about the 1888 spanish-american war and talks about activist ruth reynolds and her role in the puerto rican independence >> lisa materson is an associate professor at the department ostory at u.c. davis. you talked this morning about puerto rico and why it's important to historians. what did you tell your audience? >> i focused on the importance of placing puerto rico at the center of studies of u.s. history or work by u.s. historians. so often puerto rico, particularly among u.s. historians is not seen as part of u.s. history, or it falls through the cracks of latin american history or u.s. history.