ABSTRACT
For some time now I have been intellectually concerned with—and personally bothered by—the conceptual strictures that prevent observers from perceiving Puerto Ricans—as a group or as individuals—as heroic. Seeing someone as “heroic” is to see him as one who can successfully find a way to triumph over adverse conditions. Someone who is heroic is by definition not a victim, nor is he a product. Rather, he is perceived as vital, perhaps vivacious, indeed willfull, and certainly irrepressible.
