Jennet Rodriguez Betancourt

produced the first writings El Gibaro (old spelling) in 1849. Antonio S. Pedreira,
affirms, “Cuando aparece en Barcelona la edición príncipe de El Gibaro, 1849, encendió
su luz nuestra primera estrella” (Pedreira 156).
Alonso’s book of verse and prose regarded as “criollisimo” full of costumbrismos
puertorriqueños was cautiously assembled under strong overruling censorship and
authority of Spain’s colonial regime at the time. As Salvador Brau so strongly
emphasizes in the prologue, to understand Alonso’s text the reader must transport himself
to the context in which the author wrote. Brau signals that in Manuel A. Alonso’s case
this was particularly crucial since he was already a target of persecution warned by
Spanish authorities and even by the respected older Puerto Rican writer Francisco
Vasallo “El Buen Viejo,” to not lose sight of “las condiciones del pais para el cual
redactaba sus escritos” (xxxi).
Alonso’s El Salvage, included in Album Puertorriqueño, expressed deep
sentiment while daringly denouncing the white European. Here is an example of one
bold verse in the poem:
Que venga aquí el europeo
codicioso,
Y si acercarse le veo
morirá al punto a mis manos.
Que para sufrir tiranos
En su patria no naci.
After much criticism and suppression, Alonso quickly learned that in order to publish his
works, he had to be watchful of every word and camouflage his ideas and sentiments
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