When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets

Even if you've lived in the US all your life, you might never have thought about Springfield, Massachusetts for more than a second. It's a small city, not a state capital or big corporate HQ powerhouse, and isn't on popular travel routes unless you take Peter Pan buses around New England.

Nevertheless, Springfield has a mighty industrial past, and is important to the current generation as a majority-minority city with a strong Puerto Rican community. The author follows the three brothers and their families from high school through their family formation and career years, and as an engaged and canny sociologist uses this story to connect their lives to their origins, surroundings, and ability or inability to succeed in the overly rigid show more and white-dominated American institutions they encountered. Still personal, including all the tragedy of inter-generational poverty and making a living with a felony conviction. So instructive and poignant that I do think it should be required reading for Americans. show less

A brilliant, passionate, eloquent, absorbing work of sociology. Black tells the story of three Puerto Rican brothers growing up in Springfield, Mass., showing us how their lives are shaped by social forces far beyond their control. The product of 18 years of ethnographic research, When a Heart Turns Rock Solid offers an intimate look at the struggles of three young men together with careful analyses of the impact of various political and economic changes on the lives of the urban poor. It is compelling reading and an important book.

This book is an informative, twenty-year study of three brothers, Julio, Fausto, Sammy Riveria, and their transition from Puerto Rico to the U.S. The author describes the ethnic and poverty issues barring their efforts to obtain bi-lingual education, fair paying jobs, decent housing, and necessary healthcare. It was well written, easy to understand, and an eyeopener. The lack of rehab opportunities for drug users was particularly disappointing, as were the prison conditions that addicts face without clinical help. Sad to know these conditions still affect lives today and are subject to constantly changing political climates. It makes you realize how critical your participation in the voting process is.

Engaging read...but you have to be focused on this book. A lot of information, a lot of honesty....wordy, but excellent. Great writer. Captivating story. Would make a great addition to literature for a Sociology college course.