La Brega, Episode 2: Levittown, Where The Good Life Begins

Latino USA

My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alana Casanova-Burgess traces the history and development of Levittown, a massive suburb that was founded on the idea of bringing the American middle-class lifestyle to Puerto Rico during a time of great change on the island. Casanova-Burgess (herself the granddaughter of an early Levittown resident) traces back the story of the boom and bust of Levittown and explores what its shortcomings tell us about the promises of the American Dream in Puerto Rico.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dear listener, so this month we're bringing you episodes of Laberega.
0:13.0	It's a special seven-part mini-series presented by Latino USA and W and My C Studios about
0:19.8	the Puerto Rican experience.
0:21.8	Today's episode, Levittown, where the good life begins.
0:26.3	And if you'd like to hear any of the episodes in Espanol, visit the Laberega feed wherever
0:33.2	you listen to your podcasts.
0:35.4	Now I'm handing it off to W and My C's Alana Casa Nova Burgess.
0:42.1	This story begins in many ways in late March 1951, where the reporters dispatch from San
0:48.2	Juan, Puerto Rico.
0:50.5	This is audio from W and My C radio in New York, which sent a crew for a live broadcast.
0:56.2	The occasion has been auguration with our stop plane service from New York to Puerto Rico.
1:00.7	We are awaiting the arrival of the Puerto Rican from New York City, which has just come
1:04.0	in.
1:05.0	Before this, only Pan Am offered regular flights to New York, and the monopoly made tickets
1:10.4	expensive.
1:11.8	So it was big news that Eastern Airlines had gotten permission to offer service to Puerto Rico
1:16.7	as well, and that they would be offering cheaper flights.
1:19.9	Today, we might take it for granted that by the mid-1960s, over a million Bodequas had
1:32.5	moved to the States, over 600,000 just to New York City.
1:36.8	On the tarmac, Sol de Scatez, then Puerto Rico's treasurer marveled at the number of Puerto
1:41.5	Rican's taking flights.
2:00.6	It wasn't just those flights that got people to leave, of course, but it's true that many
	...

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