Disputed Authorship of the Memoirs of Bernardo Vega

Introduction: Bernardo Vega and the Immigrant Experience

The Memoirs of Bernardo Vega details the early twentieth-century immigrant experience of Bernardo Vega, a cigar-maker who immigrated to New York in 1916 and was an eyewitness to the rise of the socialist and labor movements of the era. Although cigar making might seem like a blue-collar occupation, at the time it was considered an art within the Puerto Rican community and the pride of Vega's life. Vega also worked as an editor, bookkeeper, and in other white-collar occupations, and was an influential intellectual among his people throughout the duration of his life. In many ways, Vega's life and career challenge the traditional white-collar/blue-collar divide, even though he was very active in the union movement.

Cigar rollers were traditionally read to as a way of passing the time, and Vega is recorded as substantially adding to his wealth of knowledge by listening to the various texts read aloud to him. This formed a significant chapter in his intellectual development as a radical and as a prominent thinker.

The Memoirs as Collective Chronicle

The book presents itself as less of a personal memoir than as a chronicle of the Puerto Rican community during that era. Like many immigrants, Vega is portrayed as coming to America with a very idealistic view of the possibilities inherent in the new world. Gradually, over time, he becomes radicalized, particularly within the context of the Puerto Rican community where he settles. The America depicted in the book is very clearly a mosaic of both ethnicity and social class, in contrast to the melting-pot experience described by so many other immigrant groups.

Vega is like a droplet of water standing in for the larger ocean of Puerto Rican experience. Rather than portraying an extraordinary man — although he did many extraordinary things — it is the ordinary aspects of his existence that make him equally interesting. Psychology on a personal level is less important than narrating a collective history and giving a picture of an era. Affirming the existence of Puerto Rican history becomes a vital component of affirming the contribution the community has made to shaping America.

The Authorship Question: Vega or Iglesias?

The authorship of the memoirs has been contentious for a long time. As scholar Bridget Kevane notes, "We do not know whether the novel accurately reflects the ideas and words of Vega himself or Cesar Andreu Iglesias, the self-appointed editor of the original manuscript. The genesis of the Memorias is cloaked in mystery" (Kevane). This has caused critics such as Kevane to question the stated authenticity of the manuscript as a genuine presentation of Vega's life. In her view, Vega is used more as a lens upon the wider community; the book is clearly not a memoir of self-exploration in the traditional sense.

Kevane also suggests that Iglesias's role as editor is far more heavy-handed than the title implies, and that a better way of understanding the book may be to think of it as a hybrid text: "part autobiography, part fiction, ethnography, cartography, political history" (Kevane). The book "also maps the first Puerto Rican communities, inter-ethnic and racial relationships, and the stirring political and civic organizations of the time as well as the struggle for Puerto Rican autonomy" (Kevane).

Works Cited

Cruz, Jose. Rev. of The Vanquished, by Cesar Andreu Iglesias. People's World. 19 Sept. 2003. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Iglesias, Cesar A. The Memoirs of Bernardo Vega. Monthly Review Press, 1984.

Kevane, Bridget. "The Bernardo Vega Memoir Mystery: The Challenge of Determining Authorship and Meaning." National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). Web. 11 Dec. 2015.