Taste of Sugar

In 1898, Puerto Rico is hungry. Groups of starving people, known as los hambrientos, wander the dry countryside and dusty towns asking for food, while Spanish rule pushes the island toward a war with the United States.

In the mountain coffee country around Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez work to stop creditors from taking their small farm. They are a young couple with little margin, and the debts keep pressing on them.

The Spanish-American War arrives, and the San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 follows. Together they wreck what remains of the island's livelihoods. Vicente and Valentina, along with thousands of other Puerto Ricans, are drawn toward the sugar plantations of Hawaii, another US territory. There they find that the prosperity promised by America is empty.

This is historical fiction with a love story at its centre, told in the manner of Latin American storytelling. It follows a marriage under heavy economic and political pressure, and the reasons that push people to leave home.