\u3cem\u3eLa Charca\u3c/em\u3e (1894) y la Consagración del Subalterno Puertorriqueño: Una Mirada desde el Siglo XXI al Naturalismo de Manuel Zeno Gandía

This article analyzes the representation of coffee plantation societies in the novel La Charca (1894) by Manuel Zeno Gandía (1855-1930). This literary text is a Puerto Rican classic and is one of the four novels included in Las Crónicas de un Mundo Enfermo (Chronicles of a Sick World). The author examines the political and economic structures developed in Puerto Rico during the nineteenth century, as portrayed in the novel. Carrasquillo Hernández pays close attention to the relations between social classes, the coffee oligarchy’s struggle, and the subjugation of workers by the hacendados (landowners) in order to promote and extend their own power