Clara Rodríguez grew up in the South Bronx and earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Washington University, St Louis. Formerly a Dean at Fordham University, she spent 1988 as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is present Associate Professor of Sociology at Fordham. Professor Rodríguez is the author of numerous articles on the state of Puerto Ricans in the United States and is currently working on research supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

• Preface -- The Colonial Relationship: Migration and History -- Beyond the Census Data: A Portrait of the Community -- The Rainbow People -- The Political-Economic Context -- Housing and the South Bronx -- Educational Dynamics -- The Menudo Phenomenon: An Unwritten History -- Tracking in the School System