The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899–1901

Abstract

H E Caribbean h1urricanes have often been considered either exogenouis acts of God or the uncontrollable results of nature; buit h1urricanes, like other natuiral hazards, only become disasters because of the vulnerability of specific social and economic structuires and becauise of political decisions and a varietv of human actions before and after their impact.' Disasters, then, are socially produLced, and, like revolutionis or wars, they are moments of extreme stress that can reveal the underlying struictures of social and political life. A growing literature in many fields has examined the social implications of disasters, but the historiography of the Caribbean has i-al-ely approached hurricanes in this way.' In the history of Puerto Rico-a patriarchal society in which the hur-