Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920 by Eileen J. Suarez Findlay

My book about turn of the century Puerto Rican prostitutes. I really enjoyed the shock value when people asked me what I was reading. Short version: Class was linked to race; concepts of sexuality and honor varied by class. To be white meant to be elite and honorable. To be black meant to be working class and disreputable. What color your skin was did not necessarily determine which group you belonged to because they were social as opposed to biological concepts. Who do you think the prositutes were?

(Get it? The buildings in Chicago are imposing. I finished reading this book in October, but I have been struggling with how to take a picture for a book about prostitution and war. Not that this lame stretch is much, but it's better than nothing.)