Effects Of Operation Bootstrap

The story of Cinderella describes my great-great grandmas’ odd and occasionally unbelievable life. Similar to Cinderella, Amparo Amieiro lived with her step-family who did not enjoy her company, to say it nicely. She was treated like a slave because of her illegitimacy and when given the chance, she left the house and got married at seventeen in 1931. A year later, she gave birth to a son and another year later, her husband died. Fast forward to 1952, four more kids were born and she was still alone with five children, living in poor Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. In the 1950s, Operation Bootstrap took effect and transitioned the island from agricultural to manufacturing jobs. This transitioning period negatively affected many people, even though
The economic opportunities found in the United States were the main reason for her emigration, like many other people at the time. In fact, the year after she left (1953), emigration from Puerto Rico to the U.S. peaked at more than 69,000 emigrants arriving in the U.S. In addition, air transportation became a more affordable and quick option for traveling; therefore, allowing more people to leave. Still, the decision to move must have been hard for Amparo, not only because she was leaving her home country, but because she left her kids behind too. As Amparo made her way to NYC, her five kids, including the youngest son, who was born that same year, were mostly under the supervision of the oldest girl, Cristina Lopez AKA Tina. Amparo did send money to the children via their neighbor, unfortunately, the neighbor kept some of it and the kids would go days without new food. In hindsight, the oldest son, Carlos Zapata, should have been in charge of the family when their mother left, however, Tina recalls him leaving in the morning and not coming back until late at night. Tina struggled while taking care of her sisters and brothers; they were supposed to continue going to school, but they wouldn’t listen to Tina and I can assume they didn’t listen to a lot of the things she
She didn’t have as many roadblocks getting to The U.S. like many other immigrants had because of the citizenship granted to Puerto Ricans. In addition, many U.S. factory owners and employment agencies recruited Puerto Ricans to work for them, which may have been another reason that Amparo was able to obtain a job relatively easy. Amparo most likely lived in a small tenement in the Lower East Side, which was a Puerto Rican neighborhood at the time. A few months after Amparo arrived in NYC, she saved enough money to bring all five of her children to the city. She was very excited to finally see her children and she was so excited that when her friend was driving her to the airport, she left the door unlocked and got rear-ended on the highway and fell out of the car. She broke BOTH of her legs and the poor kids waiting in the airport wondered where their mother was. They waited there all day until one of Amparo’s friends picked them up and told them what happened. At the time, this must have been a traumatic event; but, now when my Grandma Maria (AKA Tinita) told the story it got a big laugh out of the both of us on how ridiculous it