Explore Puerto Rico’s forgotten history and its fight to hold on to identity with Dean Huertas, in the spirit of voices like Bad Bunny and AOC that refuse to let Puerto Rican pride and heritage fade.

In Island of Impact, cultural commentator and digital creator Dean Huertas explores Puerto Rico’s overlooked history through the people, places, and cultures connected to the island. Part history, part cultural exploration, and part personal journey, Huertas asks what happens when a people’s history is overlooked and their identity is challenged, and yet their culture continues to endure.

Huertas traces Puerto Rico’s connections across the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific, revealing stories of migration, resistance, commerce, cultural exchange, and influence. From Taíno roots and Caribbean connections to the Puerto Rican diaspora around the world, these stories show an island that has never been as isolated as its history books suggest.

Inside readers will discover:

• How Puerto Rico’s history is intertwined with the Caribbean and the wider world, highlighted by its lost independence.

• The untold stories of Puerto Ricans who shaped communities far beyond the island, as artists, educators, activists, scientists, entrepreneurs, soldiers, and leaders.

• How colonialism, migration, and diaspora can reshape identity while culture, language, and tradition continue to endure.

• Why Puerto Rico offers a larger story about belonging, showing how a people can be shaped by the world without losing their connection to where they come from.

Beginning with Huertas’s own search for the Puerto Rican history he never found in the classroom, Island of Impact becomes a larger exploration of identity, belonging, and cultural memory.

For readers of Dear America, Unsung America, and Inventing Latinos, Island of Impact is a powerful journey through the histories we inherit, the identities we carry, and the places we call home.