Dominoes and Other Stories from the Puerto Rican, the only book of fiction by playwright and poet Jack Agüeros, affirms the triumphs and ordinary struggles of the Puerto Rican experience in New York. In stories that span the 1940s through the 1990s, Agüeros re-creates the barrio in all its multifaceted immensity, with its candy stores, plaster saints, fruit vendors, sidewalk games of dominoes, knife fights, and stories of successful craftspeople and entrepreneurs.

These stories convey hard, sometimes brutal, often bittersweet, experiences, but throughout Agüeros writes with artistry and unyielding compassion. Richly detailed, wry, and matter-of-fact, Dominoes and Other Stories from the Puerto Rican is an important achievement by an accomplished American writer.

JACK AGÜEROS (1934–2014) was an American poet, translator, and community activist. From 1977 to 1986 he was the director of El Museo del Barrio in New York City. He was the author of three poetry collections: Lord, Is This a Psalm?, Sonnets from the Puerto Rican, and Correspondence between the Stonehaulers. His translation of Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos was published by Curbstone Press. He received the Asan World Prize for Poetry in 2012.

". . . report from the guts and heart of a submerged people, an addition to an outstanding . . . literary tradition: the boricua procession." —New York Newsday

". . . a clear and hopeful note in a city's chorus of harsh realities." —New York Daily News

"Throughout the collection, Agüeros evokes thoughtful, empathetic responses in the reader, and that is the best any writer can give you." —Hartford Courant

"A memorable portrait gallery of ordinary—though thoroughly individualized—Puerto Rican New Yorkers . . .  For his point of departure, Agüeros often takes a character or situation so familiar as to border on stereotype, but in his hands, these small tales lead the reader to a deeper sense of recognition. Studies of character and community in the realist mode, told with quiet humor, without sensationalism or sentimentality." —Kirkus Reviews

"The view from the front stoop or the second floor window, real as rice and beans." —Martín Espada

"Dominoes and Other Stories from the Puerto Rican touched me to the core, for it contains stories that I walked through as a child. Without a doubt, my hermano Jack adds to the beauty of our people in spite of harsh realities." —Piri Thomas

"To read Dominoes is to enter into the world of the Puerto Rican community . . . Thank you, Jack, for giving us another voice that celebrates our culture. Gracias." —Nicholasa Mohr 

"A wonderful collection of stories—full of the particulars of a people's encounter with America, told with persuasive grace, charm, and honesty . . ." —Robert Coles— -

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