Gilberto Aponte Torres is a researcher and teaches history in Puerto Rico. Karen Juanita Carrillo is the author of several books, including African American-Latino Relations in the 21st Century: When Cultures Collide, as well as the cofounder of AfroPresencia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reporting on Blacks in the Caribbean and throughout North, Central, and South America.

Establishes the central role of Afro-Puerto Ricans in the island's history and the creation of its capital city, San Juan.