Manuel Antonio Grajales

Research Interests

My research investigates how Puerto Ricans established interracial alliances in New York City to oppose military service from the 1940s until the early 1970s. I examine how Puerto Ricans developed a civil rights strategy that rejected the notion of military service as the method to attain social and economic equality. Instead, anti-war action emphasized how Puerto Ricans responded and shaped concepts of citizenship and identity in opposition to U.S. colonialism, militarization, and social and economic inequalities.