JAY KINSBRUNER is Professor Emeritus of History at Queens College, City University of New York. A distinguished scholar of Latin American history, he is the author of several books, including Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment; Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico; and Petty Capitalism in Spanish America: The Pulperos of Puebla, Mexico City, Caracas, and Buenos Aires.