Written from the perspective of biocultural critical medical anthropology, but adding to the powerful legacy of Sidney Mintz’s influential book Sugar and Power, Shir Lerman Ginzburg offers a moving ethnographic account of sugar colonialism, diabetes, depression, and food insecurity in Puerto Rico. Rich with the perspectives and experiences of her interlocutor participants, this insightful text is a significant contribution to the decolonization of health movement.

Merrill Singer, University of Connecticut

This is a rich ethnographic work showing in lived detail the many systemic layers that create health—from food distribution and health insurance to the larger systems of colonial relations between Puerto Rico and the United States. Shir Lerman Ginzburg illustrates how the distinct maladies of depression and diabetes are woven together by these systems, and describes how collective action can create pathways to better health through not just policy change, but political change.

Alexa Dietrich, Wagner College

Taking Health to the Streets employs a syndemic framework to link diabetes, depression, and food insecurity to the political status of Puerto Rico. Highlights of the book are the insights of a wide range of Puerto Ricans who link the personal and the political in their conversations with Shir Lerman Ginzburg about diabetes and depression. Their openness to discussing their health and situating it within the status of Puerto Rico make palpable how the social, political, and ecological challenges in Puerto Rico are making people sicker.

Peter Guarnaccia, Rutgers University