Back to the Drawing Board... HELP!!!!!

     Over the past week, I worked on the "research" component of my term paper. I read books, articles, any thing Puerto Rican-ish that I could get my hands on. "Me queme las pesta~as" (I burned my eyelashes) on the computer trying to put together the story of the island's history while trying to incorporate family history and personal experiences... I hit several roadblocks and even had a breakdown at one point. This was after I decided to subscribe to ancestry.com and research some family history. I can't say that I really like the setup on that site. You do most of your own filtering through millions of records. So the process can be tedious and quite annoying especially when you are close to your breaking point.
     Nevertheless, I found some documents that hit home for me. I learned that my cousin Ariel's father who was Choro's eldest brother (they were 10 years apart...but somehow looked almost identical) was the only one in his household at age 7 that could read and write. I thought that was very interesting considering that his parents were unable to read or write. The 1910 U.S. Census had recorded that the family owned several acres of coffee fields. I remember my grandfather talking about how he worked in the fields with his father making only a few cents a day. Researching some more, I found that during that time in history early 1920's, Agricultural workers made a few cents more than what it cost to raise a HOG in the US... Imagine that.
     Anyway, after breaking my head in trying to decide where to go with all of this information, I sought the feedback of my professor. He suggested I revise my paper and take another approach. My paper focused on the struggles, oppression, and the vicitimization of Puerto Ricans and the effects this had on early migration. To be honest, it wasn't what my spirit wanted to produce. Instead it was more like a blah, blah, blah, story that we all know and heard... the violation of the tainos, the lust and greed of the conquerors, the imposition of colonialism, United States takeover, and the countless other injustices on the island's people. My professor challenged me to take this project to a more personal level and  make it more about my own family history. He proposed I be led by my spirit.... Although most of my other work  now seems in vain, I welcome his idea. I realize that in order to tackle this from a personal perspective, I must dissect my very consciousness, and be willing to break the silence, talk about cultural taboos, and other social mores in order to rewrite my history from this new perspective. That is from the perspective of a survivor. So now it begins again... back to the drawing board. In order to get the wheels turning I'd like to enlist your help...Please respond on how you view Puerto Rico's history? How do you propose that the people's/ island's resiliancy and strength be highlighted? Waiting to hear back from you!