This is the fieldwork for La Vida, conducted both in NYC and Puerto Rico. The population of the island outgrew its resources. While there was considerable migration from the island to the USA in the 1920s and 1930s, it accelerated with the $50 airfare from San Juan to NYC after the war. One hundred families in PR are to the families of their relatives in NYC, that is family case studies in detail of slum life (the culture of poverty). As in Lewis' other work, the possessions and expenditures of each family is analyzed. Surprisingly, given chain migration, only 34% of PR respondents knew the NYC address of their kinfolk. Lewis and his field assistants fail to study the effect of crowding of the labor force in NYC during the 1960s on American bluecollar workers except to note the antipathy of Puerto Ricans to US Blacks. Rents were still managable, with 75% of other NYC whites paying $100 monthly or less, as did 95% of Puerto Ricans and 87.5% of Blacks.

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