This image was taken by Edwin Rosskam in the San Juan area, in December 1937.

The image contains a few points of interest.

#1

It is very much “a guy thing.” Over fifty men, but not one woman appears in the photo.

#2

Class and racial stratification is suggested. There are more suits sitting in the first row, and no black men. The darkest-looking man appears in the fourth upper row.

#3

Overhead scoop lights make “night fights” possible.

#4

Two insular policemen mingle with the crowd. Four years earlier, on May 9, 1933, the new Governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship, legalized cockfighting in Puerto Rico.

Just a few months before this photo, Gov. Winship and his insular police force killed 17 Puerto Rican civilians and wounded over 200 more, in the Ponce Massacre.