This webinar examines the careers and accomplishments of Genoveva de Arteaga (1898-1991), Anita Vélez-Mitchell (1916-2015) and Tina Ramírez (b.1928) –three remarkable Puerto Rican artists that made important contributions in the fields of music, dance, theater and literature. This presentation, and its companion Centro digital exhibit, aim to bring visibility to the artistic and intellectual endeavors of these remarkable Puerto Rican women. The presenters will reflect on how the dynamics of gender and identity play an important part in the representation of women in Puerto Rican history. The webinar will also discuss how archival research and materials from Centro Collections enable a dialogue that recognizes the contributions of women artists and their inclusion in the master narratives of history.

Author: Dr. Noraliz Ruiz, Ethnomusicologist and member of Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico

Commentator: Dr. Noel Allende Goitía, Independent Scholar and Researcher, and Associate Fellow in the Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico

BIOS

Dr. Noraliz Ruiz,, Ethnomusicologist and member of Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico 

Noraliz Ruiz holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology-Musicology from Kent State University. Her research focuses on the Puerto Rican lutes: cuatro, tiple and bordonúa; particularly in the continuity and change of the instruments’ tradition and performance practice. She has also conducted research about underground music scenes in Puerto Rico and the production of indie pop, electronic and new music on the island. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the popular music program of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico. Noraliz is a member of the electronic indie band Balún, a co-founder of the children’s music group Acopladitos and an associate researcher of Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico.   Contact: [email protected]

Dr. Noel Allende Goitía, Independent Scholar and Researcher, and Associate Fellow in the Colectivo de Estudios Musicales de Puerto Rico

Noel Allende-Goitía is an independent scholar and researcher. At the Metropolitan Campus of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, he coordinated the Puerto Rican Music Studies and Research Center and the music graduate program. He has a B.M. in Voice from the Music Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and an M.A. in History from the University of Puerto Rico. He made a postgraduate study in Musicology at the Center of Studies and Development on Cuban Music (1992), in Cuba, with Zoila Gómez and graduated from Michigan State University with a Ph. D. in Music with a major in composition and a minor in ethnomusicology and a researcher fellow at the African Diaspora Research Project under the leadership of the late Dr. Ruth S. Hamilton. Allende-Goitía has published books in Puerto Rico music’s social and cultural history, music instruction and music historiography. His works in Music/Culture Social History have been presented at national and international conferences in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Spain, the United States, US Virgin Islands, Mexico, and Ghana.  Contact:  [email protected]

More on Anita Vélez Mitchell:

Website of the award-winning musical, “Temple of the Souls” 

https://www.templeofthesouls.com/

Poetry book written by Anita Vélez-Mitchell, her daughter Gloria Vando, and granddaughter Anika, Woven Voices. 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2012/04/woven-voices

Documentary film featuring Anita by filmmaker Claire Panke

https://lightyearsfilm.com/

Thursday, June 10, 2021 | 5:00 PM EST | 4:00 PM CST

Puerto Ricans who migrated to New York joined one of the largest concentrations of urban wage workers in the world. Most migrants were already familiar with the routines and conditions of wage work while others had to adjust to the challenges of a highly developed industrial city where both exploitation as well as opportunities for better wages abounded. Work, leisure, family life and politics consumed most of their energies, but in New York the complexity of urban, class, racial and ethnic contexts could be daunting and required a myriad of adjustments. The city offered opportunities for solidarity and new forms of organization and improvement as well as unpredictable risks and new problems. This exhibit reunites a series of blogs that will introduce many of the rich contexts in which Puerto Rican New Yorkers engaged with larger movements and struggles from the 1910s to the 1970s. The mosaic represented here includes only some of the stories.

Author: Aldo Lauria Santiago, Professor, Latino and Caribbean Studies and History Departments, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University

Commentator: Virginia Sanchez-Korrol, Professor Emerita, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY

Bios

Aldo A. Lauria Santiago, Professor of Caribbean, Latin American and US Latino History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ  

Aldo A. Lauria Santiago was born in Chicago and grew up in Puerto Rico. His mother was one of the first women from Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Ph.D. in Anthropology at Columbia and the University of Chicago. His dad came from the Italian American Bronx in the 1950s and discovered Puerto Rico; also became an anthropologist.  Dr. Lauria Santiago works as a Professor in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Department of History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. At Rutgers University, Lauria Santiago had a joint appointment between the Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and the Department of History, where he spent seven years as chair where he led the reconstruction of the department of what is now the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies.   He is a historian of Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Latinos in the US. He specializes in peasant and working class history, revolution, ethnicity and race. He went to college at Princeton University and received his MA at NYU and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.  He trained as a Mexicanist at The University of Chicago but began his career as a historian of El Salvador. He has published books and articles on El Salvador and formed part of a group of historians that helped develop Central American historiography during the conflicted but revolutionary decade of the 1980s.  Since 2008 he turned to do research on the Puerto Rican community in New York. With Lorrin Thomas, he published Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights in 2018. His research, on which the Centro essays are based, will be published in two or three books, the first of which is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press and should be published in 2022.  Contact: [email protected]

Dr. Virginia Sanchez Korrol Professor Emerita, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY
Virginia is Professor Emerita at the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, CUNY. Dr. Sanchez Korrol writes about the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. Among her extensive publications, she authored From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City, and co-edited Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. Recipient of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Contributions to New York History, 2020, she serves as historical consultant to media projects, government and cultural institutions. She is the co-editor of Puerto Rican Studies in CUNY: The First 50 Years (forthcoming 2021). Contact: [email protected], [email protected]

Wednesday, May 26, 2021 | 5:00 PM EST | 4:00 PM CST

Parades, festivals, fairs and cultural presentations celebrate and promote our shared Puerto Rican cultural and social identity, heritage and values passed down from generation to generation.

Cultural expressions and preservation organizations have long played an integral role in engaging our Puerto Rican communities across the United States. It is through our appreciation of cultural expressions that we can learn more about and communicate our history, culture, and traditions. They help to engage the Diaspora and showcase the creativity of individuals and groups. Cultural expressions include parades, festivals, fairs, music, dance, art, crafts, instruments, and narratives, or many other artistic or cultural expressions that form part of the identity and heritage of our communities throughout the United States.

In collaboration with the National Puerto Rican Agenda, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies will host, The Puerto Rican Cultural Preservation Roundtable - Encuento on Saturday, May 22nd 12:00 Noon – 3:00 PM EST (11:00 AM CST | 9:00 AM PDT). cultural preservation and expression practitioners from around the United States will discuss the challenges faced by organizations sponsoring and organizing parades, festivals and cultural events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following 3 panels are planned:

Best Practices: Forming & Maintaining Federal 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Status

• Adonis Banegas, Executive Director, El Concilio, Philadelphia, PA
• Ululy Rafael Martinez, Attorney, New York, NY

Cultural Preservation Through the Arts: Virtual Celebrations and Presentations during the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Billy Ocasio, President & Chief Executive Officer, National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture, Chicago, IL
• Carmen Febo-San Miguel, Executive Director, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, PA

Parades & Festivals: Alternative Plans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
How Puerto Rican parades and festivals have adapted to the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Louis Maldonado, Board Chair, National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NPRDP), New York, NY
• Joe Rodriguez, President and Co-Founder, Puerto Ricans United, Inc. (PRU), New Haven, CT

Co-Sponsor:

Nilda Iris Ruiz, President, National Puerto Rican Agenda

Since 2018, Nilda Ruiz has been President of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, a national nonprofit advocacy organization created to unite, educate, and create solutions for the Puerto Rican people both state-side and on the island. She is a respected community leader and multi-award recipient for her transformative work with the Puerto Rican/Latino, African American, and other economically distressed families in Eastern Philadelphia, PA.  As the President/CEO of Asociación Puertorriqueños En Marcha, Inc. in Philadelphia, Nilda has establish APM as one of the most prominent Puerto Rican/Latino founded agencies in the nation securing over a $150-million in investments the underserved community of Eastern Philadelphia.  In 2013, APM completed Paseo Verde, a $48-million certified triple LEED Neighborhood Development, mixed-use, mixed-housing project which was the first in the country to receive that designation, and only second in the World. https://www.puertoricanagenda.org  www.apmphila.org

Moderator:

Juan J. González, Esq. – Chair, NPRA Cultural Affirmation Committee

Mr. Gonzalez chairs the Cultural Affirmation Committee for the National Puerto Rican Agenda (NPRA), a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to serving the Puerto Rican community in the U.S. Juan has also served as Parade Coordinator for the San Juan Bautista Parade in Camden, NJ since 1989. He has held numerous official positions within the organization as a life-long member of the parade, including President and Vice President.  “JuanGo” pursued his passion for celebrating, promoting, and preserving Puerto Rican culture by organizing annual conferences of the Puerto Rican Parades and Festivals (1997-2013), serving as Parade Coordinator of the Atlantic City Puerto Rican Parade (2008-2013), and volunteering on the National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NYC), as well as parades in Philadelphia, PA, Trenton and Vineland, NJ.  Mr. Gonzalez is a licensed attorney and sole practitioner specializing in Criminal and Family Law matters.

Panelists:

Adonis Banegas, Executive Director, El Concilio

Since 2016, Adonis Banegas has served as the Executive Director of The Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of Philadelphia (El Concilio). As Executive Director of El Concilio, Banegas oversees programs that provide social, educational, cultural, preventative and intervention services to underserved families in the Philadelphia region. www.elconcilio.net/

Dr. Carmen Febo-San Miguel, Executive Director, Taller Puertorriqueño

Dr. Carmen Febo San Miguel became Executive Director of Taller Puertorriqueño in 1999. Under her tenure the organization has grown from a budget of $600,000 to a budget of $1.3 million. During this time she has also led the artistic program by: developing new collaborations to exhibit Taller’s art collection off-site; expanding artist residencies into the Philadelphia School District and nearby charter schools; established the Visítenos arts outreach program; coordinated the annual arts festival, Feria del Barrio; overseeing conceptualizing and installing of nearly 130 exhibitions; and garnered national recognition through grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Knight Foundation, NEA and others. https://tallerpr.org

Louis Maldonado, Board Chair of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade  

Louis is an award-winning marketing strategist and communications professional that specializes in multicultural advertising and marketing. Louis currently serves as Board Chair of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, where he has been instrumental in ushering in a new era for this iconic institution. In 2020, City & State, the premier media organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and state politics and policy, named Louis as one of the “Latino Power 100,” a list of distinguished leaders that have helped promote and shape diversity in New York. He was also recognized by the ANA Educational Foundation (AEF) as one of their “50 AEF Talent Champions,” which includes noteworthy individuals that represent Fortune 100 companies leading advertising agencies, publishers and other media companies that have helped promote the study of marketing and advertising by fostering ties between their industries and academia.  www.nprdpinc.org/

Ululy Rafael Martinez, Attorney and former Vice Chairman of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade 

Ululy Rafael Martinez began his legal career in public service as a staff attorney for the Bronx Defenders. Ululy’s interactions with the local community, as a public defender, lead him to accept a position as General Counsel to a New York City Council Member. Ululy acted as a legal resource to constituents trying to navigate housing, debt, bankruptcy, social security, judicial proceedings and not-for-profit matters. He has served as Vice Chairperson and Executive Board member for the Board of Directors of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Inc.

Billy Ocasio, President & Chief Executive Officer, National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture

Billy Ocasio has served as Executive Director of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture (NMPRAC) since 2012. NMPRAC is the only museum in the country outside of Puerto Rico dedicated exclusively to Puerto Rican arts and culture. Under Billy Ocasio’s leadership, the museum’s budget has tripled, staffing has grown, and visitor attendance has increased 67%. In 2012, NMPRAC was named the latest City of Chicago’s Museums in the Park, making history as the first new addition in over 20 years. He was recently spotlighted in Americans for the Arts.
Billy Ocasio is a former senior advisor to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn appointed to work on social justice issues, served as the Director of Community Affairs for the Illinois Housing Development Authority, as well as the 26th Ward alderman in the Chicago City Council.   https://nmprac.org

Joe Rodriguez, President, Puerto Ricans United: Puerto Rican Festival of New Haven

Joseph Rodriguez is currently the President and Co-Founder of Puerto Ricans United, Inc. (PRU), the umbrella organization that sponsors the Puerto Rican Festival of New Haven, Connecticut.  After Hurricanes Irma and Maria, working with his board of directors, sponsors, and community partners, and the City of New Haven, a collaborative initiative was launched called, “New Haven 4 Puerto Rico”.  This initiative was a success raising over $100,000 and two advocacy trips to Washington D.C. and continues to promote the Puerto Rican culture while actively engaging the broader Puerto Rican community in Connecticut on the importance of civic engagement.   Joe has previously served on the FLECHAS Inc.’s (Loiza Festival) Board of Directors and was a Board Member with the former CT State Puerto Rican Day Parade. He currently serves on the National Puerto Rican Agenda’s Board of Directors and is a regular at many cultural parade/festival discussions held by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. https://www.facebook.com/PuertoRicansUnitedInc

The Puerto Rican Cultural Preservation Roundtable - Encuento is co-sponsored by the National Puerto Rican Agenda

Website: https://www.nprdpinc.org/

Where: Virtual Event

12:00-3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

May 4, 2021
12pm

The Puerto Rican Heritage Cultural Ambassador Program Presents:

Screening of Puerto Rican Voices film shorts and discussion with folklorist Elena Martine

Join us for a conversation with Elena Martinez, folklorist for CityLore. Elena will discuss the vast contributions of Puerto Ricans to the musical landscape of the United States and beyond. She will discuss the role of music in the migration experience, including evolving identities, and the ways in which musical traditions, like bomba, have been maintained in diaspora communities. Three segments from Centro’s award-winning Puerto Rican Voices television series will be screened:

Semilla Cultural - Runtime 8:08
Semilla Cultural is a non-profit organization developing and cultivating a community that embraces Puerto Rican culture and arts in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia region.

Eguie Castrillo, Celebrated Percussionist and Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA – Runtime: 8:42
Eguie Castrillo performed with Tito Puente, Steve Winwood, Michael Brecker, Ruben Blades, United Nation Orchestra, Paquito D'Rivera, Michel Camilo, KC and the Sunshine Band, Dave Valentin, and Giovanni Hidalgo. He toured with the Arturo Sandoval Band; recordings include Hot House with Arturo Sandoval, The Latin Train with Arturo Sandoval, soundtrack for The Perez Family for MGM, Get Down Live! with KC and the Sunshine Band, and A GRP Celebration of the Songs of the Beatles.

Miguel Zenón, Multiple Grammy Nominee - Runtime: 9:01
Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American Folkloric Music and Jazz.


Speaker:

Elena Martinez

About Elena Martinez

Elena Martínez is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center and a Folklorist at City Lore. Her work at City Lore has included getting Casa Amadeo (the longest continually-run Latin music store in NYC) nominated to the National Register of Historic Places (the first nomination relating to the Puerto Rican experience on the mainland); and nominated master Puerto Rican lacemaker (the art of mundillo) Rosa Elena Egipciaco for a NEA National Heritage Award. <More>

In Side by Side: US Empire, Puerto Rico, and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture, author Marilisa Jiménez García focuses on the contributions of the Puerto Rican community to American youth, approaching Latinx literature as a transnational space that provides a critical lens for examining the lingering consequences of US and Spanish colonialism for US communities of color.

Through analysis of texts typically outside traditional Latinx or literary studies such as young adult literature, textbooks, television programming, comics, music, curriculum, and youth movements, Side by Side represents the only comprehensive study of the contributions of Puerto Ricans to American youth literature and culture, as well as the only comprehensive study into the role of youth literature and culture in Puerto Rican literature and thought.

Considering recent debates over diversity in children’s and young adult literature and media and the strained relationship between Puerto Rico and the US, Jiménez García's timely work encourages us to question who constitutes the expert and to resist the homogenization of Latinxs, as well as other marginalized communities, that has led to the erasure of writers, scholars, and artists.

Author: Marilisa Jiménez García, assistant professor of English and Latino Studies at Lehigh University

Commentator: Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Bios

Marilisa Jiménez García is an assistant professor of English and Latino Studies at Lehigh University. She is also the founding director and principle investigator at the Institute of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (https://wordpress.lehigh.edu/cres/). Jiménez García’s research on Latinx literature have appeared in Latino Studies, CENTRO: A Journal of Puerto Rican Studies, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Children’s Literature. Her new book, Side by Side: US Empire, Puerto Rico and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture (University Press of Mississippi, March 2021) examines the history of colonialism in Puerto Rico through an analysis of youth literature and culture both in the archipelago and the diaspora. Jiménez Garcia has worked on projects with Teaching for Change, The Children’s Defense Fund, and Sesame Street. 

Contact: [email protected]

Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Sonia Nieto’s research has focused on multicultural education and the education of students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, with an emphasis on [email protected] students. She has written or edited 13 books and has received dozens of awards for her scholarly work, teaching, activism, and advocacy, including 9 honorary doctorates.
Contact: [email protected]   Webpage: sonianieto.com

Virtual Event

6 PM Eastern Standard Time

eJournal Presentation

The Puerto Rican Experience in the U.S. Military: A Century of Unheralded Service
And Celebration of National Borinqueneers’ Day

The impact and meaning of the Puerto Ricans’ service in the armed forces of the United States go beyond mere numbers. Their service has served to disperse Puerto Ricans across the United States and the world creating new communities beyond what we understood as traditional diaspora centers. Military service, in particular during the WWII-Korean War period, also served to build modern Puerto Rico, and for Puerto Rican colonias turning into full-fledged communities to stake a claim of belonging. In this Webinar historian and author, Dr. Harry Franqui-Rivera, explores the impact of military service for Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans.

The Puerto Rican Experience in the U.S. Military: A Century of Unheralded Service

Puerto Ricans started fighting as auxiliary forces to the U.S. military in 1898. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have served in every small and major conflict in which the United States has participated. This publication intends to show the scope of the Puerto Rican experience in the U.S. military without lionizing nor demeaning it. This project hopes to inspire the public and scholars to look into this under-studied phenomenon.

Author: Harry Franqui-Rivera, Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of History/Global Languages, Bloomfield College

Commentator: Laura Lee Oviedo, Ph.D. Candidate, Project Historian for the Philanthropy Initiative at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.


Celebrating the first “National Borinqueneers’ Day”

In January 2021, Congress overrode a presidential veto to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation also designated April 13 as National Borinqueneers Day.

On April 13, 2016, Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the 65th Infantry Regiment in recognition of the Borinqueneers’ numerous contributions to American history and outstanding military service from World War I to the Korean War. Learn more:

Borinqueneers Day and the Korean War in Puerto Rican History and Memory
In this essay, Harry Franqui explores the meaning of the Borinqueneers’ sacrifices for Puerto Rico and the Diaspora. “Let us remember that they represented the hopes of a people willing to sacrifice their youth for a better future, to pay a tribute of blood in search for acceptance, respectability, equality, a path towards decolonization, and a democracy that has proven elusive to them.” https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/chronicles/borinqueneers-day-and-korean-war-puerto-rican-history-and-memory

The Borinqueneers: The Forgotten Heroes of a Forgotten War
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/chronicles/borinqueneers-forgotten-heroes-forgotten-war

With Honor and Dignity: Restoring the Borinqueneers' Historical Record
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/chronicles/honor-and-dignity-restoring-borinqueneers-historical-record

President Obama to Honor Borinqueneers With Congressional Gold Medal
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/events-news/news/president-obama-honor-borinqueneers-congressional-gold-medal

Puerto Rican Voices Season 3, Episode 7: The Pride of Our People
In this episode of Puerto Rican Voices, Harry Franqui-Rivera narrates the history of the 65th Infantry Regiment and describes events in Washington D.C. and New York which were held to commemorate the award. Watch the full segment here:
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centro-tv/puerto-rican-voices/pr-voices-s3e7-pride-our-people

Explore The Puerto Rican Experience in the U.S. Military: A Century of Unheralded Service
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/digital-humanities/pr-military

Bios

Dr. Harry Franqui-Rivera is an Associate Professor of History at Bloomfield College, N.J. He is a prolific published author, documentary producer, public intellectual, cultural critic, blogger, political analyst, and NBC, Latino Rebels, and HuffPost contributor. His work has been featured in national and international media outlets, Telemundo, the New York Times, and NPR. His latest book, Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico, (2018) has been widely praised. His next book, Fighting on Two Fronts: The Ordeal of the Puerto Rican Soldier during the Korean War will be published by Centro Press. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard for over a decade and currently serves in several academic, advocacy and policy boards such as the National Puerto Rican Agenda.  Contact: [email protected]

Laura Lee Oviedo is a project historian for the Philanthropy Initiative at Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where she was also a curatorial fellow for the Division of Armed Forces History and project historian for the War & Latinx Philanthropy Initiative. As a Ph.D. candidate of History at Texas A&M University, her research examines how war and militarization impacts Latinx communities and shapes their understanding of identity, rights, citizenship and belonging. 

Contact:  [email protected]; Museum: [email protected] 

Tuesday, April 13, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EST

WHERE

Virtual: Zoom link

Full Panel

Q and A  Tami Gold, Pam Sporn and Ricardo Gabriel

María Elizabeth Pérez y González and Dr. Virginia Sanchez Korrol

Q and A  María Elizabeth Pérez y González, Dr. Virginia Sanchez Korrol and Ricardo Gabriel

Co-Sponsors

Making the Impossible Possible, chronicles the story of the student-led struggle to win Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, in the late 1960s. The documentary is a mosaic of voices, film footage, and photographs taken by student activists. This important intergenerational story highlights how students and faculty seized the moment to build upon an alliance of Puerto Rican, African American, and other progressive students forged in their communities and the civil rights movement. Together they changed the face of higher education, transforming the curriculum and expanding who gets educated. The film sheds light on the 50-year history of struggle that started with the founding of one of the first Puerto Rican Studies departments in the nation, and documents the continued movement to maintain their gains.

Speakers will also talk about their research on the 50 years of Puerto Rican studies for the City University of NY book project, as well as a current overview of Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY.

50 Years of Puerto Rican Studies at the City University of New York
Editors: María E. Pérez y González and Virginia E. Sánchez-Korrol

This book project will focus on the creation of Puerto Rican Studies and its founding leaders; its birthing of academic journals, the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (Centro)/Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, and the Puerto Rican Studies Association; it’s often misunderstood mission to study the stateside Puerto Rican diasporic experience as connected to Puerto Rico, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and Latin America; the forging of a space within the “Ivory Tower” academy; its survival tactics in the face of austerity and elimination; its current status; and its future in the 21st century.

The editors seek the submission of photos, brochures, events flyers, relevant links/resources, and faculty and student reflections (written and audiovisual) from each of the PRS departments, programs, and institutes noted herein; they will be linked to the book project on the Centro website, resulting in an online archive of PRS in CUNY.

For more information contact María Pérez y González or Virginia Sánchez-Korrol at [email protected]

Presenters

Co-sponsors:
Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College
Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Department at Brooklyn College
Third World Newsreel

Making the Impossible Possible is a production of the Alliance for Puerto Rican Education and Empowerment and was directed by Pam Sporn and Tami Gold and co-produced by Gisely Colón López. It is available from Third World Newsreel,www.twn.org.  

6:00 PM Eastern Time

Virtual Event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85366244258?pwd=QTBDWW1KSGlkVXlYNGhPSU1ySE1tdz09

Congressional Redistricting in New York State (Full Webinar)

This webinar will introduce participants to the process and challenges New Yorkers, particularly Hispanics, will face in the upcoming redistricting of congressional districts that takes place every ten years. Centro: the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the leading academic research institute dedicated to the study of the Puerto Rican experience in the United States, and the largest and oldest Latino Studies research institute on the East Coast, along with LatinoJustice-PRLDEF, the premier Latino public interest law practice and leading legal advocacy and human and civil right Hispanic organization on the East Coast, will describe what Hispanics can expect from the reapportionment and redistricting process taking place in 2021, discuss the findings of a new research brief from Centro on the subject, and learn how Hispanics can become actively involved in the process of redrawing political boundaries in New York State.

Joining this discussion will be the Honorable Robert Rodríguez, member of the New York State Assembly and co-chair of the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, and Dr. Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina, Assistant Professor at Fordham University and member of the New York Independent Redistricting Commission, charged with redrawing legislative districts in the state.

Carlos Vagas Ramos Presentation

Juan Cartagena Presentation

Fulvia Vargas-De Leon Presentation

Discussion with the Honorable Robert Rodríguez, and Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina

Redistricting 2020: Challenges to Hispanic Congressional Representation in New York State
by Carlos Vargas-Ramos

The process of apportioning political power in the United is about to begin. New York Latino U.S. representatives, and specifically Puerto Rican representatives, are vulnerable to losing their congressional seats in the upcoming process of congressional reapportionment and redistricting. This brief presents an analysis of population change at the state, county and congressional district levels to illustrate the changes to come in the process of congressional reapportionment and redistricting as it affects federal political representation in New York State. New York gained population between decades, but at a very low rate. New York gained population because of the sustained growth of the state’s Hispanic population, which countered the declining population of the state, particularly the decreasing non-Hispanic white population.

Presenters

Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Director of Public Policy and Development at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College (CUNY), centropr.hunter.cuny.edu;

Lucia Gomez, Political Director at NYC Central Labor Council - AFL-CIO; and Executive Director of LA Fuente A Tri-State Worker & Community Fund Inc, www.nycclc.org; [email protected] 201-988-8824

Juan Cartagena, President & General Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, www.latinojustice.org/en;  https://www.latinojustice.org/en/form/contact-us

Fulvia Vargas-De Leon, Associate Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, https://www.latinojustice.org/en; https://www.latinojustice.org/en/form/contact-us

New York State Assembly member Robert J. Rodriguez, Co-Chair of the NYS Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, latfor.state.ny.us; [email protected]

Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina, New York Independent Redistricting Commission, www.ivelissecuevas.com/research   

This event is cosponsored by LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Join the Zoom webinar at :
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83392117798?pwd=K3Z4ZUNBNkQ3dDZRdDJmVXIzenpaUT09

Tools

Redistricting 2020: Challenges to HispanicCongressional
Representation in New York State (PDF)

Wednesday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM EST/4:00 AST

Puerto Rico has suffered the compounded effects of multiple disasters since the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. At the end of 2019, the island was impacted with recurrent seismic activity in the southwest region, including a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on January 7, 2020. In early 2020, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting health crises induced yet another economic contraction. All these disasters are underscored by a crushing debt crisis and a federally mandated austerity regime since 2016. Multiple natural disasters have exacerbated vulnerability and poverty; and public energy, telecommunications, water, health, and transportation systems have deteriorated and become even more vulnerable, causing systematic failures in social safety nets.

Post-disaster federal funding for economic recovery offers Puerto Rico a unique window of opportunity to restore its economy and infrastructure in a more resilient fashion while strengthening the nonprofit sector capacity for community planning, housing development and neighborhood revitalization. However, such an opportunity is contingent on implementing a comprehensive strategy for reforming public policy to encourage and support nonprofit developers participation in reconstruction programs, building industry capacity by strengthening intermediaries and CDCs, encouraging intra-industry partnerships and collaborations, and providing professional development for economic recovery.

Join us Wednesday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM EST/4:00 AST for a webinar to discuss the collection of studies included in Fall 2020 special volume of the Centro Journal showing evidence of how post disaster recovery is progressing in Puerto Rico, and the challenges and opportunities for local participation in reconstruction programs.

Event Cosponsors:

This webinar is cosponsored by
The National Puerto Rican Agenda, National Puerto Rican Student Coalition, IdeaComún,
Puerto Rican Student Association at NYU, Despierta Boricua at Yale, and Urbana Planifica

Presenters:

Entrepreneurial Dynamics in Puerto Rico Before and After Hurricane María
Marinés Aponte, Professor, Business Administration Department at Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras

Centros de Apoyo Mutuo: reconfigurando la asistencia en tiempos de desastre
Roberto Vélez-Vélez, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, SUNY at New Paltz

Impact of Hurricane María to the Civic Sector: A Profile of Non-Profits in Puerto Rico
Ivis García Zambrana, Assistant Professor, City & Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah

Puerto Rico Community Development Industry’s Capacity for Disaster Recovery
Edwin Meléndez, Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies and Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College

What is Possible? Policy Options for Long-term Disaster Recovery in Puerto Rico
Ariam L. Torres Cordero, Centro Researcher and doctoral student in Urban Planning (DSUP) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Presenter bios can be found at this link: https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/education/instructores

Tools

Journal Abstract: CENTRO_Abstract_Fall2020.pdf
Journal Intro: CENTRO_Intro_Fall2020.pdf

A Profile of Non-Profits and Recovery PPP (PDF) by Ivis Garcia Zambrana

CENTRO: Journal Special Issue: Post-Disaster Recovery in Puerto Rico and Local Participation is available here http://www.centropr-store.com/centro-journal-vol-xxxii-no-3-fall-2020/