CENTRO: Puerto Ricans in New York: Voices of the Migration

Sub-Group

Identifier: CENTRO-12-05-PRNYVM

Staff Only

CENTRO: Puerto Ricans in New York - Voices of the Migration

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Scope and Contents

This project consists of audiocassettes and corresponding digital files for 27 oral history interviewees, including community leaders, garment workers and early community settlers who migrated to New York City from Puerto Rico during the Great Migration (late 1940s-50s). Interviewees for the project discussed their lives, including their experiences migrating and getting settled in New York City, their families and relationships, and their work.

Dates

Creation: 1983-1985

Creator

Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the original audio cassette tapes is restricted. The interviews are available digitally.

Conditions Governing Use

Biographical / Historical

Puerto Ricans in New York: Voices of the Migration was a three year oral history project by the Centro Oral History Task Force intent on interviewing, among others, community leaders, garment workers and pioneros (early community settlers) and retrieving primary source materials. It was a multi-pronged project that resulted in several public presentations on the Puerto Rican migration experience, including the Comunidades: Extended Roots from Hawaii to New York, Migraciones Puertorriqueños a los Estados Unidos Conference and Workshop, and in the acquisition of Centro's first archival collections on community activist Jesús Colón and photographer Justo A. Martí. In addition, it spawned a side project on women garment workers, "Nosotras Trabajamos en la Costura," which included an award winning radio program and slide show, as well as an environmental installation called "Paisaje de Sudor y Sentimiento."