Joseph Monserrat Papers

Joseph Monserrat has had a long and distinguished career in public service. He was mostly recognized for his leadership as director of the Migration Division (1951-1969), an agency of the Government of Puerto Rico, which played a significant role in the migration and settlement of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. From 1969- 1970 he served as member and president of the Board of Education of the City of New York. Monserrat’s papers are important for understanding the relationship of the Puerto Rican community to these two agencies from the 1950s through the 1970s and the impact of the Puerto Rican migration on New York City.

José Francisco Monserrat Figueroa was born on September 17, 1921 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. In 1924, when he was three years old, his parents, Rafael Monserrat, a tobacco worker, and his wife Cruz Figueroa migrated to New York City. Following the death of his mother the young Monserrat and his sister spent seven years in foster care in Long Island. In 1931, his father remarried and the family was reunited and went to live on 108th St. in East Harlem, also known as “El Barrio.”

Between the ages of ten and twelve, Monserrat attended school at La Liga Puertorriqueña in East Harlem where he relearned Spanish and completed grade school. He went on to Benjamin Franklin High School where he was mentored and greatly influenced by its principal, Leonard Covello, who encouraged him to continue his studies and work on behalf of the Puerto Rican community. They forged an important friendship and later Covello was to work and collaborate with him at the Migration Division. During his high school years, Monserrat nurtured his artistic talents and organized a musical group called the Rumba Band aspiring to become a singer and dancer. However, by 1938 he had chosen a different path and began his career in the social services working for the Goddard Neighborhood Center.

During World War II, Monserrat joined the Air Force and served four years as an aviation engineer. Once the war ended, he returned to New York and used his savings to open a factory, which manufactured wooden household implements. Some time later, he gave up his business and decided to return to school, choosing to pursue studies at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research (now known as The New School University).

Monserrat gained experience in community work primarily through his jobs in settlement houses. His first job as a community organizer was with Madison House on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Subsequently he served as Director of the Melrose House Community Center in the Bronx and the Good Neighbor Federation Settlement. He also served as the first coordinator of the Street Gang Project of the Board of Education of the City of New York.

In 1951, Monserrat was named Director of the New York office of the Migration Division of the Department of Labor of Puerto Rico. In 1960, he was appointed by Governor Luís Muñoz Marín as National Director of the Division. He became its third director succeeding Clarence Senior and served in that position for almost a decade. As National Director he was responsible for administering sixteen offices throughout the Northeastern and the Midwestern United States. These offices were charged with helping migrants adjust to their new surroundings and, to this end, operated programs in numerous social service areas such as employment, identification, education and community organization. Through the Migration Division, the government of Puerto Rico operated a major program to contract migrant farm laborers. The regional offices also became involved in community activities, formed coalitions with other ethnic groups, and advocated on behalf of civil rights. Although Monserrat left his post at the Division in 1969, he returned in 1989 as a consultant and participated in transforming it into the Department of Community Affairs in the United States. On May 20, 1969, Herman Badillo, then Bronx Borough President, appointed him to the Board of Education. Shortly thereafter he became the first Puerto Rican to be elected president of the Board, serving in that position from June 11, 1969 until July 1, 1970. In that time period, he helped to successfully negotiate a contract with the United Federation of Teachers, which averted a strike and made New York City teachers among the highest paid in the nation. Also during his tenure, he was confronted with issues surrounding school decentralization, segregation and desegregation measures and budgetary crises.

From 1976 until 1980 Monserrat was active on many fronts and worked for various organizations. He was executive director of the National Puerto Rican Business and Marketing Association Inc., an economic development organization. He also founded and was president of his own company, Monserrat Associates, a consulting and public relations firm. He participated in numerous activities and organizations. Among them were: The Puerto Rican and Hispanic Council of Organizations, the Leonard Covello Senior Center for East Harlem Inc., the New York Advisory Committee on Civil Rights to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. In 1970, Mayor John Lindsay appointed him to the Knapp Commission, which was investigating police corruption in the New York Police Department. In that same year, he was Grand Marshall of the Columbus Day Parade in New York. These and other services won him awards such as the Pan American Award and the Martin Buber Award.

Monserrat wrote numerous pamphlets published through the Migration Division, contributed to journals and collaborated in book projects on subjects such as the education of children and the history of the migration. During the 1970s, for example, he produced a column in English for the newspaper el diario/La Prensa devoted to issues concerning the living conditions of Latinos as well as providing information about reforms and programs benefiting the community. Among his publications are The Puerto Rican Market: Its Growth and Value and The Education of Puerto Rican Children in New York City (1954). He participated in the production of Puerto Ricans: Immigrants and Migrants, a Historical Perspective (1990), which was part of a curriculum series titled Americans All. Monserrat also taught courses at Hunter College, New York University, the New School for Social Research and the University of Puerto Rico.

Monserrat died in 2005 in New York City at the age of 84.