Claridad Bilingüe Negatives Collection

Claridad is a weekly newspaper of the Puerto Rican workers independence movement founded by socialist leaders Juan Mari Brás and Cesar Andreu Iglesias in San Juan on June 1, 1959. The paper was the official publication for the Independence Political Movement (Movimiento Pro Independencia, MPI) and later the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño, PSP) in Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans were called by the party to support the independence of Puerto Rico for the working social class regardless of where they lived. They wanted to instill pride and celebrate Puerto Rican culture and history. As members and sympathizers among the Puerto Rican communities stateside decided to support and keep strong ties to the party in Puerto Rico, the Claridad USA (known as Claridad Bilingüe, the bilingual) edition became a source of information and a tool to disseminate news from the diaspora perspective in both English and Spanish languages.

In 1972, the publishers of Claridad decided to publish a biweekly edition and announced a Claridad USA bilingual edition would appear in the United States. On March 19, 1972, Claridad Bilingüe published its first bilingual supplement of Claridad in order to reach an English speaking audience that mainly resided in the New York area. On April 2, 1972, the staff decided to increase the size of the bilingual paper. In December 1973, Claridad staffer, Ramón Arbona announced that the bilingual version of the paper would consist of sixteen pages. José E. Velázquez assisted in starting up and managing the bilingual newspaper. Another important contributor to Claridad Bilingüe was Zoraida Santiago, a song composer who contributed articles to the bilingual newspaper. On January 27, 1974, José Manuel Navarro became deputy director of Claridad Bilingüe. Throughout its publication, Claridad Bilingüe's official name varied. For example, from 1972 to 1977, the newspaper was known as "Bilingual Supplement; Suplemento Bilingüe". From April to July 1977, it was called Claridad Edición EEUU.

Claridad Bilingüe focused on alerting its readers to problems within the various Puerto Rican communities living in the United States, specifically the New York area. Claridad Bilingüe brought attention to various political and social events, demonstrations, protests, and other activities that dealt with workers' rights, Puerto Rican independence, and other leftist concerns. For the first time a cadre of first and second generation Puerto Ricans living in the Northeast region got the opportunity to cover the news and issues that were impacting the Puerto Rican communities. These photographers covered events in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Illinois among other places.

Sources:

Claridad USA edition microfilms dated 1972-1983: 5 reels

Claridad online (https://www.claridadpuertorico.com/)

Claridad. (n.d.) In Library of Congress. Retrieved August 7, 2019, from https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86090796/

Claridad. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claridad

Guide to the José E, Velázquez Papers, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY.

Palau Suárez, Awilda. Veinticinco años de Claridad, 1992. Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Univesidad de Puerto Rico.