Suleika Cabrera Drinane Institute for Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Elderly Records
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of documents on the institution, including fact sheets, information on services, conference materials, health care pamphlets, an issue of El Pregonero, the institute’s newspaper, and a pamphlet on scams that was printed by the local government. The collection was donated by Suleika Cabrera Drinane, President and CEO.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1990s
Language of Materials
Gala program journals are in English only. Awards are generally monolingual, in either English or Spanish. Comité Noviembre journals are in English. El Pregonero is bilingual with parallel translation.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to researchers without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright held by Centro.
Biographical / Historical
The Institute for the Puerto Rican Hispanic Elderly (IPRHE) was founded in 1978 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in New York City in 1979. Responding to the needs of Puerto Rican and Hispanic elderly in New York City in the 1970s, IPRHE has documented, advocated for, and provided services to address the specific needs, health disparities, and barriers to high quality of life for the community’s elderly, including advocating for access to entitlement programs. IPRHE was a leader in national, state, and local efforts to improve conditions for the community through coalition building and partnerships, fundraising, lobbying, and direct service. IPRHE has been active in responding to issues that affect the wellbeing and security of the Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities including: the HIV and AIDS crisis; changes in federal entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, food stamps, and veterans programs; high rates of unemployment; housing and tenant rights; consumer protection; violence within and against the community; and educational, social and cultural life.
IPRHE has provided an expansive range of services and built a wide network of affiliates, subsidiaries, and partners, including subsidiary senior centers through the boroughs, and the affiliated Hispanic Senior Action Council. Core offerings include providing timely multilingual information on issues, translation and English Language teaching, crime victims support, referrals, case management, advocacy, cultural and social activities, and political mobilization. By 1995, the Institute had helped establish five senior centers throughout New York City. By 2002, the Institute had founded the Minority Aging Defense Council, co-founded the Hispanic AIDS Forum, and sponsored the Coalition of Hispanic Service Providers. In 2012, after 34 years of advocacy in the field, IPRHE was operating eleven senior centers in New York City, as well as six subsidiary housing and health care organizations. Signature programs and services that year included: crime victims services, immigration services, ESL and language services, caregivers’ networks and support, case management, counseling, advocacy for seniors in entitlement programs, a Title V Senior Employment program, weatherization and technology support, and programs for elderly homebound people. In 2016, IPRHE became an affiliate of Acacia Network.
IPRHE was also a member of Comité Noviembre and became the hosting site for Comité Noviembre’s operations in 1998. Comité Noviembre is a non-profit organization whose mission is to commemorate and acknowledge all aspects of Puerto Rican life from the social and cultural to the educational, economic, and political. The idea for annual commemorations and celebrations of Puerto Rican life, history, culture, and grew out of an idea articulated at the 1987 Puerto Rican Dialogue. The same year, New York City began formalizing November as “Puerto Rican Heritage Month” through annual mayoral proclamations. Comité Noviembre was formed to provide a centralized structure and clearinghouse for planning, coordinating, sharing, and collaborating on annual Puerto Rican Cultural Heritage Month activities.
Along with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Association of Puerto Rican Executive Directors (APRED) and the Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA) provided the initial leadership for Comité Noviembre, which grew to include ASPIRA of New York, el Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, and the Institute of Puerto Rican Hispanic Elderly. Today, Comité Noviembre’s membership includes 11 of the oldest and most prestigious Puerto Rican organizations. The Comité has established longstanding signature annual events and programs including scholarship and award programs, educational travel programs, and annual celebrations and programs.
Sources / Fuentes:
Note: Biographical information primarily derived from the collection.
Extent
64 Cubic Feet
Abstract
The Institute for the Puerto Rican Hispanic Elderly, a non-profit organization, has a mission to improve the quality of life of the Puerto Rican Hispanic elderly residing in New York City. More broadly, they also advocate and program for Latinx, minority, immigrant and elderly populations in the United States. The IPRHE materials consist of institutional documents, including programming and fundraising brochures and photograph albums, as well as issues of the Institute’s quarterly newspaper El Pregonero.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged topically.
Source
- Cabrera Drinane, Suleika (Donor, Person)
Subject
- Instituto Puertorriqueño/Hispano Para Personas Mayores (Organization)
- Hispanic Senior Action Council (Organization)
Cultural context
- Older Hispanic Americans – New York (State) – Social conditions.
- Older Hispanic Americans--Economic conditions.
- Older Hispanic Americans--Health and hygiene.
- Older Hispanic Americans--Housing—New York (State)—New York.
- Older Hispanic Americans--Medical care.
- Older Hispanic Americans—New York (State) – New York -- Services for.
- Puerto Rican Heritage Month
- Puerto Rican History Month
- Puerto Rican associations, institutions, etc. – New York.
- Puerto Ricans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Economic conditions
- Puerto Ricans -- New York (State) -- Civil rights
- Puerto Ricans -- New York (State) -- Social conditions
- Puerto Ricans – New York (State) -- Special months
- Puerto Ricans – Social life and customs.
- Puerto Ricans--Health and hygiene--New York (State)--New York.
- Puerto Ricans--Housing--New York (State)--New York.
- Puerto Ricans--Medical care--New York (State)--New York.
- Puerto Ricans--New York (State)--New York--Charities.
- Puerto Ricans--New York Metropolitan Area.
- Puerto Ricans--New York Metropolitan Area.
Function
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Suleika Cabrera Drinane
- Subtitle
- Institute for Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Elderly Records
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Frances Julia Keiser supervised by Pedro Juan Hernández and Cristina Fontánez Rodríguez.
- Date
- 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Processed as part of Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Science Advanced Archival Practicum at Centro, 2019.
Repository Details
Part of the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora Repository
Silberman Building, Hunter College
2180 Third Ave. Rm. 122
New York New York 10065
centro.library@hunter.cuny.edu