Scope and Contents Between 2000-2001, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, in collaboration with the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, and with the cooperation of the New York City Central Labor Council’s Hispanic Labor Committee, the Santiago Iglesias Educational Society of Local 3, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), New York City Central Chapter, conducted a one-year records survey project to locate and...

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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.

Abstract

The Records of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños are an important resource for the study of the founding, administration, programs and intellectual production of the only research center, library, and archive dedicated to the study and preservation of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, photographs, flyers, clippings, proposals, reports, speeches, videos, slides, financial statements and artifacts.

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Interviews conducted by members of Centro’s research task forces independent of a specific oral history project.

Abstract

The CHARAS/El Bohío Cultural and Community Center Records are an important resource for studying Puerto Ricans and other Latino communities in the Lower East Side (known as Loisaida), New York from 1970 to 2010. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, photographs, flyers, clippings, posters, proposals, reports, financial statements, and artifacts.

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The Josefina Cintrón collection consists of various personal documents, including certificates, newspaper articles, clippings, programs and correspondence relating to cultural and literary organizations, including Instituto de Puerto Rico of New York and El Círculo de Escritores y Poetas Iberoamericanos (CEPI). The collection spans the years from 1933-1971.

Abstract Claridad is a weekly newspaper of the Puerto Rican workers independence movement founded in San Juan on June 1, 1959. The paper was the official publication for the independence political movement (Pro Independencia, MPI) and later the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueno, PSP) 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...

Abstract

Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center is a resource center that has supported visual and performing artists of the Lower East Side (Loisada) since 1993. The records reveal a glimpse “behind the scenes” of an organization that cultivates and preserves its diverse community. The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, minutes, financial statements, expense reports, flyers, posters, and newspaper clippings.

Abstract The oldest Puerto Rican community organization stateside in existence. Originally founded with the intention to represent Puerto Rico in the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Many of the founders and descendants were recruited as sugar plantation workers after the Puerto Rico was devastated by hurricane San Ciriaco in 1899. Upon arrival to San Francisco, many migrants refused continuing the journey to the Pacific islands of Hawaii and remained as a Puerto...

Abstract

Political activist, feminist, and writer. Resource for examining the Communist Party of the United States of America and the independence movement of Puerto Rico as well as political persecution, feminism and trade-unionism. Collection consists of manuscripts, notes, letters, press releases, programs, flyers and newspapers clippings.

Abstract The Jesús Colón Papers are a significant contribution to the study of Puerto Rican history and especially to the reconstruction of Puerto Rican community history in New York. They support research on such topics as organizational development, political participation among Puerto Ricans in New York, employment, discrimination, and the labor movement. There are letters, notes, drafts of published and unpublished works, reports, clippings, and photographs with a majority of the papers...

Abstract Joaquín Colón-López was a Puerto Rican activist and writer, brother to writer Jesús Colón. He also co-founded Club Democrático de Brooklyn with J.V. Alonso. The Joaquín Colón-Lopez Papers consists of documents and 262 photographs dating from 1917 to 1947. Included among the documents are biographical information, articles, and a typewritten manuscript of Colón-Lopez’s book, Pioneros Puertorriqueños en Nueva York 1917-1947. This manuscript was submitted by Centro and published by Arte Público...

Abstract

Ramón Colón was a Puerto Rican politician, member of the Republican Party. He was brother-in-law to distinguished writers Jesús and Joaquín Colón-López. The 0.25 cubic foot collection includes photographs, documents, and a publication from political meetings and events.

Abstract Actress Miriam Colón Valle founded the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and was instrumental in bringing Puerto Rican drama and bilingual theatre to new audiences, especially Latino New York City residents. The Miriam Colón papers primarily document Colón's artistic vision, the productions staged by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and her own career as a stage and screen actress. The collection spans 1948-2017 and demonstrates the impact and importance of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre...

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This collection consists of photographs, government records, a questionnaire, audiovisual media, and by-laws of the Asociación de Residentes y Descendientes Puertorriqueños en Cuba.

The audiovisual consists of 9 videocassettes, 11 mini digital videocassettes, and 4 DVD-Rs. Includes a paper inventory of DVD-Rs, complete with descriptions of interviews of people who moved to Cuba from Puerto Rico.

Abstract

Joe Conzo, Jr. is a photographer from the South Bronx, whose photographic work is influenced by the legacy of Puerto Rican activism and musical culture in New York City. The collection consists of photographs of the Committee Against Fort Apache in the 1980s and five photographs from the exhibit The Bronx: Mi Barrio, Mi Orgullo, Photography by Joe Conzo, the Centro Library in 2010.

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Félix Luis Meléndez Cordero is a photographer and painter. This collection consists of 0.25 cubic feet of biographical information, slides of photographs, descriptive information, exhibit programs, and photographs.

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A resident of Brooklyn since the 1950s, Cortijo is a Puerto Rican artist who created an art form, weaving dolls and other artifacts, such as handbags, baskets and even vests from disposable plastic bags. The María Cortijo collection consists of 0.12 cubic feet of biographical information, a photograph, and woven artifacts. The collection dates to 2003, when Centro exhibited Cortijo’s work in its gallery.

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This collection is comprised of 10 audiocassettes of interviews with the poets Clemente Soto Vélez and Carmen Valle, scholar and essayist Nilita Vientos Gastón and the visual artist and essayist Antonio Martorell.

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This collection consists of 40 slides of artwork, clippings and exhibit program facsimiles donated by the artist.

1. Resume and exhibit list 1983-1991 2. Clippings (exhibits reviews) from The New York Times, (Feb. 10, 1991; March 20, 1991; May 20, 1990), La Tribuna Hispana, Arts Peak, Newsday 3. Press releases, leaflets, exhibit and facsimile programs 4. Slides of her paintings (35) 1988-1992

Abstract

Victor Hernández Cruz is a poet who was born in Puerto Rico and moved stateside to New York City where he attended high school. He is a co-founder of both the East Harlem Gut Theatre in New York and the Before Columbus Foundation and a former editor of Umbra Magazine. He has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and San Diego, San Francisco State College and the University of Michigan. This collection contains some of his poem books and handouts.

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An oral history project conducted by a group of Puerto Rican community volunteers in Orlando, FL, with support from staff at Centro, made possible by the Centro Library and Archives Historical Preservation and Research Partnership Program. Taking place in 2012 at two cultural organizations in Orlando, Asociación Borinqueña and Casa de Puerto Rico, the interviews were conducted predominantly in Spanish and are centered around a photograph that accompanies each recording.

Abstract

Allen Davis III was the Director of the Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre Playwrights Workshop unit for the period from 1993 to 2011, this collection documents the workshop during his tenure.

Abstract

Genoveva de Arteaga was a pianist, organist, teacher and choir director. Her Papers can support research in the musical and cultural history of Puerto Rico. The collection also documents the development of musical, literary, cultural, and civic organizations among Puerto Ricans in New York. The Papers include personal documents, correspondence, flyers, writings, invitations, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs.

Abstract

Edgar de Jesús was a union member and organizer and former member of the Young Lords. The collection measures 0.4 cubic feet and consists of newsletters, biographies and reports. It spans the years 1970-2001 and is concerned mainly with activities in the New York metropolitan area.

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This collection consists of a script written by De Lemos for a one act play.

Scope and Contents Carmen Delgado Votaw’s papers consist of 6 cubic feet of material and the collection includes speeches, photographs, publications, and audio/visual material that meticulously cover the public service champion’s decades long career in politics. The first three boxes include speeches from her early activism in the 1970s to her Naval Air Command Speech in 1984. There are several photograph collections, with pictures from the Third Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Puerto...

Scope and Contents Edith Díaz Papers is a small, unique collection made up of fragments from a Puerto Rican actresses’ decades long career along with personal letters and photos with loved ones. Díaz’s career is on full display in this collection with high quality photographs from her time on shows like Popi (1976), Hawaii Five-O (1973), TV Movies like Cage Without A Key (1975), and movies like Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act 2 (1993). Researchers will be able to look through different...

Abstract Manny Diaz was a founding member of such community based organizations as the Puerto Rican Forum, ASPIRA, the Hispanic Youth Association, the Puerto Rican Family Institute and Boricua College. He was trained as a social worker and went on to lead numerous institutions and initiatives, among them the Puerto Rican Community Development Project, Mobilization for Youth and PROGRESS, Inc. He received his B.S.S. from the City University and his M.S.W. from Columbia University. He served on the...

Abstract William Díaz was the first Latino Program Director for the Ford Foundation (1983), a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Vice Chairman of the Minnesota State Latino Affairs Council and helped found the Puerto Rico Community Foundation. He served on the boards of Hispanics in Philanthropy, Aspira of America and Aspira of New York, Inc., and the Council on Foundations, among other organizations. Díaz's collection measures 5 cubic feet...