The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

🗺️ Announcing the Archives of Puerto Rican Slavery Map by Black Puerto Rican Futures Whether you’re hoping to trace your ancestry, writing a book, or researching the deep history and legacies of Afro-Puerto Ricans, this map is an essential digital tool that expands access to primary sources related to the lives of enslaved and emancipated people in Puerto Rico. Drawing on knowledge developed over years of related research, this living tool brings together information about accessing collections related to the people subjected to slavery and its afterlives in Puerto Rico. Black Puerto Rican Futures is a three-year initiative that reclaims and restores Black Puerto Rican history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Comment 🗺️ and we’ll send you the link to the Archives of Puerto Rican Slavery Map and to learn more about the Black Puerto Rican Futures Initiative

NOW LIVE! After three years in the making, we are proud to announce the Diasporican Educational Program, offering a new curriculum and a self-guided course to learn the social history of the Puerto Rican Diaspora across borders, language, identity, histories, and more! The self-guided course is: 🆓 Completely FREE – No payment needed, just your email. This is made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). ⏱️ 100% Self-Paced – Learn anytime, anywhere. 📝 Multilingual Resources – Only fluent in English? We provide translations for all Spanish reference materials. 🛄 Beginner-Friendly, Deeply Rooted – No prior experience needed. Start your journey today or expand on your current knowledge. 📚 Culturally Grounded & Informed – Developed by educational experts and researchers at CENTRO, building on 50+ years of scholarship & research while utilizing archival materials, data reports, and more! 🖼️ Visual Storytelling – Dive into lessons with original illustrated videos narrated by Sonia Manzano, archival footage, and archival photos documenting the Puerto Rican experience! The adaptable curriculum can be easily integrated into your existing courses–either partially or as a dedicated unit. With archival materials curated for high school students and college-level classrooms, each unit includes: 📑 Ready-to-use instructor lesson plans 📝 Ready-to-use + customizable worksheets 📺 Original illustrated videos narrated by Sonia Manzano 🗃️ Multimedia + archival resources 📋 Source lists Comment 🇵🇷 down below and we’ll send you a link to get started! 📸 Illustrations by Eduardo Vargas Desa

Big News from CENTRO! We’re thrilled to announce a major milestone in CENTRO’s history! After decades of being split across two campuses, CENTRO’s Archives, Library, Gallery, research programs, and staff will finally come together under one roof at the Silberman School of Social Work in El Barrio/East Harlem. Thanks to a $20 million investment from Governor Kathy Hochul in 2023, this renovation will give CENTRO state-of-the-art facilities to better preserve, research, and celebrate the Puerto Rican experience, right in the heart of our historic community. Here’s what’s coming in Spring 2027: 📚 Expanded Library & Archives with new reading areas and climate-controlled storage 📜 A rare books room and archival processing spaces for workshops, panels, and more 🎨 A reimagined CENTRO Gallery 🛍️ A permanent storefront for La Bodega! Books, journals, stationery & more! “This research institute and our community have been waiting for this moment for decades... We hope to welcome you all to the new CENTRO in 2027!” — Dr. Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, Directora As renovations begin, please note: 📦 Our offices will move to Silberman this Fall 📚 Library & Archives will be temporarily closed from Nov 27, 2025 – Feb 28, 2026 🗓️ Limited appointments resume March 2026 – Spring 2027 🎨 The Gallery will be closed Nov 23, 2025 – Spring 2027 Stay tuned as we build a new CENTRO, one that honors our past and makes space for our future. Comment 🚧 to learn more! So excited to be working with @mad_nyc on this project alongside @huntercollege and @cunyedu !

Mark your calendar for June 10-11! A Sea of Islands: U.S. Territories in Relation is a two day symposium with scholars, artists, and activists from U.S. territories and their diasporas as they interrogate these structures and imagine a future where topics of sovereignty, justice, and freedom are no longer questions but guaranteed realities. In this two-day symposium, we will host several panels on the following topics: 🏝️ Begin with a ceremony led by theater collective Agua, Sol, y Sereno 🏝️ Unpack law, land, and housing rights of Indian Tribes & U.S. Territories 🏝️ Discuss the challenges of creating art projects across the territories 🏝️ Analyze how data gaps affect the U.S. territories while addressing who owns Black data 🏝️ Honor the spiritual practices of Chagossian women, the impact of the U.S. Navy on women’s lives in Vieques, and land reclamation in St. John 🏝️ Strengthen decolonial environmental justice efforts 🏝️ Interrogate the impact the U.S military has had on our islands throughout the years 🏝️ Illuminate the praxis of people and food 🏝️ Amplify connections and ways of building solidarity across our archipelagos 🏝️ Look beyond discourses of “equality” and citizenship 🏝️ Highlight how communities are addressing the effects of climate change 🏝️ Screen a collection of 8 documentary short films from the U.S. territories, Hawaiʻi, and their diasporic communities 🏝️ Close with a celebration for our shared community Comment 🏝️ and we'll send you the link to RSVP for free!

Are national borders real or imagined? 🌍 From the shifting waters of the Mona Passage to the Caribbean’s long history of migration, colonialism, and resistance, this episode explores how Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, and Haitian communities continually challenge and rewrite the meaning of borders. Want to explore the full lesson? Comment 🇵🇷 to get the link to sign up for the Diasporican Educational Program! #DiasporicanEd #CentroPR #PuertoRicanStudies #CaribbeanStudies #Borderlands #Decolonize

New in RicanWritings! 🖋️ Author Keishla Rivera-López analyzes Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show as an act of political and cultural reclamation. From the opening sugarcane fields to flickering lampposts evoking post-María Puerto Rico, Rivera-López argues the performance layers colonial history, diaspora identity and decolonial critique into fourteen minutes of global stagecraft, closing with a parade of flags that expands who counts as American. Comment 🖋️ to read the full article!

#OnThisDay, May 11, 1930, Pedro Albizu Campos was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party (PNPR). From the early 1920s through the mid-1950s, the PNPR led the fight for Puerto Rico’s independence. Formed in 1922 by a group of middle-class men who broke away from the Partido Unión, the PNPR sought to defend Puerto Rican culture and advocate for national sovereignty while maintaining a complex relationship with the United States. The party promoted the reintegration of Puerto Rico into Latin America, highlighting shared history, language, faith, and culture with former Spanish colonies. Under Albizu Campo’s leadership, the party adopted a more confrontational stance toward the U.S. and expanded its reach through youth organizations. Public support surged during the 1930s, particularly in the wake of the Great Depression and its toll on Puerto Rican communities. The U.S. government responded with increased repression, including the tragic 1937 Ponce Massacre and the imprisonment of Albizu Campos and other leaders. Despite this, the party continued organizing throughout the 1940s. In 1948, the Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza) was passed, criminalizing pro-independence expression and symbols. In response to ongoing colonial rule and repression, Nationalists launched an armed uprising in October 1950 in several towns across the island. Albizu Campos, already imprisoned multiple times, was once again arrested following the uprising and remained incarcerated uprising and spent most of his remaining years in prison. 📸 Library of Congress

DEADLINE EXTENDED for Writings on Diasporican Visual Artists! CENTRO invites art critics, curators, scholars, and students to submit original essays on contemporary diasporic Puerto Rican visual artists for the Diasporican Art in Motion initiative to be published in our online magazine, RicanWritings. We especially welcome work aligned with CENTRO’s 2026 themes “Boricuas in Relation” and “Black Cuerpas: Race, Body Politics & Culture.” Essays (max 1,500 words) may be written in English or Spanish and must focus on an artist in the Diasporican Art in Motion database. Up to 10 essays will be selected for publication. Honorarium: $300 Deadline Extended: May 17, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET Comment 🎨 to learn more and apply! 📸 Argenis Apolinario

Bodegas didn’t appear in New York by accident. They emerged as Puerto Rican and Latin American migrants built lives in neighborhoods shaped by displacement, labor, and survival. These small corner stores became more than places to shop — they were sites of language, culture, mutual aid, and community. Bodegas are not just convenience stores. They are living archives of immigrant resilience in New York City. Comment 🛒 for a link to explore La Bodega and our Library and Archives! #BodegaHistory #PuertoRicanNYC #LatinoHistory #CENTROPR

#OnThisDay May 9, 1950 Tato Laviera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and moved to New York City’s Lower East Side when he was ten. From a young age, he was involved in his community through teaching, organizing, and leading programs to support youth and families. He later became a well-known poet, playwright and educator. His poetry blended English and Spanish with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and stories from life in El Barrio. His first book, “La Carreta Made a U-Turn,” brought him national attention and an invitation to the White House. His poem “AmeRícan” became one of the most widely shared Puerto Rican poems in the U.S. After losing his sight due to diabetes in 2004 ,Laviera his experience into action through poetry events and public health work to draw attention to the disease in Latino communities. Even during hard times, including a period of homelessness, he continued to write and share poetry with others. Comment 🖊️ to receive the link to his collection. 📸 Cover Image: Photographer Unknown 📸 About Tato Laviera: Gerald Schultz 📸 All photos from the Tato Laviera Papers. CENTRO Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY. Know the photographers for any of the pictures in this post where credit is currently unknown? DM us so we can update our records! #centro #TuHistoriaLivesHere #PuertoRico #diaspora #poems

Boricuas in Relation. We showed out! 💛 For two days, CENTRO brought together filmmakers, scholars, artists, and community leaders for our second annual Rooted + Relational symposium, centering how Boricua identity, history, and culture have always been shaped in relation to others. We walked Harlem Art Park with Máximo R. Colón's photography as our guide. We watched films by Noelia Quintero Herencia, Carla Gutiérrez & Kristofer Ríos. We heard scholars trace Boricua life from Utah to South Korea, Palestine to the Caribbean. And finally, we closed with Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, Iris Morales, & Sharayna Ashanti Christmas in a conversation across generations. If you want to be kept in the loop for more events like this, comment 🇵🇷 to sign up for our newsletter and be a part of El Barrio! #RootedAndRelational #BoricuasInRelation #TuHistoriaLivesHere

We are excited to share that the Roger Cabán Papers have been processed, and The Ruth Reynolds Oral History Tapes have been digitized! ! The Roger Cabán Papers document the work of Cabán (1942–2017), a self-taught photographer and activist who in 1973 co-founded En Foco, the first Puerto Rican photographers collective in New York City. His collection spans community documentation in East Harlem, a 1974 photo essay on the NYC subway with playwright Dolores Prida, his “Portobello I & II” series and much more The Ruth Reynolds Oral History Collection consists of over 100 tapes recorded by Blanca Vázquez between 1985 and 1986. They are now fully digitized and accompanied by transcripts. The recordings capture firsthand accounts of the Puerto Rican Nationalist movement from Reynolds (1916–1989), who co-founded the American League for Puerto Rico’s Independence and was convicted under Puerto Rico’s Gag Law in 1951. Her related papers, also held at CENTRO, document the Nationalist Party, Pedro Albizu Campos and pro-independence organizing. Both collections are accessible through CENTRO’s digital collections website. Comment 📜 to receive the link! 📸 Roger Cabán 📸 (Emelí Vélez de Vando Papers. Ruth Reynolds holding the sign, "Norteamericanos libres queremos a Puerto Rico libre": EmVe_b10_f02_0003. Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY. Web. 04 May 2026.)