Nicholasa Mohr Writes Back

This chapter analyzes Nicholasa Mohr as a voice for those children of the Puerto Rican diaspora, born and raised in New York, who felt increasingly out of touch with the island described in Belpré’s folklore. Mohr underlines children’s literature as of utmost importance in terms of searching for representation in an imagined literary landscape. Here, through readings of Nilda (1973) and El Bronx Remembered (1975), this chapter shows how Mohr resists established Puerto Rican and Anglo iconography which had been established in children’s literature by the 1970s.

Granice rzeczywiste i symboliczne. Przypadek Portoryko.

Borders and Boundaries, Real and Symbolic: The Case of Puerto RicoThe aim of this article is to outline the real and symbolic borders and boundaries, of geographical, political, cultural and racial nature, in the history and present of Puerto Rico, and their role in shaping and transforming the Puerto Rican identity. The main part of the article focuses on the borders and boundaries between Puerto Rico and the United States. The second part looks at the lines dividing the population in the island and the Puerto Rican diaspora in the US. Granice rzeczywiste i symboliczne. Przypadek PortorykoCelem artykułu jest zarysowanie rzeczywistych i symbolicznych granic, geograficznych, politycznych, rasowych i kulturowych, wpisujących się w historię i współczesność Portoryko oraz ich roli w kształtowaniu się i przekształcaniu tożsamości portorykańskiej. Główna część artykułu skupia się na granicach biegnących między Portoryko a Stanami Zjednoczonymi. W drugiej części wskazano linie podziału powstałe między mieszkańcami wyspy a diasporą portorykańską w USA.

No Se Vende

Culture has been a central organizing force in Chicago’s Puerto Rican diaspora since the 1960s, when community activists came together to make demands of government institutions on issues like affordable housing and police reform. In Humboldt Park on Paseo Boricua—the cultural capital of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the Midwest—some community activists and longtime residents are seeing connections between the colonization of Puerto Rico, gentrification, and foodways, and are countering it with initiatives to claim their food culture, security, and sovereignty. Similar to the agricultural movements that are growing in Puerto Rico, food could be an important lever for Chicago’s diaspora community in the political fight for survival and decolonization.

Engaging for Puerto Rico: #RickyRenuncia (and #RickySeQueda) during El Verano del 19 and digital identities

Between July 13-24, 2019 the people of Puerto Rico took the streets after a series of corruption scandals shocked the political establishment. The social uprising resulted in the ousting of the Governor of Puerto Rico (Dr. Ricardo Rosselló, Ricky), the resignation of the majority of his staff something unprecedented in the history of Puerto Rico; this period has been called El Verano del 19 (Summer of 19). Social media played a crucial role in both the organization and dissemination of the protests, marches, and other activities that occurred within this period. Puerto Ricans in the island and around the world engaged in this social movement through the digital revolution mainly under the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Ricky Resign), with a small counter movement under the hashtag #RickySeQueda (Ricky will stay). The purpose of this study is to illustrate the magnitude and grass roots nature of the political movement’s social media presence, as well as their characteristics of the population of both movements and their structures. We found that #RickyRenuncia was used approximately one million times in the period of analysis while #RickySeQueda barely reached 6,000 tweets. Particularly, the pervasiveness of cliques in the #RickySeQueda show concentrations of authority dedicated to its propagation, whilst the #RickyRenuncia propagation was much more distributed and decentralized with little to no interaction between significant nodes of authority. Noteworthy was the role of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States of America and around the world, contributing close to 40% of all geo-located tweets. Finally, we found that the Twitter followers of the former governor had indicators of being composed of two distinct populations: 1) those active in social media and 2) those who follow the account but who are not active participants of the social network. We discuss the implications of these findings on the interpretation of emergence, structure and dissemination of social activism and countermovement to these activities in the context of Puerto Rico.

Folk Art and Fine Art from the Puerto Rican Diaspora: Individuation, Cultural Preservation, and Resistance

Puerto Ricans in north Philadelphia experience marginalization in the larger culture, but also incorporation into the multiple ethnicities that have historically made up Puerto Rican identity. Both of these experiences are reflected in the art of Taller Puertorriqueño, an arts education program for children and youth in the area. Taller permits social and cultural mobility as well as freedom of artistic expression by constantly pushing boundaries, allowing students to represent more authentic reflections of their values as a means of dealing with cultural ambiguity. In addition, they rewrite their oppressive history by leveraging human and cultural values embedded in their artistic language. Taller is a mission-oriented institution that uses art for social transformation in the community and for celebrating a fluid ethnic and social identity. Though not a religious institution, Taller’s art reflects the religious commitments of the Puerto Rican community, enacts the liturgy of art in ways that contribute to God’s transformative kingdom, and thereby helps to promote good stewardship throughout the community.

Nuyorican and Diasporican Literature and Culture

The term “Nuyorican” (in its various spellings) refers to the combination of “Puerto Rican” and “New Yorker.” The sobriquet became a popular shorthand for the Puerto Rican exodus to the United States after World War II. Since the mid-1960s, the neologism became associated with the literary and artistic movement known as “Nuyorican.” The movement was institutionalized with the 1973 founding of the Nuyorican Poets Café in the Lower East Side of Manhattan by Miguel Algarín and Miguel Piñero. Much of Nuyorican literature featured frequent autobiographical references, the predominance of the English language, street slang, realism, parodic humor, subversive politics, and a rupture with the island’s literary models. Since the 1980s, the literature of the Puerto Rican diaspora has been characterized as “post-Nuyorican” or “Diasporican” to capture some of its stylistic and thematic shifts, including a movement away from urban blight, violence, colloquialism, and radicalism. The Bronx-born poet María Teresa (“Mariposa”) Fernández coined the term “Diasporican” in a celebrated 1993 poem. Contemporary texts written by Puerto Ricans in the United States also reflect their growing dispersal from their initial concentration in New York City.

The Puerto Rican Diaspora to the United States

What is the Puerto Rican Day Parade? The Puerto Rican Day Parade (Desfile Puertorriqueño) in New York City is the most visible display of Puerto Rican identity in the United States. The parade was first held in 1959 as an offshoot of the...

The Puerto Rican Diaspora to the United States

Who were some of the most prominent Puerto Ricans who moved to the United States during the late nineteenth century? Several political exiles from Puerto Rico sought refuge abroad, mainly in New York City, after the failure of the Grito de Lares, the Island’s insurrection...