Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora

Archives Portal

Our Archives Portal serves as a database for all of our collections, similar to a library catalog, where you can find guides to our holdings. These guides, called finding aids, describe the creation, content, and arrangement of archival material, allowing users to identify and request materials relevant to their research. The database includes physical items such as photographs, manuscripts, and artwork as well as analog audiovisual materials. Access to physical materials is available by appointment only—visit our appointments page to request a visit or consultation.

Items from the Jesús Colón Papers.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OUR ARCHIVES DATABASE

Digital Collections Portal 

The Centro Archives Digital Collections is a growing resource of materials digitized from collections throughout the Archive's holdings. This site provides access to photographs, documents, artifacts, art, maps, oral histories, moving images, audio clips, and other materials pertaining to the Puerto Rican diaspora. Highlights include materials from the Pura Belpré Papers, Justo A. Martí Photograph Collection, and interviews from Centro's various oral history projects. We are constantly adding new materials to the portal, and you can request higher-resolution versions or download images directly from the site.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OUR DIGITAL COLLECTIONS PORTAL

In addition to our digital collections portal, we have published full-length films and television episodes on Youtube and the Internet Archive. See below for more information: 

Offices of the Government of Puerto Rico: Migration Division Short Films

CENTRO is the custodian for the records of the Offices of the Governement of Puerto Rico. Explain what is it. 

Most of the records in OGPRUS were created by the Migration Division, which was established in 1947 by Public Law 25 and began operations in 1948 under the Puerto Rico Department of Labor. The law explained that the role of the Government of Puerto Rico was “to neither encourage nor discourage the migration of Puerto Rican workmen to the United States or any foreign country… but it considers its duty …to provide the proper guidance with respect to opportunities for employment and the problem of adjustment usually encountered in environments which are ethnologically alien…” Unique and unprecedented, the Division was to help ease the way for Puerto Ricans as they integrated into the host society, acting as the intermediary between city and other agencies and the migrant community. Not only did it take on the “guidance” of migrants, the Division also explained Puerto Ricans to outsiders, helping them to adjust to the newcomers. Among its early leadership were key advisors to the Puerto Rican Government such as the North American, Clarence Senior who served as Director from 1949-1951. Joseph Monserrat, a New York Puerto Rican worked with the Division for twenty years, first as Regional Director and then National Director. Some of these films have been digitized and are made freely available throguh CENTRO's YouTube channel.  A full guide to the Offices of the Government of Puerto Rico records is available here: https://centroarchives.hunter.cuny.edu/repositories/2/resources/94

Homovisiones

HoMoVISIONES was a public access television program dedicated to Latine LGBTQ+ issues. The collection is made up of correspondence, topical and administrative files, clippings, flyers, posters, proposals, scripts, reports and multi-format video recordings. Dating from 1980-2002, the collected materials offer rich documentation on queer and Latine social and political movements, as well as their cultural counterparts. It mainly deals with activities in the New York metropolitan area in the 1980s and 1990s. The HoMoVISIONES records detail the ambitions of local activists to document, entertain, and inform the Latine LGBTQ+ community in New York City; distribute information about HIV prevention and healthcare resources; and create an inclusive community. A full guide to the collection can be accessed at this link. 

The series was digitized and made accessible through the Internet Archive in collaboration with CUNY TV Archives as part of "Uncovering CUNY's Audiovisual Heritage," a project generously funded by the Council for Library and Information Resources. Click here to access 164 digitized episodes.

Latin Fever en la Escuelita. Homovisiones Records.