Portada / Front Page NPRA Celebrates $20 Million for CENTRO’s “La Casa Puertorriqueña”

PHILADELPHIA, PA | NATIONAL PUERTO RICAN AGENDA (NPRA)

| June 12 – The President of the National Puerto Rican Agenda (NPRA) Nilda Ruiz, thanks and congratulates New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, for her commitment in support of the Puerto Rican community’s revered and cherished Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY “Centro”, the nation’s premier Puerto Rican educational, cultural repository and research center.

NPRA has been advocating for the last couple of years for the creation of a Schomburg-like center for Centro as part of the CUNY system. This Centro facility “La Casa Puertorriqueña” will be the beacon for the Puerto Rican Diaspora similar to what the NY Holocaust Museum is to the Jewish community or the Irish’s Famine museum is to the Irish community. It will be a place for research, a living archive repository where our community at large, specially our children, can feel proud of and learn about their history and culture, where all 9 million Puerto Ricans can celebrate.

“We are so grateful to New York Governor Kathy Hochul for sharing our vision for Centro and helping secure its one-of-a-kind presence on its 50th anniversary and helping Centro guide scholars throughout the world with its rich collections of Puerto Rican culture and history and take it to another level, “ La Casa Puertorriqueña”, said Nilda Ruiz. “We thank the governor for protecting our treasure house while ensuring the preservation of Puerto Rican victories, struggles, and contributions.”

Ruiz also thanked the tireless work of former New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica, who played the key role in guiding the funding process, in response to NPRA’s Centro Advocacy Campaign (NPRACAC) multi year effort.

2023

Latino Scholarship Fund

published in the Journal of Family Social Work.

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Antonia Pantoja Award for Distinguished Achievement is given to someone who has achieved high academic success through research, education, art, policy, and publication

Dr. Antonia Pantoja (1922-2002), born in Puerto Rico, was an educator, social worker, feminist and leader of civil rights. He created the National Puerto Rican Forum to promote the economic selfsufficiency of Latinos, and ASPIRA, an organization that promotes educational success, cultural awareness and leadership development among Puerto Rican youth and other Latinos in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Pantoja helped create Boricua College, an institution of postsecondary studies in New York City, and a research program known as the Puerto Rican Research and Resource Center. Upon his return to Puerto Rico, he founded Producir, an organization that provides economic assistance to small businesses in poor rural communities. In 1996, Pantoja received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. To learn more about the Latino Scholarship Fund of Western Massachusetts and to make a donation by visiting the website at www.latinoscholarshipwesternmass.org.

On Saturday, June 10, 2023 New York Governor Kathy Hochul presented funding for $20 million to ensure the continued Centro presence at CUNY Hunter College so that it will continue its research of Puerto Rican diaspora history, educational and cultural leadership. Celebration over these developments mark years of NPRA’s work with community advocates, civic officials, coordinating dozens of meetings, from New York to Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware – all now culminating in a historically momentous day where together we can watch Centro take its place among the great archives of the world.

The National Puerto Rican Agenda (NPRA) was created as a nonpartisan alliance of state side Puerto Rican organizations, elected officials, community leaders, and volunteer citizens. Born of a collective desire to strengthen our capacity and raise our impact by addressing Puerto Rico’s widespread economic crisis and promoting political and civic participation of Puerto Ricans in the United States and Puerto Rico, NPRA brings together a rich tapestry of united efforts at the national, state and local levels.