Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
posted by mary armstrong
“Edgardo Gonzalez was still feeling raw and drained when we spoke several days after respected folk musician and community activist Joaquin Rivera died in triage while waiting for medical care and was then robbed by three homeless men. Last night Gonzales spoke as best he could about his long time friend and music partner, compadre and inspiration. I keep thinking, this is just like Joaquin,” said Edgardo Gonzalez,”if he had to die, he was going to do something with it.” While Joaquin was best known as a musician, Gonzalez was referring to his activism. Rivera, a counselor at Olney High School, was a longtime advocate of bilingual education and active in the return of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques from the U.S. Navy. “The political marches he took part in, people don’t know about that,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez swore he was cried out, but still choked with emotion. The very day that Rivera passed away he had been at the Gonzalez home. “I thought he seemed fine while he was here, having fun, but my wife said he was acting a little different,” says Gonzalez. Playing music together was a long time habit for these men; Gonzalez played bass in Rivera’s Los Pleneros del Batey, his band that played traditional Puerto Rican folk music.
But now, Gonzalez reflects on the way Rivera died. A man with insurance — neglected despite asking for medical attention — has brought international attention to the U.S. health care debate, according to the reactions Gonzalez has received. The world is watching. If he had to go, Joaquin Rivera would be pleased to have it be one last eloquent plea for justice.
At 6 p.m. tonight — far north of the barrio — there will be a viewing at the Givnish Home (10975 Academy Rd.), chosen for its large capacity. “People are flying in from Puerto Rico, Florida, Boston, all over,” says Gonzalez. As the viewing starts off Joaquin’s band will remember him in the heart of the barrio, starting this afternoon with a jam at Centro Musical (464 W Lehigh Ave.), where all the musicians hang. Gradually the music will move over to Taller Puertorriqueño (2721 North 5th St), where Gonzalez chairs the board and Executive Director Dr. Carmen Febo-San Miguel issued the statement, “We have lost a friend, a committed and tireless fighter for Puerto Rican rights and culture and a generous soul.” A long-planned art opening on Taller’s second floor gallery by well-known Puerto Rican painter Toño Martorell, will now be dedicated to the memory of Rivera.
Tomorrow morning there is another viewing at the church at St. Ambrose (600 West Venango), starting at 9 a.m. After that will be the funeral mass. “It will be a simple service with lots of singing, people standing up to speak about Joaquin,” according to Gonzalez. Following the service he says, “Every Latino group in the city will be taking part,” playing for Rivera as mourners walk down Venango to the Greemount Cemetery at Front and Luzerne streets. It will be a traffic stopping spectacle.
Gonzalez tells us there will be many more tributes and fond remembrances of Rivera who was so devoted to celebrating and sharing the heritage of his homeland. He also promises that all the holiday gigs that wouldn’t be the same without some traditional songs will feature Los Pleneros, playing to honor Rivera. Check back here for updates.
If you want to find Gonzalez during any of these funeral events, he’ll be easy to spot. “I kept thinking, ‘What’ll I wear? Guayabera?’” Gonzalez said, referring to the typical performing garb for pleneros. But Gonzalez settled on something that mixes the honor of formality with a nod to Rivera’s tastes and sense of humor. Look for the man in a traditional black suit with the Ron Caña rum t-shirt peeping through, a final toast with Rivera’s favorite tipple.
by Michael K. Lavers
National News Editor
Monday Nov 23, 2009
Thousands of people paid tribute to Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado at vigils held across the country yesterday. (Source:Michael K. Lavers). Related Topics: hate crimes | Jason Mattison, Jr. | Jorge Steven Lopez. Email Print Share Buzz up!
Thousands of people in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Oakland, Calif., and other cities around the country attended memorials, vigils and other events held over the weekend to pay tribute to slain gay teenagers Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado of Puerto Rico and Jason Mattison, Jr., of Baltimore.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, openly gay City Councilmember-elect Danny Dromm, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation president Jarrett Barrios and fashion designer Malan Breton were among the hundreds who attended a vigil on the Christopher Street Pier in Manhattan’s West Village last night. Mark-Viverito reiterated her call for Puerto Rican authorities to bring hate crimes charges against the man who has repeatedly confessed to Lopez’s death. And she joined Quinn and others who blasted Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno for not denouncing the teen’s gruesome murder.
“Silence condones the hate that continues to breed in our community,” Mark-Viverito said.
Carlos Velez of the New York City Commission on Human Rights spoke on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s behalf.
“All of us condemn the disgusting and shameful murder of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado,” he said.
Barrios further paid tribute to Lopez in both English and Spanish.
“Today we remember a 19-year-old young man; a beautiful young man,” he said (as translated from Spanish.)
Juan A. Martinez Matos reportedly confessed to local investigators he killed Lopez before he decapitated him, dismembered and partially burned his body near Caguas earlier this month. Dante Parish has reportedly confessed he raped and repeatedly stabbed Jason Mattison, Jr., 15, to death before he stuffed him into a closet inside an East Baltimore home on Nov. 10.
Activists who organized many of the vigils across the country sought to memorialize both murdered teenagers, but those who attended the New York memorial seemed largely focused on Lopez’s death.
“That was like my son being killed,” PFLAG member Carmen Robello told EDGE as she pointed her out her openly gay son is roughly the same age Lopez was when he died and she lived on Puerto Rico for five years. “It bothered me. It could have been my son.”
Luna Legacy added the gruesome nature of Lopez’s death compelled him and his friends to attend the vigil.
“I was shocked when I heard about it,” he said. “This young beautiful boy killed in such a horrific way was shocking.”
Stephanie Jones ended the New York vigil by reading aloud a statement from Lopez’s mother, Miriam Mercado.
“When my son told me he was gay, I told him, “Now, I love you more,” Mercado stated. “I want to tell the world that hatred is not born with human beings, it is a seed that is planted by adults and is fostered creating a climate of intolerance and violence. We must change our ways and understand that anyone… could have been my son. And I want everybody to know that Jorge Steven was a very much loved son.”
She further spoke in a video posted to YouTube yesterday.
“Love will conquer hate; this is what I want to say to the world,” Mercado said (as translated from Spanish.) “Steven was a human being. He was my son. He was a brother.”
Michael K. Lavers has written for the Advocate, the Fire Island News, the Village Voice, WNYC and other media outlets. He has also provided commentary on LGBT and other issues to the BBC and the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. He blogs at Boy in Bushwick [www.boyinbushwick.blogspot.com]
The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute is in mourning due to the passing of City University’s Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance, Ernesto Malave. We owe him a lot. Ernesto was there when I became the director of CUNY DSI; he was there when we needed him. I benefited the most from his sound advice; I respected him for reaching such a distinguished post in the largest public, urban university in the US and for keeping himself real; for not forgetting where he came from and for remembering that many of us counted on him.
I admired Ernesto for his knowledge and wisdom; and for his humility and sense of commitment. I was lucky enough to be among his friends. His passing hurts the soul and it will take time before we can heal and think of him without tears and sadness. I take consolation in knowing that Ernesto’s loss is felt by countless people; those he helped directly or indirectly, and who will pass on the memory of the good he did so he may continue to live.
Adios amigo, adios
Nueva York — Ernesto Malave, Vice Canciller de CUNY (Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York), falleció repentinamente en Puerto Rico donde asistía a la conferencia “Somos el futuro”.
La noticia dejó desolados a familiares, amigos y colegas por ser tan inesperada y repentina. Jay Hershenshon, Vice Canciller de CUNY, amigo y colega de Malave desde hace 30 años, dijo estar “destrozado por su muerte”.
“Le conocí cuando era el líder estudiantil en el Borough of Manhattan Community College donde cursaba sus estudios. Yo le contraté para trabajar en CUNY en la oficina de relaciones gubernamentales, trabajé con él y le vi crecer y desarrollarse en una super estrella”, dijo Hershenshon a EL DIARIO/LA PRENSA.
En el año 2002 Malave fue nombrado Vice Canciller interino de Presupuestos y Finanzas siendo confirmado plenamente en el 2003, cargo que ocupó hasta su muerte.
“Malave era un ejemplo para todos aquellos que creen en el poder de la educación para cambiar las vidas. El era un puertorriqueño de El Bronx que superó muchos retos y sus logros son ejemplo de las historias exitosas de CUNY”, añadió Hershenshon.
La Secretaria de Estado, Lorraine Cortes-Vázquez, que trabajó con Malave cuando ella era la presidente de la Hispanic Federation, dijo a EL DIARIO/LA PRENSA: “Es una gran pérdida para nosotros [los hispanos] como comunidad. Malave era el latino de más reconocimiento y poder en CUNY y siempre estuvo muy conectado con la comunidad. No fue un joven que se olvidó de sus raíces”.
Rossana Rosado, Gerente General de EL DIARIO/LA PRENSA, señaló igualmente la gran perdida comunitaria: “… como el funcionario latino de más rango en CUNY, Malave era fuente de orgullo y apoyo para muchos profesionales en esa institución…”
En el mismo sentido se manifestó la Comisionada estatal del Servicio de Niños y Familias, Gladys Carrión: “Esto es una pérdida tremenda. Ernesto era una persona afable y generosa que siempre trataba de asegurarse de que CUNY respondiera a las necesidades de los estudiantes y, en particular de los latinos”.
Carol Robles-Roman, asistente del alcalde para Asuntos Legales y Fiduciaria de CUNY, emitió un comunicado: “… A lo largo de su carrera el Vice Canciller Malave ha servido como mentor y consejero tanto de los estudiantes como de los profesores y administradores. Nuestros esfuerzos para establecer el Proyecto de Reclutamiento de Puertorriqueños para CUNY demostró la extensión de su compromiso en todos los temas relacionados con CUNY…”.
“Todo CUNY lamenta el fallecimiento de nuestro querido Vice Canciller de Presupuesto y Finanzas. Era un colega y amigo extraordinariamente brillante, dedicado a su familia y a la universidad de todas las formas imaginables. Durante un cuarto de siglo CUNY se benefició de su creatividad y dedicación transmitiendo su pasión por la educación a los estudiantes”, dijo ayer Matthew Goldstein, Canciller de CUNY, en su comunicado oficial.
Al cierre de esta edición no se conocían todavía los datos correspondientes a su funeral.
Puerto Ricans are some of the most prominent figures in New York politics and culture, so some people are surprised when they hear that, overall, Puerto Ricans are among the poorest and least educated New Yorkers. Almost a third in New York are living in poverty. Here are some of the figures.
In New York City, 31.2 percent of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, compared with 27.8 percent of Latinos more broadly and 18.9 percent of the New York City population overall. Nationally, 22 percent of Puerto Ricans are in poverty, versus 19 percent of Latinos overall (from the American Community Survey via the Pew Hispanic Center).
Of course, when you look closely at the numbers you can see that other Latino groups are struggling as well — more Dominican and Mexican families in New York, for example, are living below the poverty line than Puerto Rican families.
But note that the margin of error for these stats from the 2005-2007 American Community Survey is big enough to put these groups basically on a par with each other. So what’s most surprising is that these groups are so close, given the supposed advantages Puerto Ricans have: They’re all citizens (because Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States), they’ve been in New York longer (most Dominicans and Mexicans immigrated to New York more recently), and a higher percentage speak English.
As for education: only 31% of Puerto Ricans have completed beyond a high school education as compared to 77% of Whites, 71% of Blacks (including African immigrants) and 42% of all Latinos. (From the American Community Survey via the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College)
Among Puerto Ricans between the ages of 24 and 32, only 16 percent have completed college, even though almost a quarter have at least one college-educated parent. And almost one in five Puerto Ricans that age with at least one college-educated parent dropped out of high school. (From the book “Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age”).
I decided to do this story after going to see Phillip Kasinitz of the CUNY Graduate Center to talk about his book “Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age.” As part of his comprehensive study, Kasinitz compared the children of Latino immigrants to the children of native born Puerto Ricans and he says he too was surprised to find that Puerto Ricans were experiencing less success educationally and professionally than many Latino immigrant groups.
Of course, when I went to speak with some of the leading thinkers on Puerto Rican issues, they said, “Duh!” But many said people don’t want to talk about this issue. Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy said the issues of Puerto Ricans have become invisible, especially as immigration issues dominate the political and academic dialogue around Latinos.
That’s how this story was born. Please contribute to this conversation by posting your comments below — there’s much to debate.
Tags: American Community Survey, CUNY, Dominican, immigration, Latino, Mexican, Mexico, National Institute for Latino Policy, Pew Hispanic Center, Puerto Rican, Puerto Rico | 17 comments | Posted in Economy, Education, Metro
Comment from Cynthia Ceilan
Date: November 20, 2009, 10:14 am
What these sorts of studies often fail to mention is the enormous numbers of Puerto Ricans who not only went to college, but enjoyed a significant measure of success in their chosen professions — and then left the city.
Puerto Ricans, native-born as well as their mainland-born children, have been thriving for decades in great numbers, though not necessarily in NYC.
To say that Puerto Ricans in New York are “still struggling” paints a rather skewed picture of this population. It also fails to recognize that 68.8% of us are educated and living well in this great city.
Comment from Victoria
Date: November 20, 2009, 11:11 am
Thank you for doing this story! I’m disappointed that Puerto Rican leading thinkers do not want to talk about this disparity that still exists. Why ignore the conversation if it can possibly catalyze positive change? If some of us can pull ourselves up then I think it is important to help others and not ignore the problems. (I write this as the daughter of a line of Puerto Ricans who have always worked hard and strived for a better life here – whether running their own businesses or working for community nonprofits.) We all need to help each other…
Comment from Juan A. Baea
Date: November 20, 2009, 11:51 am
The reason for the lack of achievement is because Puerto Ricans were benefited by the social programs of the 60’s, such as welfare, housing benefits and housing projects. This resulted in a mentality of dependence, not self reliance. Another casualty of the great society programs, much like African Americans.
Comment from Monica Rodriguez
Date: November 20, 2009, 12:06 pm
You came close to perhaps finding an answer to your questions when you mentioned that sometimes our (Puerto Rican’s) problems can mirror African Americans’s problems better than other Latinos’ issues. Puerto Ricans have a different experience, historically and today, than that of other Latinos. This is not often recognized, even among Latinos.
I’m thrilled to hear this piece highlighting the issue of the status of Puerto Ricans. Thank you for spending your time on this. The questions you ask have stumped me as well. I hope that they are answered soon.
Comment from Pablo Alto
Date: November 20, 2009, 12:40 pm
That fact that Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth (read: COLONY)has had a devastating effect on the spirit and psyche of Puerto Ricans here and on the island. This “neither state nor country” status means that the people do not view themselves as being truly a part of the United States nor fully independent.
Comment from J Rivera
Date: November 20, 2009, 4:40 pm
I feel and have always felt that there is a lack of a real desire for success among the Puerto Rican community.
Just as was stated in this piece, none of my friends made it, and I too felt shame as I became successful. To this day in the projects where I was born and raised, no respect is shown for those who are educated.
Just as Juan commented, I beleive that we were destroyed by a history of dependence on social programs. Again, even to this day I can’t find anyone with whom I grew up with that doesn’t think that the government is somehow responsible for their future. There seems to be a real lack of initiative to lift themselves up out of poverty.
There are real problems, we must not allow ourselves to be forgotten.
Comment from Lorenzo Canizares
Date: November 20, 2009, 5:18 pm
What is the class basis of this assessment? I am a Cuban-American, and amongst Cuban-American there is a marked difference in education between well-off Cubans and lower class Cubans.
What are we going to do for the lower class members of our Latino community so there is some hope in their future? The discussion needs to address the real life of people, not the panacea we would all like to see.
Comment from L Martinez
Date: November 20, 2009, 5:55 pm
My personal experience, having had been of Puerto Rican parents and having had grown up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, is that education, achievement, ambition, and hard work are generally not encouraged by the culture. As a child I could see first hand the socioeconomic degradedness as a lot of inner city Puerto Ricans easily just avoided school, hung out in the streets, had illigitimate children, and made for an urban climate of domestic violence, ignorance, drunkenness, drug addiction and dependency on welfare (etc). My father said that Puerto Ricans do not have to fear being deported like Cubans and other Latinos do, so they don’t worry about calling attention to themselves by behaving wildly. The Hell’s Kitchen of the 1960s and 1970s eventually became a more upwardly mobile neighborhood because Arabs, and Hindus took over a lot of the stores and other businesses.
Comment from AusTexMex
Date: November 20, 2009, 8:08 pm
I was born in Texas in 1946 and now live in Los Angeles. Look, let’s be honest Latinos share many of the same problems. We also need to understand that Cubans, Mexicans, Dominicanos & Puerto Ricans have some unique issues that they would like addressed. I think it is incumbent for the majority group in a particular region to embrace the the other Latinos. These four goups makeup 90% of the Latinos in America. Some recent positive major milestones we’ve accomplished together: Defend The Honor (WWII)documentary by Ken Burns, 10,000,000 plus voters in the general election. President Obama! Thanks in part to Rosario Dawson and Voto Latino and of course Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. That’s Power. Do we have serious problems? Of course we do, however, we will address them and continue to move forward.
Comment from Marianne McCune
Date: November 20, 2009, 8:12 pm
I am the reporter of this story and I wanted to say just two quick things. One, I am so glad people are posting their comments here. There are many ways to look at these issues and I couldn’t fit every interpretation of the statistics into the radio story or the blog post. So I’m thrilled to see you all making the conversation more comprehensive. Two, for anyone who didn’t hear the story — it does cover some issues the blog post does not. For example, the reality that many of the more successful Puerto Ricans in New York move out (as mentioned in the first comment above) is, indeed, included in the audio version. If you haven’t heard it and want to, it’s here ay http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/144777
Meanwhile, thank you for your candid and engaged responses. Please continue!
Comment from Felix Velazquez
Date: November 20, 2009, 9:22 pm
These discussions always remind me of the elephant in the living room. We are born comparing ourselves and we are told over and over again we never quite measure up; It drives and pushes us to succeed and quite too often to failure. I am 62 Y/O Puerto Rican who was brought to New York City when I was 13 years old. It was not talked about it by my father and my grandfather when I was i growing up in Puerto Rico, it is not talked about it here in New York, and it is not talked about it as I travel back and forth to the Island nation. It is a sickness that debilitates our souls and warps our psychic. It is called COLONIZATION. You do not have to go to far to find an example of its warped mirroring, just read carefully between the lines to some of the comments above.
My life experiences and my daly observations, tell me that these stats are not inaccurate, and that as long as the problem is defined by comparing and not by nation building we are doomed to loose the comparison game.
Comment from Angel Falcon
Date: November 20, 2009, 9:39 pm
I think the scapegoating of social programs and the idea that Puerto Rican colonial status has some marring effect on Puerto Ricans in diaspora is problematic at its face. Most Puerto Ricans in diaspora don’t concern themselves with political status per se. Status is a great concern for those on the island. And it is a stretch to indicate that colonial status has any effect on those in diaspora who are for the most 3 or even 4 generations in diaspora. However, there is a colonial mentality of a different sort where, as one poster mentioned, we look to the government as somehow being responsible for our failings and, in turn, as a possible solution to our problems. That creates a different kind of colonial mentality that only breeds false hope. You can’t expect things to get better without agency on your own part. One of the best ways to get out from our situation is to empower our children with the proverbial “knowledge of self” and know who it is they are historically and NOT rely on the school system to do it. We need grassroots Puerto Rican historical and cultural education, be it in bomba/plena or in political history in libraries, casitas, dondequiera…when people stop looking to athletes, musicians and the government for hope and look INTERNALLY for inspiration, THEN there can be change.
Comment from Judith Escalona
Date: November 21, 2009, 12:36 am
This is a very personal response to McCune’s piece which I found disappointing in being consistent with how our community has been historically imagined. I am the founder of PRdream.com, a web site on the history, culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. I was born and raised in New York City.
The goal of http://www.prdream.com was precisely to create an online resource where Puerto Ricans could learn about themselves and carry on an exchange among themselves and others worldwide. It is predominantly English, because we are New York based and indeed Nuyorican. PRdream.com has been in existence for 11 years.
My observation and, actually, firsthand experience is that among Puerto Ricans stateside there is a desire to connect with the island and to maintain that relationship – however tenuous or problematic it may be or seem to be.
While Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico wrestle with the status issue, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. struggle with the identity issue. They are counterparts to the same history, remarkably paralleling one another in relation to the U.S. Leviathan.
Developing prdream.com has been a journey of personal growth and enrichment as a second generation Puerto Rican. It made me realize that much of what I learned through mainstream media and acquired in school and through hearsay in the streets was mostly misinformation based on ignorance and bias.
What I learned through PRdream.com was that Puerto Ricans are quite the opposite of that naggingly negative image that seems unshakeable.
I learned that the tiny island–the smallest in the Greater Antilles–has been the source of an incredible amount of talent for both the English and Spanish speaking worlds.
While we have not posted much of the overwhelming content we have acquired over the years (through videotaping oral histories, interviews, conferences and other events), a fair amount of it can be seen online. It clearly belies the image of our people that is consistently drummed into our children and the general public.
McCune errs in her good intentions because she is subject to the same perceptual bias our community knows only too well. That bias which appears scrupulous and articulate, quoting studies and statistics, in order to reinforce that all too familiar image of who we are but aren’t really. If the “successful” Puerto Ricans have left the inner city then it might be a more balanced report to look at those statistics as well and ask the more important question – what made the difference?
Comment from Alberto O. Cappas
Date: November 21, 2009, 12:46 am
This is nothing new to me, a reason I’ve shy away from the Puerto Rican leadership in NYC, composed of an obsolete attachment to Puerto Rico emotionalism. Just go and check out your Puerto Rican Studies Programs at CUNY, Hunter, etc, and you will find an emotional push for independence; and that is what we are feeding our next generation, instead of passing a torch of enlightment in relation to strategies on becoming economic providers and educators with a sound vision for tomorrow. We need to kill the social-welfare mentality found in the majority of the Puerto Rican community based organizations and its leadership. As Puerto Ricans, We are too liberal oriented without a base of political balance and logic, including a complete absence of backbone to proplerly negotiate and compromise in the political arena/system.
Comment from Jeff White
Date: November 21, 2009, 6:11 am
Judith, I think you are boasting about your website which highlights “Make A Donation” on each topic’s landing page. If you listen to the audio of the story which is at the very top of this page, then you would have heard the difficulties in getting statistics from the Census Bureau because they only ask for the broader Hispanic category on the Census questionnaire. Blaiming the concept that Puerto Ricans some 3 or 4 generations are still living in as high poverty as later hispanic immigrants is a valid topic by itself. Why hasn’t the community gotten out of the projects? As Juan A. Baea pointed out, the social programs championed to help people out have now proven to be the crutch that no one wants to give up. As an aside, the Latino designation used by the politicians to gain political clout has now proven useful in forgetting the struggle of Puerto Ricans still trying to pull themselves out of poverty. I would put some blame on the opportunistic politicians who turn the blind eye to there brethren for political gains.
Comment from Jeff White
Date: November 21, 2009, 6:13 am
To add, Puerto Rican’s overwhelmingly voted to become either a state (46%) or no change (50%) in 1998 so the colonially argument is irrelevant when the majority doesn’t want a change in status. The other half can come here if they don’t like there status. I’m sure millions around the world would give up their homeland to stay 6 months in America. They have lotteries around the world to come here!
Comment from Judith Escalona
Date: November 21, 2009, 8:44 am
Hey, this is America, there is nothing wrong with having a “MAKE A DONATION” button on a web site or a t-shirt or a sneaker. I’m proud to be a Puerto Rican and an American. I took the risk that someone would cynically attach themselves to my mentioning PRdream.com and attempt to undermine my views by this very claim of self-promotion. However, the truth is that I stated my background and work with PRdream.com in order to emphasize: 1. My personal search for knowledge about my culture and community as someone born and raised in the U.S. And 2. The fact that PRdream.com has been around for a substantial period of time, documenting our community, that would give weight to what I had to say.
No one is “blaming” any concept. Why would I anthropomorphize a concept?
The point White misses is that the U.S. has a long history of pathologizing our community through studies. To drive home my point, he actually defends McCune’s report by claiming that specific statistics are not available and “blames” the Census Bureau. She’s off the hook, according to White, by simply stating that those statistics are obscured by the bureau’s nomenclature.
Most importantly, I suggest that a “balanced report” in the media would have to include not only where successful Puerto Ricans have moved to (apparently out of New York City) but also their profile. The title of the report makes a tellingly broad claim “Puerto Ricans in New York Struggling… Still” and safely redlines the extent of her coverage.
The Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse) was a favorite surrealist game from the 1920s onwards. The game involves multiple participants contributing to a single drawing. Traditionally, the participants create their section of the drawing and then cover it so the next person is drawing blind. Only after all participants have finished is the drawing unfolded and revealed.
The Paul Robeson Galleries has played the Exquisite Corpse game with 92 artists of the region to produce 30 drawings to mark our 30th Anniversary.This exhibition will literally manifest Paul Robeson Galleries mission
of inclusivity, participation, and community outreach.
This exhibition is on display at from November 19, 2009 – April 8, 2010
The Paul Robeson Galleries are located in the Robeson Campus Center,
Rutgers The State University of New Jersey,
350 Dr Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Telephone +1 973 353 1610 Fax +1 973 353 5912
Community Activist, Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, Co-Founder of Aspira Inc. of New Jersey, La Casa de Don Pedro, Puerto Rican Congress, United Community Foundation, Newark Urban League, and United Community Corporation.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Dr. Hilda Hidalgo, Community Activist, Rutgers Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, Co-Founder of Aspira Inc. of NJ, La Casa de Don Pedro, the Puerto Rican Congress, United Community Foundation, Newark Urban League, United Community Corporation and mentor.
Below is an introduction written about Dr. Hilda Hidalgo.
Hilda Hidalgo, a native of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, a woman, a lesbian, a professor, and one of the greatest persons I have had the privilege to know, spent more than three decades working tirelessly to improve the lives of others in New Jersey. She began her career in Newark as District Director of the Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex in 1960, where she spent five years, and then another five as Director of Child Services. Hilda taught at Rutgers University for 23 years, first in the School of Social Work in New Brunswick and then in the Public Administration Department at Rutgers Newark. Her last job (1994-95) before fully retiring from paid employment was Assistant Commissioner of Education for the State of New Jersey.
But while Hilda’s career has been impressive, what distinguishes her most in our eyes is her concern for others and her record of civic works. During her years in Newark, Hilda co-founded and presided over Aspira of New Jersey, La Casa de Don Pedro and the Puerto Rican Congress, three institutions that have in turn shaped and/or touched the lives of thousands of individuals in New Jersey. In addition to these organizations, Hilda was co-founder and Board member of the United Community Foundation, Newark Urban League and United Community Corporation. She also chaired the 1st Puerto Rican Convention of NJ and served as Vice-President of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
As a Rutgers professor, Hilda created a Masters Program in Public Administration in order to help Hispanic professionals to obtain a graduate degree while continuing to work full-time. Many of that program’s graduates have gone on to touch many lives as well. Like Hilda, they subscribe to Marian Wright Edelman’s philosophy, which holds that “material gifts bring with them the privilege and responsibility of sharing with the less fortunate…”
Committed to a life of purpose, Hilda is at present an active member of Equality Florida and Friends of Wild Iris, organizations that fight for the rights of Gays and Lesbians. When asked why she is still volunteering, she replied: “because my strength comes from my association with others who share my passion and commitment to eradicate the oppression of others because of their race, ethnicity, class or sexual orientation.”
A conference to member-in the cultural vitality and consequences of the Puerto Rican sector of the Lower East Side into the Downtown scene, past and present.
The Centro Library and Archives at Hunter College holds the archives of several important writers and artists, notably, Clemente Soto Vélez, Pedro Pietri, Marlis Momber and Ed Vega, whose works reflect a supplemental narrative of ‘Loisaida’ to the ethos of the Lower East Side. This event will gather archivists, scholars, photographers, artists and activists who produce scholarship on the history and contributions of Puerto Ricans and Latinos to the revitalization of the Lower East Side, and will integrate connoisseurship with the relevance of the Centro’s collection. This conference falls within the activities celebrating the centennial of poet and community activist Clemente Soto Vélez.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18th, 6:00 pm
On Archiving and ‘Lure of the Retro Lens’: the technique and transaction to assemble the present through organizing the past. Historians and cultural critics discuss issues of institutional politics, material culture, artist community affiliations, different types of cultural belongings, and the shadow and situational sphere of peripheral players to the art-world canon.
Panelists:
Gregory Sholette– Artist/writer/founding member of REPOhistory, Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Queens College, CUNY. Urayoán Noel– Poet/ critic/co-founder of ‘Spanic Attack/Assistant Professor of English, University at Albany, SUNY. Marvin J. Taylor– Founder of the Downtown New York Collection, Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections at NYU. Mario H. Ramirez– Project Archivist at Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. Carolina Gonzalez– Author, journalist.
Alfredo Irizarry– Former artistic director of El Teatro Ambulante and founder of The Quality of Life Magazinein Loisaida.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20th, 6:00 pm Visualizing Loisaida: The panel will compare instances of local cultural practices within the phenomena of cultural appropriation that leads to the re-invention of place identity. Insiders, poets and documenters of everyday life from the 1970’s forward, will trace and re-present the Puerto Rican sway in the Loisaida scene.
Round Table: Luis Aponte-Parés–Architect/urban planner/ Director of Latino Studies at CPCS, UMASS Boston; Ed Morales Author/journalist/documentary filmmaker; Alan W. Moore– Independent Scholar, member of Colab, co-founder ABC No Rio;
BY ERASMO GUERRA
Wednesday, November 4th 2009, 4:00 AM
“Precious” cast mates (clockwise from l.) Chyna Lane, Gabourey Sidibe, Stephanie Andujar and Amina Robinson. Stephanie Andujar, a young Puerto Rican actress, was soaked from the October rain when she arrived at the audition for the film “Precious.” Halfway through her reading, director Lee Daniels yelled, “Stop!” Crushed that he’d made his decision so quickly, she didn’t expect him to follow up with, “I want you in my movie.”
That was how, two years ago, Andujar, 23, landed the role of Rita Romero, a 16-year-old former heroin addict and prostitute, who attends an alternative school in Harlem and befriends Clareece (Precious) Jones, an overweight, illiterate teenager, pregnant with her second child by her abusive father.
The explosive, disturbing, but ultimately hopeful story, which hits theaters Friday, has been winning awards at film fests across the country and generating buzz for its stars, MoNique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the title character.
Rita Romero might strike many as just another tragic Latina stereotype, but on a recent walk through her Chelsea neighborhood, Andujar insisted she didn’t find the role demeaning. “I’m making movies that reflect realities,” she said, explaining that she has known friends and family who’ve suffered similar circumstances. And yet with the unmistakable glow of her youth, and dimpled-cheek sweetness, Andujar is very much the girl who made her first Communion and Confirmation at St. Columba Catholic Church, who likes the lattes from Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts when I’m trying to save money.”
Guys from the neighborhood greet her by name when she walks past. Others suck their teeth and call out, in a practiced stage whisper, that she’s gorgeous. But life hasn’t always been pretty. Andujar spent the latter part of her childhood in the Chelsea-Elliott Houses, where she endured the hard luck of being the new girl on the block. “Girls were always clawing at my sister and me because we hadn’t grown up here,” she said. Her father was a heroin addict who was jailed when she was 11, released when she was 17 and then sent back behind bars when he violated his parole.
Andujar started acting at the age of 12, when her mother, Carmen, enrolled her at a Beacon after-school arts program to keep her out of trouble. “When you’re young, you want to come home, watch TV and eat,” Andujar said, but the program put her on a new path. “It’s where I learned what a monologue was.”
At 13, she got a taste of the stage when she landed the part of the Scarecrow in the musical “The Wiz.” A talent agent noticed Andujar, signed her up and has been mentoring her since. Andujar continued with high school at Talent Unlimited. She went to one casting call after another, but other than school productions, she conceded, “I never really booked anything.” She was pursuing Plan B, a business degree in hotel management from Pace University, and was working at a Marriott hotel in Manhattan when she got a guest role on “Law & Order” as a pregnant prostitute.
Soon after, she earned the role of Rita in “Precious.” Andujar grew out her eyebrows and, as instructed, watched “Paris Is Burning,” a documentary on the Harlem drag-ball scene, to get a sense of the grittiness of New York in the ’80s.
For the shoot, Andujar’s teeth were stained, to suggest Rita’s raggedness, so getting into character “made me sad but also happy.” Andujar’s own life is a complicated tumble of emotions. In January, her father, who cleaned up after his last prison stint, died from colon cancer at age 48. He never got to see her in the film, but, she recalled, “He got to see me in one high school production and was all teary-eyed.”
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Dr. Hilda Hidalgo, Community Activist, Rutgers Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, Co-Founder of Aspira Inc. of NJ, La Casa de Don Pedro, the Puerto Rican Congress, United Community Foundation, Newark Urban League, United Community Corporation and mentor.