Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Brief History P I Poster
Brief History P I Poster
r ~s ~ ·.
·PtJERTO RICAN CULTURAL ROOTS c.1200- Late 1700s
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Development of Talno indigenous culture on the island. According to Spanish chroni-
cles, Tafnos called the island Boriken. The name was adapted into Spanish as
-~ c.1200
I r--- Evidence of the Talno culture can be found in preserved petroglyphs (rock engrav-
ings) in island towns such as Utuado, Jayuya, Ponce, and Vieques. Puerto Rican
Borinquen and native islanders were identified as borinqueiios or boricuas. Spanish is also filled with indigenismos [words of indigenous origin], and some
(Post er by Rafae l Tufiiio, c. 1972). [M OB] names of towns or cities, such as Lofza, MayagOez, and Utuado, are also of Indian
origin.
(P hoto ofTa in o petrog lyph at Cagua na Cere monia l Pa rk in Utu ado, PR) . [MDB]
1 7 65
I r- !~~~~arshall Alejandro O'Reilly was sent by Spanish authorities to visit
Puerto Rico. He recommended economic reforms and the colonial government
began to promote immigration from Spain to Puerto Rico.
Runaway enslaved Africans from other Caribbean islands and The Talno, Spanish, and African represent the three cultural and racial
from increased slave trafficking also added to Puerto Rico's roots of the Puerto Rican nation and of its racially mixed population.
population during the late 1700s and early 1800s. (M ural at t he Plaza de las Tres Cu lturas in San German, PR; photog raph of mura l by Ed na
Acosta-Be len). [EAB]
(Drawing of Afri can slaves wo rking in a sugar mill, c. 1800s). [Edicio nes Sa ntill ana, 2008]
after studying English for two years, leaves the city to attend medical school at the ----1 1875
University of Michigan. He graduated at the top of his class, went back to Puerto
Rico to practice medicine, and also became involved in politics. After the U.S. inva-
I
In Puerto Rico , supporters of autonomy or independence from Spain continue to face
sion of Puerto Rico, Barbosa founded the Partido Republicano Puertorriqueiio 1887 ~ persecution , imprisonment, or exile. Many emigrate to New York City and other U.S.
[Puerto Rican Republican Party] (1899), which for several decades was the main
cities, or to countries in Latin America and Europe.
supporter of the U.S. regime and eventual statehood for Puerto Rico.
(Ph oto of Ba rbosa). [PD]
1880
I
1880s- 1920s
Expansion of the tobacco manufacturing industry in cities such as Tampa and
Afro-Puerto Rican journalist, writer, and typograph er Sotero Figueroa and his wife, lnocencia Martinez de San- Key West in Florida , New York City, and Philadelphia. Tobacco workers were a
taella, arrive in New York City where they join the Cuban and Puerto Rican separatist movement. Figueroa starts a progressive and militant artisan class of self-educated workers. They used to
printing press and a few years later becomes administrative editor of the newspaper Patria, founded by Cuban 1889 hire lectores [readers] at the fa ctories, turning their workplaces into halls of
patriotJose Marti in 1892. learning. Large numbers of Spaniards, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans worked in
U.S. tobacco factories and shops, including those in New York City.
(Photo of reader in a New Yo rk tobacco factory). [NYPL; PD]
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1891
Schomburg, worked in a printing shop in San Juan before migrating to New
Francisco Gonzalo "Pachln" Marin and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg arrive in New York and also join the separatist York City, where he joined the separatist movement and became one of the
movement. Marin, a typographer, journalist, and poet, revives his previously censored island newspaper El pos- founders and secretary of the Club Dos Antillas [The Two Islands]. In the
tilion [The Messenger], and turns it into an advocate of revolution against Spanish colonial rule. early 1900s, Schomburg, became a collector and bibliographer of the Afri-
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Founding in New York of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (PRC) [Cuban Revo-
---- 1891
I can experience around the world. The Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture ofthe New York Public Library bears his name.
lutionary Party] by Jose Marti. Other separatist groups emerged, such as Club (P hot o of Sc homburg). [NYPL; PD]
Borinquen, started by Puerto Rican male expatriates, the Puerto Rican and Cuban 1892
Club Las DosAntillas, and the women's group Club Mercedes Varona. I r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 1895 1
1895 r-1-.J The Seccion de Puerto Rico [Puerto Rico Branch] of the Partido Revolucionario
1896 Cubano is founded in New York City. This year also marks the outbreak of Cuba's
The women's separatist group, Club Hermanas de Rlus Rivera, is established in Second War of Independence from Spain. Secci6n members Julio J. Henna and
New York by lnocencia Martinez Santaella and others. The Club bears the name Roberto H. Todd supported Puerto Rico's independence from Spain, but later on
of a Puerto Rican General who fought in the wars for Cuban independence from also supported the U.S. takeover of the island and its annexation to the United
Spain. Exiled from Puerto Rico and then Cuba by Spanish officials, Lola Rodriguez States.
(Photo of members of t he Directory of t he Secci6n: left t o right: Manuel Besosa, Juan de Mata Terre-
de Tio settles in New York with her husband and daughter, and was elected Vice ---- 1896 fort e, Julio J. Hen na, Ro bert o H. Todd, and Sotero Fi g ueroa). [PD]
President of this Club. The Club engaged in fund -raising activities to support the I Spain granted a Charter of Autonomy that allowed self-government for Pu erto Rico, although the island
Cuban rebel troops with medicines and other supplies.
(Photo of Martinez Santaella, c. m id-1800s, from Patriotas cuba nos by Ana Marfa Lujan, 2007).
1897 f - - remained a province of Spain.
Poster Content: The Puerto Rican Heritage Poster Series was developed by Dr. Edna Acosta-Belen , Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies (LACS) and Women's Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY.
- Poster Series D!l.sign by Jo! geJ isb Rddriguez
Acknowledgments: We want to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the Centro Library and Archives and Centro Publications staff; of doctoral student Jacqueline Hayes at the Center for Latino, latin American , and Caribbean Studies (CELAC) and Dr. Hui-Shien Tsao at the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis (CSDA), University at Albany, SUNY; and of Professors Virginia sanchez
Korrol at Brooklyn eollege, Edwin Melendez and Edgardo Melendez at Hunter College, Carlos Rodriguez Fraticelli at the University of Puerto Rico-Rfo Piedras, and Christine E. Bose at the University at Albany, SUNY.
Other Photo Sources: AP (Associated Press); CPMP (Clinton Presidential Materials Project); EAB (Edna Acosta-Belen Personal Collection); ED-LP (EI Diario-l a Prensa); ENOl (EI Nuevo Dfa); FLMM (Fundaci6n luis Mufioz Marfn); ICP (lnstituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia); MOB (Museo del Barrio); NPRP (National Puerto Rican Parade); NYPL (New York Public library); PD (Public Domain);
PRCC (Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center) ; UPRPC (University of Puerto Rico Photographic Collection).