Xavier “Xavi” Luis Burgos

From small and concentrated exiled communities of tobacco workers to entire, scattered metropolises defined by our presence, the people of Borinquen in the US - the Puerto Rican Diaspora - have transformed the concept of a “homeland.” In the Diaspora our most sacred symbol was created: the Puerto Rican flag on December 22, 1895. During that month, 113 years later, a group of 50 Boricuas, mostly high school and university students, from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School (PACHS) on Paseo Boricua, Chicago visited New York City for the third year in a row to celebrate and honor that history and to make connections with the other side of the Diaspora.
“The realities that we face as a marginalized people are complex. Trips like the one to New York allow us to take steps towards understanding that complexity,” says Erica Granados De La Rosa, 18, a junior at Loyola University.

A Chicago-based Batey Urbano theatrical piece that is making earthquakes in the political and artistic scenes, “Crime Against Humanity,” premiered at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx to nearly 300 spectators. The play is a series of monologues that tearfully and joyfully details the multiple hardships of nearly a dozen of the Puerto Rican political prisoners.
Our Paseo Boricua group also visited the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, the oldest and most prestigious Puerto Rican archival and library institution in the country. PACHS also participated in a Three Kings Day workshop at the Museo del Barrio, the only Latina/o-focused art museum in the city.

As ambassadors of the Paseo Boricua community, students of PACHS developed an increased sense of pride in their school. Shouts of “Albizu Campos!” filled the streets, subways wherever the students went. They returned to Chicago with a newfound interest in creative cultural expression and will be working on a youth poetry compilation called the “Paseo Boricua Renaissance.”

This trip was also the first time that a coalition of Boricua and Latina/o university students from Chicago met with Puerto Rican student organizations in New York. The new university student coalition, M.L.I, met with members of Acción Boricua at Columbia University for a dialogue of student issues and a way to solidify a Diaspora student network. One of the members Raúl “Rulis” Serrano, 18, who is a freshman at Northeastern Illinois University commented that, “It helped me see education as not only a key to success but a way to understand social injustices.”

For our final day we participated in an annual event in honor of the Puerto Rican flag, as special guests of the influential Bronx politician Assemblyman José Rivera, which also happens to be around his birthday. The event takes place in the grand auditorium of Hostos Community College, an institution birthed and maintained from the struggle of the Puerto Rican community in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. With the carnivalesque sounds of the trumpets and panderetas, the celebration showcased multiple Puerto Rican forms of music.

“I believe the New York trip was important because… I was given the chance to learn about my history and my culture…” says Jessie Fuentes, 17, a senior at PACHS. “The trip was a real eye opener. The many young people [on the trip were] so well rounded and passionate about their community and education…” says Serrano.

Students from the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School have been working as curators. They are helping to plan and organize the first-ever exhibit of Puerto Rican materials at the Newberry Library, an internationally known cultural institution and research library in Chicago. In March, the students from Saul Melendez’s Puerto Rican Cultural and History class all received reader’s cards and were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the climate-controlled building where the rare and valuable materials in the library are stored. Since then, the student curators have worked to research and select the final objects to be shown, grouping the objects into themes, and crafting the final exhibit descriptions. The students had access to the library’s large collection of Puerto Rican materials including Spanish manuscripts from the 1600s, original rarely seen photographs, government documents, resources for tracing family histories, and maps from the Spanish-American War. “Few students get to handle things that are even a hundred years old, but we got to handle things that are four hundred years old,” remarked Warren Elmore, a student in Mr. Melendez’s class.

This has been a special opportunity for both the students as well as for the Newberry, as it is the first time high school students have ever curated an exhibit at the research institution. The goal of the exhibit, entitled “Puerto Rican History through the Eyes of Others,” was to allow students to learn how to do research using primary sources. It also provided students an opportunity to engage with history by speaking back to those who have tried to describe and define Puerto Rico over the centuries.
The exhibit came out of an ongoing collaboration with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Community Informatics Initiative. Some of the student curators will also be participating in this year’s “Community as Intellectual Space” conference hosted by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in collaboration with the University of Illinois. A reception for “Puerto Rican History through the Eyes of Others” will take place on June 11, 2008 at the Newberry Library (60 W. Walton Street). All are invited to celebrate the opening of this exhibit, which will be open to the public through July 12.

On April 16, a classmate of mine, María Ramos and I, were hand chosen to accompany Lourdes Lugo, the Director of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School (PACHS) and Alejandro Molina to Springfield to help represent our school. YCCS (Youth Connection Charter Schools) organized to have a meeting regarding funding for alternative schools. Our two-night stay was an amazing experience as I was able to bond with Lourdes and Alejandro, as well as see the world of politics.

As we entered the Capitol I was immediately overwhelmed with seeing so many businessmen and women and the beautiful architecture of the building. Our first stop was to meet with State Rep. Cynthia Soto. She greeted all of us with a hug and kiss, which was warm and inviting. Our second stop was to State Senator Iris Martínez’s office, in which Lourdes and Alejandro took the initiative to discuss the problematic issues in alternative schools and why we needed these funds. I can remember sitting there watching her speak and taking quick glances around her office. She had pictures of her along with the representation of the Bandera Puertorriqueña. Our last stop was with State Senator William Delgado and he was a true character. As he drank his warm coffee, he overlooked the paper work and charts from YCCS, while he did that I took the time to look around at his office and began to wonder how this world of politics actually worked.

I appreciated this trip and felt honored to actually have had a chance to visit the state capital and meet with important people who actually grew up in the Puerto Rican community and hav helped make a difference. This opportunity was never given to me at my old school, Bloomington High School. I also became emotional at one point because meeting these people and getting recognized by them is such an inspiration to continue my education.

I can remember State Rep. Cynthia Soto commenting that Latino and African American students are the next generation to conquer the world and to keep working to succeed in life. Through out my struggles I am going strong and with the support of my aunt Teresita Rosario, my cousin Angela Román, and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School. I have them to thank and will acknowledge them when I succeed in life.

For the past two years, May 1st has been the day that thousands of people demand the rights of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. This May 1st, nearly 20,000 marched from Union Park to Downtown Chicago. Over 250 Puerto Ricans, including many youth from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School, marched from Humboldt Park. The fleeter march began with a press conference at Adalberto Methodist Church on Paseo Boricua where undocumented mother Flor Crisostomo is in sanctuary.

Jodene Velázquez

On March 9, before a crowd of over 100, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) organized a multifaceted International Women’s Day celebration that was intergenerational, educational, and of symbolic importance for our community.

The event began with opening comments by the Director of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School, Lourdes Lugo, who passionately conveyed the historical role of Puerto Rican women in the independence movement. As part of the “100×35” campaign, Lugo also spoke on the example of national poet and leader Juan Antonio Corretjer, who supported the women’s liberation struggle in Puerto Rico, which at his time was very uncommon. Her comments were followed by a brief, but informative presentation by the coordinator of the National Boricua Human Rights Network, Michelle Morales. Morales spoke on the issue of incarceration, as specifically experienced by the female Puerto Rican political prisoners during which they suffered blatant human rights violations. Some of the audience members were visibly impacted by their story of hardship, but even more so by their unbreakable love of freedom.

The program continued with a courageous presentation by the students of the Lolita Lebrón Family Learning Center describing a project they engaged in through their Women’s History course. The project, which touched on stereotypes women face on a regular basis. A member of Batey Urbano’s coordinating collective, Janeida Rivera, stressed the need to include LGBTQ realities in the discourse of feminism, which she argued must combat not only sexism, but also heterosexism and homophobia.

Along with presentations, the IWD event also featured several cultural acts, the first of which was several scenes from the new play, “Crime Against Humanity.” These scenes, preformed by young Boricua women, brought further to life the experiences described by Michelle Morales.

Another highlight was the hilarious and entertaining performance by local Puerto Rican poet, Johanny Vazquez Paz. She recited works from her new book, Old Streetwise Poems, which is a collection of poems based on her migration to the US and her experience living in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. In addition, Judy Diaz recited two poems by Juan Antonio Corretjer as homage to his centennial and commitment to the women’s struggle.

The final portion of the Sunday morning event was a walk to the Adalberto Methodist Church. At the church, Emma Lozano, president of Centro Sin Fronteras, gave a powerful account about the deep solidarity between Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, particularly as expressed by the longstanding relationship between activists from the PRCC and CSF. Following her, all present were moved by sincere words of Flor Crisostomo, who is currently living in sanctuary at the church because of the broken immigration laws of the US. Crisostomo, who has picked up the torch after Elvira Arellano was deported last August, provided a touching account of her experience as an undocumented indigenous woman and the impact of NAFTA on Mexico. She concluded her comments to a standing ovation by all present.

International Women’s Day on Paseo Boricua proved to be a historic moment for participants and the organizers who hope to continue to make this community event part of the annual events in our community.

On Friday, March 14 more than 300 people convened at Rebaño Compañerismo Cristiano Church to honor Latina women in Humboldt Park. The purpose of the event, hosted by the Humboldt Park Breast and Cervical Health Partnership, was to launch an initiative to raise awareness around the issues of breast and cervical cancer and to improve the utilization of life-saving screening procedures such as Mammography and Pap Smears among Latinas in this community.

The breast cancer mortality rate (number of women dying from breast cancer) in Humboldt Park is 34.3/100,000 women, this is 50% higher than the rate for the city of Chicago which is 22.6 per 100,000 women. In fact, of the 77 community areas in Chicago, Humboldt Park’s breast cancer mortality rate ranks 15th worst – higher than 62 other communities.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Aida Giachello, founder and director of the UIC JACSW Midwest Latino Health Research, Training, and Policy Center, spoke to all those present about the importance of women taking charge of their health and the critical role of community collaboration in addressing health problems such as breast and cervical cancer.

In addition to the more than 200 women present that day were Steven Guerra, the highest ranking Latino in Governor Blagojevich’s administration, Dr. Damon Arnold, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, State Senator Willie Delgado, State Senator Iris Martinez, and State Rep Cynthia Soto.

While all of the speakers gave excellent and informative presentations the most compelling and inspiring stories came from the survivors who shared their personal stories and struggles with the group. They included Michael O’Grady, CEO of Norwegian American Hospital, Maddi Elga Amill, Director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, Emma Lozano, Director of Centro Sin Fronteras, Cynthia Guerrero, and Wilma Santiago. At times their stories of hope and survival moved, the entire audience to tears. Rebaño’s Pastora
Lynette Santiago made powerful and insightful concluding remarks about faith, hope, and community in the process of confronting breast and cervical cancer.

The Humboldt Park Breast and Cervical Health Partnership is comprised of representatives from the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program (IBCCP), Sinai Health System, the Greater Humboldt Park Community of Wellness, Rebaño Compañerismo Cristiano Church, Pedro Albizu Campos High School/Alternative Schools Network, the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. The event was sponsored by Norwegian American Hospital, Goya Foods, Banco Popular, and Boca Ad Agency. The event was presented by the Illinois Department of Public Health in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.