Barrios

It’s hard to miss the cabezudos that line the hallway of the Loisaida Center once you pass through the entrance, giant papier-mâché versions of Loisaida icons Bimbo Rivas, Tato Laviera, Jorge Brandon, Armando Pérez and Carmen Pabón staring at you, waiting to come alive, harnessed atop the head of a lively surrogate. It is a tradition adopted from the Puerto Rican heritage of the neighborhood, an...

For a people or a family, photographs are as important as stories in building a collective history. As a Puerto Rican professor in Central Pennsylvania, I am acutely aware of the negative mental images and narratives that many white Pennsylvanians have of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos. My own photography Caras de Lebanon wanted to counter those images with Latinos enriching the region through...

Each year, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade chooses an “Honored Stateside Community” to highlight during the parade. In 2016, that designation went to Florida, which has the fastest growing Puerto Rican population in the country—one million and counting (for more information on the Puerto Rican population of Florida, click here). For the 60th edition of the parade, however, that honor belongs...

The San Sebastián Street Festival in Puerto Rico, or La SanSe, which dates back to 1954, has made its way stateside in recent years, with 2017 celebrations planned in Boston and Orlando. Fiestas de la Calle, Miami, which was scheduled for its second year, was canceled for logistical reasons (with the intention of returning in 2018). For those living in the Boston area, the Villa Victoria Center...