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Aspira in the Sixties and the Coming of Age of the Stateside Puerto Rican Community Centro Journal, Vol Centro Journal ISSN: 1538-6279 [email protected] The City University of New York Estados Unidos Nuñez, Louis Reflections on Puerto Rican History: Aspira in the Sixties and the Coming of Age of the Stateside Puerto Rican Community Centro Journal, vol. XXI, núm. 2, 2009, pp. 33-47 The City University of New York New York, Estados Unidos Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37720842003 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative CENTRO Journal Volume7 xx1 Number 2 fall 2009 MEMORIES MEMORIES Reflections on Puerto Rican History: Aspira in the Sixties and the Coming of Age of the Stateside Puerto Rican Community LOUIS NUÑEZ ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the development of Aspira from a small organization to the first national educational and leadership development institution in the Puerto Rican community in the United States. Written from the perspective of an early staff member who became the executive director and later the first national executive director of Aspira, the paper assesses the impact that Aspira had in the emergence of a new leadership among the youth of the rapidly growing stateside Puerto Rican community. [Key words: Aspira, Puerto Ricans in the United States, youth, leadership program, development, heritage] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] Speaking at the Aspira of America Annual dinner (1972). Photographer unknown. The Louis Nuñez Papers. Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY. Reprinted by permission. “New Leaders for New York” [Title of original proposal leading to founding of Aspira] It is clear from its beginnings, that the vision of Antonia Pantoja, the founder of Aspira, was not only to create a youth agency and to foster postsecondary education, but also to create a new leadership for the community. The founding of the agency, in 1961, also witnessed the beginning of the coming of age for stateside Puerto Ricans as they changed from a community largely based in New York, to one spread across the country. The post-World War II period had been difficult for the rapidly growing community. The conventional view was that Puerto Ricans comprised a poverty-stricken New York community with little chance for advancement. These views were reinforced by the media and such popular works as West Side Story, Down These Mean Streets, and Oscar Lewis’s study, La Vida, a portrait of a Puerto Rican family at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. It was not that these and many other books and articles were inaccurate, but that they presented a one- sided negative view of what was by then the fastest growing ethnic community in the city. However, this image, as well as the realities of the social and economic conditions, began to change during this period. The United States as a whole experienced perhaps the most significant social and economic changes in the modern era. This was especially true for racial and ethnic minorities across the country. The elections of John F. Kennedy, followed by Lyndon B. Johnson, and the emergence of Martin Luther King as a national leader, all had a profound effect on all groups confronting prejudice, discrimination and lack of opportunity. The War on Poverty, the Civil Rights movement and the radical change in attitude as to the role of young people and what they could accomplish, through such confrontational tactics as civil disobedience, had a direct impact on the future prospects of all these groups. [ 34 ] For the Puerto Rican community, the founding of Aspira, its first non-profit professionally staffed leadership development and educational institution, played MEMORIES a major role in changing the attitudes as well as the prospects for the community. Puerto Ricans had begun migrating to New York since the beginning of the 20th century; mass migration began at the end of World War II. Puerto Ricans were the latest of a long line of newcomers to the city who had to overcome similar prejudices and stereotypes in their quest to become fully participating members of the city. In her study From Colonia to Community: The History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York City, through the Fifties, Virginia Sánchez Korrol presents a different picture, describing a much more positive story of the early years of the community. The history of the migration was similar to that of many other ethnic, racial and national minorities, who during the 19th and early 20th century had moved to New York. Initially Puerto Ricans migrating to the states settled overwhelmingly in the city, but by 1960 they began to spread across the country. The 1960 census reported that 892,513 Puerto Ricans lived in the United States, of which 72 percent lived in New York City. By 1970 the total number had grown to 1,391,463 persons, and the percentage living in the city had declined to 59.2 percent. A KEY ORGANIZER OF THESE GROUPS WAS THE CHARISMATIC SOCIAL WORKER, ANTONIA PaNTOJA. To serve the needs of this growing community, the government of Puerto Rico, in the Forties, had established a Migration Office to assist migrants in the states with the challenges of assimilation into the mainstream. Until Aspira was founded, this was the only agency, in the city and across the country, with a mandate to serve the needs of the community. There was a problem, however, for by the early Sixties it became evident that the needs of the growing community, especially the second generation, were not exactly the same as the needs of Puerto Ricans living on the island or the recent arrivals. Although the Migration Office offered valuable services in terms of employment and social services, it began to run into problems in its efforts to guide the development of a community leadership. The emergence of a small but significant college-educated group of second-generation Puerto Ricans, who had different ideas as to what was needed to advance the community, presented a challenge to the Migration Office. By 1960 this new generation had founded the Hispanic Young Adult Association, which later became the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs. Also created was the Puerto Rican Hispanic Leadership Forum, which is now the National Puerto Rican Forum. Dedicated to the betterment of the community, these voluntary organizations developed projects in such areas as community organization and political development. A key organizer of these groups was the charismatic social worker, Antonia Pantoja. In her autobiography, Memoirs of a Visionary, she relates the history of the period and her work at the New York Commission on Intergroup Relations, leading to the establishment of Aspira. [ 35 ] The Commission, a city agency, had been established to enable the city government, recognizing the rapid growth of both the African-American and Puerto Rican communities, to lessen potential group conflicts among these growing groups and the many other older and more established groups in the city. Encouraged by the Commission’s director, Frank Horne, to develop a project that would begin to affect the future of the growing Puerto Rican community, Ms. Pantoja proposed a project that would, through leadership training and educational development, lead to a new leadership for the city and community. This project became the basis for the establishment of Aspira. The Puerto Rican Hispanic Leadership Forum became the initial sponsoring organization for Aspira. Its mission of fostering leadership for the whole community and developing specific projects to foster this goal fit with the mission of Aspira. Underlying these goals was the premise that if the community was to progress, individual success had to be translated into group progress. Based on her background as a teacher, social worker and her experiences in organizing community groups, as well as an assessment of the almost complete failure of the public school system to provide an adequate education for the vast majority of Puerto Ricans students, Pantoja developed a project to deal with this priority concern. The overriding philosophy guiding the “New Leaders for New York” project was developmental in approach. Rather then just dealing with the educational deficits of the youth to be served, the Aspira process would focus not on remedial programs, not on preventative programs, but on building on the innate strengths of young people. These included their desire to join together and work towards a common purpose, as well as their desire to feel pride in their culture and heritage. They would also be given the opportunity of functioning as a leader. ASPIRA OPENED IN 1961 AFTER RECEIVING GRANTS FROM FIVE FOUNDATIONS, THE ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND, THE NEW YORK FOUNDATION, THE FIELD FOUNDATION, THE HOFHEIMER FOUNDATION AND THE TaCONIC FOUNDATION. Aspira in New York “We wanted an upbeat name, one word to express belief in one’s self. The word Aspira was finally selected. It was chosen because to aspire is upbeat. We all wished the meaning would be I will aspire and I will attain. The Spanish command form aspira, of the verb aspirar was perfect” (From Memoirs of a Visionary, Antonia Pantoja). This vision led to the development of such specific programs as the Aspira Clubs and Federation, and the Areyto ceremony and annual seminars in Puerto Rico. [ 36 ] Other developments included programs such as group and career counseling on the need to stay in school and pursue postsecondary education, and programs to MEMORIES connect students with role models, members of the community, who while of similar backgrounds, and despite many obstacles, had achieved some career success.
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