journal of jesuit studies 6 (2019) 676-698 brill.com/jjs How an Irish-American Priest Became Puerto Rican of the Year: Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J., and the Puerto Ricans Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J. St. Peter’s University, New Jersey
[email protected] Abstract One of the first and largest migrations of Latin Americans to the United States occurred from Puerto Rico to New York City in the 1950s. At its height in 1953, the Great Puerto Rican Migration saw some seventy-five thousand Puerto Ricans settled in the great metropolis, and by 1960 there were over half a million New Yorkers of Puerto Rican ancestry in the city. The exodus transformed the capital of the world and taxed its social fabric and institutions. Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J. (1913–95), a Harvard-trained sociologist teaching at Fordham University in the Bronx, played a key role in helping both New York City, its people and social institutions, respond with compassion and creativity to this upheaval. This article chronicles Fitzpatrick’s involvement with the Puerto Ricans for over three decades as priest, public intellectual, and advocate on behalf of the newcomers, and social researcher. Keywords Joseph P. Fitzpatrick – New York City – Catholic sociology – Great Puerto Rican Migration – Puerto Ricans – Puerto Rico – Cardinal Spellman – Ivan Illich 1 Introduction Beginning after World War ii and continuing through the 1950s, one of the larg- est migrations of people occurred from Puerto Rico to New York City, known as the Great Puerto Rican Migration. At its height in 1953, some seventy-five thousand Puerto Ricans settled in the great metropolis, and by 1960 there were © Claudio M.