Puerto Rican Community Archives

The Puerto Rican Community Archives (PRCA) is the single comprehensive resource registering the history, culture, and contributions of this previously underdocumented community of twentieth century migrants in New Jersey. The PRCA has acquired thirty-three valuable collections of historical records. These collections are currently being processed and made available to researchers.

Hispanic Reference Center

Four New Jersey Latino Community Profiles (Dominicans, Ecuadorians, Cubans and Colombians) have been researched and drafted as part of an NJHRIC Research Fellowship Program for graduate students. Once edited and published, these profiles will become part of the specialized collection of reference and research materials on the Hispanic population in New Jersey available at the Hispanic Reference Center.

Innovative Programs

Instituted a youth archival project, Organizing Our Community's Records, that introduces young people to the practice of preserving community historical records at a grassroots level. The NJHRIC works in partnership with Latino organizations in New Jersey, offering workforce development training to high school students designed to identify and organize Latino heritage archival collections.

Statewide Outreach

Over the past nine years, the NJHRIC has sponsored a variety of programs and activities for the benefit of the community at a statewide level. These activities have raised public awareness of the history and contributions of Latinos in the United States and provided innovative educational opportunities for the general public. In 2009, the NJHRIC:

• Partnered with the Newark Museum to present the documentary, Antonia Pantoja: ¡Presente! that explores the life of the founder of ASPIRA, the New-York based Latino advocacy group created to challenge the accepted educational and cultural mores of the 1950s and 1960s.
• Began to digitize the collection from the Latino Oral History Project that chronicles the life stories of New Jersey’s diverse Latino leaders.
• The Library has received a grant award from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities to continue processing the Olga J. Wagenheim ?Papers, Oral History, and Media Collection, the single largest collection of personal papers donated to the PRCA.
• Visited Latino organizations statewide to introduce the NJHRIC to our diverse communities and to underscore the importance of conserving heritage collections.

Community Support

The development of the NJHRIC has been possible thanks to an ongoing partnership between the Newark Public Library and a Latino Support Network established by Dr. Olga Jiménez Wagenheim, Professor Emerita, Rutgers University, and currently chaired by José R. Acevedo. The mission of the NJHRIC Support Network is to assist in the continued development of the Center via fundraising and programmatic support, and to create awareness of the importance of documenting the history of Latinos in New Jersey.

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An account has been established to help raise funds for the New Jersey Hispanic Research and Information Center. Please send contributions to:

The Newark Public Library
Development Dept./NJHRIC
5 Washington St., P.O. Box 630
Newark, New Jersey 07101-0630
(please make check payable to: The Newark Public Library—NJHRIC)

or donate online at:
www.npl.org/Pages/AboutLibrary/giveoptions.html.