“Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies” tours Boston!
MAEE candidates Irmaris Rosas and Fabiola Barrera, faculty member Jocelyn A. Géliga Vargas, and community leaders Alfredo González and Carlos Delgado recently traveled to Boston to present our ongoing research, Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies: An Oral History Project in Western Puerto Rico. We were invited by a diverse group of scholars, community activists and educators.
Our first speaking engagement was coordinated by the Latino Heritage Month Committee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and took place on October 14. The following day we offered a more extensive and intensive presentation in the W.E.B. Du Bois Fellows’ Colloquia, organized by the Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. On October 16, we were invited by the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to offer a formal presentation to students, scholars and community leaders and to lead a “conversatorio” or discussion with Latin@ high school students and their mentors. Finally, on October 17, we concluded our tour with an engaging and festive presentation at La Hora del Café, a monthly community forum devoted to the dissemination of Latin@ art, culture and education initiatives.
Earlier in October, we presented our project at the 8th Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference in San Juan, PR. Last June Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies traveled to Cuba to present our work at the Nuevos Talleres Internacionales de Estudios Regionales y Locales, held at the Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas in Santa Clara.