We previously announced Centro’s 40th Anniversary Celebration [see Hunter College’s Center for Puerto Rican Studies Celebrates 40th Anniversary]. The celebration took place this evening (well, it’s still going on as I write) with a reception in the lobby area of the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work, 2180 Third Avenue in New York. Part of the reception was dedicated to honoring the Center for Puerto Rican Studies’ new donors.

Centro exceeded its goal of having 100 Puerto Rican men, women and organizations from communities across the nation donate their papers and/or oral histories to the Centro Archives . Their contributions will further enrich this already famous repository of history and culture.

Centro explains: “The aim of the 100 Puerto Ricans campaign is to encourage individuals and organizations that have made a difference in the Puerto Rican community to donate to the Archives and help fill gaps in our collections. The 100 new collections, along with our current ones, become our collective memory – the story of what we did, how we did it, and how we felt as Puerto Ricans living on the mainland. The collections are about preserving our unique culture and disseminating it as part of the American historical narrative. And the more numerous and broad based our collections, the more they will help provide historians, other researchers, writers, and anyone interested in our past with the broadest and truest basis for their work.”

At the ceremony, Centro Director Edwin Meléndez presented the Salute to the 100 Puerto Ricans Campaign Honorees, many of whom who were in attendance. New York State Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez, New York State Senator Jose M. Serrano and New York City Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito also addressed the event.

Earlier in the evening, Centro presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Miguel Algarín, poet, writer, co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café and retired Rutgers University professor of English, and Myriam Colón, actress and founder, president and artistic director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre.

Centro’s events are usually live streamed. If you can’t attend, visit their website at Centro Live Stream Event to view their events live. To watch past Centro events, visit http://youtube.com/centropr.