Images from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago now online!
Thanks to a generous Library Services & Technology Act grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, the Special Collections Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago recently completed a collaborative project with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago and the Graduate School of Information Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The grant funded the digitization of over 1000 images that document the history and the activities of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center Digital Collection illustrates the rich history of the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) in Chicago. The PRCC is a non-profit community based organization established in 1973 by the Puerto Rican and the Latina/o community in Chicago to address both the social and cultural needs of the community. The philosophy of the center emphasizes self-determination, self-actualization and the importance of critical thought. The Puerto Rican Cultural Center includes several affiliated organizations. These organizations include: the Consuelo Lee Corretjer Day Care Center; the Andres Figueroa Cordero Memorial Library and Community Information Center; Café Teatro Batey Urbano; La Voz del Paseo Boricua; Vida/SIDA, La Casita de Don Pedro; Co-op Humboldt Park; Humboldt Park Participatory Democracy Project; Lolita Lebron Family Center, Community Organized for Obesity Prevention Humboldt Park [COOP HP]; Barrio Arts, Communication and Cultural Academy [BACCA]; and the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School.
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center was located on North Claremont Avenue in the West Town neighborhood in Chicago before moving to its current location on West Division Street near Humboldt Park (in West Town). Two large steel Puerto Rican flags mark the half-mile strip of Division Street that is known as Paseo Boricua. The center is located on the west end of the strip.
Materials in the collection include printed documents (newspaper, flyers, programs and books), photographs, and ephemera produced and published by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and now housed in the Special Collections Department at UIC. These images are now accessible on the World Wide Web at www.uic.edu/depts/lib/prcc.
