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WHAT IS THIS PAGE ABOUT?
We are establishing a digital Puerto Rican Diaspora museum and you can be part of it right from the start. Join us and be a founding voice in this journey of discovery, rediscovery and assertion about who we are, how we count as a unique population within the mainstream USA contributing to
the well-being and enrichment of all its citizens. Tell us your stories and help us affirm the undeniable history of the Puerto Rican Diasporic journey going back centuries and, yet, always new in its ongoing iterations from the archipelago comprising Puerto Rico to the mainland and back. Share the evidence found within your own personal universe and link it to the hundreds of thousand other Puerto Rican stories to build the familial quilt of connection, whether your history began in Puerto Rico; or in one of the many states with large Puerto Rican populations,
such as: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or elsewhere. Our purpose is simply stated yet rich and broad in how it will be carried out.
OUR COMMITMENT
The National Puerto Rican Diaspora Museum (NPRDM) will work closely with local communities in the development of cultural and educational programs, addressing the needs and interests of all generations and groups.
Our work will reflect the history of the Puerto Ricans and their Diaspora. We will have programs designed to address these concerns at every level with the expressed purpose of recapturing and preserving the oral and written history of the Puerto Rican people and ensuring the preservation of materials, artifacts, art, and documents, as well as the contributions to the United States by this community at every level of society.
The National Puerto Rican Diaspora Museum will establish close ties to sister organizations on the island of Puerto Rico and other regions, so as to enhance and create seamless links between a culture that is not two but one. It will be our mission to promote, in this manner, the continued evolution of Puerto Rican culture wherever it takes place.
Our website, although active, is currently still under construction, building the storage capacity to accept your digital uploads in support of your research and findings. In the meantime, this section will provide information on how to start collecting data and stories so you are ready to share by the time our platform is ready.
ANECDOTAL STORIES AND SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:
The crux of our project is to identify and record the many contributions made to the USA, as well as to other lands, by the people of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. The stories you gather, the artifacts you identify and photograph, will tell the stories. These are not made up stories but stories that gather strength in their retelling from one generation to the next in what is called Anecdotal Story Telling. Anecdotal stories confirm historical fact by weight of how far back they can be traced, who you got the story from, how the story holds together through the years, and the retelling – especially from one generation to another. Share a cherished family heirloom with us. Explain its significance, its journey through generations, and any memorable stories attached to it. Whether it's a piece of jewelry, an antique furniture item, a photograph, or any other artifact*, you can delve into the rich history and personal connections that make it a treasured part of your family's legacy and Puerto Rican Diaspora heritage.
THE CHALLENGE
Are you a connector between the past and the future of your Puerto Rican heritage? Where is here for you? Start with the city block or village or community you live in. Is it within a district, county, or parish? What’s the name of the city? In what state of the union is it? Just ponder, wonder, be curious.
You most probably don’t have to go any further than your livingroom or some other room in the place where you live to find the evidence that supports where you came from along with how you got there and why. It is our hope that your journey through this portal will poke your curiosity, bring up questions, and open you to receive information that may change how you see yourself and those around you.
You can record your findings in writing and/or with photographs. You will learn how to identify items that tell a story. In this role, these identified items are called *artifacts. They hold history and memories of your heritage and culture. Sometimes, they serve to keep families and communities together.
These artifacts are proof and give testimony to the passage of our people through the centuries. Your role, if you accept the challenge, is to find out what these artifacts tell you about you, your family, and your distant little motherland in the Caribbean Sea.