The Sugar Cane Aguador "The Waterboy" -- Puerto Rico Circa 1944

Click the title link to see the full 116 photo "La Plata, Oct. 1944-Aug. 1947" collection by Dr. H. Clair Amstutz, a Mennonite medical missionary. These photos put images -- and in color -- to the stories told by our parents and grandparents.

Gerry Vázquez on Facebook

Frank Espada: The Puerto Rican Diaspora

“Frank [Espada]’s work is profoundly humanistic. Stereotypes about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans are so deeply embedded in mainstream U.S. culture that even some Puerto Ricans have started to believe them. Frank’s images dispel all that. He does it in a dignified way, yet without becoming sentimental or romantic.” [Pablo] Delano, Trinity College, Hartford

Photo: Paloma, Hartford, 1980
Source: The Puerto Rican Diaspora by Frank Espada

Puerto Rico in the '40s

This lovely photo montage captures what my parents shared w/me and my siblings through stories, song and traditions about life on the island in the '40s. It's quite emotional for those of us of the Great Migration.

Also, I suspect many of our fellow Latino migrants--especially today's abused immigrant workers--can relate as well.