The Puerto Rican Cultural Center Takes Its Place on Paseo Boricua

The following message is a reprint of the speech delivered by PRCC Executive Director José E. López during the dedication of the new Center’s building on November 17, 2002, where more than 400 people participated.

Today, we have gathered here to dedicate this new Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Juan Antonio Corretjer on Paseo Boricua — nearly three decades after this institution was founded, premised on the right of the self-determination, the self-actualization, and the self-reliance of the Puerto Rican community. Today, we add a new monument for our collective memory of the Puerto Rican presence and persistence on this street, which we popularly refer to as “La Division”.

It was here, in this building, that in 1966 our community gathered to reflect and to act upon the causes and consequences of the Puerto Rican riot and rebellion which had just taken place on this street.

It was here, in this building that some of the most important and momentous decisions that would shape the contours of our future course, as a community, were made in that watershed year of 1966.

It was here, in this building that a young Miguel Del Valle and other youth from the Spanish Action Committee met to create institutions like the Barreto Boys Club.

It was here, in this building that one of the oldest Puerto Rican newspapers in Chicago, Chicago Ahora, was published for many years.

It is against the above backdrop, and the need to preserve that memory that three years ago we purchased this building; and that today we dedicate it in the name of Puerto Rico’s most illustrious poet, and one of its most insightful political thinkers, Juan Antonio Corretjer. Thus, at this moment, and in this space, in your presence, we bring back to life the many struggles which this building conjures up, as well as the legacy of that towering figure of Puerto Rican letters and politics - Juan Antonio Corretjer. He was a man who was persecuted and vilified for his commitment to Puerto Rico’s independence. But, whose eternal presence we swore to keep alive for posterity, upon his deathbed on January 1985, by naming this Cultural Center after his namesake.

The Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center now becomes one more marker in the urban landscape, which we have imprinted upon the city’s cartography, as we lay claim to more than five decades of our presence within its limits. It joins the pantheon of cultural images which now adorn the new locality we have denominated as Paseo Boricua. From its gateways, which are formed by the world’s largest steel structured flags, to the many murals which decorate the walls; from its wrought iron banners which hang from its 50 light poles, and which beckon us to ancestral Taino, Spanish, and African elders; to its bronze Walk of Fame, enshrining the best interpreters of our sounds and rhythm; from its Casita de Don Pedro, which harkens us to our jibaro ruralia - home also to our beloved Albizu Statue; to the new facades which capture architectural elements of our “Viejo San Juan”. The Cultural Center, along with all these symbols, will serve to clearly denote our place as a community in the city. But, it will also be a place to welcome our non-Puerto Rican neighbors who come to enjoy our warm hospitality, and join us in the celebration of our constantly changing Puerto Rican heritage. We will welcome them, not as tourists to an exoticized Shangri-La, but as world travelers in this global city – not to the globalized, homogenized, Disney-esque city, which the unfettered, unscrupulous urban developers want to make of this great city. We are part of the building of the city of the future, which will dignify the true urban landscape with many communities, many languages, many cultures, and many colors -a quiltwork of varied cultural and racial experiences.

Forty-four years ago, on October 25th, 1959, to be exact, my family and I came to this city. I will never forget that day because I must have traveled a few hundred years. The Puerto Rico I left was a rural one. I didn’t know how to turn on a light switch. I did not know how to flush a toilet. I had never seen a gas space heater or a television, and had never talked on the phone or ridden in a car. The airplane flight was future shock. In one day I discovered all this. All this was new to me. I came to the city lights, the great urban metropolis of the 20th century America. But I came to live on the corner of Haddon and Wood, one block south of La Division; that place Puerto Ricans were coming to; that new barrio which was being carved from a once thriving Jewish and Polish ghetto.

The warmth of the tropical island was gone; the coldness of the city took over. We were strangers in this land. The old Polish ladies living on Haddon would line the street early in the morning so as to prevent us from using the sidewalk to walk to Andersen School. We were forced to walk in the street. Yet, on the corner of Haddon and Wood, where we, the Puerto Ricans lived, we felt safe. It was there that one day I took a piece of chalk and drew the Puerto Rican flag- I wrote “Puerto Rico”, and claimed that space for us in this forbidden land. I felt a great joy as I listened as the old Polish ladies passed my house and said - “look at that flag”, and then murmured, “Porto Rico”.

In 1995, we, the Puerto Ricans, erected the world’s largest monument to a flag on La Division, and encased our Paseo Boricua. Here, we built an anchor to our community, and as I saw the traffic come to a standstill in this city, on that January 6th, as these awe-inspiring monuments were being placed on La Division, I felt once again, that youthful glee and joy of my childhood.

Today, 44 years after my arrival in this city, I am proud to dedicate this brand new building which has cost $1.2 million to build, and with its accessories, will soon be valued at over $2 million. We have received not a penny from any government source, nor any foundation. Two million dollars that have come from the efforts and struggles of so many, who, like my dear friend, Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, went on collection drives with cans on hand, to keep it open in the 1970’s, and today as the most powerful, most influential Latino elected official in the entire Midwest, (and perhaps the U.S.) has donated $10,000 to make this new Cultural Center a reality.

I dedicate this building to the memory of my mother and father, and all of the mothers and fathers who made the sojourn from the tropical island filled with warmth and hospitality to the cold and forbidden city.

I dedicate this building to my brother, the Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, and to all the Puerto Rican political prisoners who have sacrificed so much for our community and our identity as Puerto Ricans.

I dedicate this building to all those who labored and toiled over the past three decades to keep the Puerto Rican Cultural Center open: Reverend Michael Yasutake, whose solidarity went beyond the call of duty, to Mariano del Valle, to Don Bernardo Rodríguez, to our beloved Antonio Ortiz who passed away last night, stepfather of ex-political prisoner Ricardo Jiménez.

I dedicate this building to all those who have served on the Board of Directors, especially our dear Viejo-Rev. Jose Alberto Torres.

I dedicate this building to all those who work in every program of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, and the People’s Parade, and La Casita de Don Pedro.

Most of all I want to dedicate this building to my grandchildren, and all the grandchildren who have attended the Consuelo Lee Corretjer Day Care, for they shall inherit these legacies. It is this new generation and generations to come, which will draw inspiration from these images of our collective memory, and kindling their imagination with their creativity, add new dimensions to our cultural expressions. This building, as well as the future, is theirs. They will participate in the remaking of a brand new world with magical urbanism.