The PRCC is named after Juan Antonio Corretjer, the celebrated Puerto Rican national poet laureate and one of the most significant political theorists of the 20th century. The PRCC was established within the historical context of the building of communities of resistance initiated, following the Spanish conquest of Puerto Rico, by our Taino forebearers, runaway African slaves, and marginalized populations, such as the Moors and Sephardic Jews. Throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, this practice was carried out in the hinterlands, mountains, and other marginal geographical areas by people known as cimarrones.
These Maroon societies became a place where people gathered to address the critical problems confronting them, where they recovered a sense of their history, and where they created a syncretic cultural production, such as music, poetry, and performances. In that tradition, the PRCC carries out a process of concientización, meaning that it educates, organizes, and struggles for the social, economic, and political empowerment of Puerto Ricans within a holistic and organic context. Thus, all of the PRCC’s programs literally constitute an umbrella meeting the needs of our community, which at the same time encourages participants to think critically about their reality and promotes an ethic of self-reliance based on social responsibility. These programs address diverse issues, including wellness, social, educational, cultural, and quality of life matters, for Puerto Rican/Latino and other marginalized communities. Our programs take on HIV/AIDS, education, literacy, housing, substance abuse, gang violence, teen pregnancy, police brutality, economic marginalization, economic and community development, human rights violations, and the devastation created by generational and historical trauma.
The PRCC promotes the principles of self-actualization, self-determination, and self-reliance for the Puerto Rican/Latino community through the study, recovery, and celebration of Puerto Rican culture. These efforts are devotedly undertaken through programs and annual events such as The Three Kings Day celebration, the Casita de Don Pedro project, the Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade, Fiesta Boricua, Haunted Paseo Boricua, the Community as a Campus initiative, El Rescate Transitional Living Space for LGBTQ+ Youth, the Lisa Isadora Cruz Transgender Empowerment Center, the Nancy Franco Maldonado Paseo Boricua Arts Building, the Consuelo Lee Corretjer Child Care Center, as well as public arts, mural projects, and other cultural initiatives. The PRCC, in collaboration with other affiliate organizations, has also played a key role in human rights campaigns, including the defense of political prisoners, the struggle for peace in Vieques, the advocacy for undocumented immigrants, and the fight against the criminalization of youth.
Born in the period following the 1966 Division Street riots, the PRCC addresses fundamental needs in the Puerto Rican/Latino communities of Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and Hermosa Park. Throughout our existence, our programs and affiliates have graduated thousands of community residents, trained dozens of adolescent peers, helped bridge the digital divide in a culturally relevant manner, and instilled hundreds of potential young community leaders with an emerging, holistic vision of community wellness and stability.
Founded in 1972, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center has been instrumental in the creation of Paseo Boricua, as it is known—the economic, political, and cultural hub of the Puerto Rican community in the Midwest. It encapsulates the historical efforts of the same to resist gentrification through efforts such as the establishment of Puerto Rico Town. As part of Chicago’s Puerto Rican Agenda, it contributes to organizing relief efforts after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, especially in Loiza and Comerio.
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For the past 50 years, the work of the PRCC has been shaped by a socio-ecological model, which recognizes the interplay among key factors, including social justice, community and institutional building, policy, advocacy, environmental justice, education, housing, and access to equitable healthcare.
