The Puerto Rican Cultural Center, founded in 1972, is a 50 year+ old organization that has been foundational to the creation of Paseo Boricua, as it is known— the economic, political, and cultural capital 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.

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. Over the course of 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 imbued hundreds of potential young community leaders with an incipient, holistic vision of community wellness and stability.

Our programs fall into 4 categories: Education, Public Health, Housing and Economic Development. These include an HIV and STD education and prevention program, a bilingual-bicultural daycare, a small business incubator, housing and and entrepreneurship initiatives, a community newspaper, as well as sponsoring major annual events – a community parade, the Midwest’s largest Latino musical festival, a haunted community strip, a holiday parranda (caroling) and a winter festival. Locate the serivces you need in our Google Map.

José E. López, Executive Director and co-founder of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, was born in 1949 in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. In 1959, his family moved to Chicago as part of the massive Puerto Rican migration to the United States. José received his B.A. Cum Laude from Loyola University, his M.A. in History and the prestigious Danforth and Ford Fellowships to continue his postgraduate studies. He has lectured and written extensively on the political and social reality of Puerto Ricans in the United States. He co-founded several major community-based institutions, including Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School, an alternative school serving at-risk youth; El Rincon Community Mental Health Center; and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture.

At the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, our mission is to take actionable steps to engage our community working towards our self-determinatino, self-sufficiancy and self-reliance. Click on apply here to go to our job listings page at Indeed com..

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• Celebrate or Remember Others

• Establish a Donor Directed Contribution

• Leave a Legacy for Social Change

• Remember the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in your will.

The PRCC provides services everyday through its programs and partnerships. Our leadership is integral to this task and through PRCC program staff, excel and the training, outreach and provision of these services.

For decades, The Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) had hoped to preserve and archive its history, and the history of Puerto Rican Chicago for future generations. Now, as the recipient of a three-year grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), The PRCC will soon realize this dream and in the near future, an even more expansive program that will establish a community archive on the history of Puerto Rican Chicago. The PRCC archive is, in the words of the UCLA archivist Michelle Caswell, an “urgent archive,” an archive for the present. In face of gentrification and centuries of colonialism, the project will use the PRCC collection and its digitization to build community, deepen roots in our Humboldt Park barrio, and fuel the elaboration of decolonial alternatives.

The Puerto Rican Cultural Center Board of Directors is composed of community members, activists and academics committed to the Center's mission. The Board members expertise includes Latin American History, Latino Politics and Identity, community informatics, program development, organizational process to informatics technology to government protocols.