Help for our patriots family What is the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center?

Información enviada al Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico a 10 de Junio, 1999. PRCC Subpoenas to Grand Jury

For more than twenty-five years, the Juan Antonoi Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center has served the Latino community of Chicago. Its purpose is to provide te community with space for action and reflection where Puerto Ricans may exercise their right to self-determination by developing institutions and programs designed by Puerto Ricans and Latinos for Puerto Ricans and Latinos.

Some of the Center's programs include:

Centro infantil Consuelo Lee Corretjer
Centro de Aprendizaje para la Familia
Museo de Historia y Cultura Puertorriqueña Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos
Vida/SIDA
Biblioteca Andrés Figueroa Cordero
Desfile del Pueblo Puertorriqueño
Escuela Superior Alternativa Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos
La Casita de Don Pedro
Fiesta Boricua

Since its founding, the Center has: graduated hundreds of high school students fro its alternative high school; served thousands of parents with a high quality bilingual-bicultural daycare provided dozens of young mothers and their children a place to think and grow together in its Family Learning Center reached thousands with the education and prevention message about STDs and AIDS through Vida/SIDA celebrated, showcased and preserved the Puerto Rican culture of resistance through the Annual Peoples Parade, the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Museum, the Andrés Figueroa Memorial Library, the Casita de Don Pedro and Fiesta Boricua.

Hundreds Come Out in Support of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center

On Sunday, June 6 close to four hundred people defiantly condemned the Federal Grand Jury subpoenas presented by FBI agents to the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Vida/SIDA at a solidarity rally held at La Casita de Don Pedro, located in the heart of the Puerto Rican community: The Paseo Boricua. Those who were present embodied the 25 year legacy of the Center and gave testimony to the value and significance of the Center in their lives and the lives of hundreds of other people of this community.

The event brought the typical unique mobilization of young and old, women and men, parents and children, academic intellectuals and neighborhood folks, in essence a microcosm of the Puerto Rican community in Chicago and its supporters.

The gardens of the Casita were decorated with artwork by students of Pedro Albizu Campos Alternative High School. A scene from the play El Grito del Barrio Contra El SIDA was acted out by the young peer tutors of Vida/SIDA. And poetry was read by students and staff of the Center. The children of Centro Infantil also presented some songs.

Those present were also able to witness the testimonials of various distinguished guests including: Michael Deutsch, long time champion and attorney for two generations of Puerto Rican political prisoners; Rev. Michael Yasutake, life long human rights activist and advocate for the release of all political prisoners; Dr. Phillis Cuningham, Education visionary out of the University of Northern Illinois University; and the young professor of sociology at The University of Illinois at Chicago, Nilda Flores.

The event was also dedicated to Irma Romero who received an emotional welcome by the crowd. She received a well deserved tribute for her years of solidarity and contributions as a Mexican to the Puerto Rican struggle for self determination as well as for her devoted commitment to the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. Irma has stood fast and firm in her support despite the fact she is also fighting back cancer for the second time. Her example has inspired and continues to inspire hundreds of people.

The program began with a cultural-historic presentation by anthropologist and craftsman Ramón López and Bomba Aché. They presented a rich, colorful but solemn account of the Víctory by the maroon societies from Santurce, Piñones and Loiza who expelled the British Navy from Puerto Rico in the late 18th Century. The conclusion was left to Cocobalé and the neighborhood children who danced the bomba beat defiantly stating our resistance for generations to come: our culture and our resistance is very much alive!

That was the community's response to the latest wave of attacks by the FBI and Grand Jury against the movement and people. So too this resistance prepares like in the days of the maroon societies with the drumming of the bomba beat. Víctory will arrive like it did to those who stood against the British in Santurce, Piñones and Loiza in 1797.

From: Support the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, send your donation to: Puerto Rican Cultural Center Legal Defense and Education Fund, c/o Puerto Rican Cultural Center, 1671 N. Claremont Ave. Chicago, IL 60647