Co el machete en la falda
Por Rafael Cancel Miranda
Doña Carmin Pérez y Doña Isabela

In honor of International Women's Day, the National Boricua Human Rights Network dedicates this poem to all the women who have devoted their lives and continue to be faithful to the struggle for a independent Puerto Rico.

 

Con el machete 

en la falda

Por Rafael Cancel Miranda

 

Blanca Canales, Carmín Pérez,

Lolita Lebrón, Rosa Collazo,

Juanita Ojeda, Isabel Rosado,

no habría Patria sin ustedes.

 

Sin ese fuego del alma,

sin esa pasión de amor patrio,

sin ese corazón revolucionario,

moriría nuestra esperanza.

 

Tú, Dominga, heroica mulata,

que en Ponce salvaste la bandera,

pues no dejaste que al piso cayera,

prefiriendo te masacraran.

 

Tú, Adelfa, que piqueteabas solitaria,

hasta que un camión destrozó tus piernas,

pero aún así en tu sillón de ruedas,

continuabas marchando por tu Patria.

 

Tú, Evelina, tú Rosa Escobar,

que allá en las calles neoyorquinas,

confrontaban a la policía,

dando cara por nuestra comunidad.

 

Tú, María Mercedes, tú, Mariana,

Lola Rodríguez y tú, Isolina,

tú, mujer Cadete de la República,

todas son la fuerza de la Patria.

 

Carmín, Isabel, Doris Torresola,

las veo pistola en mano,

en defensa de Pedro Albizu Campos,

dispuestas a morir si era la hora.

 

He conocido tanta mujeres,

que por la Patria darían la vida,

unas confrontando la Marina,

otras afiliando sus machetes.

 

Doña Pupa, Carmín, Blanca Canales,

pitirres de alma boricua,

con la pasión de Alejandrina,

de doña Loida, Jayuya y Lares.

Y tú, Beatriz, guerrillera silenciosa,

clandestina en el amor,

que vas dejando una flor,

en cada alma que tocas.

 

Y tú, Miñi, ¿dónde estaba tu fragilidad,

cuando pistola en mano,

y con tu niño a tu lado,

dormías en el techo de Claridad?

 

Y usted, gentil doña Aida,

que no tira ni una piedra,

la vi cruzando la verja,

pasara lo que pasara.

 

Y a ti Rita y doña Josefina,

las veo en el frente en Nicaragua,

oyendo cañones, recogiendo balas,

cruzando los montes con los Sandinistas.

 

Y a ti, Martita, <<la cieguita>>,

que según cuenta la gente,

con tu bastón veinte-veinte,

bastoneabas la policía.

 

Y tú, lajeña y tú, pepiniana,

dos boricuas en la Palestina,

donde para salvar vidas,

a ser escudos se prestaban.

 

Y tú, Alejandra, ¿quién sabe de ti?

que en Chile diste la vida,

cuando las hordas pinochetistas,

asesinaron tu porvenir.

 

Y usted doña Luisa,

valiente viequense de amor y fuerza,

para usted nunca fue un juego,

sacar a la Marina de Vieques.

 

Y usted doña Leonides Díaz,

madre y revolucionaria,

que ni los dolores del alma,

le hicieron doblegar rodilla.

 

La mujer puertorriqueña,

siempre ha marchado al frente,

siempre ha dicho presente,

por su patria, por su bandera.

 

Unas veces caminando sola,

por los ríos y montañas,

con su machete en la falda,

y en su corazón, ¡la gloria!

 

 

 

¡Humboldt Park 
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Puerto Rican Cultural Center (Over 30,000 pictures!)

(Over 13,000 pics!)

Guided tours of IPRAC and the surrounding Paseo Boricua community will be available at IPRAC with Eduardo Arocho serving as a docent.  If you're interested in arranging a tour for your organization, school or church, please contact IPRAC at 773-486-8345. 

Puerto Rican Cultural Center
2739-41 W. Division St
Chicago, Illinois 60622
P 773-342-8023
F 773-342-6609
Orlando Network Chapter Hosts Dinner with Congressman Gutiérrez
 
On March 1st, Congressmen Luis Gutiérrez and Alan Grayson participated in a immigration conference organized by local and national organizations at the Puerto Rican Association of Orlando. Rev. Roberto Morales gave the benediction with hope for a true immigration reform and also asked for the freedom of Oscar López.

That evening the Network-Orlando Chapter met with the Congressman and conversed about the campaign work going on at the national level and especially in Puerto Rico. For the Network it was a very interesting and important evening.

Congratulations to Jessica Fuentes

 

Jessica Fuentes, Project Director of Batey Urbano has recently joined the staff at Roberto Clemente High School as Community Connector through a School Improvement Grant.


We are proud recipients of United Way contributions 

PRCC Program Updates

Booksigning and Tour 

40th Anniversary Kickoff Event Successful  

 

On Saturday, March 2, 2013, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center held its 100 x 35 plus 5 event celebrating the center's 40th anniversary and 105th year anniversary of Juan Antonio Corretjer's birth. Over 120 people toured the Open House showcasing the PRCCs major programs including El Rescate, the transitional housing for LGTBQ youth. 

 

El Rescate celebrated its one-year anniversary this past Saturday. The day ended with a performance and book signing at Café Teatro Batey Urbano. The show at Batey included Caridad "La Bruja" De La Luz and Batey Urbano's very own Michael Reyes. Following the performance, there was a book signing with Nancy Kurshan, author of Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle with Control Unit Prisons.


Please visit the internet version of Out of Control for more historical context and the interactivity. More pictures can be viewed here.

 

Puerto Rican Cultural Center announces new administrative staff

 

The PRCC recently announced 2 new additions to our admin staff. Juan Calderón, who is the director of VidaSIDA program will now have additional responsibilities as the Puerto Rican Cultural Center's new Chief Operating Office and Militza Pagán is the new Deputy Director. Juan Calderón has directed Vida/SIDA for the past 6 years. 

 

During that time he has expanded the work including the opening of El Rescate Transitional Living Initiative for Latino LGBTQ homeless youth as well as the creation of Generation L, a Latino LGBTQ drop-in and resource center. Under his leadership, VidaSIDA budget has grown to over 1 million. Militza Pagán grew up in this community and has been active in many efforts, including the Puerto Rican Agenda and as an organizer for immigrant rights. She has a BA from Yale University. The PRCC is extremely happy with these changes for they will create a more effective administrative structure.

Humboldt Park Library Celebrates Renovation

 

On Wednesday, March 6 a press conference was held to officially open the newly renovated Humboldt Park library. The renovations took nearly a year and were the result of the efforts of many community organizations and leaders including the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. At the press conference both Alderman Roberto Maldonado and Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke stressing the importance of the library to further our community's development. The PRCC's Jose Lopez was also acknowledged as a leader of the community at the press conference.

 

The Humboldt Park Library opened with a 5,000 square foot addition featuring a reading room with 35 new computers. The library now also holds a YOUmedia digital learning space that will give our community's children the opportunity to develop digital and STEM based skills. 

 

Greater Humboldt Park Community of Wellness & Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation invite you to 
Sinai Urban Health Institute 
Community Report

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Diabetes Empowerment Center
2753 W. Division St.
PACHS Student Places 2nd in Louder Than a Bomb

 

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School represented by Amanda Villaronga. Team took second place on the Semi Finals - with Amanda Villaronga

 

Oni Woods, PACHS teacher

I have had the privilege of coaching this year's Louder Than A Bomb teen slam poetry team here at PACHS. The best and most concise description of the competition comes from the Young Chicago Author's website:

Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) was founded in 2001, by Kevin Coval (YCA Artistic Director) and Anna West. LTAB is the largest youth poetry festival in the world, featuring over 100 zip codes within the Chicago-land area.

LTAB was created to give youth around the city of Chicago a platform to share their stories. The festival has since become a "bridge" for young people from many different backgrounds to come together and find a common ground through their narratives.

 

This is the 13th year of the LTAB Festival and what began with only 4 teams competing now has 100 teams of Chicagoland youth pouring out their hearts, minds, and souls on stage. PACHS has finished the first two preliminary bouts as of Wednesday, February 27, 2013. We have placed 2nd in both of those bouts. Each time in competition, our students have placed with some of the highest scores in that particular round. 'Prelims' will be complete on Friday, March 1, 2013 and we will know then if PACHS has made it to the semi-finals as a team. We do, however, in addition to group prospects, have individuals that may go on to the individual finals competition. PACHS has the reputation at the Festival of being "raw" or in other words really, really awesome. And this year, our students are living up to that reputation. Marc Smith, the founder of the genre of "slam" poetry visited the opening ceremony of Louder Than A Bomb this year and told the students that slam poetry is about the marriage of poetry and performance. Our team this year has skill in both arenas. We have put in hours of work and have truly demonstrated the essence of dedication, commitment, and teamwork.

 

They have a saying at LTAB: "It's not about the points it's about the poetry." This spirit of mutual support and encouragement breeds appreciation of diversity and an atmosphere of kinship among the students from all schools and neighborhoods that is unparalleled in this city. Our students have become a part of a large family of poets and artists and I have witnessed them becoming better, more confident and self-assured young people for it. With their work, they have inspired other students, judges, themselves, and their fellow classmates. But most of all, they have inspired me. 

 

Between Rags and Dolls

 

Brenda Torres Figueroa's Between Rags and Dolls have been dedicated to the creation of custom garments and dolls for more than 10 years. Graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, Torres Figueroa has expanded her passion with dolls with the techniques taught by her mother a master artisan and doll maker from Puerto Rico, the memory of her first rag doll made by her "bisabuela" at the age of four, and the sight of her first born and her longing to create her something special that spoke of all the women in her family.

 

Every single one of Between Rags & Dolls creations is custom to the occasion, even if is to celebrate a milestone, birthday, or even to commemorate the life of a passed loved one. Brenda has been a teaching artist at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School Puerto Rican High School since 2008.

 

Available at Alerav, 2721 W,. Division St. Email Brenda at: performapem@gmail.com for a custom quote.


Director of IDPH visits Vida/SIDA

 

 

On February 8th 2013, Dr. Lamar Hasbrouck, Director of Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), visited Vida/SIDA. Some of Vida/SIDA's programs are currently funded by the Center for Minority Health Services of the IDPH. State Representative Maria Antonia Berrios and Juan Calderon, Director of Vida/SIDA welcomed and met with him to discuss continuing expansion of Vida/SIDA's HIV, substance abuse and mental health prevention services for Chicago's Latino community. The Puerto Rican Cultural Center is deeply grateful for his visit and the department's continual support.

Puerto Rican Cultural Center 40th Anniversary Jornada Corretjer

Four Decades of Continuous Struggle and Promises Kept: Inspiring New Generations in Building a Community of Resistance, Hope and Change

1973-2013

 

April 11th Book Signings and presentations by Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón, Editor of "Oscar López Rivera: Between Torture and Resistance"  and Matt Meyers, "We Have Not Moved".

6:30pm, Casa Puertorriqueña, 1237 N. California Ave

$20 includes dinner and a copy of "Oscar López Rivera: Between Torture and Resistance"

"We Have Not Been Moved" will be on sale.

Please RSVP to Militza Pagán at militzap@prcc-chgo.org

 

April 19th Chicago Premiere of "Who is Pedro Albizu Campos?" Directed and produced by Michael Torres. 

Roberto Clemente Community Academy

1147 N. Western Ave., 6:30pm

 

June 7, 8, 9-Festival Jibaro Comerieño dedicated to the PRCC 40th Anniversary.

Comerio, Puerto Rico

Note: PRCC and IPRAC will be sponsoring an "Eco-Tour" during that time.

For more info: Juan Calderón at: juanc@prcc-chgo.org