Frank Espada: For the Record

with Dr. Yomaira Figuera-Vásquez, Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies and Alana Casanova-Burgess of La Brega

“Nobody wants to see pictures of Puerto Ricans.” This is what photographer, activist, and teacher Frank Espada was told. However, this dismissal served as a catalyst for his federally funded project titled Documenting the Puerto Rican Diaspora. In addition to over 4,000 photos he took traveling across the country, Frank also conducted interviews with over 130 members of the communities he visited. In this episode Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, and Alana Casanova-Burgess of La Brega discuss Frank’s legacy and the impact of the interviews he preserved and left for us to learn from.

The first season of CENTRO Out Loud, “The Unheard Tapes of Frank Espada,” was made possible with support from the Diaspora Solidarities Lab Projects, the Mellon Foundation Higher Learning Projects, Michigan State University, Johns Hopkins University, Hunter College at CUNY, and The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, with special thanks to the Espada Family for their support. 

Categories: