New York City, NY (September 17, 2025) — The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College is excited to announce an extension to its exhibitions: Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People and Afterlives of San Juan Hill. Afterlives of San Juan Hill will remain on view in the Silberman School of Social Work lobby through October 15, and will later travel to the Biblioteca José M. Lázaro at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras in December. Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People will remain on view at the CENTRO Gallery, located in the Silberman School of Social Work, through November 22.
We’re also pleased to announce the Diasporic Collage + Coastal Relations Exhibition Catalogue exhibition book to be published in La Bodega, CENTRO’s online store. Not only will the book feature the exhibition’s art by La Vaughn Belle, Rebel Betty, Mónica Ching, Frank Espada, Alia Farid, Glorimar Garcia, and more, but it will also include essays by Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, Ariana Costales del Toro, María M. Burgos Carradero, Dr. Sarah Bruno, Xavier Valcárce, Dr. Marissel Hernandez, Jacqueline Jiang, Dr. Sara Camille Awartani, Dr. Delia Fernández-Jones, Dr. Pedro N. Doreste Rodríguez, Dr. Yafrainy Familia, and Melanie Rodríguez Vázquez. The official summary reads: “Puerto Rico’s colonial status and geographical location situate it as a locus of global encounters and ongoing displacement. As such, the Puerto Rican diaspora can be understood as a collage of overlapping histories of colonialism, resistance, and survival. This exhibition engages with collage as both practice and metaphor. A collage is an assemblage, an art technique that uses discrete materials, images, or text to create a whole picture. Countering the concept of a melting pot, which emphasizes assimilation and loss of culture, the idea of a collaged community allows for the celebration of roots and relations.”
Various events related to the exhibitions that are free and open to the public are coming up, as well:
Data Hub Teach-In: Findings on San Juan Hill
October 7 at 3 PM | Virtual
If you’ve watched West Side Story, enjoyed the infectious rhythms of Latin Jazz, heard of musical giants like Thelonius Monk, Nina Simone, explored the Arturo Schomburg collections, or even attended events at The Palladium Ballroom in your youth, then you—in some way, shape, or form—have been impacted by the legacy of San Juan Hill. Despite being the home and birthplace of several culture-shifting moments and individuals, this neighborhood in Manhattan no longer exists today. In its place sits Lincoln Center. In 1958, numerous communities, including an emerging Puerto Rican community, were displaced from New York City’s Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill neighborhoods to make way for the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Fordham University. Over the last two years, CENTRO’s Data Hub has been working tirelessly to review and analyze thousands of relocation records housed in the archives of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Join CENTRO’s Data Hub team virtually on October 7th to learn more and discuss their latest report about the families displaced from Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill.
Nuyorican Photography as Poetics: Diasporic Collage and the Loving Vision of Frank Espada
October 22 at 6PM | Silberman School of Social Work, Lobby & 115AB
Celebrate the work and legacy of photographer Frank Espada with his son & Poet Martin Espada, alongside a multi-generational cohort of acclaimed Nuyorican photographers, including Máximo Colon, David Gonzalez, and Erika P. Rodriguez. Nuyorican photographers have long sought to document and preserve Puerto Rican history in the city and beyond. Their talents have gifted us some of the most inspiring, heartbreaking, and indelible images of the 21st century. Bringing together the visual and the poetic, this event honors the legacy of Frank Espada and the practice, vision, ethics, and futures of Nuyorican social documentary photography. Afterwards, explore our exhibition, Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People, on view in the CENTRO Gallery.
Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People was inspired by Frank Espada’s collection of over 4,000 photos and 130+ interviews, resulting in the publication The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Themes in the Survival of a People. This exhibition extends beyond the work of Espada and considers multiple facets of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Diasporic Collage features the work of 12 artists from across the diaspora and diasporic peoples in Puerto Rico. The exhibition is curated by Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez, Assistant Curator at the MSU Broad Art Museum; Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, Directora of CENTRO and the DSL; and Dr. Windy M. Cosme Rosario, instructor at the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras. This exhibition is the result of collaborative research and community projects produced since 2022 by the Diaspora Solidarities Lab (DSL), a Black feminist–led partnership between Michigan State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Hunter College.
Afterlives of San Juan Hill uses never-before-seen archival documents made available to CENTRO by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and other archival materials from that period, this exhibit delves into the larger history of the Lincoln Square Urban Renewal project. Afterlives of San Juan Hill traces the process through which Puerto Rican families were disrupted and displaced in 1958 from New York City’s Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill neighborhoods to make way for the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Fordham University. Infamously called “the Puerto Rican Slum” and “the worst slum in New York,” by Robert Moses, the architect of New York’s urban renewal process, Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill were home to approximately 2,000 Puerto Rican families. At the center of this exhibit are the experiences of the Ramírez Zapata family: María Zapata and her four children, Gustavo, Magdalena, Harry, and Miguel Ramírez Zapata—one of thousands of families that were displaced in the name of urban development. The exhibition was curated by Dr. Cristel M. Jusino Díaz and Christopher López, with curatorial support and research by Jorge Soldevila Irizarry, Damayra Figueroa Lazú, Dr. Laura Colón Meléndez, Monique Young, Camila Juarbe, Arianna Meneses, and Maya Borg.