The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College has announced that they have received $6,468,000 in funding from the Mellon Foundation. This grant is part of Mellon Foundation’s Presidential Initiatives, which supports a vast range of arts, culture, and educational projects, community groups, and organizations with special emphasis on multiple perspectives. Under the Presidential grant is the Puerto Rican initiative, which shows the Mellon Foundation’s commitment to highlight and preserve Puerto Rico’s artistic and cultural landscapes, both in the archipelago and in the Diaspora. These funds were awarded to CENTRO’s transformative 5-year research initiative “Rooted + Relational” led by CENTRO Directora, Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez.
Launching in the Fall of 2024, The “Rooted + Relational” research initiative will have an annual thematic structure, unifying the work across CENTRO, and offering scholarly and cultural programming. The inaugural theme for 2024-2025, “Archives, Memory & the Present Past of Puerto Rico,” reflects on the material and theoretical importance of the archive in contemporary scholarship and research practices, while opening a space to engage with archival contestation, historical reckoning, the state of our archival facilities, accessibility, and forms of archival refusal. Other upcoming themes include Boricuas in Relation (2025-2026); Black Cuerpas: Race, Body Politics & Culture (2026-2027); LGBTQ Activism, Pleasure & Worldmaking (2027-2028); and Land, Ecologies & Environmental Futures (2028-2029).
“The Rooted + Relational Initiative comes out of years of scholarly research, community building, and a pressing need to reframe critical discourses in the field of Puerto Rican Studies,” said CENTRO Directora, Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez. “This generous funding provides an essential foundation to this work over the next five years. We are thrilled that Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander sees the importance of Puerto Rican Studies and that the Foundation has committed to bolstering the legacy and mission of CENTRO by seeing the value of what this initiative can do for this field and our community.”
“CENTRO is a singular institution that has championed a community-activated vision of Puerto Rican scholarship and scholarly excellence for more than half a century,” said Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation. “We at Mellon are pleased to support CENTRO as it embarks on this new research initiative, one that will spark further opportunities for learning and collaboration both within the CUNY system and with the broader public.”
“Hunter’s CENTRO is a unique institution that provides access to the rich cultural resources only colleges and universities can provide,” said Hunter College President Ann Kirschner. “With this generous grant, the Mellon Foundation ensures that the Puerto Rican community and all New Yorkers can experience and learn from the vibrant heritage of Puerto Rico and its diaspora.”
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About CENTRO
Founded in 1973 by a coalition of students, faculty, and activists, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO) is the largest and oldest university-based research institute, library, and archive dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. It provides support to students, scholars, artists, and members of the community at large across and beyond New York. Additionally, it produces original research, films, books, and educational tools and is the home of Centro Journal—the premiere academic journal of Puerto Rican Studies. CENTRO’s aim is to create actionable and accessible scholarship to strengthen, broaden, and reimagine the field of Puerto Rican studies.
CENTRO is a treasured institution where researchers, academics, teachers, students, genealogists, filmmakers, and the community at large find primary (historical documents) and secondary sources about the history and culture of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Most facilities, resources, and programs in the City University of New York (CUNY) system are limited to affiliates of the University. In the case of CENTRO’s Library and Archives, non-circulating materials and resources are open and available for use by the public at large, irrespective of CUNY affiliation. CENTRO’s programs and services are similarly open to the broader community in New York City and beyond. Since its inception, the institute has served as a site of encounter and collaboration between university affiliates and community members.
About Hunter College
Located in the heart of Manhattan, Hunter is the largest college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Founded in 1870, it is also one of the oldest public colleges in the country and famous for a student body that is as diverse as the city itself. Most Hunter students are the first in their families to attend college and many go on to top professional and graduate programs, winning Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships, Mellon fellowships, National Institutes of Health grants, and other competitive honors. More than 23,000 students currently attend Hunter, pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in more than 170 areas of study. The 1,700 full- and part-time members of Hunter’s faculty are unparalleled. They receive prestigious national grants, contribute to the world’s leading academic journals, and play major roles in cutting-edge research. They are fighting cancer, formulating public policy, expanding our culture, enhancing technology, and more.
About The Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.