Plan Your Visit

CENTRO is located within the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College on 119th and 3rd Avenue. We are currently undergoing an exciting capital project to improve our space. Most of our events take place at this location unless noted otherwise.

CENTRO's Library & Archives and the CENTRO Gallery are located within:

The Silberman School of Social Work
2180 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10035

Library & Archives
CENTRO Gallery
CENTRO Events
Administrative Offices

CENTRO Library & Archives is a treasured place where researchers, academics, teachers, students, genealogists, filmmakers, and the community at large find primary (historical documents) and secondary sources about the history and culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Visitors can gain access to books, photographs, documents, artifacts, art, maps, oral histories, moving image and audio clips, and digitized or born digital material pertaining to stateside Puerto Ricans via our Library Catalog, Archival Database, and Digital Collections.

1st Floor, Rm. 120 (straight to the back, to the left)

Monday: 10a-5p
Tuesday: 10a-5p
Wednesday: 10a-5p
Thursday: 10a-5p
Friday: 10a-5p
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed Schedule Your Visit to the Library & Archives

Photo of the Centro Library Reading Room

Exhibitions on View

Exhibitions

Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People

February 13, 2025

Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People honors Puerto Rican identities in the archipelago and its diasporas. Puerto Rico’s colonial status and geographical location situate it as a locus of global encounters and ongoing displacement. On view at CENTRO Gallery (2180 3rd Avenue at 119th Street, New York, NY) through November 22, 2025.

Exhibitions

Afterlives of San Juan Hill

April 21, 2025

In 1958, an emerging Puerto Rican community was 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. Infamously called “the Puerto Rican Slum” and “the worst slum in New York,” by the architect of New York’s Urban Renewal Process, Robert Moses, Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill were home to approximately 2,000 Puerto Ricans.

Photographer Unknown. Antonia Pantoja Papers. Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY.

Exhibitions

Antonia Pantoja: A Founder

September 12, 2023

The Antonia Pantoja: A Founder downloadable and interactive exhibition, created by CENTRO, is a free tool for teachers, students, and community members that consists of archival documents and other primary resources from the CENTRO archives.

Exhibitions

On Both Sides of the Lens

November 21, 2024

ON VIEW NOW Inspired by the legacy of Frank Espada, Hiram Maristany, Sophie Rivera, Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Roger Cabán, Felipe Dante, and many more, CENTRO had the goal of having a visual record that communicated the last five years of the Puerto Rican diasporic experience. Through an open call, the work of 33 photographers was selected for this first iteration of On Both Sides of the Lens: Documenting the Puerto Rican Diaspora.