12 thoughts on “Who was Antonia Pantoja? An homage to one of our greats.”
One of our most prominent leaders has passed away
Please take note that one of our most prominent leaders has passed away Dr, Antonia Pantoja. Feel free to publish or comment.
Best,
Marta Garcia
National Hispanic Media Coalition
Obituary
Dr. Antonia Pantoja
On May 24, 2002, Dr. Antonia Pantoja, one of the most prominent Puerto Ricans in the history of New York City and the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, died of cancer at the age of 80 in Cabrini Hospice. As a Civil and Human Rights activist,
educational innovator, housing and economic development trailblazer, and visionary, she was the principal architect of the most enduring Puerto Rican organizations in the United States. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 13, 1921, she came to New York City in 1944.
Dr. Pantoja graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Teaching Certificate, received a BA from Hunter College, a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Union Graduate School, Yellow Springs, Ohio.
She built the first self-empowerment infrastructure for the Puerto Rican community, in the early 50s by establishing the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs, a social service agency in New York. In 1957, she founded the Puerto Rican Forum, a business development and job-training agency for Puerto Ricans and Latinos in New York but her
crowning achievement was the establishment of Aspira, which means to aspire, a national Puerto Rican and Latino youth leadership and educational institution in 1961. She influenced five generations of Puerto Rican and Latino leaders. Some alumni include: former Bronx Borough
President, Fernando Ferrer; Judge Nelson A. Diaz, the first Puerto Rican lawyer and Judge in Pennsylvania; Aida Alvarez, former Small Business Administration Director and first Puerto Rican cabinet member serving under President Clinton, and award-winning actor Jimmy Smits. Aspira
chapters currently exist in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and Puerto Rico, with national offices in Washington, DC.
Returning to Puerto Rico in 1984, she established PRODUCIR, Inc., a community economic development organization in El Yunque, Puerto Rico and other subsidiaries, PROVIVIENDA, Inc., an affordable housing development and PRODECO, a trust for community development. She recently served as a judge for the International Tribunal of Human Rights for the people of Vieques.
A pedagogical innovator, Dr. Pantoja served as a professor at the Columbia Univesity, School of Social Work and as the Director of the undergraduate Social Work program at the California State University in San Diego. She was also the founder and first President of Universidad Boricua, the first Puerto Rican college in the continental United States. In
San Diego, she founded and directed the Graduate School for Community Development, an alternative freestanding institution of higher education.
Her contributions to the City of New York included her participation as a delegate at large at the 1967 Constitutional Convention and her later participation in the New York City School Decentralization Panel named by
Mayor Lindsay resulted in the 1969 Decentralization Law.
Dr. Pantoja has been recognized by the Hispanic Heritage Award, The John Gardner Leadership Award for the Independent Sector, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Award, Fundacion Comunitaria de Puerto Rico, Local Initiative Support Corporation, Center for the Study of Women and
Society, CUNY Graduate Center, Points of Light, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the Hunter College Alumni Distinction Award, and many others.
In addition to her numerous awards from government and community-based organizations, President Clinton awarded Dr. Pantoja the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian, for her lifetime achievements as the remarkable role model for which she is so widely recognized.
Dr. Pantoja is the author of several articles on community development, cultural pluralism, social politics, women’s issues and racism, and the subject of many documentaries, newspaper, magazine articles and journal articles. Dr. Pantoja’s autobiography “Memoirs of a Visionary,” was
released this month by Arte Publico and, she was working on her second book on the history of Aspira. In the process of initiating a collection on the history and contributions of Puerto Ricans to the City of New York, she succumbed to illness.
A Memorial Service will be held in New York at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the “Antonia Pantoja Scholarship Fund” in care of the National Puerto Rican Forum, 31 East 32nd Street, NYC 10016.
Dr. Pantoja is survived by her partner of over thirty years, Dr. Wilhelmina Perry, brother, Esteban Lopez, sister, Haydee Lopez and several nieces and nephews in Puerto Rico and Colorado.
CIVIC PIONEER FOR PUERTO RICANS DIES
CIVIC PIONEER FOR PUERTO RICANS DIES
Bryan Virasami
Staff Writer
Newsday
May 27, 2002
Antonia Pantoja, an educator and community activist in the Puerto Rican community and a founder of some of the nation’s longest- lasting Latino organizations and institutions, died Friday of cancer at the Cabrini Medical Center hospice in Manhattan. She was 80.
Pantoja, who moved to New York City from San Juan in 1944, helped found the Puerto Rican Forum, a business development and job-training program, and Aspira, a national Puerto Rican and Latino youth leadership and educational institution.
Aspira, which has chapters in New York and five other states, counts among its alumni Board of Education president Ninfa Segarra; former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer; Aida Alvarez, the former director of the Small Business Administration in the Clinton administration; Nelson A. Diaz, the first Puerto Rican solicitor general in Philadelphia; and actor Jimmy Smits.
Pantoja, who recently finished her autobiography “Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja,” received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 from President Bill Clinton.
“In the Puerto Rican community she’s probably the most prominent person we have,” said Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “She’s known as a real institution builder. She’s had a tremendous influence in the community.”
In a 1994 interview with the magazine Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, Pantoja said she learned early that she had a great destiny to fill.
“According to the Puerto Rican culture, if you survive a difficult birth, it’s for a reason. My grandmother used to tell me I had a great destiny,” Pantoja said. “And that made an impact on me.”
Pantoja began organizing the Puerto Rican community in the 1950s after facing discrimination on her arrival here during World War II. She helped to found the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs, a social service organization in the city.
After returning to Puerto Rico for health reasons in the 1980s, she helped found Producir, a community economic development organization and Provivienda, a nonprofit housing development and management corporation, there. She returned to New York City about two years ago and, at her death, was working to organize a credit union to serve the city’s Puerto Rican community, Falcon said.
“In spite of the public recognition and acknowledgment she received, she saw herself basically as a person of the people and committed to being accessible to the people,” Pantoja’s longtime partner, Wilhelmina Perry, said yesterday.
Pantoja, who was born in San Juan on Sept. 13, 1921, graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a teaching certificate. She taught there for two years before moving to New York City.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Hunter College, a master’s in social work from Columbia University and a doctorate from the Union Graduate School in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
She helped found the Universidad Boricua, which became Boricua College in Brooklyn, and the Graduate School for Community Development, an alternative school in San Diego. She also taught at Columbia and the California State University in San Diego.
She received numerous awards from government and community- based organizations, including the state Board of Regents, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.
She is survived by Perry of New York City; a brother, Esteban Lopez, of San Juan and a sister, Haydee Lopez of Carolina, Puerto Rico.
A private funeral was being planned and plans for a memorial were incomplete. A reading of her memoir is scheduled for June 7 at Hunter College.
A Poem for Antonia Pantoja
Familia,
This poem appeared in my book “Sancocho” and is dedicated to people close to me as well as Dr. Antonia Pantoja. I actually had the pleasure of meeting her at an event in Umass and reading her this dedication piece before the book came out. She will be missed.
Son pocas las mujeres a las cuales se le hace posible seguir adelante con sus suenos, como lo hicistes tu.
Me reuerdas de mujeres como La Doctora Helen Rodriguez Trias.
Mujeres, como tu, somos pocas pero somos muchas.
Somos hijas, hermanas, primas, tias, y madres.
Llevamos en el corazon, La Bandera, El Coqui, El Morro, El cuatro, El espanol, el indio, el negro; La esencia del espiritu puertorriqueno.
Mujeres como tu somos pocas y somos muchas.
Criamos nuestros hijos (biologicos o de crianza como todos los ‘aspirantes’). Le ensenamos el orgullo de ser puertorriquenos.
Ay, mujeres como tu somos pocas pero somos muchas.
Doctora,
como quise siempre ser asi como tu.
Dar de mi vida,
asi como tu
Levantar a mi pueblo,
asi somo tu
Brindar el orgullo de ser Borincana, asi como tu
Sacrificar mi tiempo, mi familia, mi seres queridos, para el bien de nuestra gente and nuestra patria, asi como tu.
Ay, Doctora, como yo quise siempre ser asi como tu.
Fuieste la inspiracion de mujeres como tu que somos pocas y somos muchas.
Y, seguira siendo la inspiracion de mujeres como tu que somos pocas y somos muchas.
Ay, Doctora, que falta nos va hacer–a las mujeres como tu que somos tan pocas y somos tantas.
Mujeres como tu, que aman a su patria, crian a sus hijos, biologicos y ‘aspirantes’, y damos nuestras vidas, nuestra sangre, nuestros hijos por la patria.
El Puerto Rico que yo amo, hoy te recibe con amor, carino, agradacimiento porque mujeres como tu somos pocas y somos muchas.
Es lo que tu nos ensenaste. Que la mujer puertorriquena implante el orgullo de ser borincana en el corazon y en el alma de los ‘aspirantes’ que siguen mas adelante.
Mujeres como tu.
Somos pocas y somos muchas
Al fallecer una
fallecemos un poco muchas
Ay,Doctora, le agradecemos el ejemplo que nos diste.
Y prometemos ser siempre
Mujeres como tu.
Que somos pocas pero somos muchas.
She made us Proud to be Puerto Rican
As a Puerto Rican living here in NYC we sometimes feel like the pressures around us can be too much. Once I became aware of the work Dona Pantoja I realized that I to could become an asset to my community – Thank you Dona Pantoja
Ensuring Pantoja’s legacy
With the passing of this visionary lady, we as Puertorriquenos must ensure that her vision and the Puerto rican institutions she introduced to this society do not fate away. We now need to support and supply the foundation of her visions.
I regret our loss
I regret our loss of Ms. Pantoja. It sounds like she has truly left her mark. The gates of Heaven will certainly be open for her. Thank for the notice and my deepest thoughts for her family.
Book Reading
I attended the recent book reading (“Memoir of A Visionary…”) at Hunter College this past Friday June 7th, 2002. I believe it was announced (?) that video taped clips of that evening’s event (reception and last words of some of Ms. Pantoja’s collegues, friends and family)will be available for viewing at this website. If this is correct, when will those be available for viewing? Thank You
RE: Book Reading
In the coming weeks it will appear in the centroTalks section.
PANTOJA OBITUARY IN LA TIMES
ANTONIA PANTOJA, 80;
ACTIVIST HELPED PUERTO RICANS IN U.S.
By Elaine Woo
Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times (June 22, 2002)
Antonia Pantoja, a social worker by training and social
architect by instinct who filled a leadership void in the
Puerto Rican immigrant community by building several
lasting educational and political institutions, died of
cancer May 24 in a New York City hospital. She was 80.
Her best-known contribution is Aspira, a national
nonprofit organization that she launched in 1961 to
address the poor educational attainment of Puerto Rican
and other Latino youths. It won a landmark class-action
lawsuit in 1974 that led to bilingual education in New
York City schools and has trained several generations of
Puerto Rican leaders.
“She really stands out as a unique figure in our history,”
said Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive at the
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “She
was the single most important figure in the development
of the Puerto Rican community in New York City and
nationally.” Aggressive, opinionated and articulate, she
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by
President Clinton in 1996.
Born out of wedlock, Pantoja was raised by her
grandparents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where childhood
experiences awakened her to injustice. In a memoir
published last month, she recalled seeing her
grandfather, a factory foreman, carried into the house
after he had been burned with hot lard by strikebreakers.
She trained as a schoolteacher at the University of
Puerto Rico and taught disadvantaged students for two
years after graduating in 1942. Although she found
teaching satisfying, she felt constrained by social and
cultural expectations. As an unmarried woman, she was
expected to support her mother, who had married and
whose husband was jobless because of a disability.
“Suffocating with emotions and responsibilities” and
yearning for a freer life, she left Puerto Rico for New
York City in 1944.
She found work as a welder on the assembly line of a
radio factory, and later as a designer in a company that
made lampshades. In the latter job she began to
organize workers to improve conditions in the factory.
In 1950 she enrolled in Hunter College, where she
earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. In 1954 she
obtained a master’s in social work from Columbia
University. She later would earn a doctorate from Union
Graduate School in Ohio.
At Hunter, Pantoja began to connect with other Puerto
Rican immigrants in New York–“Nuyoricans,” she called
them. Most people in the growing number of immigrants
were poor, lived in substandard housing and were not
well educated. But they lacked the influence to draw
policymakers’ attention to their needs. In 1953 Pantoja
formed the community’s first major advocacy group, the
Hispanic Young Adult Assn., which later was renamed
the Puerto Rican Assn. for Community Affairs. She
served as its first president.
In 1958, she helped establish another major group, the
National Puerto Rican Forum, which was conceived as a
launching pad for institutions to serve the Puerto Rican
community.
Its first offspring was Aspira, which was born out of
discussions Pantoja had with Puerto Rican high school
students in New York. Hearing about their poor self-
images and problems with teachers, gangs and the
police, Pantoja wanted to find a way to empower them
and make them leaders.
Aspira’s name was taken from the command form of the
Spanish verb for aspire. “We all wished the meaning
would be ‘I will aspire and I will attain,’ ” Pantoja wrote in
“Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja,” published by
Arte Publico Press.
Aspira fostered the development of high school clubs to
support students who wanted to attend college. To
compete with the gang fascination with initiations,
Pantoja conceived a ceremony based on a ritual of the
Taino Indians in which students light candles and pledge
to pursue educational excellence. Her idea for the
group’s insignia was the pitirre, a small bird known for its
speed and ability to soar to great heights.
Today Aspira is a federation of clubs that serves 50,000
Puerto Rican and other Latino students, providing career
and college counseling, financial aid and other support.
Its graduates include Anthony D. Romero, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union; Fernando
Ferrer, a former Bronx borough president who ran for
New York City mayor last year; and the actor Jimmy
Smits.
Aspira’s advocacy for Spanish-speaking students in New
York City resulted in a federal consent decree in 1974
that allowed them to be taught some subjects in
Spanish. The settlement affected as many as 65,000 of
the city’s 1.1 million pupils.
Pantoja directed Aspira from 1961 to 1966, then turned
her focus to higher education. She founded the bilingual
Universidad Boricua (now Boricua College) and the
Puerto Rican Research and Resource Center in
Washington in 1970.
In 1974 she joined the faculty at San Diego State
University’s School of Social Work. She later founded,
with her partner and colleague, Wilhelmina Perry, the
independent Graduate School for Community
Development in San Diego, which trained activists to
analyze and build solutions to community problems.
In 1984 she and Perry moved to Puerto Rico, where
Pantoja intended to retire. Instead, she created Producir,
an organization devoted to economic development in
poor rural areas, and Pro-vivienda, which concentrated
on improving housing. She left in 1998 when she
realized that she belonged “in New York with
Nuyoricans.”
She was an energetic activist leader until her death.
Awarded a grant to write her autobiography, she used
the money as an organizing tool.
She convened a meeting of the founders of the groups
she helped establish, running essentially an oral history
project of the community.
When she died she was working to organize a credit
union and raise funds for a building to house the city’s
Puerto Rican nonprofit groups.
She is survived by Perry; a brother, Esteban Lopez; and
a sister, Haydee Lopez.
Many ask, “what can I do to be like Dra.Antonis Pantojas?” What is undoubtedbly hers, is her love was helping others. helping in business, in community, in inspiration, in motherly support and this led to many lives being changed and inspiring many to do the same. Her actions have fomented a revolution only starting in todays Puerto rican industries throughout the world. I am truely proud to be Puerto Rican and seeing that she has made many of these successes happen during my lifetime. Let me, help my brothers as well. Pablo
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One of our most prominent leaders has passed away
Please take note that one of our most prominent leaders has passed away Dr, Antonia Pantoja. Feel free to publish or comment.
Best,
Marta Garcia
National Hispanic Media Coalition
Obituary
Dr. Antonia Pantoja
On May 24, 2002, Dr. Antonia Pantoja, one of the most prominent Puerto Ricans in the history of New York City and the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, died of cancer at the age of 80 in Cabrini Hospice. As a Civil and Human Rights activist,
educational innovator, housing and economic development trailblazer, and visionary, she was the principal architect of the most enduring Puerto Rican organizations in the United States. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 13, 1921, she came to New York City in 1944.
Dr. Pantoja graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Teaching Certificate, received a BA from Hunter College, a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Union Graduate School, Yellow Springs, Ohio.
She built the first self-empowerment infrastructure for the Puerto Rican community, in the early 50s by establishing the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs, a social service agency in New York. In 1957, she founded the Puerto Rican Forum, a business development and job-training agency for Puerto Ricans and Latinos in New York but her
crowning achievement was the establishment of Aspira, which means to aspire, a national Puerto Rican and Latino youth leadership and educational institution in 1961. She influenced five generations of Puerto Rican and Latino leaders. Some alumni include: former Bronx Borough
President, Fernando Ferrer; Judge Nelson A. Diaz, the first Puerto Rican lawyer and Judge in Pennsylvania; Aida Alvarez, former Small Business Administration Director and first Puerto Rican cabinet member serving under President Clinton, and award-winning actor Jimmy Smits. Aspira
chapters currently exist in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and Puerto Rico, with national offices in Washington, DC.
Returning to Puerto Rico in 1984, she established PRODUCIR, Inc., a community economic development organization in El Yunque, Puerto Rico and other subsidiaries, PROVIVIENDA, Inc., an affordable housing development and PRODECO, a trust for community development. She recently served as a judge for the International Tribunal of Human Rights for the people of Vieques.
A pedagogical innovator, Dr. Pantoja served as a professor at the Columbia Univesity, School of Social Work and as the Director of the undergraduate Social Work program at the California State University in San Diego. She was also the founder and first President of Universidad Boricua, the first Puerto Rican college in the continental United States. In
San Diego, she founded and directed the Graduate School for Community Development, an alternative freestanding institution of higher education.
Her contributions to the City of New York included her participation as a delegate at large at the 1967 Constitutional Convention and her later participation in the New York City School Decentralization Panel named by
Mayor Lindsay resulted in the 1969 Decentralization Law.
Dr. Pantoja has been recognized by the Hispanic Heritage Award, The John Gardner Leadership Award for the Independent Sector, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Award, Fundacion Comunitaria de Puerto Rico, Local Initiative Support Corporation, Center for the Study of Women and
Society, CUNY Graduate Center, Points of Light, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the Hunter College Alumni Distinction Award, and many others.
In addition to her numerous awards from government and community-based organizations, President Clinton awarded Dr. Pantoja the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian, for her lifetime achievements as the remarkable role model for which she is so widely recognized.
Dr. Pantoja is the author of several articles on community development, cultural pluralism, social politics, women’s issues and racism, and the subject of many documentaries, newspaper, magazine articles and journal articles. Dr. Pantoja’s autobiography “Memoirs of a Visionary,” was
released this month by Arte Publico and, she was working on her second book on the history of Aspira. In the process of initiating a collection on the history and contributions of Puerto Ricans to the City of New York, she succumbed to illness.
A Memorial Service will be held in New York at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the “Antonia Pantoja Scholarship Fund” in care of the National Puerto Rican Forum, 31 East 32nd Street, NYC 10016.
Dr. Pantoja is survived by her partner of over thirty years, Dr. Wilhelmina Perry, brother, Esteban Lopez, sister, Haydee Lopez and several nieces and nephews in Puerto Rico and Colorado.
CIVIC PIONEER FOR PUERTO RICANS DIES
CIVIC PIONEER FOR PUERTO RICANS DIES
Bryan Virasami
Staff Writer
Newsday
May 27, 2002
Antonia Pantoja, an educator and community activist in the Puerto Rican community and a founder of some of the nation’s longest- lasting Latino organizations and institutions, died Friday of cancer at the Cabrini Medical Center hospice in Manhattan. She was 80.
Pantoja, who moved to New York City from San Juan in 1944, helped found the Puerto Rican Forum, a business development and job-training program, and Aspira, a national Puerto Rican and Latino youth leadership and educational institution.
Aspira, which has chapters in New York and five other states, counts among its alumni Board of Education president Ninfa Segarra; former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer; Aida Alvarez, the former director of the Small Business Administration in the Clinton administration; Nelson A. Diaz, the first Puerto Rican solicitor general in Philadelphia; and actor Jimmy Smits.
Pantoja, who recently finished her autobiography “Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja,” received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 from President Bill Clinton.
“In the Puerto Rican community she’s probably the most prominent person we have,” said Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “She’s known as a real institution builder. She’s had a tremendous influence in the community.”
In a 1994 interview with the magazine Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, Pantoja said she learned early that she had a great destiny to fill.
“According to the Puerto Rican culture, if you survive a difficult birth, it’s for a reason. My grandmother used to tell me I had a great destiny,” Pantoja said. “And that made an impact on me.”
Pantoja began organizing the Puerto Rican community in the 1950s after facing discrimination on her arrival here during World War II. She helped to found the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs, a social service organization in the city.
After returning to Puerto Rico for health reasons in the 1980s, she helped found Producir, a community economic development organization and Provivienda, a nonprofit housing development and management corporation, there. She returned to New York City about two years ago and, at her death, was working to organize a credit union to serve the city’s Puerto Rican community, Falcon said.
“In spite of the public recognition and acknowledgment she received, she saw herself basically as a person of the people and committed to being accessible to the people,” Pantoja’s longtime partner, Wilhelmina Perry, said yesterday.
Pantoja, who was born in San Juan on Sept. 13, 1921, graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a teaching certificate. She taught there for two years before moving to New York City.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Hunter College, a master’s in social work from Columbia University and a doctorate from the Union Graduate School in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
She helped found the Universidad Boricua, which became Boricua College in Brooklyn, and the Graduate School for Community Development, an alternative school in San Diego. She also taught at Columbia and the California State University in San Diego.
She received numerous awards from government and community- based organizations, including the state Board of Regents, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.
She is survived by Perry of New York City; a brother, Esteban Lopez, of San Juan and a sister, Haydee Lopez of Carolina, Puerto Rico.
A private funeral was being planned and plans for a memorial were incomplete. A reading of her memoir is scheduled for June 7 at Hunter College.
A Poem for Antonia Pantoja
Familia,
This poem appeared in my book “Sancocho” and is dedicated to people close to me as well as Dr. Antonia Pantoja. I actually had the pleasure of meeting her at an event in Umass and reading her this dedication piece before the book came out. She will be missed.
Pa’lante! Siempre Pa’lante!
¡OYE LO BORICUA!
©2001 from the book “SANCOCHO”
By Shaggy Flores
for Gaspar, Tio Dino, Antonia Pantoja & Mami
Oye lo Boricua!
Te estan llamando!
Son tus raíces!
No niegues lo que tu eres!
Dreams
of coconut trees
sugar cane
warm Caribbean playas and
Cold Piña Coladas!
Little tanned, nappy headed
Children
playing in the Casa Ríos
afraid of “El Cuco”
and of their strict Mamas!
Men, Machos playing
Casanova with Women dancing
to the Salsa beat.
Bodies move,
Exotic rituals,
Strange locations
In the background of
the mysterious night’s Heat!
But this dream
not reality!
A perverted
Yanqui fantasy!
My Raíces!
Mi Familia, Mis Hermanos
Run deep
Take the real journey
take the Leap!
Winged steel bird
Arriving in the York that’s New!
Seeking streets
paved of gold and a new start
Finds you
Broken dreams
futility
and Broken hearts.
Subjected
to racist
Stereotypes and inferiority
Complexes
We are white
Yellow
Black…
All of the world’s mixes!
Moms and dads
Persevering
from Slum to Slum.
Puerto Ricans, Latinos Not
Welfare slaves
Remembering
that Jibaros
were never bums!
Ancient ancestors,
Tainos and others
living Utopia.
Columbus, the butcher
nearly peed in his pants
at the sight of the new
Latin indigenous
Cornucopia.
Slaughter
the natives
Rape the
women
All for gold
Until priest wrote to pope
On these so called
“Conquistadores”
he told.
African Slaves
brought in bondage
and chains.
Native dead bones
No graves
Decomposed by the
Tropical rains.
Intermarriages
between the races
So many cultures
features
Beautiful
Different
Faces.
We
Encompass the whole.
Melting pot
We are!
The lone, the beautiful
Afro-Taino Shining star!
Independence
Fought for
But never won!
How can a Grito
a shout for Lares
stand against the power of a gun?
Colony
an official status,
this economic non-power
a Joke!
Businessmen, Capitalists
sitting in tax-free offices
as they blow Cuban cigar smoke!
Revolutionaries!
Dying, Living, Struggling
for Borinken.
Peace, Justice, Independence
is what these few
are really seeking!
Heroes’ list
Runs like a
Forgotten dream
Do you know
what their efforts
what their lives
really mean?
Yuri Kochiyama
Antonia Pantoja
Antonio Maceo
Malcolm X
Che Guevara
The Black Panthers
The people of Vieques
Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances
Jose De Matta Tereforte
Don Pedro Albizu Campos
Mariana Bracetti
Lola Rodriguez de Tío
Eugenio María de Hostos
Lolita Lebron
Rafael Cancel Miranda
The Young Lords
Los Macheteros
Cesar Chavez
Phillip Vera Cruz
Bert Corona
Grace Lee Boggs
Fred Hampton
George Jackson
Clemente Soto Velez
Julia De Burgos
The Original Nuyorican Poetas
UFW
F.A.L.N
And all the Puerto Rican, Black, Latino, Diaspora
Political prisoners kept it real,
When others sold out
Soul Out
for a few Crumbs and
some phony clout!
Puertorriqueños!
Latinos!
Diaspora!
Your roots
lie in he
lie in she
lie in me
in abuela
in abuelo
in tío, in tía
Hermano, hermana
Papa, mama
Familia Latina
Raíces,
Pura como la sangre!
Diaspora
where is your fire,
where is the anger
Fight oppression!
Remember your roots!
We were never supposed
to be stepped on
by imperialist, greedy
racists terrorists boots!
And if physically, You
Can’t be a
Revolutionary…
And if physically, You
Can’t be a
Revolutionary…
Be One
Mentally!
For this will
one Day lead
to Cultural
Awakenings!
Oye lo Latino
Oye lo Boricua
Oye lo mi Pueblo
Te estan llamando
Son tus raíces
No niegues
Nunca niegues
lo que tu eres!
Doctora, Mujeres como tu.
Doctora,
Como quise ser asi, como tu.
Son pocas las mujeres a las cuales se le hace posible seguir adelante con sus suenos, como lo hicistes tu.
Me reuerdas de mujeres como La Doctora Helen Rodriguez Trias.
Mujeres, como tu, somos pocas pero somos muchas.
Somos hijas, hermanas, primas, tias, y madres.
Llevamos en el corazon, La Bandera, El Coqui, El Morro, El cuatro, El espanol, el indio, el negro; La esencia del espiritu puertorriqueno.
Mujeres como tu somos pocas y somos muchas.
Criamos nuestros hijos (biologicos o de crianza como todos los ‘aspirantes’). Le ensenamos el orgullo de ser puertorriquenos.
Ay, mujeres como tu somos pocas pero somos muchas.
Doctora,
como quise siempre ser asi como tu.
Dar de mi vida,
asi como tu
Levantar a mi pueblo,
asi somo tu
Brindar el orgullo de ser Borincana, asi como tu
Sacrificar mi tiempo, mi familia, mi seres queridos, para el bien de nuestra gente and nuestra patria, asi como tu.
Ay, Doctora, como yo quise siempre ser asi como tu.
Fuieste la inspiracion de mujeres como tu que somos pocas y somos muchas.
Y, seguira siendo la inspiracion de mujeres como tu que somos pocas y somos muchas.
Ay, Doctora, que falta nos va hacer–a las mujeres como tu que somos tan pocas y somos tantas.
Mujeres como tu, que aman a su patria, crian a sus hijos, biologicos y ‘aspirantes’, y damos nuestras vidas, nuestra sangre, nuestros hijos por la patria.
El Puerto Rico que yo amo, hoy te recibe con amor, carino, agradacimiento porque mujeres como tu somos pocas y somos muchas.
Es lo que tu nos ensenaste. Que la mujer puertorriquena implante el orgullo de ser borincana en el corazon y en el alma de los ‘aspirantes’ que siguen mas adelante.
Mujeres como tu.
Somos pocas y somos muchas
Al fallecer una
fallecemos un poco muchas
Ay,Doctora, le agradecemos el ejemplo que nos diste.
Y prometemos ser siempre
Mujeres como tu.
Que somos pocas pero somos muchas.
She made us Proud to be Puerto Rican
As a Puerto Rican living here in NYC we sometimes feel like the pressures around us can be too much. Once I became aware of the work Dona Pantoja I realized that I to could become an asset to my community – Thank you Dona Pantoja
Ensuring Pantoja’s legacy
With the passing of this visionary lady, we as Puertorriquenos must ensure that her vision and the Puerto rican institutions she introduced to this society do not fate away. We now need to support and supply the foundation of her visions.
I regret our loss
I regret our loss of Ms. Pantoja. It sounds like she has truly left her mark. The gates of Heaven will certainly be open for her. Thank for the notice and my deepest thoughts for her family.
Book Reading
I attended the recent book reading (“Memoir of A Visionary…”) at Hunter College this past Friday June 7th, 2002. I believe it was announced (?) that video taped clips of that evening’s event (reception and last words of some of Ms. Pantoja’s collegues, friends and family)will be available for viewing at this website. If this is correct, when will those be available for viewing? Thank You
RE: Book Reading
In the coming weeks it will appear in the centroTalks section.
PANTOJA OBITUARY IN LA TIMES
ANTONIA PANTOJA, 80;
ACTIVIST HELPED PUERTO RICANS IN U.S.
By Elaine Woo
Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times (June 22, 2002)
Antonia Pantoja, a social worker by training and social
architect by instinct who filled a leadership void in the
Puerto Rican immigrant community by building several
lasting educational and political institutions, died of
cancer May 24 in a New York City hospital. She was 80.
Her best-known contribution is Aspira, a national
nonprofit organization that she launched in 1961 to
address the poor educational attainment of Puerto Rican
and other Latino youths. It won a landmark class-action
lawsuit in 1974 that led to bilingual education in New
York City schools and has trained several generations of
Puerto Rican leaders.
“She really stands out as a unique figure in our history,”
said Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive at the
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “She
was the single most important figure in the development
of the Puerto Rican community in New York City and
nationally.” Aggressive, opinionated and articulate, she
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by
President Clinton in 1996.
Born out of wedlock, Pantoja was raised by her
grandparents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where childhood
experiences awakened her to injustice. In a memoir
published last month, she recalled seeing her
grandfather, a factory foreman, carried into the house
after he had been burned with hot lard by strikebreakers.
She trained as a schoolteacher at the University of
Puerto Rico and taught disadvantaged students for two
years after graduating in 1942. Although she found
teaching satisfying, she felt constrained by social and
cultural expectations. As an unmarried woman, she was
expected to support her mother, who had married and
whose husband was jobless because of a disability.
“Suffocating with emotions and responsibilities” and
yearning for a freer life, she left Puerto Rico for New
York City in 1944.
She found work as a welder on the assembly line of a
radio factory, and later as a designer in a company that
made lampshades. In the latter job she began to
organize workers to improve conditions in the factory.
In 1950 she enrolled in Hunter College, where she
earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. In 1954 she
obtained a master’s in social work from Columbia
University. She later would earn a doctorate from Union
Graduate School in Ohio.
At Hunter, Pantoja began to connect with other Puerto
Rican immigrants in New York–“Nuyoricans,” she called
them. Most people in the growing number of immigrants
were poor, lived in substandard housing and were not
well educated. But they lacked the influence to draw
policymakers’ attention to their needs. In 1953 Pantoja
formed the community’s first major advocacy group, the
Hispanic Young Adult Assn., which later was renamed
the Puerto Rican Assn. for Community Affairs. She
served as its first president.
In 1958, she helped establish another major group, the
National Puerto Rican Forum, which was conceived as a
launching pad for institutions to serve the Puerto Rican
community.
Its first offspring was Aspira, which was born out of
discussions Pantoja had with Puerto Rican high school
students in New York. Hearing about their poor self-
images and problems with teachers, gangs and the
police, Pantoja wanted to find a way to empower them
and make them leaders.
Aspira’s name was taken from the command form of the
Spanish verb for aspire. “We all wished the meaning
would be ‘I will aspire and I will attain,’ ” Pantoja wrote in
“Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja,” published by
Arte Publico Press.
Aspira fostered the development of high school clubs to
support students who wanted to attend college. To
compete with the gang fascination with initiations,
Pantoja conceived a ceremony based on a ritual of the
Taino Indians in which students light candles and pledge
to pursue educational excellence. Her idea for the
group’s insignia was the pitirre, a small bird known for its
speed and ability to soar to great heights.
Today Aspira is a federation of clubs that serves 50,000
Puerto Rican and other Latino students, providing career
and college counseling, financial aid and other support.
Its graduates include Anthony D. Romero, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union; Fernando
Ferrer, a former Bronx borough president who ran for
New York City mayor last year; and the actor Jimmy
Smits.
Aspira’s advocacy for Spanish-speaking students in New
York City resulted in a federal consent decree in 1974
that allowed them to be taught some subjects in
Spanish. The settlement affected as many as 65,000 of
the city’s 1.1 million pupils.
Pantoja directed Aspira from 1961 to 1966, then turned
her focus to higher education. She founded the bilingual
Universidad Boricua (now Boricua College) and the
Puerto Rican Research and Resource Center in
Washington in 1970.
In 1974 she joined the faculty at San Diego State
University’s School of Social Work. She later founded,
with her partner and colleague, Wilhelmina Perry, the
independent Graduate School for Community
Development in San Diego, which trained activists to
analyze and build solutions to community problems.
In 1984 she and Perry moved to Puerto Rico, where
Pantoja intended to retire. Instead, she created Producir,
an organization devoted to economic development in
poor rural areas, and Pro-vivienda, which concentrated
on improving housing. She left in 1998 when she
realized that she belonged “in New York with
Nuyoricans.”
She was an energetic activist leader until her death.
Awarded a grant to write her autobiography, she used
the money as an organizing tool.
She convened a meeting of the founders of the groups
she helped establish, running essentially an oral history
project of the community.
When she died she was working to organize a credit
union and raise funds for a building to house the city’s
Puerto Rican nonprofit groups.
She is survived by Perry; a brother, Esteban Lopez; and
a sister, Haydee Lopez.
Many ask, “what can I do to be like Dra.Antonis Pantojas?” What is undoubtedbly hers, is her love was helping others. helping in business, in community, in inspiration, in motherly support and this led to many lives being changed and inspiring many to do the same. Her actions have fomented a revolution only starting in todays Puerto rican industries throughout the world. I am truely proud to be Puerto Rican and seeing that she has made many of these successes happen during my lifetime. Let me, help my brothers as well. Pablo
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