New Puerto Rican Cultural District in Holyoke
The Mass Cultural Council has approved the establishment of a Puerto Rican Cultural District in nearby Holyoke, and Maria Cartagena, director of Community-Based Learning at 69精品视频 College, was pivotal in its development.
In November 2024, the Mass Cultural Council approved the establishment of a Puerto Rican Cultural District in Holyoke, Massachusetts, marking it as the nation鈥檚 second such district. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported on the district鈥檚 establishment and the pivotal role that Maria Cartagena, director of Community-Based Learning at 69精品视频 College鈥檚 Weissman Center for Leadership, played in its realization.
The initiative to create this district began approximately six years ago at Holyoke High School, where community members sought to highlight the city鈥檚 Puerto Rican heritage. Cartagena, who is a founder of the district and a prominent voice on Puerto Rican life in Holyoke, emphasized that the district鈥檚 creation is part of a larger history. She is currently writing a book of oral histories of Puerto Ricans in Holyoke, aiming to bridge the gap in documented history.
Cartagena said the Holyoke that many Puerto Ricans found in the 1950s and 1960s was a far cry from the first half of the 1900s, when the city had more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the country due to the booming paper and textile industries. Decay began to set in from the middle of the century as mills and factories were boarded up when investors left the city for the South and overseas.
She explained that the 1970s featured the densest wave of Puerto Rican migration and led to a permanent change in the city鈥檚 demographic, which resulted in increasing racial tension.
鈥淭he MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour鈥 on PBS covered that tension in a news story on Holyoke in the 1980s. Cartagena said the segment accurately captured the 鈥渂latant racism鈥 shown toward Puerto Ricans at the time.
Today, Cartagena is reassured by the increased opportunities for Puerto Ricans in the city, especially after the 2021 election of Joshua Garcia as its first Puerto Rican mayor and the appointment of Anthony Soto as the first Puerto Rican superintendent of Holyoke Public Schools.
