Beyond Traditional: Puerto Rican Culture Today

Coined "a forgotten spot in the Caribbean" by Hamilton composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, the U.S. unincorporated Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been the subject of renewed national attention in the wake of the devastating  Hurricane Maria in 2017 and island-wide summer protests of 2019 to oust the then governor, Ricardo Rosselló.

The course interrogates Puerto Rican culture on its own terms - shifting from traditional definitions of the island's identity formation from multiple cultural influences to contemporary critiques centering historically marginalized communities amidst ongoing climate and economic precarity. 

For an island defined by a liminality of political status and a historically-contingent stateside diaspora, how do we re-conceptualize the traditional as well as embrace the contemporary?

This speaker series explores and archives a selection of thought around and analysis of material and immaterial cultural productions originating from island and stateside diaspora communities.  Speakers represent a range of diverse positionalities from archaeologists and art historians, to museum curators and educators. 

Our remote Trinity classroom in Spring 2021 invites the viewers of this channel - Hartford community members and beyond - to join a conversation as we consider new, critical understandings of the island's cultural legacy and more importantly - its future.

- Amanda Guzman

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Banner Image Photo © Pablo Delano