The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

The Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños/Center for Puerto Rican Studies is a university-based research institute whose mission consists of two components. One is to collect, preserve and provide access to archival and library resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans and Latinos. The other is to produce, facilitate and disseminate interdisciplinary research about the Diaspora experiences of Puerto Ricans and to link this scholarly inquiry to social action and policy debates.

The Centro Library and Archives is the principal Puerto Rican Studies research collection in the United States and the most extensive Latino research and archival facility in the Northeast. It is also the only library and archives in the State of New York exclusively dedicated to Puerto Rican and Latino documentation. The Library and Archives is open to the public and serves diverse users, scholars and the general public from the New York area, from other parts of the U. S. and from abroad.

CENTRO participates in two exchange programs. (1) The CUNY/UPR Academic Exchange Program (Intercambio) is a program of academic interchange between the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The program serves all CUNY colleges. CUNY undergraduates may study for a semester, or the full academic year at the Rio Piedras Campus of the UPR and receive full credit from their home college. (2) The CUNY-Caribbean Exchange promotes institutional, faculty, and student intellectual and scientific exchange with academic institutions in the Caribbean.