Reading Between the Lines: Historicizing the Role of Media in the Educational Lives of Puerto Ricans in Chicago

• In Event: Reframing Racial and Ethnic Histories: Important Legacies From the Mid-20th Century

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which the lives of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, specifically Puerto Rican students, played out in the pages of mainstream and community run media outlets, from their initial mass migration in the 1940s until the 1970s. Utilizing archival materials and oral histories, I will examine the historical role that the media played in the ways in which the population was initially racialized as fellow Americans, to the reality faced by Puerto Ricans in Chicago as they began to confront how despite their status as U.S. citizens, their daily lives became embedded in the racial politics of the era, especially for their students.

Author

• Mirelsie Velazquez, University of Oklahoma