www.us-puertoricans.org

US-PuertoRicans.org is pleased to feature an exciting team of dedicated writers, activists, artists and educators as regular contributors to the site. Register to post comments and read popular articles.    

AURORA FLORES

is a musician, writer, producer/publicist and activist.  A musician by training, she was the first Latina editor of Latin New York Magazine later becoming the first female music correspondent for Billboard Magazine while attending Columbia University’s Journalism School. She is the founder of Aurora Communications Inc. a multicultural public relations firm, and the founder and band leader Latin of Zon del Barrio, the music septet featuring original compositions she writes within the context of Afro-Boricua folklore and Afro-Cubansalsa.  Ms. Flores lives in El Barrio, New York City.

MAGDALENA GOMEZ 

began writing poetry very young and hit the New York City poetry scene while in high school. “I don’t slam, I jam. Poetry is soul jazz that erupts from the relationship between poet and listener as their inner worlds connect into aha's from the oo-la-la’s inherent in the sensuality of speaking and listening. It is not simply spoken word art, it is the very act of living when we make contact, impact, and finally land in each other’s territory, crossing the boundary between you and me, them and us."  She is the founder and artistic director of Teatro Vida in Springfield, Massachusetts where she lives.    

FRANK ANDRE GURIDY

was born to Dominican and Puerto Rican parents in New York City. He was educated at Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx, Syracuse University (B.A.), the University of Illinois at Chicago (M.A.) and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where he received a Ph.D. in History in 2002. He is an Assistant Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Radical History Review and Caribbean Studies.  Mr. Guridy lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and infant daughter.    

 

IRIS MORALES

is an educator, activist, media maker and attorney with a life-long commitment to the struggle for human rights. She was a leading member of the Young Lords and its Women's Union. She was co-founder of NEON, a media literacy and training center for young people and is the producer/writer/director of the documentary !Palante Siempre Palante!,  broadcast on public television and screened at schools and community venues.  Ms. Morales works with community organizations on contemporary social justice issues, is producer of US-PuertoRicans.org and lives in New York City.
 

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LENINA NADAL

talented multimedia author/poet, filmmaker, is the producer and writer of Perfoming Profund, a web-based project presenting the evolution of Puerto Rican poetry. She has produced several short films and worked as Associate Producer on the Roberto Clemente documentary broadcast on public television. When she is not writing a play, poem or enjoying the literature of the Caribbean/Latin@ diaspora, she is writing grants, cooking greens and organizing for the real love revolution. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

 

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DENISE OLIVER VELEZ

currently teaches cultural anthropology and women's studies at SUNY New Paltz and has published articles on medical anthropology and HIV/AIDS research. She is a priest of Yemaya in the Lukumi religious tradition. She was a founder and the first program director of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio station in Washington D.C., and the former Executive Director of the Black Filmmaker Foundation. Ms. Oliver Velez was a leading member of the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party. She lives in New York.   

JOSE SANTIAGO

is the News Director at WBAI-New York of the Pacifica Radio Network. There he also leads a radio reporting training program whose graduates work at major outlets like NPR, WNBC and The New York Post. Previously as a reporter and anchor of television news in Connecticut and later in Philadelphia, he covered news from Boston to Washington, DC for both CBS and NBC TV and won numerous awards for community reporting. A graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism, he was was born in Puerto Rico, raised in the Bronx, and lives in New York City. 

ANDRES TORRES

is a researcher at El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College/CUNY. He has taught in the fields of Puerto Rican/Latino Studies and Economics. His published works include Latinos in New England, The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora (co-edited with José E. Velázquez), and Between Melting Pot and Mosaic. Born in the South Bronx and raised in Washington Heights, he has been involved in struggles for social justice since his youth. He lives in Westchester County, New York.