Somos Boricuas: Understanding Puerto Rican Migration and Community Building through the Arts and Humanities

The Somos Boricuas Institute uses Puerto Rican migration to the mainland United States as a case study to explore key humanities questions that are at the heart of the American migration/immigration experience. What is a citizen? What rights is a citizen entitled to and what obligations does citizenship carry with it? What roles do cultural traditions and expressive arts play in how migrant communities forge identities in their new homes and maintain cultural connections to their places of birth? Through guest lectures, workshops, hands on activities, performances, and excursions, we will address these questions through the everyday arts of music, visual arts, foodways, festival arts, and vernacular architecture in this distinctive migrant community.