A Few Words about Acción Puertorriqueña

Acción Puertorriqueña y AMIGOS is one of the Latino student organizations in Princeton University. It was started in the 1970s as an initiative of a group of Puerto Rican students. Today, Acción encompasses and welcomes Latino and all other students on campus, undergraduates, graduate students, professors, staff, and the surrounding Princeton community.

The chief goals of Acción Puertorriqueña y Amigos are to unite Puerto Rican and Latino students both in the University and in the greater community and promote our culture and interaction with the faculty and students. To this end we work to reach out and integrate the American and international student body via the sharing of our traditions and present realities. We also aim to provide a lively social environment and a chance to pursue those scholarly interests that lie outside the scope of the existing curriculum. Everyone who identifies with the Puerto Rican and Latin heritage, regardless of geographic or ethnic origin, is encouraged to join and participate.

We are constantly looking for suggestions about activities to host and welcome your comments, ideas, criticisms, etc. Please email us at accion@princeton.edu and let us know what you would like to see Acción do.

Below are some of the Events that Acción has sponsored in past years.

Cultural

Acción reaches out to the wider Princeton Community in events such as the International Festival, Latino Heritage Month, Communiversity, and Noche de Cultura. We serve traditional food, exhibit Puerto Rican artwork, and perform dances to Latin Rhythms. Other Cultural activities last year included parrandas, and trips to places in New York such as the Nuyorican Poet’s Café. We have brought typical Puerto Rican music and dance groups, such as Segunda Quimbamba, a group specializing in the art of Bomba y Plena. This November 2002 we will also have the privilege of hearing Mr. Hector Feliciano, the Puerto Rican, Pulitzer Prize finalist for his book The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art, speak about his work.

Social

Latinos love to party, so the social aspect of Acción is very important to us. We pride ourselves in throwing the biggest and best Salsa Parties in Princeton with live Salsa and Merengue bands from NJ. We also host small Salsa parties in different rooms throughout the semester. We also regularly schedule study breaks with typical foods, and organize basketball, volleyball, and soccer games with other student organizations. In addition, we host game nights so that members can chill together while playing a round of dominoes or cards and other board games. Lastly, but not least we hold student sponsored and choreographer led Salsa Dance Lessons free to all. A Latin Dance troupe is in the process of being created.

Academic

Acción brings prominent Puerto Rican speakers to talk on issues that are important to us. In the past we have been honored by visits from former US Surgeon General Antonia Novello and San Juan Mayor and PPD Party President Héctor Luis Acevedo. We work closely with the Latin American Studies Department to bring lectures of interest, and through our efforts, Professor Juan Flores, the Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, taught a course on our migration experience and cultural identity as reflected in music. Last year, due to the efforts of a couple of our members, Ramón Cruz and Maria Eugenia Shepard, we hosted a hugely successful conference with scholars and activists from Puerto Rico and the U.S. on the topic of “Puerto Ricans: Second- Class Citizens in Our Democracy?”.

Political

We provide the opportunity to get involved by keeping close relationships with groups like the Coalition Against Proposition 187, the Chicano Caucus, Alumni Relations, Community Outreach programs, the Faculty, Administration Officials, and other minority associations. In fact, our members have played a key role in the effort to bring Latino Studies to campus. However, due to the nature of university support, official involvement by the organization in political activities must be limited to communication and information distribution. How far you go is up to you.