CENTRO

Mixed-media painter Nora Maité Nieves shares how her upbringing, past work as a jewelry maker, and migration to Chicago and New York have influenced her recent projects rooted in ideas of home, fertility, womanhood, and ornamentation. We join her in her studio and in Times Square to view her stop motion animation Midnight Moment project: Eyes of the Sea, a mythological genesis tale told through color, shape, and movement.

Diasporican Art in Motion Docuseries is a dynamic portrait series highlighting ten Puerto Rican artists living and creating in New York City. This curated selection is part of CENTRO’s Diasporican Art in Motion (DAM) initiative, a digital repository and research catalyst, and represents a living archive of Puerto Rican cultural expression in the U.S. diaspora.

Founded in 1973 by a coalition of students, faculty, and activists, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO) is the largest university-based research institute, library, and archive dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. Learn more at centropr.hunter.cuny.edu

Learn more about Diasporican Art in Motion: https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/projects/diasporican-art-in-motion/

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Instagram: instagram.com/centropr
Facebook: facebook.com/centropr
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Support our work by donating today at community.hunter.cuny.edu/supportcentro
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Executive Producers
Ángel Antonio Ruiz-Laboy
Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez

Producers
Glorimar Garcia
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Co-producers
Andrès Arias
Kristian Otero

Series editor
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Camera
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Secondary camera
Luis Johansel Cruz
Andrès Arias
Kristian Otero
Elizabeth Rodríguez
Eduardo Vilchez

Production assistants
Adrián Muñoz
Gabriella Cuellar
Jon Sosa
Luis Johansel Cruz

Subtitles and translations
Sebastián Meltz-Collazo

with assistance from
Merari Alvarado

Performance artist Yanira Castro shares how her work is a medium to connect and engage with the Puerto Rican diaspora and the American public. Focusing on ideas of consent, refusal, political theater, and the colonial relationship between the US and Puerto Rico, we watch her first public art project called Exorcism = Liberation come to life.

Diasporican Art in Motion Docuseries is a dynamic portrait series highlighting ten Puerto Rican artists living and creating in New York City. This curated selection is part of CENTRO’s Diasporican Art in Motion (DAM) initiative, a digital repository and research catalyst, and represents a living archive of Puerto Rican cultural expression in the U.S. diaspora.

Founded in 1973 by a coalition of students, faculty, and activists, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO) is the largest university-based research institute, library, and archive dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. Learn more at centropr.hunter.cuny.edu

Learn more about Diasporican Art in Motion: https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/projects/diasporican-art-in-motion/

Follow us on social media!

Instagram: instagram.com/centropr
Facebook: facebook.com/centropr
Threads: threads.net/@centropr
TikTok: tiktok.com/@centropr

Support our work by donating today at community.hunter.cuny.edu/supportcentro
.
.
.
Executive Producers
Ángel Antonio Ruiz-Laboy
Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez

Producers
Glorimar Garcia
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Co-producers
Andrès Arias
Kristian Otero

Series editor
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Camera
Carlos Rivera Fernández

Secondary camera
Luis Johansel Cruz
Andrès Arias
Kristian Otero
Elizabeth Rodríguez
Eduardo Vilchez

Production assistants
Adrián Muñoz
Gabriella Cuellar
Jon Sosa
Luis Johansel Cruz

Subtitles and translations
Sebastián Meltz-Collazo

with assistance from
Merari Alvarado

In the last decade, Puerto Rico has become a major destination for Americans seeking to evade federal taxes. Tax incentives provided by the Puerto Rican government are spurring gentrification and housing insecurity. In communities like Puerta de Tierra, community leaders are challenging new colonizers, and the local politicians who have betrayed them.This documentary episode focuses on the effects of Act 20, 22, and 60 in Puerto Rico.

Directed by Ana María García

Puerto Rico’s energy crisis is not only making electricity more unstable, and unaffordable, but it’s having disastrous consequences to human health and the ecosystem. AES is a private company that generates power through a coal-burning plant in the Southeast of the island. In “Burning Ashes”, Puerto Rican Voices continues the coverage of Puerto Rico’s energy crisis by looking at the environmental effects, and health problems of the residents of Guayama, which are caused by the pollution of the coal-burning plant. Recently, public power plants in Puerto Rico have been privatized, and are expected to continue the fossil-fuel burning model.

Directed by Kique Cubero García

Elba Dávila (a community leader in Fajardo) organizes the community of Maternillo to demand better public services for an aging community facing displacement after the Ferry Service to Vieques and Culebra was moved to the town of Ceiba. The community has collapsed without the economic activity provided by the Ferry transit and local fishermen fight to maintain their livelihoods.

Directed by Sonia Fritz

Following the death of legendary "plenero" and artist Tito Matos, mourners filled the streets to commemorate his legacy as a musician, cultural worker, mutual aid organizer and agitator. Archival footage reveals Tito’s contributions to the transformation of Plena as both a musical tradition and a trans-diasporic movement. Learn about Tito's story and legacy in this amazing documentary directed by Noelia Quintero Herencia.