After three years in development, CENTRO, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, is launching the Diasporican Educational Program, a free, self-guided curriculum that explores the social history of the Puerto Rican diaspora. The program, which debuts on November 12, provides teachers, students, and lifelong learners with accessible tools to examine the movement, identity, and culture of Puerto Ricans across borders.
Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the program is completely free and designed to be self-paced. It includes multilingual materials, with English translations for Spanish-language references, and is suitable for learners of all backgrounds.
Developed by CENTRO’s educational team, the curriculum builds on over 50 years of scholarship and research, incorporating archival materials, historical data, and original multimedia resources. The lessons use visual storytelling to bring history to life through illustrated videos narrated by actor and author Sonia Manzano, archival photos, and historical footage documenting the Puerto Rican experience.
Educators can easily adapt the curriculum for high school or college-level classrooms, using the ready-to-implement resources included in each unit. Materials feature lesson plans, customizable worksheets, source lists, and curated archival collections designed to promote critical thinking about migration, identity, and cultural resilience.
By combining historical research with multimedia storytelling, the Diasporican Educational Program offers a new way to engage with Puerto Rico’s past and its global presence.
The program launches on November 12.
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