How to Find Your African Roots in Puerto Rico

Since the earliest days of settlement by the Spanish, Puerto Rico has been partly inhabited by people of African descent. Afro-Puerto Ricans continue to make a significant impact on Puerto Rican culture today.

Please join us as guest speaker Ivelisse Pabon de Landron talks about her own journey researching her African Roots in Puerto Rico and offers guidance for how you can do the same. She will talk about how you can use oral histories and other resources such as census records, civil records, church records, slave registries, church records, and immigration records to research your own Afro-Puerto Rican heritage.

Ivelisse Pabon de Landron was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan also known as Loisaida, or the East Village. Her mother, Carmen Pabon, was a community activist there. As an adult she moved to Puerto Rico to pursue further artistic goals related to doll making and Puerto Rico’s history. She embarked on a 20 + year journey to discover her African roots in Puerto Rico, promoting the contributions that Africans have made in Puerto Rico, through the art. In 2000, she moved to Massachusetts to share what she discovered through the art of doll making, painting, and her personal genealogy. She is very passionate about her African/Puerto Rican heritage and has shared her work at festivals, TV interviews, and workshops throughout Puerto Rico, New York and Chicago. As a member of the MCC traditional Folk art program she was awarded a fellowship to teach “How to Make Traditional Folk Dolls” by participating in the Lowell Arts Festival and the African Burial Grounds in NY, combining the workshop on African Genealogy in Puerto Rico.

She celebrates the rich cultural traditions and her African heritage by honoring their memory through her dolls, paintings, and How to Find Your African Roots in Puerto Rico.

This program will not be recorded or livestreamed.

Please note that registration is required for this event.

Accessibility Notice: We strive to make our events accessible. To request a disability accommodation and/or language services, please contact: Jessy Wheeler at [email protected]. Please allow at least two weeks to arrange for accommodations.

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