Film & Video
Aurea (2010) Runtime: 4:55 min
She is Puerto Rican and American. She is from here and from there and her journey from Mayaquez, Puerto Rico as a young woman in her 20’s with her husband Pedro and her oldest daughter Mercedes in the mid 1940‘s is a unique story bound together by her spirit of determination and perseverence.
The Great Depression of 1930 ravaged the island of Puerto Rico and created widespread misery among the already very poor rural population. Though Aurea’s parents did not have to live on subsistence farming, they struggled to raise their children in the urban arrabales of Mayaquez. Aurea, Monse had little to look forward to in the 30’s.
Painting by Erika Ortiz
Yet, when Aurea migrated to New York City she was not alone. Between 1945 and 1949, 135,000 persons emigrated, for an average rate of 27,000 per year The migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States that took place after the second World War was one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Puerto Rico.
Those who left the enpoverished towns and cities of Borinquen, looked forward to coming to New York. There would be work, apartments with running water and bathrooms, schools. The possibilities seemed endless.