Join El Museo del Barrio, as we participate, in East Harlem’s Aguilar Library’s 3rd annual Pura Belpré Community Celebration! There will be live music, free giveaways including books and snacks, and community information tables. For children, ages 3 to 12.
ABOUT PURA BELPRE
Pura Teresa Belpré y Nogueras (February 2, 1899 – July 1, 1982) was an Afro-Puerto Rican educator who served as the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City. She was also a writer, collector of folktales, and puppeteer. Her career in the New York Public Library commenced in 1921, and she pioneered the library’s outreach within the Puerto Rican community. However, like many of the Puerto Rican women who migrated to New York in the twentieth century, Belpré’s first job was in the garment industry. Her Spanish language, community and literary skills soon earned her a position as Hispanic Assistant in a branch of the public library at 135th Street in Harlem, having been recruited and mentored by Ernestine Rose, head of the Harlem library. Belpré became the first Puerto Rican to be hired by the New York Public Library (NYPL). Belpré’s library career is intimately tied to her literary career. The first story she wrote and published was Pérez and Martina, a love story between a cockroach and a mouse. Belpré also collected many other folktales from Puerto Rico, translated them into English and had them published as children’s literature.