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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

November 29, 2023
Aguadilla Fellowship House, Christmas 1942. [Pearl ID: 141976]

The Presbyterian Church in Puerto Rico “Feels very much isolated from the rest of the Church,” said a Puerto Rican ecclesiastical leader during an organizational meeting regarding the unification commission. I recently completed a master's in public history

...
January 6, 2022

On October 30, 1950, militant members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party (PNPR) led a series of uprisings, targeting insular police barracks. In Jayuya, Nationalists held the town for three days, succumbing only after United States military aircraft bombed the town. Cadets of the Republic, a youth faction of the PNPR accustomed to training...

September 8, 2021

-- by Reverend Blanca Estrella Otaño-Rivera--also known as Blanqui Otaño

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we are celebrating Reverend Blanca Estrella Otaño-Rivera--also known as Blanqui Otaño--the first Hispanic clergywoman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA), in June 1975.

The Reverend Otaño-Rivera was born in Lares on the island of Puerto Rico. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of...

September 18, 2018
 
--by David Staniunas, Records Archivist
 
It was back in May that Fred Tangeman and I visited Puerto Rico as part of PHS's first collecting and outreach trip to the island, but I still remember the sights and warm conversations distinctly. As we landed in San Juan blue tarps spotted the surrounding hills eight months after the catastrophic landfall of Hurricane Maria--which we now know killed 2,...
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