Puerto Rican Indigeneity: From Franz Boas’s Exploration of a Taíno Ballpark to Judith Ortiz Cofer’s Fábulas Criollas

About this event

This presentation by Rafael Ocasio, Ph.D. (he/him) traces changing representations of Puerto Rican indigeneity, from the first U.S. scientific investigations of the island following the Spanish-American War (1898) to its literary reinterpretation in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s work.

It begins with Franz Boas’s anthropological and archaeological documentation of Indigenous sites, particularly Caguana’s ceremonial ball courts and plazas, which helped foreground the island’s Taíno heritage in discussions of Puerto Rican cultural identity. It then examines how Ortiz Cofer reimagines indigeneity in her Fábulas criollas, reshaping traditional stories through folklore, storytelling and cultural memory.

Food will be provided.