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Valvula de escape - Stories of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, presents the history of the centennial exodus of the Puerto Rican people to the United States. In order to address the economic pressures and deficiencies caused by the colonial relationship, a migratory “escape valve” was instituted between the United States and Puerto Rico. This valve maintains the social peace and “stability” challenged by the pressures of unemployment, political unrest, fear, hostility and poverty. The Puerto Rican migration began before the Caribbean island became a territory of the United States after the Spanish American War in 1898 and has remained constant with intervals of highs and lows depending on the island economic conditions at a given time. Because of the aforementioned pressures described, Puerto Rico created an addiction to emigration, whose cost has been a high dependency on the movement of its population. This series explores several questions as: How has the immigration been handled and implanted at different times? What answers have been officially given? What are the causes, consequences and circumstances?
The documentary is a 10 part series with approximately 7 hours of content.     The series
EfrainBarradas

"Many Puerto Ricans want to deny our history. And our history includes, as one of its strongest factor in the 20th century, the migration. We have been a country of migrant. But migration doesn’t destroy identity, it changes it, but it doesn’t destroy it."

-Efraín Barradas Ph.D.

 Professor at University of Florida

 

 

It’s an excellent resource for the Puerto Rican Culture heritage week. Community action groups, arts centers and civic organizations can also be benefited with the discussion of the content.

 

A film produced by

With the sponsorship of