The Social Condition of Stateside Puerto Ricans: Critical Needs and Public Policy Implications

AWARENESS OF THE INCREASING PRESENCE AND POTENTIAL POWER AND INFLUENCE OF LATINA/OS IN THE UNITED STATES COULD NOT BE MORE APPARENT THAN IN THE ANALYSIS FOLLOWING THE 2012 NATIONAL ELECTION, IN WHICH PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA WAS REELECTED FOR A SECOND TERM. At 71 percent, the high Latina/o turnout for Obama sparked interest in the possible impact Latina/os are having on national elections (see, e.g., Lopez and Taylor 2012; Kopicki and Irving 2012). The 2012 election is just one example of the attention "Latinos" or "Hispanics" are increasingly receiving, as a function of the demographic shiftthat has caused the Census Bureau (2009) to categorize Hispanics as the "largest and fastest-growing minority group" in the United States. But the trend toward understanding "Latinos"/"Hispanics" as a whole, arguably, has drawn visibility and scrutiny away from the social conditions and circumstances of the various individual national origin groups, such as Puerto Ricans, who comprise the Latina/o population in the United States.Notwithstanding the importance of examining similarities and discerning trends among all Latina/os, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro) at Hunter College was prompted to look deeper into the gaps in our current knowledge and understanding of the social condition of stateside Puerto Ricans, cognizant of what such a void means for public policymakers and a broad range of stakeholders, including community-based organizations, community activists and advocates and foundations that rely on accurate information about societal problems. To help bridge the gap, Centro established the Puerto Rican Research and Policy Initiative in 2009 to promote research and provide a forum for the examination of the social conditions of stateside Puerto Ricans with the goal of informing public policymakers and others of the implications the findings that the research would produce. In December 2010, the Puerto Rican Research and Policy Initiative convened a conference on the situation of stateside Puerto Ricans. Much of the research presented and discussed at that conference is contained here in this Special Issue after having undergone an extensive peer review process.The Puerto Rican Social Conditions and Public Policy ConferenceThis Special Issue has its origins in the Puerto Rican Social Conditions and Public Policy Conference sponsored by Centro's Puerto Rican Research and Policy Initiative. Held on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2010, at the Hunter College School of Social Work, the conference brought together scholars, activists, and a variety of other "stakeholders"-including representatives of community-based organizations and foundations-to exchange information and debate the policy implications of a series of research papers focusing on stateside Puerto Ricans. The keynote address delivered by Juan Cartagena-then General Counsel and Vice President for Advocacy at the Community Service Society and currently the President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice/PRLDEF-outlined the urgency of examining and addressing the particular need for expanding the number and range of research projects on stateside Puerto Ricans. An overview of Puerto Rican working poor, presented by Edwin Melendez, Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, followed, setting the framework for understanding the social conditions under which stateside Puerto Ricans live.The topics covered over the course of this one-day conference included strengthening the educational pipeline; fairness in criminal justice; health equity/mental health; and economic opportunity. Hilda Llorens of the Institute for Community Research, Carmen I. Mercado of Hunter College and Luis O. Reyes of Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, respectively, offered a range of perspectives on the education of Puerto Rican girls, the need for teachers to meet the Puerto Rican community's needs, and the status of the educational pipeline in New York City as it affects Puerto Ricans. …