Well I rolled into work on July 25th and as usual looked for something to stream. I always check Democracy Now and was quite shocked to see that Frank and his son Martin Espada would be on the show. With Juan, that would make three latinos on one show, and it wasn’t even September (national Hispanic month). Since I was familiar with and very much respected Frank Espadas work, this was already going to be a good day.
I first came across Frank’s work at an exhibit he had at The Mission Cultural Center that featured his work on the Puerto Rican Diaspora. It was the first time I saw documentation of the Puerto Rican – Hawaiians.
As a descendant of a Puerto Rican – Hawaiian, I was used to people knowing nothing about our history. Every time I looked at the index of a book on Hawaii, the “P” section had every word but Puerto Rican. So to finally see images of Puerto Rican – Hawaiians that were still on the Islands was important to me.
Listening to Democracy Now, I was not surprised to hear Juan ask Frank to Talk about,
“the photographs of the Puerto Rican community in Hawaii. I wonder if you would talk about that a little bit, about Blase Souza and this community that no one is aware of, which was actually the first Puerto Rican community outside the island itself.”
Frank went on to talk about Blasé Souza and the Puerto Rican experience on the Islands.
I heard he lived locally (SF Bay Area) and looked up his site and sent him an email thanking him for educating people about the Puerto Rican Diaspora and especially the Puerto Rican – Hawaiians.
Frank let me know of his book that was out “The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Themes in the Survival of a People” and I was fortunate enough to get a signed copy from him personally.
I was honored to meet Frank and his wife Marilyn in person and sit at their table and share stories. He is getting ready for a show in Oakland (I’ll post more when I find out when and where) and had photos sitting out of the Young Lords, Malcolm X and Don Eldelmiro Huertas. I left more in ahh then when I arrived.
The book is a beautiful tribute to our Puerto Rican Culture and I recommend it. It has 191 pages of text and photos and is well designed and well worth the price. You can see sample pages at his website frankespada.com.
