Bristol archive initiative is documenting the history of the borough’s Puerto Rican community

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Joel Berrocal and The Margaret R. Grundy Memorial Library are launching an initiative to document and archive the rich history of the Puerto Rican community in Bristol Borough.

Berrocal, the executive director of the National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce and a Bristol resident, said he’s had the idea for years, but it gained urgency as members of the first generation of Puerto Ricans to move to Bristol in the 1950s are growing older and passing away.

“I want to document these stories for future generations to see,” Berrocal said.

More than 1,100 Puerto Ricans live in Bristol, making up the vast majority of the more than 15% of the borough’s population who identify as Hispanic and/or Latino, according to the 2020 U.S. Census data.

Despite the community’s deep roots and growing numbers, much of its story remains untold.

“Preserving what memories are left from the initial group moving over to Bristol is important, and also preserving their memories from home,” said Abigail Duffany, archivist at The Grundy Library. “It’s very interconnected.”

Duffany said she is “lucky” to be able to work with Berrocal to remedy the absence of the community’s history from the archive.

“It’s important that we represent everybody fairly and equally and allow them the opportunity to represent themselves,” she said. “So whatever is important to Joel and his family is what will be saved, and it’s very special that they get to preserve that for the future.”

Berrocal said the library has been “super supportive” in organizing the initiative and determining how to collect and curate photos, documents and oral histories, especially from the older generations. Berrocal said they also welcome volunteers who want to look through old newspapers and other historical materials.

Duffany said she is eager to work with anyone who wants to participate in the project.

“If you have pictures, if you’re interested in doing an oral history, it’s all important,” she said. “If you have a button, or if you want to talk about your relative, and you may not live in Bristol, but your relative lived in Bristol, it’s important to capture all of that.”

Duffany said she can work with people to digitize photos or other materials if they don’t wish to permanently donate the original to the archive, and she will also coordinate times to sit down and record oral histories.

“Sometimes bringing in a photograph leads to a lot more storytelling, and it provides a prompt for those people, so it can turn into a multiple part interview about, you know, this larger story that everybody has,” she said.

Berrocal said community members have reached out to him, saying they want their grandparents to share their stories or are looking forward to going through photos together.

“It seems like … a way for families to come together and start to document,” Berrocal said. “And they could sit with the team at the library, ‘Hey, look, we got this photo and this one.’”

Puerto Ricans ‘set roots’ in Bristol beginning in the ‘50s, ‘60s

Berrocal’s family history mirrors that of many other Puerto Rican community members in Bristol and elsewhere in the diaspora.

All four of Berrocal’s grandparents were born and raised in Lares, a town in the mountains in the western part of Puerto Rico.

As the U.S. government’s Operation Bootstrap program sought to move Puerto Rico from an agricultural society to a manufacturing society in the 1940s and 1950s, many farmers, including Berrocal’s grandparents, were forced to abandon their livelihood and move to the capital of San Juan.

But once there, thousands of Puerto Ricans were confronted with unemployment and scarce resources. They began to migrate first to New York City, and then to Philadelphia and other cities on the U.S. mainland to find work.

“Most of the Puerto Ricans that ended up in Bristol started maybe in Philly,” Berrocal said. “And then started leaving the city and going, you know, spreading out into the suburbs.”

Berrocal said that many Puerto Ricans, including his own relatives, came to the area to work at a place called King’s Farm in Morrisville.

“Everybody just set roots,” he said. “And now that first generation, they’re grandparents and great grandparents at this point.”

The community continues to grow, Berrocal said, as more Puerto Ricans are attracted to the town.

“It’s just a wonderful place to raise a family,” he said. “So we have, in recent years, we got a large influx, not only from Philadelphia, but … a lot of Puerto Ricans from the Trenton area started coming over here because it’s just a better place to set roots and to grow roots and raise a family.”

Taking a ‘proactive’ approach to documenting recent history

In addition to collecting stories from older generations, Berrocal is also focusing on archiving photos, stories and information related to the borough’s efforts to help Puerto Ricans on the island and those who had to flee in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“We just were doing fundraising like crazy,” he said. “We were sending skids of supplies to Puerto Rico.”

In all, Bristol community members raised more than $100,000 to support Puerto Ricans impacted by the hurricane.

Berrocal said that documenting photos from more recent events is also important; even if information and photos are shared on social media, those materials could disappear with the company or platform.

“I want to make sure these histories are documented in a place that’s going to be secured long term.”

As with past generations, Berrocal said many of those people who have come to the area with plans to eventually return to Puerto Rico are now staying and adding their contributions to the ever-evolving story.

Berrocal wants this archive to help preserve the community’s past and write its future.

He envisions hosting exhibitions to potentially coincide with Bristol’s annual Puerto Rican Day Festival. The event, usually held in July, celebrated its 52nd edition this year and is one of the oldest Puerto Rican festivals in the region.

“I think it’s something we can continue to build on and grow from there and then kind of be more proactive in documenting our history as future Puerto Rican days and things come along,” he said.

Duffany said the archive will be “ongoing.”

Anyone interested in contributing photos or making an appointment to record an oral history can submit a form on the library’s website in Spanish or English. People can also email archive@grundylibrary.org for more information.