Puerto Rican Leadership: Efforts of a Minority Group in Selecting and Training Leaders, as Evidenced Through ASPIRA Agency, New York City, 1961–1963

Background of the Study. Historically, in our society the minority group which is also the latest arrival, is assigned to the lowest rung on the social ladder. Its members are destined to be negatively identified by the rest of society until they can lose their identity entirely or until they are replaced by some even less desirable” newcomers. Thus, Puerto Ricans now find themselves socially in the position occupied by Germans, Irish and Italians a century ago. On the theory that New York may be as much of a problem to Puerto Ricans as Puerto Ricans to New York, methods aimed at lessening the trauma of integration to the incoming group and the established one have been developed. This study aims at describing a carefully planned and professionally executed method of intervention into the acculturation process in order to make this process less traumatic. The subject matter of this study is unique in the fact that the process is planned and implemented by the minority group in question. ASPIRA agency has the distinction of being the first self-help agency to be organized and directed by Puerto Ricans in New York City