Giovanni Cortez

**Senior Capstone Proposal

1. The Cost of Being Nuyorican: The idea being that New York City
was once the largest hub of Puerto Ricans outside of the island, a
second home where the culture evolved into something else
completely. Beginning in the 1960’s, Puerto Ricans generated a cultural
movement, a place in time where their presence in art and politics
were a pivotal part of the cities’ identity and virtually unavoidable.

What happened? Puerto Ricans are now the fourth largest Latino group
in New York City and a lot of that time period’s artifacts are either
securely archived, virtually disappeared, or have become collector’s
items affordable only to the rich. Where did all these things go? What
happened to the people involved and how can it be made presentable
once again for a new generation?

2. My reporting ideas will come initially from securing specific items or

pieces, of which I call “artifacts”. This mostly includes music, books,
and various forms of films. There would need to be some proper
curation involved, but the idea would be to give these things new life
and a chance to resurface.

Once that is complete, I want to involve the creator’s / participants of

those various forms of media. Get their take on that period of time,
what they believe happened, and how they see the condition of the
diaspora and culture in New York City now. The point is not necessarily
to show history. I want it to be clear that the premise is more like a
presentation of alternate history. Where would we be if our “artifacts”
got the chance and platform to flourish like that of the oppressors?

Another piece of this is to demonstrate gentrification as not only a

concept that occupies and alters physical space, but something that
can be cultural as well. I don’t want to use the word “Gentrify” though.

3. To create something like the “Black Power Mixtape”. A compilation of

these things that again presents an alternate, almost missed history
currently. I think for the component in which I talk to those who were
involved, that would be all filmed and included as well.

I think ultimately I would also like to create something of a film festival

to present all the accumulated documents and other events
accordingly.
4. I have been working for a while up to this point on this “idea”. I’ve
been collecting these “artifacts”, films and music especially, for a very
long time now. I know it’s very ambitious and needs a lot of concision,
but I think it’s a worthwhile idea. The culmination I hope will be finding
this one very elusive film called “Tecato”.