Pura Belpré

American librarian, storyteller, and writer

• Born: February 2, 1899
• Died: July 1, 1982

The first Puerto Rican librarian in the New York Public Library system and an ardent advocate for social justice for Spanish-speaking communities, Belpré enjoyed a successful career as a librarian, storyteller, and children’s writer, publishing the first Puerto Rican folktale for children in the United States.

Early Life

Pura Teresa Belpré Nogueras, better known as Pura Belpré (POOR-ah BEHL-pray), was born in Cidra, Puerto Rico, to Felipe Belpré Bernabe and Carlota Nogueras. She and her five siblings were surrounded by a family of storytellers who instilled a love for the rich stories and folktales handed down from generation to generation. Belpré’s family was quite nomadic, as her father was a contractor whose work took him to various parts of the island. Belpré attended primary and secondary schools in Cayey, Arroyo, Guayama, and Santurce. Often, she would spend hours exploring the natural world around her, amassing a vast storehouse of images and feelings that would later play an important role in her folktales for children

In 1919, Belpré enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras with the intent to follow her sister’s footsteps and become a teacher. However, her plans were cut short when she immigrated to New York City in August, 1920, amid the flood of Puerto Ricans entering the continental United States. She planned to attend her older sister’s wedding and return to Rio Piedras. Not long after her arrival, Belpré met the African American librarian Catherine Allen Latimer at the Countée Cullen Library, a branch of the New York Public Library. Belpré was fascinated by Latimer’s demeanor and skill as she interacted with numerous teenagers, and Belpré would later recall this encounter as the pivotal moment when she began considering librarianship as a career path.

Life’s Work

In May, 1921, Belpré was asked by librarian Ernestine Rose to become the Spanish-speaking assistant at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. She eagerly accepted the position, establishing herself as the first Puerto Rican librarian in the system. Immediately, she began training and eventually enrolled in the library school of the New York Public Library around 1925. Years later, Belpré would cite Rose and Latimer, along with librarians Ann Carroll Moore and Maria Cimino, as major influences in her professional life.

As a librarian, she began to notice that Puerto Rican literature, particularly folktales, were absent from the library shelves. While taking a storytelling class under librarian Mary Gould Davis, Belpré was encouraged to write her first folktale—a love story from her native Puerto Rico about Pérez the mouse and Martina the cockroach. This particular story was one that she performed with handmade puppets for children during her story programs. A few years later, she was persuaded by a classmate to submit this folktale to a publisher for review. In 1932, Pérez and Martina: A Portorican Folk Tale was published by Frederick Warne, becoming the first Puerto Rican folktale to be published in the United States.

Throughout the late 1920’s and 1930’s, Belpré transferred to various branches of the New York Public Library, conducting Spanish and bilingual storytelling programs, planning community outreach efforts to Puerto Ricans, and welcoming Jewish, black, Latino, and various immigrant populations into the library. At the 115th Street branch, she hosted the first El día de reyes (epiphany) program, firmly establishing the library within the heart of the Puerto Rican and Latino community.

In 1942, Belpré traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, to present a paper at an American Library Association conference. While there she met the famous African American composer, concert violinist, and Harlem musician Clarence Cameron White. They were married in 1943, and two years later Belpré resigned from the library to travel around the country with her husband.

Belpré’s initial experiences in the library working with Spanish-speaking and Puerto Rican children and their families strongly influenced her writing and her career. She had the opportunity to work one-on-one with newly arrived immigrants and poverty-stricken Americans who were trying to find their piece of the proverbial American pie. She had firsthand experience of the daily problems faced by Spanish-speaking children struggling to succeed in an English-dominant society. Belpré also understood the disappointment of not finding familiar cultural stories at the library.

From 1945 to 1960, Belpré wrote and told stories, presented lectures, and traveled with her husband. She penned many of the folktales told during her programs at the various branches of the New York Public Library. In 1946, Belpré published some of these stories as The Tiger and the Rabbit, and Other Tales, the first collection of Puerto Rican folktales in English published in the United States.

In June, 1960, Belpré’s husband died from cancer, and shortly thereafter she returned to the New York Public Library to work as the Spanish children’s specialist. For the next seven years, she traveled around New York City, assisting in the development of library programs for Puerto Rican children, conducting bilingual storytelling programs for both Puerto Rican and non-Puerto Rican populations, selecting Spanish-language children’s books for library collections, and advocating for equal library services for impoverished communities.

In 1962, she began a translating career with the publication of her Spanish version of Munro Leaf’s The Story of Ferdinand. That same year she published the picture book Juan Bobo and the Queen’s Necklace: A Puerto Rican Folk Tale. She continued to publish original stories and translate Spanish versions of children’s classics throughout the 1960’s and l970’s.

In March, 1968, Belpré was forced to retire from the library because of age restrictions, but she was contracted later that year by Augusta Baker to work on a per diem basis on the South Bronx Library Project, an outreach-based program dedicated to establishing library services and collections for low-income, Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in New York City. While working on the project, Belpré traveled to branch libraries, day care centers, school libraries, and youth centers conducting puppet shows and sharing bilingual stories with children from various cultural backgrounds. In 1971, she and Mary Conwell published the professional resource Libros en Español: An Annotated List of Children’s Books in Spanish.

Throughout her life, Belpré received notable and lifetime achievement awards for her work as a librarian, storyteller, puppeteer, advocate, and author. In May, 1982, she received the New York City Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, and on June 30, 1982, Belpré was honored by the coordinator’s council of the New York Public Library. The following day, she died in her sleep. In 1996, as a way to honor the librarian and her work in children’s literature, the Pura Belpré Awards were established by the American Library Association and REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking).

Significance

A quiet but passionate advocate for library services and programs for immigrant, low-income, and Spanish-speaking families, Belpré left a lasting legacy as the first Latino librarian in the New York Public Library System, the first Puerto Rican librarian in the United States, and the author of the first English editions of Puerto Rican folktales for children. Her grassroots efforts in New York City have become a shining example to future generations of librarians serving Spanish-speaking, Latino, and culturally diverse populations. At a time when race relations were tense, Belpré showcased the importance of intercultural understanding and social justice not only in her career as a librarian but also in her children’s books that immortalize her passion to preserve her cultural heritage.

Bibliography

Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños. Puerto Rican Writers and Migration: Folklore, Autobiography, and History. http://www.centropr.org/prwriters/belpre.html. This Web page, created by the Hunter College-based Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, provides a biographical essay about Belpré and links to numerous primary documents about her, including photographs, papers, speeches, and letters.

Hernández-Delgado, Julio. “Pura Teresa Belpré, Storyteller and Pioneer Puerto Rican Librarian.” Library Quarterly 62, no. 4 (October, 1992): 425-440. Covers Belpré’s life in Puerto Rico, her career as a librarian and storyteller, and her persistent drive to connect children from all cultures to Puerto Rican literature.

Núñez, Victoria. “Remembering Pura Belpré’s Early Career at the 135th Street New York Public Library: Interracial Cooperation and Puerto Rican Settlement During the Harlem Renaissance.” Centro Journal 21, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 53-77. Thoughtful examination of Belpré’s early library work with black, Purerto Rican, and immigrant populations during the Harlem Renaissance. Highlights various archival pieces from Belpré’s papers.

Sánchez González, Lisa. “Pura Belpré: The Children’s Ambassador.” In Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community, edited by Vicki Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Overview of Belpre’s work as a children’s author, librarian, and storyteller, with particular emphasis on her books for children.