Puerto Ricans in a Small U.S. City

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the health problems of Puerto Ricans in the United States have been studied extensively in New York, the area with the highest concentration, few attempts have been made to examine the situation in smaller cities. The New York studies revealed the struggles of the Puerto Ricans in attempting to cope with the vast network of health and welfare agencies and their difficulties with housing and education (1-4). Would they have fewer problems in a smaller city where the limited resources might be more understandable and where their difficulties could be easily recognized by the community, rather than obscured by the myriad of other minority groups characteristic of New York? In the fall of 1964, the educ,ational needs of a group of Peace Corps trainees being prepared for work in public health and community development in a South American country (5) made it possible to seek the answer to this question. A survey was planned of the Puerto Rican population in a small city (population 31,214; 1960 census) in the Metropolitan Boston area. The Puerto Ricans, who had originally come to this area as agricultural migrants, had apparently found conditions favorable enough to decide to settle with their families for some undefined period. This situation was of interest to the Massachusetts Migrant Health Project (a program carried out by the State department of public health under a grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare), who suggested the survey, and also to the local health and welfare department and the Ministry to Migrants of the Massachusetts Council of Churches who cosponsored the study. The study was planned to satisfy several objectives. Educationally, it was to provide the Peace Corps trainees with experience in the preparation and execution of a health survey (an activity often undertaken by many of their predecessors in South America), with exposure to health problems, and with opportunities to speak Spanish. Practically, it was hoped to obtain for the State and local health departments and several other interested agencies information about Puerto Ricans that could be used to develop necessary programs. An additional practical goal of the study was to serve as a pilot project for the Commonwealth Service Corps, a group organized along Peace Corps lines to help provide health and welfare services in Massachusetts. If it could be shown that a group of volunteers, with a minimum of training, could undertake such a survey and obtain valid results, then similar studies might be tried by the Commonwealth Service Corps in other areas. Theoretically, there was an interest in obtaining an answer to the question concerning the magnitude of the problems faced by Puerto Ricans.