VICTORIA NSInEZ


 Pantoja migrated to the United States in 1944 during World War II. She
settled in New York City where she went on to build a career as a community
activist, leader and academic. Pantoja first became active in community
affairs in the 1950s and remained active in the politics of Puerto Rican
community development for fifty years. Her moment of ascendancy in
leadership and community activism occurred simultaneously with the period
of the Great Puerto Rican Migration, an era marked by significant social
upheaval for the masses of Puerto Ricans who migrated, the majority to
New York City.6 If Pantoja came of age at the height of the Great Migration,
she matured as a leader in the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, another period
of significant social upheaval in the U.S. and a moment of great change for
Puerto Rican communities in the States.
 The facts of Pantoja's life that I emphasize in this reading of her autobiography
stem from her identity as a migrant. In this essay I divide her life as a migrant
into four stages that are presented in the chart below (Figure 1). These stages
correspond closely to the analytical framework Farah Griffin developed in
discussing African American migration narratives: departure, arrival in a new
place; the establishment of a new identity in the new place, and return.


Pre-Migration: Life in Puerto Rico
-Pantoja was born in Puerta de Tierra and moved
as a small child to Barrio Obrero where she grew
up. Her grandfather was a union activist at a local
tobacco processing plant.

-Conflicts Pantoja names: the role of women in her
family, marriage as a socially compulsory act, her
status in the workplace. Conflicts that are not
explored: race and sexuality in Puerto Rico.

The Return Migrant: Leaving New York City
and Sojourning
-What is the meaning of Pantoja's departures? Why
does she leave ASPIRA after only five years; why does
she leave NYC; why does she leave Puerto Rico (twice)?

-The sojourning: Pantoja moves to Washington
D.C., then California, then returns to Puerto Rico.
A key question for this migrant: Where will she find
a sense of belonging?


1st Migration: New York City
-The establishment of a new identity in a new place
in which there are new options and perhaps new
restrictions for gender, sexual, racial and class
identity.

-Place becomes a marker of identity: either moving
closer to those of one's original group, moving
closer to those of another group, or moving away
from one's original group.

-Activities of the ethnic migrant: building
institutions, organizing for the betterment of the
community; these activities coincide with a rise in
class status.

The Circular Migrant: Leaving Puerto Rico
(again) and returning to NYC
-Completing the quest and deciding where she
belongs: Where is home?


Figure 1: Questions and Themes Raised in the Four Stages in the life of a Puerto Rican Migrant as
Represented in The Autobiography of Antonia Pantoja