The Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP, 'Institute of Puerto Rican Culture') is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preserve, promote, enrich, and diffuse the cultural values of Puerto Rico. Since October 1992, its headquarters have been located at the site of the old colonial Spanish Welfare House in Old San Juan.
The ICP was created by order of Law Number 89, signed June 21, 1955, and it started operating in November of that year. Its first Executive Director was sociologist and archeology PhD Ricardo Alegría, who felt that "There was a need to counteract decades of harmful influences, which at times were openly contradictory to our cultural values, with an effort to promote those values. There was an urgent need to struggle against a psychological conditioning which had become deeply rooted in our colonial society, and which led many Puerto Ricans to systematically diminish anything autochthonous or anything that seemed autochthonous, while disproportionately valuing everything that was foreign, or that seemed foreign."Ricardo E. Alegría. El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña 1955-1973: 18 años contribuyendo a fortalecer nuestra conciencia nacional. (San Juan, P.R.: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña) 1978. It was in this social and sociological environment that the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña was born. The bill provoked fierce debate as, for some whose political views were in favor of the direction Puerto Rican politics had been taking in the several years prior to the debate, the bill touched on the very essence of the political status of Puerto Rico. Once the bill was signed into law, the controversy created by the new government institution did not end.
Mission In general terms, the organizational structure of the Instituto responds to the functions assigned to it by Law. Various programs address to the following aspects of the Puerto Rican culture: promote the arts, archeology, museums, parks, monuments, historic zones, music, theater, dance, and the Archives and the National Library of Puerto Rico. It extends its promotion of these throughout all the municipalities of Puerto Rico through local Cultural Centers. These Cultural Centers are autonomous organizations.
Functions
The Instituto manages the Puerto Rico General Archives (Archivo General de Puerto Rico) since 1956 as well as the Puerto Rico National Library, has a program on Puerto Rican archeology, sponsors programs in the visual arts, the popular arts and handcrafts, the theatrical arts, and the musical arts, has a branch that publishes books and periodicals, manages a number of museums and parks, and has restored many historic buildings throughout Puerto Rico as part of its historic zones and monuments program. Many of these buildings have been turned into museums.Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña website. As an example, as part of a project of restoration of the Ponce Historic Zone, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña assembled a 13-member team to research and survey what changes would need to be implemented for the restoration as that zone.Explore Puerto Rico.. By Harry S. Pariser. San Francisco: Manatee Press. Page 239. Retrieved November 30, 2009.
High-resolution images of works of art from Puerto Rico's museums are being digitized and made available online with the help of the Instituto, Google Arts & Culture, Lin Manuel Miranda and other stakeholders. 350 such works were available online by November 7, 2019.
History
Proposal According to José Trias Monge the concern of Luis Muñoz Marín (then president of the Senate of Puerto Rico) about the role of local culture within the territorial framework of the political status of Puerto Rico dated as far back as 1949. After being elected governor, the functionary discussed the issue again in 1953, trying to separate it from the political issue, and arguing about being selective about what should be adopted from American culture. In the days that followed the Spanish-American War, there had been a decline in the condition of historic buildings as well as an increase in consumerism. On November 18, 1954, Arnold Miles presented a "program" (formally named The Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Puerto Rico) to preserve "the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico", asserting that it had "been neglected" under the American flag. He proposed the creation of the Commonwealth Trust for Historical Preservation. Muñoz responded by congratulating Miles for the report, which was then discussed in anticipation of a legislative project.
In January 1955, the governor announced before the legislative assembly that he intended to create a public corporation to preserve and promote Puerto Rican heritage. Archeologist and anthropologist Ricardo Alegría, historian Arturo Morales Carrión, architect Baraño de la Junta Planes and others held reunions with Muñoz, who was also interested in acquiring the Junghanns Collection. A law allowing for the expropriation of private collections/historic documents for public display and/or preservation was assigned to then Secretary of Justice Trías Monge, with the intention of keeping it in Puerto Rico and prevent it from falling into the hands of foreign collectors. Alegría analyzed foreign laws to this effect, including countries from throughout the hemisphere. Carrión proposed following the example of the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatorian in terms of scope, but with autonomy from the central government. He collaborated with representative Jorge Font Saldaña in the first legislative draft. The new institution was going to be solely focused in the investigation, preservation and promotion of culture, distancing it from being a university.
Legislation On May 3, 1955, Project 1381 was presented before the Puerto Rico House of Representatives by its president, Ernesto Ramos Antonini. During the ensuing debate, there was a clash between cultural nationalism and universalism, as well as the opposition arguing that it could serve as a tool for the PPD to politicize culture. Carrión, Alegría (in representation of the UPR), Rafael A. González and Luis M. Rodríguez Morales (the latter two conservationists from San Juan) and others attended the public hearings. Within the PPD, universalist José Arsenio Torres opposed it calling it "of totalitarian tendencies", argued that it was only "going to support a political ideology [the Commonwealth]" and dismissed this type of culture as not "a real problem for the people". Independentist Marcos A. Ramírez Irizarry proposed an amendment, citing concern that "no official interpretation of [Puerto Rican] history or cultural values" would be "imposed" by it. Statehooder Leopoldo Figueroa argued against "culture viewed from [the PPD's] perspective", while his partner Luis A. Ferré argued against "static culture", before employing a universalist approach by arguing for the name to be "Puerto Rican Institute of Culture", de-emphasizing local customs. Two days later, the project was sent to the Treasury Commission for the study of its scope. On May 17, 1955, an amended version defined its functions, how the Board of Directors would elect the executive director (who would work for $9,600) and a $35,000 budget. The project passed with 35 votes in favor and 13 against. The Senate of Puerto Rico approved it on May 25, 1955. During the summer, Muñoz discussed his idea for "Operation Serenity", which he intended to serve as a counterpart to the industrialization process known as "Operation Bootstrap", at Harvard University. On June 21, he signed the creation of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture into Public Law 89.
First board The ICP's first board included Trías Monge, Enrique Laguerre, Salvador Tió, José A. Buitrago, Carrión, secretary Teodoro Vidal and president Eugenio Fernández Méndez and first assembled on October 3, 1955, at La Fortaleza.
Secretary of Instruction Mariano Villaronga held a meeting with Alegría about the ICP, where he noted that he would have preferred the name (to differentiate it from Franco's ). On October 10, 1955, Buitrago proposed Alegría to the role of executive director with the support of Laguerre. Tió and Carrión proposed Nilita Vientós Gastón. Alegría won 5-1, and Muñoz Marín approved it despite having reserves with Alegría's nationalist political ideology, when Tomás Blanco and the governor's own wife, Ines (who had been a teacher for the young archeologist) supported it. On October 23, 1955, the Board of Directors requested a work plan, which was presented the following week covering the first year and a half of operations. Restoration of buildings and objects with cultural, historic and artistic value; preservation of historic and cultural heritage at large, gathering of valuable material; research; promotion and divulgation were the key aspects of the document. For this, the scope was to include anything following the European arrival during the 15th century up to modern times, any cultural manifestation including folklore was relevant. The Board of Directors held frequent reunions during this stage, often bi-weekly. In the fifth, Alegría demanded a cut in his salary, but the board at large declined. Instead, he began investing it back into the ICP. Inter-agencias coordination was discussed, in particular how the Planning Board could be involved in the restoration of Old San Juan, but additional clashes and difficulties were experienced with the Treasury Department, Budget, Personnel and Supply among others. The UPR was also defensive, believing that it was going to lose functions that had so far been controlled by it. Alegría brought members from across the political spectrum to the ICP, but it was the contract of Roberto Beascoechea Lota and Isabel Gutiérrez del Arroyo the ones that caused more trouble, being nationalists while the Gag Law was in full effect. Francisco Espinoza of the Department of Justice interfered, but desisted from pursuing the matter after Alegría proposed that the matter was settled in a court, knowing well that Trías Monge (who had authored the Gag Law as requested, but actually opposed its implementation) was the Secretary of Justice. Marisa Rosado was later brought to work as Alegría's secretary. Alegría began pursuing the acquisition of the Caguana site, which he had failed to accomplish under the UPR. Shortly after he was confirmed in October 1955, Eliseo Combas of El Mundo sardonically criticized his interest in Talla de Santos and other similar practices.
Operational organization and reception With its establishment, the ICP created a series of precedents in areas such as government-sponsored cultural institutions and building restoration that preceded the cultural efforts of the federal government during the Kennedy administration (which later led to the National Foundation of Arts and Humanities during the Johnson administration and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Robert McNutty, who advised Congress, spent time in Puerto Rico to study the restoration of San Juan and the ICP's protocol, crediting Alegría for providing a definition of "cultural heritage". Kennedy himself had discussed the functioning of the ICP with Alegría during his visit to Puerto Rico, as part of activism held at La Fortaleza on December 15, 1961. During the research phase that led to the law that created the National Foundation of Arts and Humanities, Livingston L. Biddle traveled to Puerto Rico and learned of the ICP's restoration efforts. Afterwards, Henry Allen Moe recruited Alegría as an advisor on museums for the National Endowment for the Humanities.