A Chartered Flight Takes Puerto Rican Workers to the United States, circa 1948

Puerto Rican farm labor migration was a plan by the Puerto Rican and U.S. governments. In May 1952, the first wave of Boricua farmworkers hit Connecticut’s tobacco fields, joining over 20,000 workers in the shade tobacco industry. This migration laid the roots for Puerto Rican communities across the U.S, making history through hard work, resilience, and cultural pride.

A chartered flight takes Puerto Rican workers to the United States, circa 1948. (Unknown / Courtesy of the Office of Information for Puerto Rico, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Puertorrique Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, City University of New York)

Puerto Rican migrant farmworkers disembarking in Buffalo, New York, circa 1948. (Unknown / Courtesy of the Office of Information for Puerto Rico, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Puertorrique Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, City University of New York)

Puerto Rican workers harvesting sugarcane circa 1946. (Jack Delano / Courtesy of the Office of Information for Puerto Rico, Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Puertorrique Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, City University of New York)