Andres Acosta se despidio del PRAC (por ahora) para viajar a comenzar un programa doctoral con el Departamento de Historia de la Stonybrook University (SUNY).
Andres colaboro organizando colecciones de los Gobernadores norteamericanos en el Archivo General de Puerto Rico, e identificando casos importantes sobre ciudadania, en colaboracion con las investigaciones del Professor Charles Venator Santiago.
Cuando este completado este trabajo, los materiales digitalizados estaran disponislbles en el AGPR y en portal del PRSIN.
Algunos detalles tomados de su informe:
His work consisted of locating and digitization documents pertaining to the topic of passports and citizenship from 1898 till 1952. This report also provides future recommendations for the advancement of the research and its methodology.
From the outset, intern Andrés Acosta dedicated his time to finding documentation regarding the request for citizenship starting from the regime change in Puerto Rico after the 1898 Spanish Cuban-US war. A total of 10 boxes were found to contain such documents in various states of preservation within the year of the study (although documents were found to extend as far as 1957). These belonged to Fortaleza collection and General Correspondence subcollection. The digitalized boxes are:
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- 179: Contains oaths of allegiance and cases pertaining to the rejection or retention of Spanish citizenship from 1898 to 1905.
- 180: Contains requests for travel passports and the 1909 law for the issuance of travel passports. The range of this box is 1904 and 1909.
- 269: Contains document regarding Puerto Ricans in Venezuela Santo Domingo and Panama between the years of 1935 and 1945.
- 413: Contains books listing Puerto Ricans that were issued passports. These are separated into two volumes. Volume one lists those issued from 1941 to 1949. Volume two is separated into two parts detailing monthly statements of issued passports from 1942 to 1945. These contain names, town of origin and passport number.
- 424: The folders digitalized contained documents about citizenship cases, birth certificates, and passport requests. The year range of these is 1947 and 1948.
- 454: Contains a special case of a Puerto Rican woman and children that where left abandoned in Algeria in 1908.
- 463: Contains passport request for military spouses (1948).
- 1133: Two folders were digitized. These contained lists of issued passports, passport cases and requests, pictures of individuals, and the 1918 laws regarding the issuance of such documents. The folders range from 1918 to 1921.
- 1138: The box was organized into case files that contain issued passports along with the person’s picture. There are even cases of fraudulent Puerto Rican passports and birth certificates that were issued by Puerto Ricans outside of the island. A folder was made containing the passport regulations of 1928. The box overall range is from 1920 to 1931.
- 1634: Contains passports, list of applicants, pictures of applicants, passport renovation, and passport regulations and instructions regarding the issuance of passports for the year 1955. This box ranges from 1949 to 1957.
Many of the boxes and folders included pictures, handwritten letters, newspaper cutouts, petitions and governmental reports. From the outset, Andres focused on finding documents regarding citizenship, oaths of allegiance to the United States and passport travel request. It was later changed to focus on passport cases.