The military defense of Puerto Rico is the responsibility of the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris. Locally, Puerto Rico has its own National Guard, the Puerto Rico National Guard, and its own state defense force, the Puerto Rico State Guard, which, by local law, is under the authority of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The commander-in-chief of both forces is the governor of Puerto Rico, currently Pedro Pierluisi, who delegates his authority to the Puerto Rico Adjutant General, currently Major General José J. Reyes. The Adjutant General, in turn, delegates the authority over the State Guard to another officer but retains the authority over the Puerto Rico National Guard as a whole. At the national level, the commander-in-chief is the President of the United States, currently Joe Biden.
Phi Iota Alpha (ΦΙΑ), established on December 26, 1931, is the oldest Latino Fraternity in existence, and works to motivate people, develop leaders, and create innovative ways to unite the Latino community. The organization has roots that stem back to the late 19th century to the first Latin American fraternity, and the first Latin American student organization in the United States. The brotherhood is composed of undergraduate, graduate, and professional men committed towards the empowerment of the Latin American community by providing intensive social and cultural programs and activities geared towards the appreciation, promotion and preservation of Latin American culture.
The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus is a public land-grant research university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus in the University of Puerto Rico system in terms of student population and it was Puerto Rico's first public university campus.
Nydia Margarita Velázquez Serrano is an American politician serving in the United States House of Representatives since 1993. A Democrat from New York, Velázquez chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011. Her district, in New York City, was numbered the 12th district from 1993 to 2013 and has been numbered the 7th district since 2013. Velázquez is the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in the United States Congress.
The Inter American University of Puerto Rico is a private Christian university with its main campus in San Germán, Puerto Rico. It also has campuses in Aguadilla, Arecibo, Barranquitas, Bayamón, Fajardo, Guayama, Ponce, and San Juan. The university also has three professional schools: School of Optometry, School of Law, and the School of Aeronautics. The Inter offers academic programs in 11 teaching units. It was founded in San Germán in 1912. The San Germán campus is also the home to the Inter American School, a private co-educational college-preparatory school.
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, abbreviated "USC" and often called simply Sagrado, is a private Catholic university in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is one of the oldest and largest educational institutions in Puerto Rico with origins dating back to the 1880 establishment of an elementary school by the Society of the Sacred Heart.
The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the city of Los Angeles. Their objective was to form a National organization of professional engineers to serve as role models in the Latino community.
Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013.
La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. is a Latino-based collegiate fraternity. It was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on February 19, 1982, and has 75 active undergraduate chapters and fifteen graduate alumni professional chapters in universities and cities across the United States.
Michael Joseph Montelongo was nominated by President George W. Bush as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management. He was formerly a Senior Project Manager with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been with Ernst & Young since 1999. He was previously Chief of Staff and Director of Small Business Services for BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. From 1995 to 1996, he was a Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and, from 1994 to 1995, he served as Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Hon. Montelongo served as Chief of Staff and General Manager of Operations General Management at Fort Bliss, Texas, from 1992 to 1994 and was a Senior Analyst and associate professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY from 1988 to 1991. He is a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Army, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Kimberly Casiano is an American businesswoman of Puerto Rican descent. She is the former president and chief operating officer of Casiano Communications — the largest Hispanic publisher of periodicals and magazines in the United States. Casiano currently serves on the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, Mutual of America and Mead Johnson Nutrition Company.
The Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association (PRSSA) —Spanish: Asociación de Estudiantes Estadistas de Puerto Rico— is a Puerto Rican non-profit student organization dedicated to promoting statehood for Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1979, and remained active for two years, becoming inactive 1981–1993, active again 1993 to 1997, inactive once more 1997 to 2007, when it was reactivated once again.
Xavier Romeu Matta is a counselor and litigator, with expertise in securities litigation and regulation, and corporate, commercial and employment litigation. He is a former politician, and an advocate of statehood for Puerto Rico, and of the appointment of Puerto Rican-Americans to the federal bench, most notably of current Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, whom he served as a law clerk.
Richard Velazquez is a nationally recognized leader in the Hispanic community and in business. Velazquez leads international marketing for Amazon Alexa for Latin America and Australia/New Zealand, and the Smart TV segment. Prior to this, Velazquez was the Global Head of Denon at Sound United, an automotive designer, President of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) Seattle Chapter, Sr. Global Product Planner / Product Manager for Xbox with the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, and an executive at PepsiCo leading Emerging Technologies and Innovations in Marketing and Global R&D. He was recognized in October 2000 as the 1st Puerto Rican automotive designer for Porsche in Germany.
Panhispanism is a political trend aimed to achieve social, economic, and political cooperation, as well as often political unification, of the Spanish-speaking countries, mainly those of Hispanic America. It focuses principally on the former Spanish Empire's territories in North, Central, and South America. It has been present consistently in literature, revolutionary movements, and political institutions. The term may be also used to talk specifically about projects of Hispanic American unity held by Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, to the exclusion of Hispanic areas outside the Americas.
Leon C. Collins is a media executive, media educator, producer/director, script writer, and photographic artist. Collins is recognized as one of the first prominent African-American public television management pioneers in the United States.
The Young Democrats of America Puerto Rico Chapter is a non-profit political corporation organized pursuant to General Corporate Law of Puerto Rico and duly registered in the Department of State of Puerto Rico.
Mexican American Women's National Association, known today as MANA, A National Latina Organization, advocates for equality and empowers Latinas through leadership development. MANA was founded in 1974, making it one of the oldest active Mexican-American advocacy organizations, and as of 2000, it is considered the largest Latina organization in the United States. The organization was formed to address the intersection of Mexican-American and women's needs for equal rights. The founders created MANA with the intent of having a Latina-oriented organization. MANA publicizes and addresses Latina perspectives and needs through Social movements, Leadership education, and Advocacy within federal, state, and local governments. They have been involved with multiple major social movements throughout their history. These include advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment and Reproductive rights, as well as social movements on education, leadership development, women's healthcare, and racial discrimination in the work. MANA currently operates from its home base in Washington, D.C., and has local chapters across the nation.
