Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 2004, Joseph Michael Acabá made history as the first person of Puerto Rican descent to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate. Acabá was born in 1967 in Inglewood, California. His parents, Ralph and Elsie Acabá, are from the municipality of Hatillo in Puerto Rico and had moved to California earlier in the decade.... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer Félix Rigau Carrera was born in 1894 in the town of Sabana Grande in southwestern Puerto Rico. He developed a strong interest in mechanics and airborne transportation early on in his life. After earning a degree in mechanical engineering from the Colegio de Agricultura y Artes Mecanicas (the present-day University of Puerto Rico),... Continue Reading →
Image: Roberto Sánchez Vilella (right) seen here with David Ben-Gurion, former prime minister of Israel, circa 1958. Roberto Sánchez Vilella made a number of notable contributions to Puerto Rico’s transportation infrastructure. He was born in 1913 in the municipality of Mäyaguez on the western coast of Puerto Rico. Vilella and his family moved to the... Continue Reading →
After the U.S. entry into World War II, a number of women of Puerto Rican descent – living both in Puerto Rico and on the mainland – answered the call to serve on the home front in the global fight against the Axis powers. These women, often facing hardships such as racial discrimination while working... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 