Dr ricardo alegria biography

Ricardo Enrique Alegría Gallardo (April 14, 1921 – July 7, 2011) was a Puerto Rican scholar, author, cultural anthropologist, and archaeologist known as the.
Archaeologist, anthropologist, historian and cultural leader.
Known as “The Father of Modern Puerto Rican Archaeology,” Don Ricardo Alegría spent his life exploring, investigating, researching, writing about Puerto Rico's.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto RicoSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ricardo Alegria, a Puerto Rican scholar known for his pioneering studies of the island’s native Taino culture and who is credited with preserving the capital’s colonial district, died Thursday. He was 90.

Alegria died at the Cardiovascular Center of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean from complications of heart disease, said his son, Ricardo Alegria Pons. The elder Alegria had been treated for two weeks at the hospital in June and then was hospitalized again Sunday with chest pains, his son said.

“Thanks to his long life of 90 years, he has had a major impact on all aspects of the culture of all Puerto Ricans,” his son told reporters. “That work and dedication and love of his country does not disappear with his death.”

Gov. Luis Fortuno declared five days of mourning in the U.S. territory, ordering American and Puerto Rican flags to be lowered to half-staff in honor of one of the island’s leading cultural figures.

Alegria in 1955 helped found and later served as executive dir

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Archaeologist, anthropologist, historian and cultural leader

Ricardo Alegría led important archaeological excavations in Puerto Rico. Most important among them are the digs at Cueva María de la Cruz, Hacienda Grande (Loíza), Monserrate (Luquillo) and Caguana (Utuado). He was the founder of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (1955), the Archaeological Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico, the Center for Advanced Studies in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and the Museum of the Americas.

He was born in Old San Juan on April 14, 1921. His father was José S. Alegría, one of the founders of the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party. His mother was Celeste Gallardo. He did his undergraduate studies in arts and sciences at the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico and later earned a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago. Later, he did his doctoral studies at Harvard University, under the tutelage of renowned scholars such as Gordon Willey.

As part of his work at the Archaeological Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico, he did the

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Don Ricardo Alegría: Keeper of Puerto Rico’s History and Culture

I feel comfortable saying no individual in contemporary times embodied Puerto Rico’s history, its traditions, was more revered by his countrymen, or more closely associated with telling its story than the incomparable Don Ricardo Alegría.

This post honors Dr. Ricardo Alegria at the first year anniversary of his passing on July 7, 2012. He lived a long, accomplished life and deeply loved his homeland, Puerto Rico. To say his knowledge and memory of Puerto Rico, the island he called home for 90 years, was encyclopedic would be an understatement. Known as “The Father of Modern Puerto Rican Archaeology,” Don Ricardo Alegría spent his life exploring, investigating, researching, writing about Puerto Rico’s history, including its African legacy.

As a cultural anthropologist, his documentary “Las Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol en Loíza Aldea (1949), was one of the first studies of the African presence in Puerto Rican culture. In 1996, Don Ricardo Alegría published “Juan Garrido: El Conquistador Negro