in 1948, and by the end of the 1950s, was operating in 115 cities and towns stateside. The Department of Puerto Rican Affairs in the United States was established in 1989 as a cabinet-level department in Puerto Rico. Currently, the Commonwealth operates the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 12 regional offices throughout the United States. Puerto Ricans in New York have preserved their cultural heritage by being involved actively in the different political and social rights movements in the United States. They founded "Aspira", a leader in the field of education, in 1961. The ASPIRA Association is now one of the largest national Latino nonprofit organizations in the United States. Other educational and social organizations founded by Puerto Ricans in New York and elsewhere are the National Puerto Rican Coalition in Washington, DC, the National Puerto Rican Forum, the Puerto Rican Family Institute, Boricua College, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies of the City University of New York at Hunter College, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, and the New York League of Puerto Rican Women, Inc., among others. Hostos Community College in the Bronx, was named after a Puerto Rican Eugenio Maria de Hostos, and was founded as an all-Puerto Rican college. The college now accepts students of all races, however it largely caters to Hispanics with up to 80% of its students being of Hispanic descent. Boricua College is another originally all-Puerto Rican college with campuses in East Williamsburg and Manhattan. Cultural ties between New York and Puerto Rico are strong. In September 2017, following the immense destruction wrought upon Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo led an aid delegation to San Juan, including engineers form the New York Power Authority to help restore Puerto Rico's electrical grid. Subsequently, on the one-year anniversary of the storm, in September 2018, Governor Cuomo announced plans for the official New York State memorial to honor the victims of Hurricane Maria, to be built in Battery Park City, Manhattan, citing the deep cultural connections shared between New Yorkers and Puerto Rican Americans. The Hurricane Maria Memorial was unveiled by Governor Cuomo on March 26, 2021 in lower Manhattan. Notable people who migrated to New York from Puerto Rico The following is a short list of Puerto Ricans who migrated to New