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1921–2011 · San Juan · Anthropology • Archaeology

Scholar and cultural leader who founded the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and helped preserve the island's heritage. Alegría, Ricardo E. (1921--), cultural antropologist and archeologist, was born on April 14, 1921 in San Juan. He was the driving force behind the creation of the influential Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, which he headed from its foundation in 1955 to 1972. In 1993 he was the first Latin-American to win the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's Picasso Medal, the same year that President Clinton awarded him the Charles Frankel Award of the Humanities.