Frank Bonilla was an American academic of Puerto Rican descent who became a leading figure in Puerto Rican Studies.
14 Facts About Frank Bonilla
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Frank Bonilla is a key figure in the establishment of the Puerto Rican Hispanic Leadership Forum and the Center for Puerto Rico Studies at the City University of New York.
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Frank Bonilla's parents were both from Puerto Rico and had moved to the United States early in their lives.
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Frank Bonilla's mother emigrated to the United States in hopes of attending college, and his father had been a cigar maker and had served in the US Cavalry.
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Frank Bonilla said that children were very often exposed to multiple languages at an early age and that they became bilingual to interact with people in their day-to-day lives.
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Frank Bonilla spent his first years of high school attending a Franciscan high school in Illinois, where he showed academic and leadership skills.
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Frank Bonilla then transferred to Morris High School.
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Frank Bonilla was taught to be a mortar gunner and was assigned to the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division.
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Frank Bonilla served in this battle at the front of the line for nearly a month.
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Frank Bonilla soon realized that the Puerto Rican soldiers had a divide.
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Frank Bonilla went on to pursue a master's degree in sociology from New York University, which he earned in 1954.
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Frank Bonilla attended Harvard University and received a doctorate in sociology soon after.
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Frank Bonilla played a key role in the formation of the Puerto Rican Hispanic Leadership Forum to help manage the needs of Puerto Ricans in New York.
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Frank Bonilla co-founded the Inter-University Program for Latino Research at the City University of New York, a consortium for research that includes over 20 universities.