Frank Espada

• Name — Frank Espada • Birth Name — Francisco Luis Espada Roig • Born — 21 December 1930 • Birthplace — Utuado, Puerto Rico • Died — 16 February 2014 • Place of death — New York City • Education — City College of New York, New York Institute of Photography • Occupation — photojournalist

Espada was born in 1930 in Utuado, Puerto Rico. His family migrated to New York City in 1939. After high school, he attended City College of New York but soon left without finishing his studies, instead joining the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Espada married his wife, Marilyn, in 1952. Together they raised two boys and one girl: Jason, Lisa, and Martín Espada. Under the G.I. Bill, Espada was able to attend The New York Institute of Photography in New York City, where he studied documentary photography. He studied under and was mentored directly by W. Eugene Smith as well as Dave Heath. To support his family he worked as an electrical contractor for ten years.

Espada became involved in the civil rights movement prior to 1967 when he joined The City-Wide Puerto Rican Development Program, then under the direction of Manny Díaz. He worked as a community organizer in New York City's most vulnerable and impoverished areas. Espada organized strikes against rent increases, voter registration drives, sit-ins of welfare recipients and mothers, public school boycotts, marches for safer streets and civil and political rights. In 1979, Espada was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities which allowed him to focus on documenting the struggle of Puerto Rican communities in the US. Espada had been active and involved with the National Welfare Rights Organization, the National Latino Media Coalition, the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, the National Hispanic Manpower Association, and the National Association of Puerto Rican Drug Abuse Programs. In 1985, he moved his family to San Francisco.

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