Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Digital Collections

Early Life

Candy Torres Collection - CAP 1968 - 009.jpg

Candy Torres in front of a Civil Air Patrol aircraft at Mannsville NJ airfield, 1968

Torres's parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York in the late 1920s, where Torres was later born and grew up in the 50s and 60s. Torres decided early that she wanted to be a part of the space program, despite discouragement from people around her.

"I had liberated myself very early on. I thought of myself as a human being first . . . I had a very curious mind, and I was not willing to let go of that."

She quickly committed herself to any and everything space related. At age 15, she learned how to fly a plane as a member of the New Jersy Civil Air Patrol. She also began a small library of books on the current state of the space industry and space exploration technology, pictured below.

Candy Torres Collection - The Space Industry 1962 A Cropped 2mb Version - 017.jpg

Published in 1962, this book covered the current and predicted business opportunities on Earth and beyond.

Candy Torres Collection - American Space Digest 1963 A Cropped 2mb Version - 013.jpg

Published in 1963, ths book focuses on the impact of the space program on everyday lives.

Candy Torres Collection - The Dawning Space Age 1963 A Cropped 2mb Version - 015.jpg

Published by the Civil Air Patrol in 1963, this book was primarily intended for students in the CAP aerospace education program.