Noemi Figueroa Soulet - Trustee
Noemí Figueroa Soulet is the Producer/Director/Writer of the documentary film “The Borinqueneers,” which profiled the history of the all-Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Regiment, the only Hispanic-segregated unit in US Army History. This award-winning film narrated by acclaimed actor, Hector Elizondo, was aired nationally on PBS and on the Armed Forces Network to our troops overseas. Amongst other awards, the film won the 2012 Military Channel Award at the GI Film Festival and was selected to be screened in Havana, Cuba at the Festival Internacional de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano as one of the most important films in the past 100 years of Puerto Rican cinema.
After 25 years of work on the 65th Infantry Regiment, Noemi is considered an authority on the subject and continues to be an advocate on behalf of Puerto Rican veterans. She’s spoken on the regiment at corporations, universities, military facilities, and community organizations. Noemi collaborated with the Korean War Legacy Foundation to document 69 veteran video interviews in Puerto Rico, organized a return trip to South Korea for 15 veterans and their companions and helped veterans and their families lobby Congress to approve the Congressional Gold Medal on their behalf, which was approved in 2014.
Her new award-winning book, The Borinqueneers, A Visual History of the 65th Infantry Regiment, documents the regiment’s 125-year history through more than 700 archival photographs. Amongst other awards, it won the Military Category in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Born in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, she was raised in Spanish Harlem and has a degree in Education from New York University and a Certificate in Digital Filmmaking from SUNY Westchester Community College. Noemi currently resides in Poinciana, Florida.