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Pushing Back: Chicana, Latina, Hispanic Women Preserving Our Narratives

Carey C. Shuart Women's Archive and Research Collection, Events, Hispanic Collections
Dr. Maria Cotera (left) alongside panelists Lisa Cruces, Patricia Hernandez, and Dr. Carolina Villaroel

Dr. Maria Cotera (left) alongside panelists Lisa Cruces, Patricia Hernandez, and Dr. Carolina Villaroel

The University of Houston recently hosted Dr. Maria Cotera of the University of Michigan and her talk, “Decolonizing the Archive: Chicana por mi Raza and the Challenge of Digital Humanities.”  Dr. Cotera’s talk focused on her work with Chicana por mi Raza, a public humanities project centered on the collection and digital preservation of archival materials, ephemera, and oral histories that document the development of Chicana feminist thought during the civil rights era.  A panel discussion, “Pushing Back: Chicana, Latina, Hispanic Women Preserving our Narratives,” followed Cotera’s talk and featured the founder of Studio One Archive Resource, Patricia Hernandez, Director of Research for Arte Público Press, Dr. Carolina Villaroel, and the first Hispanic Collections Archivist at the University of Houston, our own Lisa Cruces.

Sponsored by a number of organizations on and off campus, Dr. Cotera’s talk was broadly attended and included students, staff, and faculty from UH as well as local universities and high schools.  The “digital turn,” Dr. Cotera argues, has allowed for a certain de-centering of authority in the work of scholarly research and the Chicana por mi Raza project establishes a collaborative venue providing broad-based public access to oral histories, correspondence, and out-of-print publications for scholarly research in and out of the classroom.  Her work with Chicana por mi Raza represents a challenge to the pedagogy and influence of archival politics, prejudices, and patriarchal legacy of the existing structure.  The result is a democratization of the archives and an engagement with communities that have been underrepresented in more traditional research models.

Lisa Cruces (center), Archivists for the Hispanic Collections, addresses a question from the audience during the panel discussion

Lisa Cruces (center), Archivist for the Hispanic Collections, addresses a question from the audience during the panel discussion

The panel that followed provided attendees an opportunity to ask questions and hear from women in the field with a variety of traditional and non-traditional archival backgrounds address the subtleties, nuance, and challenges of preserving the historical narratives in this new landscape.  As Archivist for the Hispanic Collections here at UH, Cruces certainly has faith in aspects of the traditional archival models, but pointed out that Cotera’s work necessitates the bringing together of multiple vested interests and provides a great opportunity to partner with members of the community outside of the traditional institutional walls.  In turn, this work allows a means of introduction to the archives while also allowing participants to look critically as to how historical memory is collected.

If you are interested in the collection and preservation of that historical memory, we encourage you to visit our Hispanic Collections at the University of Houston Special Collections.

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