Excitement is running high this summer among 12 young Interns and 30 adult volunteers who are tracing the history of Latinos in Boulder County as part of the Boulder County Latino History Project newly launched this summer.
Some interns are doing videoed oral history interviews and making movies about places that have been important to Latinos. Others are digitizing old photos, maps, and newspaper articles and preparing computer maps that show exactly where Latinos lived in Longmont, Boulder, and Lafayette at various times in the past. Several Interns are translating and transcribing previously unused Spanish-language interviews done in the 1970s.
All of these efforts are part of the Boulder County Latino History Project, launched by Latino community groups and local historical organizations. Its goal is to record Latinos’ personal and family experiences and document their economic, social, and cultural contributions to the area’s history.
Latinos are largely invisible in standard books about this region, said Marjorie McIntosh, University of Colorado Boulder professor of history emerita and coordinator for the project. Although some families have been residents of Boulder County for 100 years, they are rarely mentioned. The History Project wants to fill that hole by telling the stories of families with deep roots in the area as well as of more recent immigrants. All the information gathered by the project will be put onto a website and used to write a book about Latinos’ experiences in this area over the last century. The project will also work with local schools to incorporate this new information into teaching units.
“What we know about the past should include everybody,” McIntosh said.
The interns for the History Project are drawn from three local high schools and four colleges. 22-year-old Veronica Lamas is a first-generation college student who graduated from CU-Boulder in May with honors in ethnic studies and a political science minor. The daughter of immigrants, Lamas incorporated her personal history into her honors thesis about immigration laws and higher education. She hopes to assist others in telling their stories through the Latino History Project.
“I am excited about it,” Lamas said. “I like the truth. That is why this project is so important to me. We rarely hear these stories and they are lost when they are not retold.”
Institutional participants in this broadly based initiative include 10 community organizations, four historical groups, and the county’s two colleges or universities. The project is directed by a 10-member advisory committee and is supported by grants from The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, the Office for University Outreach at CU-Boulder, and private donors.
To learn more about the project, visit: http://www.bocolatinohistory.org