My name is Miren Neyra Alcantara, I’m a Latin American Studies major with a minor in Studio Art. This project named “Reimagining Archives” is part of research I have been pursuing and emerges from my LAS 310 Senior Capstone. I have been working on building a digital timeline on farmworker organizing history. One of my goals has been to expand my knowledge on why digital timelines are important and how they can serve as digital activism. Furthermore, I am interested in learning more about how archives and recording our histories also intersects with cultural and heritage production and preservation.
I would like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to all the people who have supported and given me feedback throughout this process. I’d like to thank my advisor and professor Michelle Joffroy and my classmates for the feedback on my project. I would also like to thank my friend and labor organizer for 20 years Alfonso Herrera Neal for his conversations on anarchy as a framework. To my professor Dana Leibsohn whose class on ethics and methods on Latin American Studies helped form my approach for “Reimagining Archives”. I would also like to thank all the farmworkers, migrant workers, and undocumented workers I have met throughout my labor organizing career, who have graciously shared their stories with me and shown me the need for change, and more in terms of this project, how we record history.
I would also like to acknowledge Holyoke Community College (HCC), specifically Camille Close, HCC research librarian, and Raúl Gutiérrez, Associate Professor and Chair of the Language/Latinx Department at HCC. Throughout the development of this project I have been working with and receiving feedback from them. The Reimagining Archives project will be hosted on HCC’s library website as a resource for students and the surrounding community. In addition, the project will also be used for HCC’s Latinx Studies classes, specifically the ones surrounding social justice and community organizing.
The full description of the Reimagining Archives Project is provided below in the “About” box. The remaining boxes: “Digital Activism & Resistance”, “how have our histories been recorded?”, “Anarchic Archives: An Example of Possible Avenues”, “How do I start building my own timeline/archive?”, and “Examples & Resources” provide a deep dive into how the project creates a new framework to approach archives and history recording.
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