Claiming Place: Preserving the History of Puerto Rican and Latino Culture and Politics in Western MA

By Puerto Rico Digital News On Jul 31, 2022

Claiming Place: Preserving the History of Puerto Rican and Latino Culture and Politics in Western Massachusetts. A project of the Holyoke History Room.

This was Holyoke, Massachusetts in the 1990s. Carlos Vega was one of several community leaders using video to document life, politics, and culture in the city. Safely stored for more than twenty years by the members of La Familia Hispana, Inc., the tapes were donated to the Holyoke History Room of the Holyoke Public Library in 2018. The donation was facilitated by Library Board member Manuel Frau-Ramos. While Vecinos-Neighbors aired on community-access television, other footage has never been seen by the public.

This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Project director: Eileen M. Crosby
Digital Curation Specialist, video creator and editor: Ismary Santiago-Lugo

With thanks to:

Manuel Frau-Ramos
Diosdado López
María Pagan
Sylvia Galván
Gary O’Connor
Holyoke Media
Llana Barber
Miguel Arce
Mary Birks
Orlando Isaza

Connecting Point excerpts courtesy of NEPM
Visit NEPM’s YouTube channel for the complete Connecting Point
interview with Sylvia Galván and Betty Medina Lichtenstein
https://youtu.be/06Hi0K8dEj0

Visit the Holyoke Public Library website for more information:
http://www.holyokelibrary.org/historyabout.asp

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