Since 1900, Latinos have compromised a portion of the Great Plains region’s population, even if only seasonal. By 2017, the percentage was just over 10%. Though the Bracero Program formally ended in 1963, a number of Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Latina/os remained in places like Chicago, Scottsbluff, and Omaha. Likewise, Latina/os have long faced institutional hostility and exclusion – from state and federal programs, universities, and police agencies. Today, their heritage and cultural items are also largely absent from university archives, even as enrollment numbers of Latina/os shoots up as universities overwhelmingly target communities of color for enrollment. Simply requesting families to donate their items to university archives does not take full advantage of the institutional relationship that our humanities backgrounds can offer. Universities have long catered to white students and their families, and long excluded Latina/os from their enrollment numbers. Collecting heritage and cultural artifacts for an online collection and is simply one step closer to repairing that historical wrongdoing.
At University of Nebraska-Lincoln, steps are underway to correct that wrongdoing. I am tasked with reaching out into the local Latina/o community, building connections, and acquiring collections for the preservation of cultural heritage products. Combining approaches used in UNL’s History Harvest course with digital resources can help correct those issues through digitization and online preservation without the threat of cultural theft. Best practices when working with communities are best learned through engagement, open-mindedness, and embracing possibilities of failure. Our primary goal includes addressing the lack of Latina/os in university spaces, including online and offline archives. Ultimately, we hope that by fostering these relationships, we can create mutually agreed on places of engagement, and foster respect between the academy and local communities.
