Welcome
Voces y Caras: Latinx Communities of North Florida is a digital oral history project at the University of North Florida that engages students of Latinx heritage in developing questions, recording interviews with members of the growing Latinx community, and documenting their experiences as immigrants. The project explores the power of people's stories, seeks to make visible hidden communities, and enables processes of self-discovery by students of Latinx origin in the U.S.
The project began in the spring semester of 2012 when the students in Dr. Constanza López Baquero’s course, Communication and Communities for Heritage Speakers, interviewed 24 members of the Jacksonville community. Over 200 interviews have since been conducted, recorded, transcribed and archived, serving at least four purposes: (1) Recognizing immigrants as an indispensable part of our society in a political environment increasingly hostile to them, (2) putting students who are heritage speakers of Spanish in contact with their cultural and historical backgrounds, (3) allowing these students to recognize themselves in the stories of others, and (4) serving as a pedagogical tool that creates communities both in and outside of the classroom.
The community that this project examines is diverse and demographically complex. The students select the interviewees, who are members of their families, local businesspeople and professionals, civic leaders, and others. Some have been in the U.S. for many years, and others have come recently. Some escaped political repression and violence in their own countries, others came looking for a better future, and some arrived following their loved ones. They represent a vibrant, family-oriented, hardworking community whose members strive to achieve their goals and dreams. They have assimilated into North Floridian society while maintaining a strong cultural identity. This desire to keep their own culture, or to become bicultural, is nonnegotiable, because this varied group is extremely proud of its customs, food, music, language, and above all, of their families.
During Hispanic Heritage Month, Voces y Caras hosts a physical exhibit of the project. From 2012 until 2022, the exhibit took place at UNF's Thomas G. Carpenter Library. Since 2023, the project has collaborated with the Department of Art, Art History, and Design to create a multimedia exhibition featuring the interviews alongside works by Latinx students and alumni. These exhibitions are presented in the university's art galleries.
Voces y Caras is an affiliated project of the UNF Digital Humanities Institute and is led by Dr. López Baquero, with support from Michael Boyles, graphic designer at the UNF Center for Instruction and Research Technology (CIRT).
