Central American Biographies
CAHAAS ARCHIVES are an integral part of our program activities, as we actively document community members through oral history interviews, recording stories of migration, struggle, resilience, achievements, and the diaspora experience overall. These materials are used to create videos, exhibits, presentations, and more. From the oral history interviews, we produce videos that become part of the 100 Central American Historical Biographies campaign.
The act of preservation in oral history interviews involves several thoughtful and deliberate steps, both technical and ethical, to ensure that the voices, stories, and memories shared are respected, protected, and accessible for future generations. At this time, CAHAAS privately stores the original audio/video interviews and transcriptions. Only creative interpretations of our oral history archive are being shared publicly.
Our most recent series of interviews began in 2023 with members of the La Piedra Art Collective. The first interview was with Dora Magaña, who introduced us to the collective and encouraged us to document the artists' stories. The remaining interviews with collective members were conducted throughout 2024, just in time for the group exhibit organized by CAHAAS.
Do you know a Central American whose achievements have been overlooked?
You can submit their story here.
REQUIREMENTS:
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The candidate must be from Central America or have at least one parent from Central America.
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It can be someone in your family, a neighbor, a co-worker, or an ancestor that you feel has played a statewide and/or local positive role in American society.
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It can be a less known historical figure from Central America; a writer, actor, poet, community leader, teacher, activist, sports figure.
Feel free to nominate a candidate and help us reach our goal. The nominated candidates will be reviewed and selected by an internal team.