Community Archive

This CAHAAS collection brings together materials entrusted to CAHAAS alongside records preserved by external repositories and private donors, creating broader access to stories that might otherwise remain hidden or difficult to discover.

Photographer Joaquin Romero documented the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s - 1990s in Los Angeles, a critical period in the city's history that brought together churches, celebrities, and refugees in a shared effort to advance more humane public policies and social justice.

A collection that chronicles decades of life in Los Angeles and a pivotal chapter in Houston's Fourth Ward—a historic Freedmen’s Town. Through photography, Chartouni documents the people, places, and experiences that informed her understanding of community, identity, and belonging as a Salvadoran-born American.

Honoring Abigail Annette Hedman from Belize

The David H. Portillo Collection documents personal, familial, and community histories from El Salvador through photographs, objects, ephemera, and newspaper clippings spanning multiple generations.