by Tom Gallagher
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Public radio's StoryCorps has been capturing moments of American life since 2003 and archiving them at the Library of Congress. Now StoryCorps is capturing the stories of U.S. Latinos. StoryCorps is seeking more life stories from U.S. Latinos and launched "StoryCorps Historias" on Thursday in an effort to get them.
"The mission is just to honor and celebrate our lives through listening," said Diana Velez, a StoryCorps Historias spokeswoman.
Plans are to send a StoryCorps Historias Airstream trailer to different towns and cities over four weeks to record conversations with at least 700 Latinos. Possible stops are Los Angeles; Yuma, Ariz.; Granger, Wash.; Miami; Boston; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Brownsville, Texas; San Antonio; and Albuquerque.
"It's really important for Latinos to be fully represented in our country and this is just one way for Latinos to be fully represented," said Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a University of Texas at Austin professor who has been recording the oral histories of Latino veterans for a decade.
Rivas-Rodriguez's US Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project is a partner in the project. Other partners are Latino Public Radio Consortium, radio show "Latino USA" and community groups.
