US Latino Digital Humanities Summer Workshop

open laptop on left, open notebook on right

The US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) at the University of Houston announces its annual Manos a la obra digital humanities virtual summer training course. The course will take place May 28-20, 2024 via Zoom. Participants will learn about US Latino digital humanities methods and theory, archiving, metadata creation and free, easy-to-use digital platforms (Omeka, TimelineJS and StoryMapJS). The course will be taught by Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Dr. Carolina Villarroel, Dr. Lorena Gauthereau and Mikaela Selley. No prior experience is required. Anyone with an interest in US Latina/o studies and digital studies is welcome.  This workshop addresses the following topics: How to identify materials for future projects (research, copyright issues, etc.) How to create metadata How to create meaningful and respectful data following ethics of care and reparative description How to nourish communities of practice How to conceptualize and develop the scope for your project And other topics No …

Predicting College Student Loan Repayment: The Texas Hinson-Hazlewood College now available on APPDigital

The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the digital publication of Predicting College Student Loan Repayment: The Texas Hinson-Hazlewood College, a dissertation submitted by Salvador Gómez for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. The text analyzes the evolution of financial aid to college students in Texas and especially the relationship between student indebtedness, ethnicity and academic dropout. It also critically examines notions such as “ethnicity” and “delinquency” and the various social and administrative factors that condition this phenomenon.   This is an ideal text for researchers in different areas (from administration to psychology to economics) who seek to address the phenomenon of university indebtedness or the causes of dropping out of school after high school. This digital text will soon be complimented by a digital exhibit of Salvador Gómez’s scrapbook and an oral history interview with his daughter, Rosanna Moreno.  This …

2024 USLDH-Mellon Grants-in-Aid Recipients

The US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Grants-in-Aid program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, is designed to provide a stipend of up to $7,500 to scholars for research and development of digital scholarship in the form of a digital publication and/or a digital project. Congratulations to the 2024 Grants-in-Aid Recipients: Marina del Sol, PhD (Howard University), Chicanx Arts Activism among Prison Poets and Writ Writers in Texas from 1848-1979 Diana Flores Ruíz, PhD (University of Washington, Seattle), Recovering Latinx Resistance Aldo Lauria Santiago, PhD (Rutgers University, New Brunswick) and Ismael García Colón, PhD (City University of New York, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center), Documenting the Narratives of Puerto Rican Migration, 1940-1980  Sarah McNamara (Texas A&M University), Nuestra Historia: A Public Art and Public History Project in Ybor City, Florida Anna Nogar (University of New Mexico), Aurora Lucero-White Lea (1893-1963), 20th-Century Pan- Americanism, and Indo-Hispano Folklore Annemarie Perez (California State …

Documenting Discrimination: Alonso S. Perales Correspondence (1927-1952)

The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the release of “Documenting Discrimination: Alonso S. Perales Correspondence (1927-1952).” This digital collection compiles letters written to and by Alonso S. Perales (1898-1960), a Mexican-American lawyer, diplomat, civil rights activist and co-founder of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Perales, in his mission for social justice, encouraged the Latino community to submit their experiences of discrimination at public establishments. Community members signed affidavits and wrote letters to Perales that detailed racism faced at restaurants, theaters, schools, bars, dance halls, clinics and many other places. They also wrote about the prejudice encountered while seeking employment or purchasing homes. Perales later published many of these letters and affidavits in his book, Are We Good Neighbors? (1948).  Two undergraduates contributed to this collection: Cynthia Díaz, a Leadership Rice Mentorship Experience (LRME) summer intern at Rice University and Cruz E. Almonaci, …

Now available on APPDigital:
Mexican American Theatre

The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the digital publication of Mexican American Theatre: Then and Now by Nicolás Kanellos (1983) on APPDigital. Kanellos’ collection compiles interviews, essays and vaudeville skits from the 1930s to the 1950s all pertaining to Mexican-American theater. It includes historical studies by Jorge Huerta, Nicolás Kanellos, Tomás Ybarra-Fausto and others; an exclusive interview of Luis Valdez; and vaudeville material from Lalo Astol, the Carpa García and others. Mexican American Theatre makes an excellent addition to US Latino, Mexican American, Ethnic and American studies, performing arts, history or literature courses. Mexican American Theatre compliments the Hispanic Theater Collection digital exhibit, which showcases posters, flyers and photographs from the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage’s Hispanic Theater Collection, donated by Kanellos. This project was also developed by the USLDH Center. Mexican American Theatre offers a virtual option for content and assignments. Educators and …

Recovery Program Receives NEH Challenge Grant

HOUSTON, TX—Arte Público Press’ long-term project to locate, preserve and disseminate the written legacy of Latinos in the United States from the Colonial Period to 1980, the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Program, has received a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to raise funds to improve the digital infrastructure of its US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH). Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura, the primary investigator for the grant, co-director of the USLDH Center and executive editor of the press, said: “This support from the NEH will be critical in generating additional funding to create a customized cloud-based digital repository of texts and content management system, all with the long-term goal of making the hundreds of thousands of Latino texts already preserved by the Recovery Program accessible to scholars and community members.” Currently these recovered documents are stored in several different servers and are not …

US Latino Digital Humanities Summer Workshop

Hands typing on a laptop

The US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) at the University of Houston announces its annual Manos a la obra digital humanities virtual summer training course. The course will take place June 12-14, 2023 via Zoom. Participants will learn about US Latino digital humanities methods and theory, community archiving, metadata creation and free digital tools such as how to create interactive timelines, digital archives and maps. The course will be taught by USLDH team members, Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Dr. Carolina Villarroel and Dr. Lorena Gauthereau. No prior experience is required. Anyone with an interest in US Latina/o studies and digital studies is welcome.  This course is based on the work of the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage program located at the University of Houston, one of the premier research programs for US Latina/o scholarship with a trajectory of more than 30 years of locating, preserving and making available the …

La patria perdida now available on APPDigital

Engraving of a man in a suit, leaning over a woman in bed

The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the digital publication of La patria perdida (1935) by the acclaimed Mexican journalist, Teodoro Torres (1888–1944) on APPDigital. This Spanish-language novel describes Torres’ first-hand experience as a Mexican immigrant to the United States as well as that of many immigrants in his community. The novel first appeared in the San Antonio newspaper, La Prensa, accompanied by engravings by the artist Fulgencio Corral. The digital version includes a scholarly introduction by Ethriam Cash Brammer translated into Spanish by Elías David Navarro. La patria perdida makes an excellent addition to US Latino, Mexican American, Ethnic, and American studies, history or literature courses. This digital novel offers a virtual option for content and assignments. Educators and students can create free accounts on APPDigital, which gives them access to highlighting, annotating and sharing capabilities. Educators can create a private reading group and share …

2023 USLDH-Mellon Grants-in-Aid

The US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Grants-in-Aid program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, is designed to provide a stipend of up to $7,500 to scholars for research and development of digital scholarship in the form of a digital publication and/or a digital project. Congratulations to the 2023 Grants-in-Aid Recipients: Gabriela Barrios (University of California, Los Angeles), Sonia Del Hierro (Rice University) and Sophia Martinez-Abbud (Rice University), Señora Power: A Chicana Mapping Project Maribel Bello (University of Houston), The Cristino Garza Peña Papers: From U.S. Expulsion to Leadership in Rural Mexico Maya Chinchilla, MFA (Independent Scholar), Precursors of leadership to the Central American Solidarity Movement in the United States Marisa Hicks-Alcaraz, PhD (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Reclaiming Film Histories of the U.S. Civil Rights Era: The Latina Film Recovery Project Mary Okin, PhD (Independent Scholar) with Olivia Bowman, BA, March With Us! Lessons in Activism from San José State Paloma Vargas …

James L. Novarro Digital Collection

The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the release of the James L. Novarro digital collection. This digital collection includes a sampling of archival photographs, flyers, posters and news clippings from the James L. Novarro Collection. Reverend Novarro, a pastor of Houston’s Kashmere Baptist Temple and state chaplain of the Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASO), was a civil rights activist, League of the United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) member, editor of the Spanish-language newspaper El Sol, and host of the first Spanish-language and longest-running radio program, La hora bautista. This project seeks to make Novarro’s contributions to the Houston and Latino communities visible to a larger audience. This collection is a useful teaching and research tool for educators, students, researchers and community members interested in Houston history, civil rights activism, religious studies and Latino studies. UH undergraduate student Alejandro Aguilar had the opportunity to work …