Best of Core Forum: Power of a Community The Colorado Chicano Movement

Description:  Engaging with their community through active, collaborative memory work, archivists can provide a voice and build collections that work toward representation and inclusion. This presentation covers the steps needed to establish relationships and work with community members through participatory archives. The mutual benefits of collaborative projects such as oral histories, personal collections, and exhibitions will be discussed. Documenting the cultural heritage and unique experiences of your community members provides a more inclusive archival record.

Learning Outcomes: 

At the end of the webinar, attendees will: -

• This is an introduction to this type of community embedded archival practice, and the steps archivists can take on developing trust, establishing relationships and working with community members.
•  Sharing the experiences of how the Colorado Chicano Movement Archives (CCMA) was developed over the years will also show the challenges and successes we have experienced. 
• Provides Community archiving and the many benefits to the institution, students, and researchers. 
• Importance of empowering the community to tell their story the way they want it told is emphasized.

Who Should Attend: 

This session would be for anyone interested in working with communities.

Presenters:

Maria Elena Smyer is the University Archivist and Assistant Professor of Library Services for Colorado State University in Pueblo, Colorado. She has twenty years of library and museum experience working with the immigrant community, language instruction, collection development, and multicultural programming for all ages.

Rhonda Gonzales Manzanares is Dean of Library Services at Colorado State University Pueblo. She is an innovative and effective library director with experience managing renovation projects, program development, strategic planning, library technology implementation, systems migration, personnel and budget management, and donor cultivation for Archives and Special Collections. The development of the Colorado Chicano Movement Archives and the Aztlán Research Center, in collaboration with the community, has been one of her favorite projects!

Charlene Garcia Simms is an American teacher-librarian, author, poet, and publisher focused on documenting Hispanic genealogy, Southwest history, and Hispano cultural heritage. She currently works for Colorado State University Pueblo as their project archivist.

Core Webinars are held in Zoom. Speakers or a headset for listening to the presentation are required. You may interact with the presenter and ask questions through text-based chat. Closed captioning is available in the Zoom platform. The webcast will be recorded and the link to the recording shared with registrants shortly after the live event.