On Friday, May 10, a joyful atmosphere filled the air in Louis A. Simpson 144 as participants of the inaugural phase of the “Voces de la Diáspora” Oral History project came together to celebrate the culmination of the Spring term. 

Throughout the term, the ten students who took the seminar SPA364/LAO364/AMS434: "Doing Oral History in Spanish: The 'Voces De La Diáspora' Oral History Project" engaged in various tasks, including the development of consent forms and interview guides for the project, and the production of five hour-long oral history interviews, all conducted exclusively in Spanish. These interviews served as important documents of the experiences of Latin American immigrants with ties to Princeton. They explored a wide range of themes, including the gentrification of Princeton and the challenges faced by working-class families in accessing affordable housing, the pivotal role of education as a pathway to socioeconomic advancement, and the profound impact of immigration laws on the lives of our neighbors.

The celebration drew in the project’s foundational community: the students, the five narrators, Tara Carr-Lemke from the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), Cliff Robinson and Kim Dorman from the Princeton Public Library, Stephanie Schwartz from the Historical Society of Princeton, Rosina Lozano from the Department of History, and Alberto Bruzos Moro from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. 

The project will embark on its next phase during the upcoming Fall semester, when the students enrolled in SPA364/LAO364/AMS434 will conduct more interviews and delve deeper into the narratives of other members of Princeton’s Latin American immigrant community.