THE
ABUELAS
PROJECT
Celebrating nuestra historia
The Abuelas Project pays homage to nuestras abuelas (our grandmothers), who have been the culture bearers of our families, preserving important Latinx stories, movements, and places.
ABOUT THE ABUELAS PROJECT
The Abuelas Project launched in Summer 2021 as a multi-year preservation initiative to collect, curate, and amplify stories about places, histories, movements, and people that matter to Latinx communities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The digital project will encourage intergenerational storytelling using new media, create a system to research Latinx preservation, support allied efforts to designate Latinx historic sites, and identify important patterns related to Latinx preservation nationwide. This project is an initiative of Latinos in Heritage Conservation and is supported by funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation .
Building on recent efforts to document and conserve Latinx heritage, The Abuelas Project seeks to uncover the social, cultural, and economic connections our communities forge through historic places. The project is a story-driven, map-based online platform that functions as a grassroots and people’s historical registry for significant Latinx places. By prioritizing stories and experiences, The Abuelas Project embraces the collective memory and rich tapestry of our shared heritage.
OUR APPROACH
The Abuelas Project is an open and accessible digital platform that collects and displays stories.
We invite public users to submit original content, including oral and written testimonies, photographs, artwork, ephemera, and other historical materials related to important sites.
OUR APPROACH
The project team has been working with and will continue to work with student fellows to curate content, including Story Maps, walking tours, travel itineraries, and thematic studies.
OUR VISION
The Abuelas Project aims to convey the geographical diversity and breadth of Latinx historic places nationwide and help advocates identify priority regions, topics, and themes for landmark designation, policy recommendations, and other actions.
PROJECT
The Abuelas Project aims to draw not only from existing resources and data sources – such as historic resource surveys and nominations – but also from public submissions.
PROJECT
Ultimately, The Abuelas Project will reimagine the role of historic registries as vehicles for commemorating significant events, persons, and resources.
PROJECT
While local, state, and federal landmark designations come with tangible and important benefits – including protection of physical fabric and financial incentives – far too often places associated with Black, Indigenous, and other people/communities of color run aground of rigid evaluation criteria and gatekeepers with limited subject-area knowledge.
PROJECT
While LHC will continue our efforts to rethink and improve those programs, The Abuelas Project allows us to envision new possibilities for recognizing places associated with Latinx communities. In this way, the project may serve as an “people’s registry” that reflects the values and experiences of community members.
OUR PARTNERS
This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Fondren Preservation Services Fund for Texas of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP), The Mellon Foundation , and the Cultural and Community Resilience Grant on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).