By Jesus Villalobos, FOCAS Intern, Fall 2024 / University of Arizona

This semester, I had the unique privilege of serving as the Oral History and Archival Processing Intern at the Mexican American Heritage and History Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The Museum is housed in the historic Sosa-Carrillo House, one of the last remaining homes from the original neighborhood that once stood where the Tucson Convention Center now stands. Managed by Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson, the Museum serves as both a physical space and a symbolic cornerstone for preserving the voices and stories of Tucson’s Mexican American community. My work focused on two interwoven goals: honoring the community’s history and building a sustainable, accessible archive for future generations.

(The Sosa-Carrillo House / Mexican American Heritage and History Museum. Author’s photograph.)

The history of Los Descendientes and the Museum is rooted in Tucson’s complex past. Originally focused on the Spanish and Mexican origins of Tucson, often referred to as the Old Pueblo, the organization has gradually expanded its mission to include the preservation of Mexican American stories. Much of this history centers on Tucson’s barrios, the neighborhoods where generations of Mexican American families lived, worked, and built community. Unfortunately, many of these neighborhoods were devastated during the late 1960s by urban renewal projects, which displaced families and erased the physical traces of their presence. This destruction casts a shadow over the past, but the Museum represents an effort to reclaim, preserve, and honor those stories. I was humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the Museum’s mission.

At the start of my internship, I was tasked with two significant projects. The first was a short-term goal to be accomplished within the semester: creating a digital collection for the Museum’s oral histories. The second was a more long-term project, extending beyond my involvement, which focused on helping to establish the foundations for the Museum’s physical archive.

Digital Collection

In order to create the Mexican American Oral Histories collection, I used CollectionBuilder—an open-source tool designed for building digital collections and exhibits using simple, static web technologies. CollectionBuilder’s user-friendly and accessible design offers a template format that allows for a fair degree of customization based on the needs of the collection creator. I applied professional archival standards to describe and organize the materials, creating a structure that enhances discoverability for future researchers, students, and community members. This process involved:

Creating descriptive metadata for the oral histories in the collection.

(Partial image of metadata created for the oral histories collection using Google Sheets’ comma separated value files.)

Transcribing oral histories into a format compatible with Oral History as Data (OHD).

(Partial image of a transcript created for the oral histories collection using Google Sheets’ comma separated value files.)

Editing a copy of the CollectionBuilder template to align with the collection’s specifications.

(Visual Studio Code workspace with a YAML configuration file (_config.yml) open, containing customized site settings made on a copy of the CollectionBuilder template.)

Identifying external sites to host the oral histories in the short term while exploring sustainable long-term hosting solutions.

(Composite image of oral history audio and video files hosted on Soundcloud and Youtube.)

The final product was the Mexican American Oral Histories collection website, providing a dedicated digital space to preserve and share these important stories.

(Composite image of the Mexican American Oral Histories main page and the Browse Items page.)

Physical Archive

Establishing the foundations for the Museum’s physical archive required envisioning and planning the archive’s processes, including collection development strategies, preservation protocols, space planning, and organizational workflows. My role involved collaborating with the Museum’s co-directors and additional archival experts to address the practicalities of building a sustainable and functional archive. This included tasks such as assessing storage solutions for fragile materials and developing bilingual documentation to align with the Museum’s inclusive mission. This work was essential in creating a blueprint for the Museum’s growth and establishing clear workflows for the next archival processing intern. As of this writing, the efforts to build and refine the archive are still ongoing.

(Contents of the archive pre-inventory. Author’s photograph.)

(Contents of the archive post-inventory, sorted by distinct collections and themes, awaiting processing. Author’s photograph.)

Lessons From the Community Archive

Beyond my work at the Museum, this experience taught me invaluable lessons about archival work and community engagement. Archives are more than just collections of materials; they can serve as spaces for amplifying community voices, fostering relationships, and building trust. I came to understand that ethical archival practices are essential, particularly when working with voices historically excluded from the archival record. Approaching people, their stories, and their objects with humility and respect ensures that the community represented in the archive maintains a sense of agency and ownership over their histories. Such an approach can prevent them from feeling distanced or alienated from the archival process.

As a Knowledge River Scholar and graduate student specializing in archival studies, this internship provided a valuable bridge between theory and practice. In the classroom, I studied archival principles, ethics, and the importance of community-centered approaches, but working directly in the archive brought these concepts to life in ways that theory alone could not. I gained hands-on experience navigating the complexities of community relationships, balancing technical processes with cultural sensitivity, and adapting to real-world challenges. This experience underscored that archival work is not just about materials and systems but about listening, learning, and building trust in ways no single course can fully convey.

Coda

The Sosa-Carrillo House itself added a profound layer of significance to this internship. As one of the last surviving structures from the original neighborhood, it stands as a monument to resilience and serves as a physical space for reclaiming memories erased by urban renewal. Walking through its rooms, I was struck by its beauty and the duality of loss and recovery—reminders of displacement intertwined with hope found in storytelling and preservation. The Museum transforms this space into a site of healing and memory, reclaiming what was lost and ensuring the past remains a living presence. Reflecting on this experience, I am deeply grateful for the mentorship of the Museum’s co-directors, Rikki Rojas and Alisha Vasquez, as well as archivist Alana Varner.

(An empty bedroom of the Sosa-Carrillo house. Author’s photograph.)