Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2022
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Ciudad de Historias / City of Stories HOLYOKE, MA | HOLYOKE PUBLIC LIBRARY | March 22, 2022 -The Holyoke History Room of the Holyoke Public Library has received a $15,600 grant from the Expand Mass Stories initiative of Mass Humanities, with funding made possible by the Mass Cultural Council. It is one of 22 organizations across the state to receive a grant under the new program, which supports projects aimed at creating more inclusive histories of the people and ideas that shape the Commonwealth. The History Room will use the grant to re-design and expand a set of virtual walking tours that it piloted during the pandemic to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Holyoke Public Library. The new set of tours, entitled Ciudad de Historias /City of Stories, aims to combine traditional features of a virtual walking tour—capsule histories of selected historic buildings—with stories from residents of the three selected neighborhoods: The Flats, South Holyoke, and Downtown/Churchill. Each neighborhood walk will feature sites significant in Holyoke’s early history alongside sites and stories related to the local Puerto Rican diaspora.
In preparation for the story-sharing part of the project, the History Room has invited scholar-activist Diana Sierra Becerra of UMass/Amherst to lead an April workshop on community history and resonant listening. The workshop will be open to existing and new participants in the project.
Project Coordinator Alex Santiago, who relocated to Holyoke after Hurricane María and became the first student to graduate from HCC’s Latinx Studies program, will be gathering some of these stories and translating text. She is particularly interested in stories of everyday life and community life in Holyoke. Anyone interested in finding out more about participating should use the email or contact form listed below.
The History Room is collaborating with Holyoke Media for technical support and with Nueva Esperanza, which also received a MassHumanities grant to further develop its El Corazón/Heart of Holyoke walking tours.
The project will also draw on the Library’s historical collections for images, news items, and family history materials collected during the History Room’s Nuestros Senderos project. The final tours will be viewable on mobile devices and will contain still images, bilingual text, audio, and video. A supplementary grant from Holyoke’s Local Cultural Council will provide for QR code signage for the tours.
Anyone interested in participating or finding out more should use the interest form at: http://www.holyokelibrary.org/historycityofstories.asp or call Alex Santiago or Eileen Crosby at the Holyoke History Room (413) 420-8107 or email ciudadhistorias@holyokelibrary.org
The Ciudad de Historias/City of Stories tours will begin to roll out in the fall of 2022.
Follow the project’s progress on Instagram @ciudadhistoriasholyoke
CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodríguez Pays Homage to Storied Archivist Idilio Gracia Peña NEW YORK, NY | CUNY Dominican Studies Institute | February 28, 2022 - In an emotional surprise visit to the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at The City College of New York, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez paid homage to prominent archivist and longtime colleague Idilio Gracia Peña, who is winding down his storied career with his retirement in April.
“His imprint is everywhere,” said Ramona Hernández, CUNY DSI founder and director, who recalled that while he started as a volunteer, Gracia Peña
The legendary New York City historian, who is affectionately known as “Don Idilio,” has been the founding and chief archivist of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute for the past 20 years. That was only his latest service to the community, capping a career in which he also served three decades as the city’s chief archivist, chief public records officer and chief librarian and for seven years as chief archivist at CUNY’s Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro). Over nearly six decades, he has played a quiet but outsized role in preserving and expanding New York City’s heritage. During the visit last Thursday, Chancellor Matos Rodríguez toured the voluminous stacks of the CUNY DSI Archives and reminisced with Gracia Peña about the days in the early 2000s, when they worked together at Centro. “It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of the work that Don Idilio has done to help us understand the history of our city and its communities that had been previously overlooked. He is a master and an inspiration for us all,” said Chancellor Matos Rodríguez. “Don Idilio overcame cultural, educational and racial barriers to elevate the role of the archivist and make his people more visible. His work as director of the Municipal Archives was transformational. He turned an inefficient warehouse for old papers into a first-rate academic institution that provided a more granular understanding of the city and its diversity. Later on, he poured his vast knowledge and skills into the creation and growth of treasured repositories of knowledge of the Puerto Rican and Dominican diaspora.” Don Idilio is stepping down to spend time with his wife Mary, two sons and two grandchildren, but his colleagues at CUNY will sorely miss him, and his contributions will not soon be forgotten.
Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and archivist Idilio Gracia Peña
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