New York nonprofit launching digital archive to guard Latino stories from ‘erasure’

A New York nonprofit plans to launch an interactive digital archive preserving the artistic, cultural and historical records of Latin American immigrant communities in New York City. Its creators hope the project will serve as a tool for journalists, scholars and artists to protect Latino heritage from “erasure.”

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center will launch the database, called Nueva York Chronicles, on November 13. It is the centerpiece of Historias Entrecruzadas, the second phase of The Clemente’s three-year-long Historias initiative—a citywide presentation of cultural programming, art commissions and scholarship.

Executive Director Libertad Guerra told Urgent Matter in an emailed interview that the project aims to confront systemic barriers that have left Latino cultural histories under-catalogued and at risk of being lost to time.

“The erasure we’re addressing is structural, not accidental. It stems from how cultural value and historical record have been built in New York,” Guerra said.

“Latinx and other immigrant-rooted communities have always been central to the city’s civic and artistic life, yet their histories often remain fragmented across private collections, under-catalogued archives, and oral traditions that were never institutionally recognized.”

The launch follows a period of heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric and political backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And the launch of Nueva York Chronicles aligns with a growing national movement to digitize underrepresented histories.

“Digital preservation allows us to reassemble those fragments and create a civic framework that’s open, collaborative, and iterative,” Guerra said. “Unlike print, which freezes time, a digital platform can grow with community input, allowing new narratives, updates, and reinterpretations to emerge.”

The Clemente, in a news release, had noted how the nonprofit hopes that Nueva York Chronicles can become a tool used by journalists, scholars and artists.

When asked how such groups might use the database, Guerra responded that, for journalists, it offers verified historical context, community-sourced data, and entry points for stories that “challenge dominant narratives of New York.”

“For artists, it provides both inspiration and source material; histories to interpret, remix, or re-situate in public life,” she said. “Ultimately, we hope users don’t just reference the archive, but contribute to it: proposing new entries, sharing materials, and using the platform to amplify the complexity and continuity of Latinx presence in the city.”

The database is built around an interactive map of the five boroughs with pinpoints of cultural sites alongside a timeline of scholarship. Clicking on any of the colored dots on the map opens detailed entries on cultural sites, including scholarly essays, audio recordings of oral histories and archival images.

“For example, a click on a color dot on 14th Street reveals Chicanx scholar Miriam Juarez’s analysis of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Experimental Workshop, a fleeting but impactful site for creating paintings, murals and parade floats that challenged nationalist aesthetics and helped define Mexican revolutionary art in New York,” the nonprofit said in its news release.

The database will launch with 100 entries across all five boroughs, but The Clemente promised a “limitless capability for expansion” as members of the community add their scholarship to the archive.

Guerra said that making the database a digital archive allows its creators to do something that a printed publication couldn’t do: juxtapose stories, timelines and concepts across multiple axes, from labor and material culture to migration and religious belief.

“We chose a digital platform because Nueva York Chronicles is not meant to be a static record, but designed as a living chronotope or time-map,” Guerra said. “Each entry is connected to others across neighborhoods, decades, and disciplines, forming a web of relations that a single printed volume could never contain.”