Research Guides: Latin American and Caribbean Art: Oral Histories

Select Oral History Repositories

The Getty Research Institute, Oral Histories Collection
Documenting and preserving the stories of artists, architects, curators, critics, dealers, and collectors, these oral histories offer a firsthand account of the making and meaning of visual art. The Getty Research Institute holds over 1,000 oral history videos, audio recordings, and transcripts, each of which captures the voices of those who shaped the artistic landscape of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada, University of Las Vegas Oral History Project
Preserving and sharing the life stories of Southern Nevada’s Latinx residents are important because these individuals and communities have played a significant role in our region’s history but are underrepresented in our historical record.
Modern Museum of Art, Artists Oral Histories
This is a list of oral histories of artists with work in the collection or who have been included in a MoMA exhibition.
Fundacion Puertoriqueña de las Humanidades
The Catalog of The Audiovisual Collection of the Puerto Rican Endowment for the Humanities (FPH) presents a wide variety of documentaries, films and short films on humanistic themes. These pieces are the result of projects of a humanistic nature that the FPH has sponsored over the years.
Performing Arts in Argentina
The oral history archive on Performance Art in Argentina is a project carried out by Soledad Sanchez Goldar, Inti Pujol and Ana Volonté and which will soon be available on this platform. It consists of a virtual repository that is presented as one possible story among many about the Performance Art scene in the country.

UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center: Latino Art Survey Project and Artist Oral Histories

In the early 2010s, the CSRC initiated the Oral Histories Series with the intent to publish the life narratives of prominent Chicano and Latino figures. The following life narratives are specifically about artists and the arts. They were conducted as part of a Latino Arts Survey Project (see the finding aid for the project archive here). They have been recorded and transcribed, and the interviewer and interviewee have reviewed and corrected the transcriptions prior to publication. These oral histories are often undertaken as part of a larger research project and in tandem with archival collections and library holdings.

Baca, Judy (2014)
Bojórquez, Charles “Chaz” (2013)
Botello, David (2013)
Carrasco, Barbara (2013)
Castellanos, Leonard (2014)
Delgado, Roberto “Tito” (2013)
Duardo, Richard (2013)
Garcia, Margaret (2013)
Gonzalez, Johnny, with Irma Núñez (2013)
Guerrero, Dan (2014)
Hernández, Judithe (2013)
Limón, Leo (2013)
Luján, Gilbert “Magu” (2013)
Palacios, Monica (2013)
Valadez, John (2013)
Vallejo, Linda (2013)

In addition to these oral histories and their accompanying archival collections, the CSRC also holds oral histories from the following artists (some restrictions apply):

Aguilar, Laura (artist/photographer)
Azaceta, Luis Cruz (artist)
Brito, Maria (artist)
Campos-Pons, Maria Magdalena (artist)
Castillo, Oscar (artist/photographer)
Cervantes, Yreina (artist)
Chavez, Roberto (artist)
Esparza, Ruben (artist)
Estopinan, Roberto (artist/sculpture)
Ferrer, Rafael (artist)
Galan, John (artist)
Garcia, Camille Rose (artist)
Garza, Carmen Lomas (artist)
Gronk (artist)
Gutierrez, Robert (artist)
Healy, Wayne (artist)
Herrera, Carmen (artist)
Huereque, Jef (artist)
Larios, Dora de (artist/sculpture/ceramist)
Legorreta, Robert "Cyclona"
Lopez, Alma (artist)
Lopez, Yolanda (artist)
Mesa-Bains, Amalia (artist)
Montoya, Jose (artist)
Montoya, Malaquias (artist)
Munoz, Celia Alvarez (artist)
Ortiz, Joe (artist)
Ortiz, Raphael Montanez (artist)
Osorio, Pepon (artist)
Otero, Nester (artist)
Ramos, Carmen (artist/curator)
Reyes, Miguel Angel (artist)
Self-Help Graphics (artist organization)
Siqueiros, Francesco (artist)
Torres-Figueroa, Brenda (artist)
Tropicana, Carmelita (and Ella) (artist)
Zermeno, Andy (artist)
Ybarra-Frausto, Tomas (art historian/curator/academic)

UCLA Center for Oral History Research

Central Americans in Southern California
There are three (3) interviews in this subject area and include interviews with Policarpo Chaj, Cheryl Noralez, and Rossana Perez.
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Perez' interview is part of a series of interviews includes activists who were involved in founding and sustaining organizations in the Central American community in the 1980s. It examines the participants' activism and political persecution in Central America, their immigration to the U.S., and the ways they organized to serve the rapidly growing Central American community in Los Angeles.
Latinas and Latinos in Music
There are four (4) interviews under this subject area which include interviews with Gil Bernal, Ruben Leon, Paul R. Lopez, and Anthony Ortega.
Mexican American Civil Rights
There are twenty-six (26) interviews under this subject and focus on "La Batalla Está Aquí": The Chicana/o Movement in Los Angeles; Community Service Organization Oral Histories; and Mexican American Civil Rights Pioneers: Historical Roots of an Activist Generation.
Latinas and Latinos in Politics
There are thirteen (13) interviews under this series and include interviews from politicians and community members whose archival collections and personal papers reside in the CSRC Archive.
Sleepy Lagoon Case
This series of oral histories include interviews from Guy Endore, Ben Margolis, Alice McGrath, and Carey McWilliams. They detail the interviewees' connection to the Sleepy Lagoon Case, which refers to the 1942 murder of José Gallardo Diaz where a group of Mexican American youths was arrested and 14 were charged with first-degree murder, despite the huge lack of evidence.
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As a result, The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee (SLDC), a community organization made up of Los Angeles community members and activists who came together to support the defendants, formed to appeal the case, which was overturned and the defendants released in 1944.