Historias Latinas in Fayetteville
Updated: Aug 1, 2022
Historias Latinas en Fayetteville is the first cultural extension project that ECLU has inspired and supported. By assembling a team of primarily high school students and teachers who will choose life stories from Latinos in Fayetteville that deserve to be told, we hope to empower young high school students to reconnect with their roots.
It is expected that the ECLU team can hold meetings periodically to (1) keep in touch with each other, (2) learn about one another's cultures and perspectives, (3) share local stories, (4) familiarize themselves with the local neighborhoods, (5) find ways to connect with families, artists, and neighbors, (6) explore attractive ways of promoting the program, (7) encourage people to participate, (8) continually engage people in elaborating these stories to expand the "arsenal of stories" we are aiming to build.
About ECLU
Students' empowerment in researching, preserving, and promoting their cultural heritage is not new. Still, It has been progressively growing in the Fayetteville, NC, area in the last 5 years.
Several families have started their cultural businesses in town, many local Latin artists have emerged, and many organizations have begun to disclose their cultural concerns and what they stand for open to the public. Our organization believes it is vital for educators in the area, especially Spanish educators who have been implementing culture clubs in public schools in Cumberland County, to bring together these motivations to create an event that promotes and preserves cultural heritage issues in the community. The ECLU is not an organization but rather a base movement and a commonplace that links culture clubs, other organizations, Spanish teachers and classes, neighbors, and citizens with an undying passion for learning and sharing Latin heritage and culture.
General Objective:
To empower high school students to preserve and promote cultural diversity and heritage in their local community.
The purpose is to make local life stories visible and accessible to all, particularly the stories of a progressively growing Latino community in Fayetteville, NC.
To make a significant contribution to the cultural identity of the Latin community and the Hispanic heritage in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Specific Objectives:
To collect life stories from Latino people living in Fayetteville, where a remarkable contribution to Hispanic culture is made. This story must be told by its protagonists.
To select 10 of the most meaningful life stories from Latino people living in Fayetteville, NC.
To disclose life stories to the open public of North Carolina, making these stories visible in local society.
To promote Hispanic culture and identity in local festivities, events, and ceremonies organized by Latinos Unidos.
About the project's phases
The project will consist of four phases in which the stories of local Latinos will be (1) collected, (2) selected, (3) recorded by a professional production team, and (4) made public through social media and several celebrations organized in the city by the non-profit organization Latinos Unidos.
Who can participate?
All local, Latin, or Hispanic heritage organizations, families, entrepreneurs, artists, and individuals aged 18 to 75.
What are we looking for in the stories?
Participants are encouraged to tell their life stories focusing on the following guideline questions:
What is my contribution to the Fayetteville community, a Latin or a Hispanic life story/ business/ artist/ organization?
What is my life story/ business/ art/ organization that can help other Latin or Hispanic people to overcome major cultural issues I experienced?
What is my life story/ business/ art/ organization is producing a high impact on the culture in my community?
