Archival Collections

(See all)

• StoryCorps Historias Interviews Collection

  The StoryCorps Historias Interview collection contains 152 interviews recorded from 2009-2010 as part of the StoryCorps Historias project. The interviews held by the Cuban Heritage Collection represent all interviews recorded in Miami and of participants who self-identify as Cuban or of Cuban descent, regardless of place of interview. In 2009, the Cuban Heritage Collection became a community partner of the Storycorp Historias project, “an initiative to record the diverse stories and life experiences of Latinos in the United States.” As part of this partnership, the Cuban Heritage Collection received all oral histories recorded in Miami and all interviews in which participants self-identified as Cuban or of Cuban descent. The Storycorps Historias interviews held at the Cuban Heritage Collection are available for online viewing at the Cuban Heritage Collection’s reading room.

• Immigrant Archive Project Interviews

  The Immigrant Archive Project Interviews contain DVD copies of interviews with Cuban and Cuban-Americans for the Immigrant Archive Project, produced by the Latino Broadcasting Company. Interviews in the Cuban Heritage Collection holdings include actor Tony Plana, congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and writer Carlos Moore, among others. Links to short video clips of the interviews on the Immigrant Archive Project website can be found in the interview list in this finding aid. Full interviews on DVD are available for viewing at the Cuban Heritage Collection.

• Human Rights Oral History Project

  The Human Rights Oral History Project digital collection of the Cuban Heritage Collection includes videos and outlines of oral history interviews with Cuban dissidents.  In its first phase, the project focuses on the Black Spring of 2003 when the Cuban government arrested 75 activists.  Interviews were conducted with a number of the dissidents who served time in prison as part of the Grupo de los 75(Group of the 75) and with members of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), an organization of the wives, mothers, daughters, and other female relatives of jailed dissidents.  The Human Rights Oral History Project was launched in 2013 with funding from the Marlins Foundation. These oral histories express the views, memories and opinions of their respective interviewees. They do not represent the viewpoints of the University of Miami, its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The University of Miami makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefor. Copyright to these materials lies with the University of Miami. They may not be reproduced, retransmitted, published, distributed, or broadcast without the permission of the Cuban Heritage Collection. For information about obtaining copies or to request permission to publish any part of an interview, please contact the Cuban Heritage Collection at chc@miami.edu.

• Luis J. Botifoll Oral History Project

  The Luis J. Botifoll Oral History Project collection includes videos, outlines, and selected transcripts of oral history interviews conducted principally with members of the first generations of Cubans exiled since the Cuban Revolution. Interviews with political prisoners, visual artists, community activists, and others help to capture Cuba's undocumented history, culture, and people, as well as the exile experience. The Botifoll Oral History Project was launched in April 2008 with the support of the AMIGOS of the Cuban Heritage Collection. The Project aims to record and provide access to these testimonies in support of the Cuban Heritage Collection's efforts to document the Cuban experience on the island and in the diaspora. The interviews are made available online as they are completed and can be accessed from the Univeristy of Miami Digital Collections.

• Jim Robinson Photograph Collection

  The collection consists of photographic reproductions of magazine covers and popular Cuban product advertisements, taken from the periodicals holdings of the Cuban Heritage Collection.

• Ana Rosa Velazco Collection

  The Ana Rosa Velazco papers contains personal papers of former Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture member and AMIGOS of the Cuban Heritage Collection board member. Materials date from the late 20th century and inlcude scrapbooks, photographs, correspondence, meeting minutes, invitations, event programs, clippings, posters.

• Cuba Nostalgia Photograph Collection

  The collection consists of 8 negatives made by Thomson Lab., Coral Gables, Fla. in May 2000 from illustrations, photographs and print collections held in Cuban Heritage Collection.

• 2014 US-Cuba Policy Change Twitter Archive

  The 2014 US-Cuba Policy Change Twitter archive collection contains a data set of tweets collected from the Twitter microblogging platform when President Barack Obama announced on December 17, 2014 that the United States would begin normalizing full diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba after more than half a century of minimal relations. President Obama's announcement included plans to re-establish the US embassy in Havana, allowing official visits of Cuban diplomats and officials to the United States, and increased official dialogue on public policy issues affecting both countries. During the announcement, the Cuban Heritage Collection collected tweets relating to the hashtags #cuba, #cubapolicy, #cubalibre, #cubausa, #uscuba, and #cubanmiami between December 9, 2014 and January 28, 2015. The tweets collected before the December 17, 2014 announcement by Presidents Obama and Castro represent tweets gathered via the Twitter API seven days prior to the date of first accessing the Twitter stream via the API, a feature allowed by the API. The tweets collected by the Cuban Heritage Collection for this data archive do not represent an exhaustive or complete record of all tweets relating to the targeted hashtags due to restritions on tweet volume accessed via the Twitter API. This data archive is available for download to the University of Miami community via the University of Miami scholarly repository. The data is presented in JSON structured text files. For information on accessing the archive, see the "Conditions governing access" section of this finding aid.

• Felipe Préstamo Collection

  The Felipe Préstamo collection consists of 75 slides of Cuba, including the slides of the following seven villages founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuellar: Havana, Baracoa, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Sancti Spiritu, Puerto Principe and Trinidad, which were taken from the photographs and postcards held in Cuban Heritage Collection.

• César Trasobares papers

  Ephemera, exhibition catalogs, newsletters, and books related to Miami's contemporary art scene. Items featured in the collection document much of César Trasobares' personal life work as a local Cuban-American artist whose pieces often illustrate ties to his heritage as well as touching upon various topics, such as poverty, homosexuality, religion, social issues, and personal expression.