Recovering Memories: Canovanas Constructs Its History

FAIN: PY-252801-17

Universidad Ana G. Mendez - Recinto de Carolina (Carolina, PR 00984-2010)
Jaime R. Partsch (Project Director: May 2016 to June 2019)

Two community digitization days in Canóvanas, a city in the northeastern part of Puerto Rico, to collect photographs and memorabilia from area residents. The project would bring together the municipal government of Canóvanas, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and the Universidad del Este, whose library staff would be in charge of archiving and describing the items brought in for digitization. The project would invite community members to document the economic and cultural aspects of the town’s history, highlighting its transformation from a small sugar cane outpost to a complex “bedroom community” on the fringes of San Juan. The digitized images would be exhibited and presented in four venues: the Piñero House Museum, the Public Library in the Campo Rico sector, the town square, and the Municipal Center for Aging. A workshop is also planned for local public and private schools, entitled “Interpreting Images: Our Town in History.”

"Recovering memories: Canóvanas constructs its history" is a collaborative effort of the Jesus T. Pinero Library and Research Center of the Universidad del Este, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the Municipality of Canóvanas designed to record this history and a wide-scale discussion of the major cultural and economic changes that have marked the area.