Creation of a digital archive to document descendants of the Colonia Juarez settlement living in the El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, area.  Colonia Juarez was settled as one of eight Mormon Colonies in Mexico in the late 19^th century.  Many residents have traveled between Texas and Mexico or lived in both places.  The project would aim to increase awareness of this “liminal” population, scanning materials in both El Paso and the Mormon Colonies and holding a public history lecture in Texas.  Members of the community would be invited to contribute photographs, journals, and other memorabilia for digitization, and specially trained students would collect oral histories.  The collected artifacts and stories would be integrated into the “3D Digital Wall” at El Paso’s Museum of History and compiled into a digital research guide.  A public lecture at the El Paso Community College, delivered by a professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, would elucidate this little-documented borderland history.  The applicant would collaborate with the El Paso History Museum, the University of North Texas, and representatives of the Mormon Colonies to engage community members and promote the preservation and use of digitized items.

The El Paso Community College (EPCC) Communication and Performing Arts department proposes a project that will digitize artifacts (photos, journals, and other memorabilia) of descendants of Colonia Juarez, Mexico.  At present, there are several hundred descendants of the Colonia Juarez settlers living in the El Paso/Juarez area. They represent a theme that is common to many living in a border community, including some of our students - the feeling of being "betwixt and between" and not really belonging, or fitting in, to either place. EPCC students will digitize artifacts gathered from this community to be displayed for view by the public on the El Paso History Museum's Digital Wall, on an EPCC Library Guide, and will be the topic of a community lecture.