StoryCorps Historias Making History

After launching Historias in front of the Capitol building in  
Washington, DC, we celebrated in New York City with an outstanding  
community event in partnership with El Museo del Barrio and collected  
stories from our first official Hisorias mobile stop in Houston,  
Texas. Currently, both of our mobile booths are recording Latino  
voices – in  Miami, Florida, and Yuma, Arizona. Historias has  
recorded over a hundred interviews so far through our Door-to-Door  
service, in locations across the United States, including Puerto Rico.

In January, Dr. Carlos Sanabria, of Hostos Community College in the  
Bronx, demonstrated how StoryCorps could be successfully integrated  
into educational curriculum. He bought copies of our first-ever book,  
Listening Is an Act of Love, for the entire freshman class to  
supplement English coursework and hosted a listening event on the  
importance of oral history, which I was honored to emcee. About 150  
students and staff at Hostos, an historically Latino institution,  
listened to several outstanding Historias stories recorded in both  
Spanish and English.

Additionally, Latino Public Radio Consortium (LPRC) station KRZA  
partnered with StoryCorps to record a total of 34 interviews of Taos,  
New Mexico, and Alamosa, Colorado, residents. Though I can hardly  
believe it, three Morning Edition broadcasts have already been  
produced and aired from stories recorded in Taos!  LPRC Project  
Director, Flo Hernandez-Ramos, has dedicated a great deal of time and  
effort to ensure that partner stations support StoryCorps’ efforts,  
as well as giving us invaluable suggestions of new outreach  
partnerships and enhanced promotion of Historias.

We are well on our way to exceeding our projected goal of collecting  
700 stories by the end of the initiative. And are thrilled about the  
contributions of Advisory Board members Maria Graterol, Maggie Rivas-
Rodriguez, and Patricia Nazario, who have had and will continue to  
have a powerful impact as we travel to Albuquerque, East Los Angeles,  
and Austin. StoryCorps Historias could not have made such great  
progress without the work everyone has done on our behalf. My team  
and I thank you for your support to date, and look forward to our  
continued work together on this historic initiative as we move  
further into 2010.

Best,

David Isay
Executive Director, StoryCorps