Archive at ASU preserves Latino history

Dr. Christine Marin, an archivist and professor at ASU, is making sure Latino history in Arizona and the Southwest is not forgotten.

Dr. Marin founded the Chicano/a Research Collection, which has collected manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, and other important relics of information on the Latino community.

“I became an archivist and historian because of what was happening already at the Arizona State University campus. By 1968, there were already the roots of integrity and civil rights becoming a little bit differently interpretated by students,” said Marin.

“So, students now were making sure that they wanted to have a say so in how they were receiving and obtaining an education and what that meant to them and their families because of the kinds of things they were experiencing through their parents: racism, discrimination, school segregation, and the kinds of things that were happening in the community here in Phoenix,” Marin went on to further explain.

For next several decades that followed Marin dedicated her career to growing her collection and preserving Latino culture.

“Since 1970, we have been in existence. We are the premiere Chicano research collection, there is nothing like our materials, our collection, our goals, our objectives supported for many, many years,” Marin said.

Marin has extended her extensive knowledge on Latino culture to helping ASU students, as well. Marin says she routinely meets with graduation students to discuss thesis’s and dissertations and meets with students at the library archive to show them how to use databases and electronic materials.

“Collecting materials about people, places, things and events that relate to the Mexican American or Chicano American history… today, after all this time, there is still a need to document the lives and the history and the contributions, and the materials that relate to the actual perspective and character of Mexican Americans in Arizona,” said Marin.