Historias Familiares Workshop: How To Preserve Your Family Memorabilia
March 13, 2021 - San Antonio
Women’s History Month. Museo del Westside Co-Curator Donna Guerra will lead the first workshop, teaching the community how to preserve valuable historical documents in less-than-perfect conditions. This image is of Ernestina Morales. Courtesy Image.
By Valeria Torrealba, Senior Reporter | San Antonio Sentinel
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center will host its first workshop in honor of Women’s History Month on March 13 at 11 a.m. CST.
- The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center will continue to honor Women’s History Month with various other workshops centered around historical preservation.
The Museo del Westside, along with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Community Archives, is sponsoring a series of three workshops to share knowledge that will support the community in learning the basics of preserving family and community history.
The first virtual workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 13 at 11 a.m. Titled “Historias Familiares,” Museo del Westside co-curator and professional archivist Donna Guerra will share practical suggestions for taking care of personal family historical materials, also accrediting for less-than-ideal conditions.
“I’ve been a professional archivist for 23 years. I’m always thinking about these things. When I moved back to my hometown of San Antonio, I started getting involved again with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center,” Guerra said. “The focus of everything that the Esperanza does relates to their commitment to including the community and honoring and preserving its history in many ways.”
Guerra will also present budget-conscious ideas for protective storage for different types of photographs, paper documents, digital files, leather items, clothing and old family films. The event is free and will be livestreamed to the Esperanza Center’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels.
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center has worked diligently to bring together the San Antonio community. In honor of Women’s History Month, the organization plans to host different workshops in order to share knowledge that will support the community in learning the basics of preserving family and community history.
“We’re trying for that community by having some sense of interactivity. It’s one way we’re adapting. We’re committed to doing what is possible within our limitations of COVID-19 life,” Guerra said. “The amount of programming that the Esperanza itself is doing is really, kind of impressive. They’ve really stepped up to the plate and more. The staff is really working hard to make sure that all of this happens. I’d like to give my kudos to the staff member behind the scenes, they’re working hard.”
Preserving documents and historical trinkets of value can be incredibly tricky. As a co-curator for the Museo del Westside, Guerra has had experience with preserving dated valuables. Her work with the Esperanza Center reflects on the community the Esperanza has built.
“Starting to think about saving and preserving our history, and trying to marry that with the commitment of the Esperanza’s, and working as a co-curator of the Museo del Westside and gathering grassroots stories of women activists [for our current exhibit], working closely with many community members who were writing their stories about their grandmother, or their mother, or their good friend...I started to think that, you know, we need to share some information with people,” Guerra said.
With preservation becoming an integral thing to keep memories alive and pass history down to new generations, Guerra notes the growing interest in keeping those tokens alive. The workshop focuses on different types of documents to preserve, ranging from news clippings to items of clothing.
“I’m going to be focused on keeping things in our homes. It’s not just approaches taken in professional archives, per se, because that's not where our stuff is,” Guerra said. “I do talk about what a professional archivist would likely do with certain things [and] certain formats. I talk about documents and news clippings and photographs and objects and clothing and, and a little bit about family movies. I offer more real world alternatives that are budget conscious and more suited to what we can actually afford to do in our home, home environments, which are not usually ideal in terms of climate control or storage available storage.”
The Zoom event will allow for registered members to show their historical documents. Limited to three minutes each for showcasing, each participant will get the opportunity to share a part of their history and ask Guerra any questions regarding the preservation of the object.
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center will continue to honor Women’s History Month with various other workshops, including one on gathering oral history “Recuerdos y Memorias: Telling our Family Stories” with Museo Del Westside Co-Curator Laura Hernandez-Ehrisman, and “Finding Your Mexican Ancestors: A Genealogy Workshop” with Guerra again.
For more information, members can visit the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center’s website.
Valeria Torrealba is an opinions columnist and public relations assistant at the University Star, a student publication of Texas State University. Email her at reporter@sasentinel.com