Each June through August, Hola Cultura works with a small group of high school and college interns and embarks on special research about the Latino community and its history in Washington D.C.
Story by Yabsera Faris
Map by Katherine Jolly
During the summer of 2016, Hola Cultura’s team of young contributors investigated where the Latino community lives and the changes underway in local settlement patterns in the greater Washington D.C. area. The work built on our special investigation last summer, when our team used decennial Census data to map the presence of Latinos in Washington D.C. from 1970 to 2010, filling in rich detail by conducting oral history interviews with longtime Latino residents. The work we did in summer 2016 picked up where our summer 2015 researchers left off in two key ways: we went wider and more in-depth.
First, we enlisted University of Maryland graduate students Diane Patterson, Jeanne Natalia Choquehuanca and Byron Antonio Marroquin, who used Census data to map Latino population centers beyond the District borders and into the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Besides expanding the “big picture,” we also honed in on Brightwood, a neighborhood in north-central D.C., which has seen growth of Latino residents, as the population has gradually migrated out of the city’s traditional Latino neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights.
⇒Click to see interactive map
Our team of eight interns—including D.C. young people from the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program—researched, reported, collected, and transcribed oral histories and mapped the Latino population hotspots and community spaces. Interns also created personal maps of their lives and neighborhoods. Using the Esri ArcGIS platform with instruction from our GIS intern, Katie Jolly, interns learned how to make online maps using geographic information systems and science (GIS), mapping their own narratives to tell their personal stories through maps and photos.
For our first oral history interviews, students visited DC Doors, an organization that helps immigrant women and their families find their way out of homelessness. The interns collected oral histories. They conducted interviews at the VIDA Senior Centers with Latino seniors from around the city. By early August, our interns began presenting their research findings to the community at the Mount Pleasant Library and Martin Luther King Memorial Library.
We visited museums and participated in professional development workshops, and the League of United Latin American Citizen National Youth Symposium.
Professional development activities included visits to Howard University and the University of Maryland, and meetings with lawyers, scientists, academics, a U.S. Census bureau mapping expert, and local Latino business people, who shared career advice. Interns worked on the resumes, held mock interviews and participated in workshops offered by the D.C. Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs. We wrapped up a fun and hard-working summer with a game of mini-golf. All in all, a great summer!
Hola Cultura Más 
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