Research

Latino and Hispanic immigrants in New York State have found diverse ways to acculturate and forge new identities while celebrating their homelands and culture.  Newly-arrived Dominicans in New York City in the 1960s, for example, embraced local politics, making their presence known through strong civic participation.  Clubs and cultural organizations provide entertainment and companionship, while serving to continue ethnic traditions and maintain strong cultural identity for new generations.

The New York State Education Department’s Office of Bilingual Education was established in 1969 to support to districts offering programs for limited English proficient students. Bilingual education in New York received a further boost in 1974 when the parties in Aspira v. Board of Education signed the ASPIRA Consent Decree declaring the right to transitional bilingual education and English as a Second Language for New York City students.

By 1989, HIV had been identified as the virus that caused AIDS and organizations formed to combat the disease that had already devastated the gay male population. These activists were less equipped, however, to address the new front of the disease’s spread as it ravaged largely heterosexual populations of Latinos and Blacks in communities such as the South Bronx.

By connecting collections housed in several New York State repositories, the Ventana al Pasado project highlights the research potential for telling the stories of New York Latinos' communities and people.  These summaries of overarching themes hint at the depth, scope, and interrelated nature of the materials represented by the project.

Finding Aids

Advanced Search options allow you to search finding aids by title, creator, subject, year, or by full text.

Images

Search all images contained in the Ventana project.

The following search box allows you to search finding aids, digital copies of archival records (images), and web pages included in the Ventana project. Use the drop down menu to select what type of records to search, or to search everything within the Ventana project.

Use our Advanced Search for additional search options.

• Arts and Culture
• Business
• Education
• Family and Community Life
• Health and Community Welfare
• Major historical events and milestones in Hispanic history
• Migration and Settlement
• Occupation and Labor
• Organizations and Leaders
• Politics, Government, and Law
• Racial and/or Ethnic Identity
• Religion
• Social Reform
• Women

• Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
• New York State Archives
• Cornell University
  • Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
  • Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives

Collection descriptions, or finding aids, provide information about the creation, historical context, arrangement, and content of archival and manuscript collections as well as information to help users identify and request the portions relevant to their research. Since the finding aids draw from the partner repositories they will vary in style, depth of detail, and amount of materials covered, but their common purpose is to describe and enable access to archival and manuscript collections.

Ventana al pasado brings together Latino-related records located in ten New York State archival repositories. Together these materials tell the story of communities previously underrepresented in the historical record. 

Here you will find information on 94 collections and over 3,100 digital images that document the social, political, and cultural lives of New York’s Hispanic and Latino communities. The records document the diverse experiences of Latino/Hispanic populations in New York State.