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We are delighted to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will award Humanities Texas a grant of $35,054 to support ongoing development of Los Angelitos de Robb Archive and Oral History Initiative at Uvalde's El Progreso Memorial Library (EPML).
The initiative was launched in January 2023 to document public response to the tragic shooting that took place at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Humanities Texas will supplement NEH's grant with an additional $35,000, providing a total of more than $70,000 to advance expansion of the archive in its second year.
In the first year of the project, EPML used grant funds to hire a full-time archivist to house, organize, and catalog the vast collection of books, documents, and other materials donated to the library in the wake of the tragedy. Experts from The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center and Baylor University's Institute for Oral History are playing key roles in the project, advising library staff on archival organization and preservation, conducting oral histories, and developing the infrastructure necessary to support a permanent oral history program.
The project has been featured in a range of media, including The Christian Science Monitor, American Libraries, the San Antonio Report, and Austin's CBS affiliate KEYE. In October 2023, Humanities Texas Executive Director Eric Lupfer joined former EPML Director Mendell Morgan, current Director Tammie Sinclair, and NEH Chair Shelly Lowe on a panel at the National Humanities Conference in Indianapolis to discuss how cultural institutions can respond to acts of hate-based violence.
Second-year funds will continue the library's work by supporting personnel, travel, training, and materials required to expand the archive and launch the oral history program. Later this year, the library will begin holding public programs drawing upon oral histories collected as part of the initiative.
A Cohort of Institutional Support
As a small library, EPML doesn't have access to the resources available to larger archival institutions. The Harry Ransom Center (HRC) was instrumental in assisting Morgan and Sinclair as they got the Los Angelitos de Robb Archive off the ground.
"They were incredible," Sinclair said. "Just so willing to help at any moment."
For example, when artist Kimberly Morgan donated a collection of wooden figurines she'd made representing each of the shooting victims, EPML staff discovered that the figurines didn't fit in standard-sized archival boxes. Sinclair brought this to the attention of the HRC staff during one of their bi-weekly Zoom meetings.
"They were so willing to say 'Here, let's measure them. We make boxes at the Harry Ransom Center,'" Sinclair said. When Sinclair and Morgan visited the Ransom Center in Austin shortly thereafter, HRC staff provided them custom-made, archival-quality boxes for each of the figures.
HRC staff also connected Sinclair and EPML to a network of other public libraries, school libraries, museums, and trauma response centers they could reach out to for advice.
One such place was the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, which Sinclair visited in April 2023. The Memorial Museum provided Sinclair a full tour of their archives and showed her how they stored and secured many of their items. They also advised Sinclair on planning for the future.
Oklahoma City sent Sinclair back to Uvalde with a survivor tree—a sapling from a tree that survived the bombing in 1995. "We really connected with that because [Uvalde is] the city of trees," Sinclair said. "We've got trees growing in the middle of our streets here." Sinclair and Morgan plan to plant the sapling outside the library.
Oral History Program
With assistance from Steven Sielaff at the Baylor University Institute for Oral History (BUIOH), EPML will also further their oral history program.
"The idea is to focus on the community and national response to the tragedy," Sinclair said. "The way to [keep that focus] is to reach out to the responders—and I don't just mean first responders. I mean the people that were here and ready to help and help heal in the process."
In July 2023, Sielaff visited EPML to complete a training with Sinclair and to plan for EPML's oral history program. Problems arose when trying to identify a suitable space to conduct interviews.
"We did a tour of the library and [Sielaff] would make me pause and just listen," Sinclair said. "In all the areas I thought would be suitable you'd hear the popping of the light or the AC kick on or a horn outside, and it's like, oh, all of these places I had in mind were not going to work out."
As a result, the library ultimately plans to expand their building, in part to build an oral history studio that would be usable to library patrons as a makerspace, but also to increase archive and museum space.
Continuing Service
In addition to these special projects, EPML continues to offer regular programming and services critical to the Uvalde community. These include family story times, cultural and educational programs, tax preparation workshops, game nights, legal services, free health checks, and club meetings for educators' groups and the El Progreso Club.
"We want everyone to be welcomed and safe and to have materials and resources that will meet their needs, whether it's applying for a driver's license, job applications—whatever it may be—we want to be that center where you come for education, for learning, for inspiration, and for recreation," Morgan said.