About Us

Recording. Preserving. Disseminating.

The Voces Oral History Center is the leading Latino oral history archive in the United States. It began in 1999, with a mission of capturing untold stories of Latinos and Latinas who served, in the military or on the home front, during World War II. Our archive has expanded to include the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and Political and Civic Engagement, focusing on the continuing fight for Latino civil rights.

Our goal is to continue to add collections to fill the gaps in the history of Latinos in America. To that end, we have assisted the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; the StoryCorps Historias collection; numerous PBS documentarians, both local and national, who have used our photographs in their works; the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th Anniversary brochure. We have served as a resource for hundreds of journalists, with contacts, photographs and information. We have also served as a resource for textbook publishers and academics who have sought out our interviews and photos.

Visit the Voces Archive

The Voces archive is housed within the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the Benson Library on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Interviews that are unavailable online can be accessed at the library. Please note that visitation to the archives are at the discretion of the Benson Library. Access may be limited for holidays or on-campus closures.

Visit the Benson

Recording

Preserving

Disseminating

Leadership

Founder & Director

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez is a former professional journalist and is a professor at the Moody College of Communication’s School of Journalism. She founded the Voces project in 1999 and teaches oral history as journalism and other classes.

Assistant Director

Kristine Navarro McElhaney currently serves as the assistant director at the Voces Oral History Center. Navarro McElhaney has been working in the field of oral history for the last 23 years.

Associate Director

Charles Ramirez Berg is the author of 'Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance'. In addition, he has written many articles and book chapters on Latinos in U.S. films, film history and Mexican cinema.

Associate Director, Photography

Eli Reed is an Award-winning Magnum Photographer who has worked with Voces since 2015.

Staff

Audio Video Specialist & Editor

Jorge Vega is a UT Alumnus with a degree in Radio, Television and Film from Houston, TX.

Communications Specialist

Terry Gutierrez is a UT Alumna with a Bachelor of Journalism and a minor in Government. She is from Laredo, Texas.

Digital Archives Administrative Assistant

Brittany Mendez is a UT Alumna with degrees in Journalism and Mexican American Latino/a Studies from South, Texas.

Graduate Assistants & Interns

Archivist Intern

Ariannah Lomeli is a UT Freshman at the Moody College of Communications pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Public Relations and Journalism. She is from Mission, TX in the Rio Grande Valley.

Video Intern

Brandon Porras is a first year Radio, Television, and Film major from El Paso, Texas. Learning about the lives and cultures of people all around the world fascinates him.

HHM Audio Intern

Amberlyn Negron is a fourth year journalism and sociology student with a minor in Korean studies from Houston, Texas.

HHM Audio Intern

Miranda Liguez is a third-year student at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a minor in Latino Media Studies. She is from San Antonio, Texas.

Meet the Voces Resource Council

The VRC is made up of men and women who extend the reach of Voces through networking and fundraising. Their key priority is to help Voces raise a $6 million endowment.

James Aldrete

Political communications consultant.

Gonzalo Barrientos

Former Texas state senator, Austin.

Mary Alice Carnes

Communications, FUNauctions.

Gilberto Cardenas

Professor Emeritus, Sociology, University of Notre Dame and Retired Professor, the University of Texas at Austin.

Jorge Haynes

Retired administrator within the California State University system.

Joe Morin

Retired, State of Texas, Economic Development and Former President of TAMACC.

Lupe Morin

Former Executive Director of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas & retired as Deputy Director - City of Austin Neighborhood Housing.

Ron Oliveira

Former television anchor and public relations professional.

Charles Ramírez Berg

Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Radio-Television-Film - UT Austin and Center for Mexican American Studies - UT Austin.

Iván Román

Former executive director, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, free-lance journalist, Washington, DC.

Laura Barberena

Communications Consultant, VIVA Politics, LLC.

Anthony Medrano

Director at Mariachi USA.

Meet the Scholars Council

This group is comprised of professors and staff across campus who have particular expertise in various aspects of Voces’ work. They are able to advise Voces on important matters.

Miguel Alvarez

Miguel Alvarez, MFA, is a Chicano filmmaker and an assistant professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Alvarez was an executive producer of Austin Film Festival’s On Story and has showcased his films worldwide

Don Carleton

Don Carleton, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Carleton also holds the J.R. Parten Chair in the Archives of American History.

Melissa Guy

Melissa Guy, MSIS, MA, is the Director of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a graduate degree in Latin American History from the University of Arizona.

Debbie Hiott

Debbie Hiott is the general manager of Austin’s NPR station, KUT 90.5, and KUTX 98.9. Hiott is also the Executive Director of Media Operations at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communications. Hiott is the former editor of the Austin American-Statesman.

Kathleen McElroy

Kathleen McElroy, Ph.D., holds the Frank A. Bennack Jr. professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communications’ School of Journalism and Media. McElroy is former director of the School of Journalism and Media and has an extensive background as a journalist.

Monica Muñoz Martinez

Monica Muñoz Martinez, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. Martinez is a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and a founding member of the award-winning non-profit organization Refusing to Forget that calls for a public reckoning with racial violence in Texas.

Steve Hoelscher

Steve Hoelscher, Ph.D., is the Stiles Professor of American Studies and Geography, and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. Hoelscher is also the Faculty Curator for Photography at the Harry Ransom Center.

Steve Wilson

Steve Wilson is the Harry Ransom Center’s Robert DeNiro Curator of Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Wilson is the author of The Making of Gone with the Wind (Harry Ransom Center, 2015).

Charles Ramírez Berg, (representing the Voces Oral History Center)

Charles Ramírez Berg, Ph.D., is the Joe M. Dealey, Sr. Professor in Media Studies in the Moody College of Communication’s Radio-Television-Film department. Ramírez Berg is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and the recipient of the Board of Regents’ Outstanding Teacher Award.

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, (representing the Voces Oral History Center)

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Voces Oral History Center. Rivas-Rodriguez is also director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and a professor in the School of Journalism and Media, at the University of Texas at Austin.

On-Campus Partners

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, which houses the Voces archive
The University of Texas Libraries
UT's Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) and CCI

Off-Campus Partners

Google, which is hosting a photo showcase on the archive in its Arts & Culture section
Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino
teachinghistory.org
Oral History Association