Arte Público Press launches groundbreaking research tool

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The University of Houston's Arte Público Press has been recovering and preserving Hispanic literature for more than three decades. It digitizes everything written by Latinos from the American colonial period to the present day.

In May, it launched a new innovative website that promises to change the landscape of Latino historical research.

"The archive that we have is so rich and so vast and really represents the lived experience of Latinos from people who were just immigrants to people who were here before the US became the nation it became," said Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Deputy Dir. Arte Público Press.

Ventura is the director of Recovering the US Hispanic Literacy Heritage Program at Arte Público Press.

While this program has been in place for several years, APP launched a groundbreaking new website this May. It's a free and accessible research portal.

"I'm really proud of this project. It was a multi-year project, and to me, it's one piece of this larger project," said Mikaela Selley, Arte Público Press. "We know students are googling Latino history, and we want them to end up on our website and to find these incredible stories of both struggle and our contributions and successes."

One of the main objectives of this initiative is to shine a light on Latino history from both sides of the border.

The website is home to more than 150 periodicals, which document major events, from civil and immigrant rights to women's issues, and publish literature from many of our ancestors.

"People will get a better sense of what it is to understand the border and the intricacies of Latinidad and stand from there," said Ventura.