The project Voces y caras (Voices and Faces) has grown from a series of interviews performed by students in professor Constanza López’s Spring of 2012 course Communications and Communities for Speakers of Spanish. These interviews focus on the rapidly growing Hispanic community of Jacksonville, which – as this project makes evident – is very diverse. The interviewees come from, or have connections to, fourteen Spanish-speaking countries. They occupy different roles in our community; some are doctors, business owners, teachers, architects, engineers, students, parents, grandparents, etc. Some have been here for many years, and others came recently. Some escaped political repression and violence in their own countries, others came looking for a better future, and some came following their loved ones. They all represent a happy, vibrant, family-oriented, hard-working community whose members strive to achieve their goals and dreams. They have assimilated to American society while maintaining a strong cultural identity. This desire to keep their own culture, or to become bicultural, is non-negotiable, because this varied group is extremely proud of its customs, food, music, language, and above all, of their families.

To listen to the interview please click the green button.
(Para escuchar las entrevistas por favor pulsar el botón verde.)

Click here to view photos of the exhibit in the Thomas G. Carpenter Library.
(Para ver fotos de la exhibición presionar aquí.)

Constanza López is an assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She obtained her Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research interests include Latin American Literatures of the XX and XXI centuries, women writers, autobiography and testimonio, gender and violence, film and documentary, human rights and activism, migrations, and Hispanics in the U.S. She is author of Trauma, memoria y cuerpo: el testimonio femenino en Colombia(1985-2000).