On April 9, come celebrate the launch of the Watsonville is in the Heart Digital Archive. The new archive features oral history recordings, original documents, and family artifacts that capture the rich history of Filipino life and labor in California’s Pajaro Valley. Learn more about the UCSC Watsonville is in the Heart research initiative and its partnership with The Tobera Project, and share in conversation with Watsonville community members working to uplift stories of the manong generation, the first wave of Filipino workers to arrive in the United States at the start of the twentieth century.

The digital archive launch will include a Talk Story panel, “Women of the Pajaro Valley,” to highlight three community members at the forefront of this memory-preservation work: Juanita Sulay Wilson, Eva Alminiana Monroe, and Antoinette DeOcampo Lechtenberg. 

The evening will include pop-up exhibits, interactive archive stations, and a chance to meet with members of the Watsonville is in the Heart team and of The Tobera Project. For more information, contact wiith@ucsc.edu.

This event is sponsored by the University Library, California Humanities, The Humanities Institute, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.