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This fall, communication students in the community-environment adaptations service-learning course worked with the city of Fayetteville to research primary and secondary findings about Fayetteville’s Hispanic and Latino populations between 1950 and 1990.
The city is working on a project to expand the knowledge and history of cultural groups in Fayetteville, and the students joined this cause through a successful semester project. On Dec. 8, they gave a presentation to the Fayetteville Historic District Commission about their findings and demonstrated how the project is a step toward better representing these communities in Arkansas history.
During the project, their goal was to uncover and discover the Latino presence in Washington County. To understand migration patterns, the students began their research by collecting secondary sources through phone books, U of A special archives, and naturalization records, to name a few. They learned that some of the history of Latinos migrating to Northwest Arkansas could be attributed to the growth of the Tyson industry, but the primary knowledge came from first-hand interviews with families. They obtained personal contact information from festivals such as the Hispanic Heritage Festival and conducted an intensive search of Washington County archives. As a result of their discovery and interviews, the students were able to locate numerous prominent Hispanic and Latino families who lived in Washington County prior to 1990.
The students even created a Facebook page called “NWA Hispanic and Latino Collections” so residents could start an online community to document family stories and connect with others. The purpose of the page is to “give a voice to people who have been overlooked in our city’s history,” and the students recently turned the page over to the U of A Latino Society so they can continue to build and manage it. One of their interviews came from a link made on the Facebook page. In addition, the students shared the project and the Facebook page of La Zeta 95.7 FM, a Spanish-language radio station that covers Northwest Arkansas. One student mentioned that a rewarding part of the project was “getting interviewed by Spanish-language radio station La Zeta” and that “this class prepared me for the real world and helped my communication skills.”
In the final presentation, the students explained why they conducted this project, sharing how Hispanic and Latino communities made up 1% (428) of the NWA population in 1990, but now these communities reportedly represent 17.5% of Washington County’s population (16,189). Thus, there is a real need to provide “an accurate and true oral history of a community that deserves its rightful place in the history books.”
Brittyn Bostick, a Fayetteville city official who served as the students’ client, said their work on the project was “outstanding” and that the students demonstrated “a deep understanding of my comments to them at the beginning of class that our identity often is closely tied to place, and as our Hispanic community grows in Fayetteville, we want people to be able to see themselves here and connect to this place—to feel the sense of belonging that can come with knowing that your culture is part of where you live.”
Another student stated that “this project was extremely satisfying talking to Spanish-speaking families and immersing myself in their culture. It was also humbling to hear the struggles these families went through to get to where they are today. I hope our project lays a foundation that can be built on years after we graduate.”
Please visit the Service Learning Initiative on Facebook, Instagram and our website for more information about the courses.
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