The sounds of chatter, laughter, coffee brewing and the elevator ringing flood Moody when anyone enters through the front doors. There’s constantly something happening. Not only is Moody filled with creativity and innovation, but it’s also brewing with a desire to preserve and represent the rich history of different cultures. The Voces Oral History Center, an archive of stories of Latinos and Latinas who shaped the course of history, marks a prime example.

Founder and director Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor teaching oral history, opened the center in 1999. An office in the basement of the CMB holds the most impactful clips and photos of history. What started as a small research project with a few students grew to be a nationally recognized program showcasing the achievements of Latinos and Latinas that works with museums across the nation. Its 25th anniversary marked a significant point in their legacy.

“It was a great celebration of all of the people, and that includes former students, former staff, interns, people we've interviewed, interviewers, volunteers and families of people,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. 

The center uses a variety of mediums to spread its message and the voices of the people it seeks to represent. Rivas-Rodriguez and her team have worked with journalists, photographers, authors and others to tell stories that often go unheard. 

Perhaps the most interesting of all is the work distributed by the center in its own journal. Their work with the journal and other oral projects has spanned from covering people who served in war, to the history and culture of mariachi and civil rights. 

“We don't want to have just the interviews on a shelf someplace,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “We want people to use the interviews, and we need to let people know that those interviews are there.”

Many students got their start at Voces, and some, like Brittany Mendez, come back to work at the center after they graduate. She now works as the digital archive administrative assistant. Mendez has acquired a lot of experience in the field of oral history and hopes to continue promoting aspects of culture that mean the most to people.

“Everyone's always just very curious about where they come from, what it is that shapes them,” Mendez said.

With the digital age, Voces has had to adapt and use social media to carry its message on to a wider platform. These online visuals tell a story and have even shown some familiar faces. In one project, staffers interviewed former interns from when Voces first got its start. Those former interns now have children who are making their mark at Moody just like they did.

“It is wild, but it's happening,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “I feel kind of like a grandmother!”

This continuation of the traditions of Voces demonstrates not only its legacy but also its bright future. It shows how the lessons learned there stuck with those students into adulthood.

“Maggie always says this thing where she's like, ‘Once you are a part of us, the hooks never leave,’” Mendez said. 

Rivas-Rodriguez originally had the idea of making Latino history more accessible when she was a reporter at the Dallas Morning News and was unable to find a single resource about Mexican Americans and civil rights during World War II in Texas. That idea wasn’t able to come to fruition until she came to teach at UT, but it sparked a larger purpose in shining a light on the experiences of all Latinos and Latinas.

The team at Voces can conduct dozens of interviews in one year, with as many as 14 in one day. They film at various locations and explore photos and documents of subjects who have an interesting story. The individuals themselves represent a wide and diverse array of cultures, which is at the heart of what Voces works to show.

“We're not a monolith. We have lots of different experiences,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “The Mexican American experience may be different from the Puerto Rican or the Cuban or the Chilean experience, but there's like a unifying feeling through all of these.”

The team doesn’t just focus on events in the distant past. They plan on traveling to Baltimore to visit and report on the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse that killed six workers, all of whom were Latino immigrants. 

As younger people continue to push the needle and keep history alive, it is the mission of places like Voces to inspire and create. Its mission is multi-faceted, like the community it aims to represent and speak up for.

“I'm hoping that our young Latinos and Latinas will see that there's people that have opened those doors for them and have helped us to really to elevate all of our communities in our country,” Rivas-Rodriguez said.