History project wants U.S. Latinos’ stories

updated 2:14 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - Gus Hernandez and his family spent two nights sleeping in their car before Siddiqi Hansoti gave them three weeks' stay in his motel and then, even better, a job.

"I just needed a little bit of help," Hernandez says in a recording of his story of finding an unexpected benefactor after being evicted from his home.

Hernandez and Hansoti shared their story in Salinas, Calif., with public radio's StoryCorps, which has been capturing moments of American life since 2003 and archiving them at the Library of Congress.

StoryCorps is seeking more life stories from U.S. Latinos, and launched StoryCorpsHistorias on Thursday in an effort to get them.

"The mission is just to honor and celebrate our lives through listening," said Diana Velez, a StoryCorpsHistorias spokeswoman.

Plans are to send a StoryCorpsHistorias Airstream trailer to different towns or cities over four weeks to record conversations with at least 700 Latinos. Possible stops include Los Angeles, Yuma, Ariz., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Stories also will be collected through community organizations, libraries and other local spots.

Recording conversations
StoryCorps recordings are generally conversations between two people, talking over important times in their lives. The recordings are archived at the Library of Congress. Some are abbreviated for broadcasts on National Public Radio.

Some, but not all, of the StoryCorpsHistorias recordings will focus on uniquely Hispanic experiences. StoryCorpsHistorias is funded through a $700,000 Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant.

"It's really important for Latinos to be fully represented in our country and this is just one way for Latinos to be fully represented," said Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a University of Texas at Austin professor who has been recording the oral histories of Latino veterans for a decade.

Rivas-Rodriguez's U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project, which chronicles the lives of Hispanic veterans, is a partner in the project. Other partners are Latino Public Radio Consortium, radio show Latino USA and community groups.

More from msnbc.com Thanksgiving is about odd family dynamics Swine flu fears for hajj pilgrims First Read: Pardon my turkey, and other trivia 570,000 pager messages from 9/11 released   Silver Lining: Tales of struggle and hope On Twitter: Breaking news updates | Weird and wild

MORE FROM RACE & ETHNICITY

Race & ethnicity Section Front

In sagging economy, man donates bras Filmmaker Perry gives $1 million to NAACP Newsweek: The science of Obama's skin color theGrio: Liberals prefer a lighter-skinned Obama Hate crimes up against gays, religion  Newsweek: Is Disney giving an interracial lesson? Race & ethnicity Section Front   Add Race & ethnicity headlines to your news reader: