The Grand Rapids Public Library, through the programs conducted by Gordon Olson, City Historian, has reached out to ethnic communities, in a variety of ways, to record their history.

This collection documents the immigration and experiences of Hispanic immigrants to Grand Rapids, through interviews taken directly by Olson, student interviewer programs that he managed but were conducted by faculty at Calvin and Aquinas Colleges, and independent interviews by others.

The Latin American Oral History Project of Calvin College, 2001, contains a series of seven interviews with Latin American immigrants who live in West Michigan. The countries represented are Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, and the territory of Puerto Rico. The interviews tell the stories of the Hispanic immigrants’ lives in their native countries and life as they perceive it in America.

Nine different students in the Latin American History course at Calvin College conducted the interviews. Professor Daniel Miller taught the course. All of the interviews were conducted between February and April of 2001. The students were instructed to answer questions on a historical biographical questionnaire they were given. They also had to include a Works Cited Page and most included a photograph. Some transcriptions are in Spanish, others in English. Most students conducted at least three interviews.