The Luis J. Botifoll Oral History Project

Help us capture history from the people who lived it. Time is of the essence.

The University of Miami Libraries and the Cuban Heritage Collection launched the Luis J. Botifoll Oral History Project with the support of the Amigos.  This series of oral history interviews will help record and make available Cuba’s undocumented history, culture, people, and the exile experience.  If this history is not collected and preserved now, it may be lost forever.

The Cuban Heritage Collection collects, preserves, and provides access to research resources pertaining to the history of Cuba from colonial times to the present as well as the experience of Cubans outside the island.  Materials include books, newspapers, photographs, maps, personal papers, and organizational records.  Thousands of items from the Collection are already accessible online.

The interviews carried out in this project complement research materials already available in the Cuban Heritage Collection and provide an important first-hand perspective that will help complete the existing historical record. Click here to read interview transcripts and view video clips.

Selection Process
Interview candidates are selected by the Oral History Selection Committee from various sectors of the community, including the arts, business, government, entertainment, religion, and the media, and others.

Selection criteria includes:

• the age of the interviewee
• the potential topics that the interview will explore
• the absence of previously recorded oral history interviews with the candidate
• historical significance
• diversity (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies)
• academic relevance to University of Miami curriculum
• a complement to the Cuban Heritage Collection (adds to an already existing collection or addresses an area of weakness)