Two students in The Bronx Institute at Lehman College’s ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities for Education) program spent one week this summer interning at The Bronx County Historical Society, a renowned archive of documents that help scholars learn about the history of the borough. In addition to working at the historical society, the students received tours of the New York City Municipal Archives and the Museo del Barrio, where they viewed microfilms of documents dating back to the colonial era as well as objects from the museum’s collections of Taino and contemporary art. This extraordinary opportunity to do primary research gave both students the chance to discover their Bronx heritage.

Jonathan Montalvo, a 10th grader at Columbia Secondary School, chose to delve into the history of Latino music in the borough. As he discovered, The Bronx after WWII had a thriving music scene, which was nourished by the diverse musical styles that Latino immigrants brought with them from their home countries. Economic opportunity, housing, performance spaces, and proximity to New York City attracted many Latinos to settle in the borough and to contribute to the creation of Latin popular music. During his internship at the historical society, he examined vintage photos of the performance spaces and read short stories and scholarly articles to learn about his topic.

Shantalee Martinez, an 11th grader at Marie Curie High School, researched the history of Latinos and baseball in The Bronx. Using the Internet as her primary resource tool, she found that Latinos have been playing on baseball teams since at least 1859, when a team of mostly Cuban students at Fordham University (then called St. John’s) competed against a squad fielded by St. Francis Xavier College. Until major league baseball was integrated, a number of New York teams with Latino players competed in the African American leagues and played in The Bronx; four of those teams, The New York Cubans, the NY Lincoln Giants, the NY Black Yankees, and the Lincoln Stars, fielded Latinos from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic.

“Learning about your heritage is a transformative experience,” said Prof. Herminio Martinez, the Executive Director of The Bronx Institute and a member of the Department of Middle and High School Education. “What makes this internship so engaging is that it exposes students to the tools of the historian’s craft while they work on projects that are deeply meaningful to them.”

Posted on: October 26, 2011
Article published on: October 26, 2011 | by: The Bronx Institute