Student Collaborators
Aleyshka Estevez Quintana
AREPR Graduate Fellow
Aleyshka is a graduate student in the MAEE program at University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. She has worked as a research assistant in the University of Puerto Rico, interned at the University of Virginia Scholar’s Lab, and her work “Emoji Horoscopes” was published in the sixth issue of the online literary journal, Taper.
Aleyshka worked alongside the library team to order and organize equipment, as well as attended the resources provided for learning about preservation and management of artifacts/stories/interviews.
“I’m glad to have been able to participate in the interview process and especially enjoyed learning about coordination as well as organizing with colleagues.”
Daphne M. Ponce Feliciano
NEH Undergraduate Fellow
Daphne is a senior undergraduate student currently doing a double major in Psychology and English Linguistics. She is also completing a minor in Writing and Communication.
Daphne translates metadata and the library resources, such as digital guides and policies, in addition to managing the OHL’s social media. Daphne also has collaborated briefly with the development of the exhibition After the Storm / Después de la tormenta in the General Library and helped in its documentation. She now looks forward to helping the library team with the indexing and organization of the oral histories.
Bryan Ramos Romero
ACLS Graduate Fellow
Former HAL Undergraduate Fellow
Native to Camuy, Puerto Rico, Bryan Ramos Romero is a senior student majoring in English with a teacher certification in the University of Puerto Rico at the Mayagüez Campus. Shortly after his enrollment to the UPRM, he has been involved with collaborating in the Mi María: Puerto Rico After the Hurricane Oral History Project. His work in the field of oral history and interest in alternative pedagogical approaches granted him the opportunity to become a student fellow of the Humanities Action Lab’s Climates of Inequality project and thus has continued working with the coalition led by Rutgers University-Newark. He is also an avid fiction and poetry writer, appearing in the Sábanas Bilingual Literary Magazine and Halfway Down the Stairs magazine under the pseudonym B.R. Grayson.
Currently, Bryan and Yaritza Sanchez Silva are working to finalize the publication of a zine about food insecurity and food sovereignty in Puerto Rico. Their hope is to disseminate the zine to public schools, universities, social and environmental justice organizations, and the public alike. The zine is also funded by the Humanities Action Lab.
Vashti Tacoronte Cruz
NEH Graduate Fellow
Vashti is currently a master’s student in the English Education program of the UPRM where she has served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and now as a Graduate Research Assistant. Her current research interests lie in the intersection of horror, disability studies, folklore, and women’s studies.
Vashti has worked in the development of research instruments, in the drafting of documents for the Oral History Lab, and transcribing and translating interviews, essays, articles, and other documents needed for the project. She is currently working on developing articles for the OHL website and posts for its social media accounts. In addition to this, Vashti is currently the webmaster for the OHL website and has been working on translating all content published on the website to achieve the goal of a completely bilingual project.
“I have learned so much from my time working in the OHL. I am grateful that I have been able to contribute to such a profound project.”
Carhianie J. Vargas Padín
ACLS & NEH Undergraduate Fellow
Carhianie is an undergraduate English Literature student from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus (UPRM) with certificates in Writing and Communication, Film, and Visual Arts. She is currently a team member of Sábanas Bilingual Literary Magazine and a Student Advisor from the Arts Faculty. She is also a co-producer of two upcoming documentaries for UPRM’s Oral History Lab.
The Oral History Lab Assistantship has given her the opportunity to develop skills in different areas such as transcription, translation and development of research materials. Recently, she has been working on transcribing and translating oral history interviews, promotional materials, essays, and other documents for the project. Additionally, Carhianie is also working on organizing and cataloging files from students’ oral history projects.
Diego J. Vera Acevedo
NEH Undergraduate Fellow
Diego J. Vera Acevedo is an undergrad student at UPR-Mayaguez, majoring in Industrial Engineering and also pursuing a curricular sequence in Film Studies, offered by the English Department. During his free time, he enjoys swimming, watching films, writing, and spending quality time with loved ones. Currently, he is working in collaboration with the Oral History Lab as a filmmaker.
This current semester, Diego has been working with the Oral History Lab as a field producer and filmmaker for the upcoming promotional film being done. As a field producer, he is in direct charge of organizing the production calendar, coordinating all the interviews to carry out, and all other related planning required to be able to carry out the interviews and film shootings. As a filmmaker, he leads and directs the lab’s filmmaking group in the interviews and shootings, participates in both camera and sound work, carries out the interviews, and oversees the whole process.
Former Students
Daniella Angueira Rosa
Undergraduate Student Assistant
(Spring 2022)
Daniella is an undergrad English Literature major working on a Writing and Communications minor in addition to a curricular sequence in Education.
Daniella transcribed interviews and translated different documents from English to Spanish (or vice versa). She also organized and kept tabs on OHL inventory such as film and recording equipment.
“At the OHL I got to put to practice what I learned in my classes. Alongside a great team, I got to improve on my organizational/communication skills and learned how to time manage more efficiently.”
Isabel Padilla Carlo
Undergraduate Student Assistant
Isabel is an undergraduate student in the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez culminating a degree in English Literature. She is currently working as the website manager for the UPRM English Department and the Oral History Lab. Aside from that, she’s a member of Sábanas Bilingual Literary Magazine working as an editor, social media manager, and event planner. In her spare time, Isabel is a company dancer at Ballet Escenario and is a classical ballet instructor.
Isabel is in charge of managing and enhancing the OHL website. Some of her responsibilities include editing content, developing engaging posts, and keeping the website updated.
“Since I am interested in pursuing a career related to archiving the arts, this opportunity allowed me to delve into the world of digital preservation and learn from seasoned professionals.”
Yaritza Sánchez Silva
Graduate Research Assistant
Yaritza is a graduate student of the Department of English and a teacher of English at the secondary level. She enjoys traveling and has a particular interest for learning languages.
Yaritza conducts part of the transcription and translation of interviews, as well as the design and layout of a zine that will be published about food insecurity in Puerto Rico.
“This experience has shown me there are diverse ways to try and have a positive impact on society. It also allows me to explore an active and flexible work environment, an experience I am still learning from.”
Miguel A. Sierra Bartolomei
Filmmaker
(Spring 2022)
Miguel is a fourth-year student in Animal Science at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Through his university career, he has found an interest in the visual arts of film and production. With this, together with the great effort and work carried out by the Oral History Lab, he found a relationship where he can develop and work on his hobbies while contributing something to society.
Miguel worked on the recording of interviews with some participants of the Mi María documentary project. In addition, he added the subtitles for short videos of those same interviews.
“Since my interest in film and production has been somewhat recent, through his opportunity I have learned about how to work in this environment, manage equipment and know what a production entails.”
Jasselle Garcia-Rosado
Summer Intern
Jasselle Garcia-Rosado is an English major and Education minor at Smith College, a United States college located in Massachusetts. She grew up in the United States as a first-generation Puerto Rican American. Some of her interests include creative writing and activism in Puerto Rico. Her goal is to teach English at the college level.
Jasselle developed a media presence for the OHL, designed flyers for upcoming events, and created engaging captions for them. She also conducted oral interviews with her family in San Germán about how the pandemic and stratified disasters like Hurricane Georges and Hurricane Maria affected their mental health. She then transcribed these stories into works of creative nonfiction.
Emilia Silva Ortiz
Editor and Proofreader
Emilia is a graduate student completing a Masters in English Education. She is seeking to further her expertise in English, as she has always been fascinated by the English language, as well as its literature.
As part of the English Department editing and proofreading team, Emilia makes sure to provide readers the best content possible. Part of her responsibilities is to serve as an extra set of eyes for her peers when it comes to the material that the lab shares.
“It feels great to be a part of this meaningful project that seeks to save and share the value storytelling can have beyond the entertainment scope.”
Jorge André Santiago Fernández
NEH Undergraduate Fellow
Jorge is an undergraduate Computer Science student from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) with minors in Film and Music – his two passions.
His interest in Film sparked while working on “Todavía estamos aquí”, a documentary for UPRM’s OHL, where he developed skills in many areas of film production, primarily as Co-director, Cinematographer, and Editor.
He has also worked as Production Assistant, Second Assistant Camera, and freelance cinematographer.
Jorge used to work on the OHL’s website as webmaster.
José Julián Orta Rosa
Software Developer
José is a 6th-year undergraduate student in Software Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM). Hailing from Gurabo, Puerto Rico, Jose is notably competitive, even in casual games.
As one of two software developers , he is instrumental in developing a website to host the Oral History Lab’s (OHL) collections. The team is creating ‘Items’ and ‘Item Collections,’ filling them with relevant metadata.
One of the most engaging aspects of his work has been the incorporation of interactive mapping features. Jose aims for the project to have educational impact, benefiting UPRM, OHL, and a wider audience.
Fher Alejandro Rodríguez Díaz
Software Developer
Fher is a 6th year undergraduate student completing a Software Engineering bachelor’s degree.
His responsibilities at the Oral History Lab include learning to use new technologies to implement a virtual tool to present the lab’s exhibits. Fher is very passionate about developing new technologies to help the people of Puerto Rico.
“Through this work I have been able to learn so much about the digital preservation as a whole and recognize the great importance of this work.”