Leave it to Google to think big. The internet giant partnered with 50 organizations across the country to create the largest digital collection of U.S. Latino art, culture, and history ever curated online.
The project, intended to preserve and share stories and exhibits related to Latino history in the United States, went live today – just days before the official start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15.
“The Google Arts & Culture: Latino Cultures in the US collection is a labor of love for many Googlers and partner institutions. It was a project that was more than a year in the making and took a small army to help digitize the 2,500 new artworks and curate 69 new exhibits,” says Jesús García, Head of Hispanic Communications, Google & YouTube.
The digital exhibit has over 4,300 archives and artworks – including Diego Rivera murals – related to the Latino experience in the U.S., multimedia exhibits in English and Spanish and virtual tours of historic sites, as well as profiles of key Latino figures, such as Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
The massive collection aims to show the cultural contributions and impact of Latinos in the United States going all the way back to the 1500’s. The site will become a permanent online fixture.
- A section dedicated to Latinos in news and entertainment features photos and interviews with iconic actors such as Héctor Elizondo, Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos and the late Ricardo Montalbán talking about stereotypical portrayals of Latinos in Hollywood, how they were typecast and how they dealt with those challenges, which continue to be an issue today
