California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives facts for kids

Quick facts for kids California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
Davidson Library, UCSB campus
Country	USA
Type	Archives
Established	1988
Location	Santa Barbara, California
Coordinates	34°24′51″N 119°50′35″W / 34.4141443694186°N 119.84301301265224°W / 34.4141443694186; -119.84301301265224
Website	https://www.library.ucsb.edu/

The California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) is a special place that keeps important historical documents. These documents tell the stories of different ethnic groups in California. CEMA collects things like old letters, photos, newspaper articles, and even films. These items are called primary sources because they are original records from the past. They help people learn about the history of Latino, Asian American, African American, and Native American communities. CEMA is located at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and helps researchers study these valuable collections. Some of these documents are also being made available online so more people can see them.

How CEMA Started

CEMA was created in 1988 by two librarians from UCSB, Joseph A. Boissé and Salvador Güereña. The library already had many books and materials about Chicano studies. But they realized they needed a special way to keep and organize original historical items.

At first, these special items were mostly silkscreen posters from the Chicano art movement. They were moved to a special part of the library called "special collections." Salvador Güereña then started collecting even more items right away.

Today, CEMA holds over 100 collections. These collections come from the four main ethnic groups in California: Latinos, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. While there are many collections from all groups, Mexican American collections are the most numerous.

Online Projects

In 2001, CEMA was chosen to be part of an important online project. This project is called the Online Archive of California. It is a website that shares digital images of historical documents. CEMA provided digital pictures of Chicano art from its large photo collections.

This was part of a bigger national project called American Memory. The goal of American Memory is to save and share important documents from American history. Since 2001, CEMA has shared more than 7,000 digital images for this project. This makes it easier for students and researchers everywhere to learn from these historical items.

What CEMA Collects

CEMA's collections include records from different groups and organizations. They also have the personal papers of artists, musicians, activists, and writers. Many of these individuals were involved in important social movements. These include the Chicano Movement, the anti-war movement, and the civil rights movement.

Here are some of the notable collections:

Organizations

Individuals