With the rapid increase of the Hispanic population in the United States, the Spanish cultural heritage has begun to achieve greater visibility and attract widespread interest. This directory reflects the efforts of states, museums, and other institutions, communities, and individuals to preserve and promote Hispanic material culture. It offers detailed information on depositories of Hispanic-American arts and crafts, photographic collections, museums, historic sites, and festivals, as well as folklore and oral history archives.
The oldest and most numerous repositories are those that preserve Mexican-American culture in New Mexico, Texas, and California. These include many fine museum collections; historic churches, missions, plazas, government buildings, and houses; religious and secular festivals held at various times of the year; and collections of the work of traditional craftsmen such as the santeros, who in some parts of the Southwest still carve wooden statuettes of saints for churches and home altars. The primary repositories for Cuban materials are in Florida and New York; Puerto Rican materials have been collected mainly in Puerto Rico and the industrial northeast. This extensive bibliography provides information on studies dealing with architecture, foodways, arts and crafts, costume, festivals, and other topics. The subject index provides easy access to the book contents. This book will be an appropriate selection for regional, ethnic, and historical reference collections and a useful resource for academics and students with an interest in Hispanic-American history or culture.
About the Author: JOE S. GRAHAM is presently teaching at Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas, where he also serves as a Research Associate with the John E. Conner Museum. He has studied Mexican-American traditional culture for almost two decades and has published two books and some two dozen journal articles, book chapters, and handbook entries. Graham has also produced two films and curated four major exhibits on Texas-Mexican traditional culture. He is currently working on two major traveling exhibits on Texas-Mexican traditional culture for the Conner Museum, funded by state and federal agencies.
