The National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is a list of over 100,000 notable sites that have been deemed worthy of preservation and protection.
Less than 1% of those sites are representative of Latino history and heritage.
The nonprofit Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC) is working to remedy that by releasing its own inaugural list of Endangered Latinx Landmarks across the U.S. that hold cultural and historical significance, and are under the threat of gentrification, demolition, or other factors.
The 13 sites on the list include a Mexican cemetery near Austin, Barrio Chihuahuita in El Paso, and the oldest Latino LGBTQ bar in Los Angeles.
Sehila Mota Casper, executive director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, explained what sparked LHC to create the list, which was compiled from dozens of applications.
“We saw this listing as something that would bring visibility to these types of sites,” she said. “It can help highlight and educate not only the community, but also city government and local partners that these sites can be rehabilitated … and saved.”
Mota Casper said historic preservation is often centered around a Latino community’s cultura, or culture.
“(It’s) carrying down the tradition of teaching the next generation how to make tortillas or how to carry down art form and expression and documentation from our indigenous roots,” she said. “These are forms of valid documentation that have always been a part of our communities for eons.”
View LHC’s list of endangered Latinx landmarks below:
