Latino Scenescapes: A Digital Mapping of the Communities in the Boston Area

Project Overview

This report outlines the development of the prototype for Latino Scenescapes, a Digital Humanities project that documents and maps the linguistic, cultural, and social presence of Latino communities across neighborhoods in the Boston area. Developed during the 2025–2026 academic year with support from the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, the project emerged from over fifteen years of community-engaged teaching in courses such as SPAN59 and SPAN59H, where students collaborate with Latino organizations through volunteer work and critical reflection.

The goal of Latino Scenescapes is to create a publicly accessible digital archive that highlights the histories, voices, community practices, and everyday experiences of Latino communities through neighborhood-based narratives, oral histories, photography, and student ethnographic reflections. The project seeks to make visible the rich multilingual and multicultural landscapes that shape Latino life in the Boston area while also creating pedagogical opportunities for students to engage critically with issues of migration, language, identity, and urban belonging.

Throughout this academic year, our work focused on developing the conceptual, methodological, and digital foundations of the project. Major accomplishments included:

  • Researching and developing neighborhood narratives connected to the communities explored in SPAN59 and SPAN59H. 
  • Collecting photographs and oral histories documenting Latino community presence and experiences. 
  • Gathering, editing, and curating students’ reflections on Latino youth and community organizations through their volunteer work. 
  • Designing a consistent content model for each neighborhood section of the website. 
  • Evaluating and selecting the digital platform that would best support the project’s goals and public accessibility. 

The neighborhoods developed during this phase of the project include: Somerville/East Somerville, Allston-Brighton, Chelsea, East Boston, South End / Villa Victoria. Each city has the following sections:

  • An overview of the city.
  • An overview of the Latino presence in the city.
  • Pictures documenting the Latino presence.
  • Oral histories
  • Student’s Voices and Perspectives from the Community

Here is the link to the project as it is up to today: https://latino-scapes-boston.lovable.app/

 

Next Steps

The current prototype establishes the foundation for the next phase of Latino Scenescapes. Future work will focus on:

  • Expanding and completing the collection of student contributions. 
  • Conducting additional oral histories in Allston-Brighton, Chelsea, East Boston, and South End/Villa Victoria. 
  • Continuing the development of bilingual neighborhood narratives. 
  • Refining the website interface and digital architecture. 
  • Disseminating the project among colleagues at Harvard and other institutions interested in Latino communities (i.e. The Gaston Institute, UMass), community organizations, and Digital Humanities networks. 

Ultimately, Latino Scenescapes seeks to create a sustainable and publicly accessible archive that documents the linguistic and cultural presence of Latino communities in Greater Boston while also serving as a pedagogical model for community-engaged language education and collaborative Digital Humanities work.

In what follows we describe the activities that each member of the team accomplished.

 

Project Coordination, Community Engagement, and Content Development (María Luisa Parra Velasco)

As principal coordinator of the project, I oversaw the overall conceptual and organizational development of Latino Scenescapes. This included coordinating meetings with collaborators, maintaining ongoing communication regarding student contributions and website development, and ensuring coherence between the pedagogical, research, and digital components of the project. 

In order to prepare students for community-based research, I coordinated a workshop led by Dr. Elena Foulis on oral history methodologies, as well as two workshops with photographer Kris Snibbe focused on visual documentation and ethical representation. 

I also initiated contact with university offices to obtain models of consent and permission forms for photography and oral history work conducted within community organizations. 

A major component of my contribution involved researching and developing the East Somerville and Somerville sections as the foundational model for the website. This work included:

  • Historical and demographic research on Latino communities in Somerville.
  • Photographic documentation of neighborhood spaces and community life. 
  • Development of neighborhood narrative integrating linguistic, social, and cultural perspectives. 
  • Conducted one oral history. 
  • Transcription and translation of the oral history from Spanish into English. 

This prototype served as the conceptual and structural model for the remaining neighborhood sections. In addition, I continued developing content for the remaining neighborhoods while guiding students in the production of community reflections connected to their volunteer experiences in local organizations serving Latino youth and families.

 

Pedagogical design and content development (Carmen Fajardo)

Dr. Carmen Fajardo contributed extensively to the pedagogical and methodological dimensions of the project. Her work included the design of assignments that guided students in the systematic collection of information about Boston neighborhoods and community organizations. She also conducted the analysis, selection, editing, and translation of descriptive neighborhood texts, ensuring consistency and accessibility across the project’s bilingual materials.  Additional contributions included:

  • Organizing and systematizing visual materials for neighborhood representation. 
  • Developing a methodological guide for conducting semi-structured oral history interviews. 

  • Supporting the integration of student-generated materials into the broader digital framework. 

     

Digital Platform Research and Prototype Development (Sitalin Sánchez)

A substantial component of the project involved evaluating digital platforms capable of supporting a community-centered Digital Humanities archive. Two platforms — Mukurtu and Lovable — were researched and tested in relation to the specific needs of Latino Scenescapes, including public accessibility, cultural sensitivity, design flexibility, and the capacity to integrate layered geographic and narrative content. 

Sitalin developed working prototypes in both platforms using the project’s initial research materials, including the project framework, East Somerville content. Each prototype was evaluated according to two primary dimensions:

  • Functionality: organization of materials, navigability, and integration of diverse content types. 
  • Aesthetic coherence: visual design, flexibility, and the ability to reflect the richness and complexity of the communities represented. 

Following this process, Lovable was selected as the final platform because it allowed for a more intentional and community-centered visual experience rather than the constraints of a conventional content-management structure. 

The final prototype included the development of a coherent visual language across the website through deliberate decisions regarding typography, layout, color, and imagery. Particular attention was given to making the website inviting and accessible to multiple audiences, including community members, students, educators, and researchers.

 

Grant recipient: María Luisa Parra-Velasco

(Project collaborator: Carmen Fajardo)