Unlocking What’s Possible: Honoring Latinx Heritage through The Abuelas Project

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Through our Living Legacy Initiative, we are proud to support The Abuelas Project, a community-led digital archive in the US that is redefining what it means to be "historic."

February 20, 2026

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History is more than just monuments and grand architecture; it lives in our memories, our recipes, and the stories of the places we call home. Yet, in traditional archives and national registries, many of these stories remain unseen. At Iron Mountain, we believe that information has power when it is protected, connected, and activated. Through our Living Legacy Initiative, we are proud to support The Abuelas Project, a community-led digital archive in the US that is redefining what it means to be "historic."

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Preservation Grounded in Community

The Abuelas Project, led by Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC), focuses on communities often excluded from traditional preservation narratives. Named in honor of the abuelas (grandmothers) who serve as the culture bearers of their families, the project uses interdisciplinary methods—blending oral histories, archival research, and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping—to document the Latinx experience on its own terms.

Rather than following a top-down institutional framework, The Abuelas Project empowers community members to define how their histories are shared. This participatory approach ensures that preservation is ethical, inclusive, and rooted in the lived experiences of the people who shaped these landscapes.

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Stories of Resilience and Culture

The latest phase of the project features three new StoryMaps, web-based maps that use geography to tell a narrative with maps, text and multimedia, that elevate sites shaped by Latinx life, labor, and resistance:

Nogales, Arizona: This StoryMap documents the commercial corridors of Main Street. These storefronts are not just businesses; they are economic and social anchors that tell tales of migration, cross-border identity, and entrepreneurship.
Tucson, Arizona: Here, food is the primary lens for history. By tracing restaurants, markets, and generational recipes, the project preserves foodways as expressions of identity and survival in the face of gentrification.
El Paso, Texas: Focusing on the barrio of Duranguito, this StoryMap captures a community’s fight to remain visible. It serves as a living archive of working-class history and collective resistance against forced displacement.

The Impact of Living Legacy

The Living Legacy Initiative (LLI) is Iron Mountain’s commitment to preserve and make accessible cultural and historical information and artifacts. LLI provided foundational funding to make this phase of the project possible. This support directly impacted several key areas:

StoryMap Development: Funding supported the creation of four original StoryMaps utilizing rigorous interdisciplinary research.
Fellowships: The grant funded multiple fellowships, providing academic and professional training to researchers who contributed critical design and analytical skills.
Community Compensation: In alignment with our commitment to ethical preservation, the funding ensured that community participants were fairly compensated for sharing their time and knowledge.

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Join the Movement

The Abuelas Project is a flexible, place-based model that invites everyone to participate. Submit your own story or community knowledge through the Abuelas Project Survey.

"We created the Abuelas Project because our stories have too often been left out of the official record." said Sehila Mota Casper, Executive Director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation.

By protecting these stories today, we ensure they are honored and carried forward for generations to come.

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Unlocking What’s Possible: Honoring Latinx Heritage through The Abuelas Project

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Meet our Mountaineers

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Preservation Grounded in Community

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Stories of Resilience and Culture

The Impact of Living Legacy

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Join the Movement

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PopupForm

Meet our Mountaineers

Preservation Grounded in Community

Stories of Resilience and Culture

The Impact of Living Legacy

Join the Movement

Other news and stories

Iron Mountain unveils next-generation automated storage facility in Singapore

Iron Mountain named a Challenger in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intelligent Document Processing

Iron Mountain InSight DXP included in Forrester Landscape