Ten Years and Counting!
LRHS has moved into its tenth year in 2026, with major advancements regarding our growing archive, the publishing of historical books, and the completion of La Casa De La Raza (Chiechi House).
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
In late 2025, IMLS announced the grantee for the 2026 - 2027 round of grants. LRHS was awarded a two-and-a-half-year, $464,250 grant to organize, digitize, and create an online archive.
The project text, taken from the award approval document, is as Follows:
La Raza Historical Society (LRHS) will expand its capacity to care for and provide access to a collection of images documenting local history.
The project involves organizing, cataloging, and digitizing up to 90% of the existing collection. The project will support hiring a Collection Digitization Specialist, providing necessary equipment and software, and developing digital asset management procedures, digitization workflows, and standards to ensure digitization quality, recording metadata, and correctly naming and storing digital files, making sure to match information from the digitized items with LRHS's catalog, uploading, transcribing and attaching relevant object information to catalog records.
As a result of this project, students, researchers, and community members will have improved access to photos, negatives, and historical records. LRHS emerges when cultural and historic preservation and public history are no longer treated as innocent. Moreover, LRHS is part of a long-standing cultural and historical preservationist, public history, and scholarly community across the Santa Clara Valley dedicated to the memory recovery and historical reconstruction of the rich, diverse Raza community of the Santa Clara Valley and the state.
The projected completion of the archive will fall between August 2027 and March 2028.
La Casa de La Raza (Chiechi House) San José History Park
We are also excited to announce that we project the renovation of La Casa de La Raza at History Park will be completed by mid-summer this year.
The house will serve as the archive, located on the second floor. The first floor will have a community conference area and a library dedicated to Dr. George Castro, containing hundreds of books donated by many scholars, professors, and community members.
We expect to have the house open five days a week for visits, including looking through our archives, conducting research, and hosting community events.
We will announce an opening celebration date and hours of operation by early summer. 2026.
New LRHS Website
Over the past few years, we have worked with San José State University MIS Student Teams through the School of Information Systems & Technology.
The current team is developing a new website for LRHS. It will include a local archive area, a bookstore, and a connection to the developing IMLS-sponsored online archive.
In past SJSU Student Teams, they updated our website and created the LRHS Database, which Salesforce sponsored.
Keep logging in, you will see the new site and all of its additional benefits.
September Celebration
This being our tenth year, we are developing a special presentation in September. It is being developed and will include a great cultural celebration focused on our culture and history.
We will soon announce the plans and how you can join us in celebrating together.
Support LRHS
Systemic Barriers have hidden our history. They have minimized our accomplishments and placed us in the unforgivable position of having to fight the stereotypes imposed on us.
We are always looking for our history, photos, documents, family history, posters, and those memories that define who we are.
Please get in touch with us by leaving a note on our contact page.
Help us continue the mission to preserve our
Raza history.Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley is a California Public Benefit Corporation (#3974355)and is an IRS § 501(c) (3) Public Charity Non-Profit Organization. Federal ID Tax # 81-3429366.
La Raza Historical Society
on Youtube
La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley is an avenue for the preservation of social, business, political, and civil rights contributions of La Raza community from the mid 1800s to present.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking the button below.
LRHS Video Interviews
on the RJ MARTINEZ Channel
Our Mission
Preserving la raza contributions
We collect and digitize articles, photographs, taped videos and oral histories of individuals and families who have long contributed to the prosperity of our region.
Availability of this information to academic researchers and others who are interested in knowing more about our Raza community
provides data about our community heroes, many of whom have never received civic recognition for their efforts in making
Santa Clara Valley what it is today.
Your Impact
Continued support to meet our goals
Your contributions help fund our projects with community-based affiliates like History San Jose, individuals, schools and other groups.
Our list of sponsors have allowed us to move forward with our major objectives and we are counting on you for your support.
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ON YOUTUBE
Watch now! Our history,
like the pyramids of Mesoamerica, is built upon layers. Each generation influenced by the one that preceded it.
