Ricder Ricardo | 2028 MFA Candidate
Invited to be part of the Voces y Caras: Latinx Communities of North Florida exhibition at MOCA Jacksonville, FL.
August 29 – September 20, 2026
Voces y Caras: Latinx Communities of North Florida is a digital oral history project at the University of North Florida that engages students of Latinx heritage in developing questions, recording interviews with members of the growing Latinx community, and documenting their experiences as immigrants. The project explores the power of people’s stories, seeks to make visible hidden communities, and enables processes of self-discovery by students of Latinx origin in the U.S.
The project began in the spring semester of 2012 when the students in Dr. Constanza López Baquero’s course, Communication and Communities for Heritage Speakers, interviewed 24 members of the Jacksonville community. Over 200 interviews have since been conducted, recorded, transcribed and archived, serving at least four purposes: Recognizing immigrants as an indispensable part of our society in a political environment increasingly hostile to them, (2) putting students who are heritage speakers of Spanish in contact with their cultural and historical backgrounds, (3) allowing these students to recognize themselves in the stories of others, and (4) serving as a pedagogical tool that creates communities both in and outside of the classroom.
