Northeastern University Libraries is pleased to announce that the historical records of Sociedad Latina are open for research.

Sociedad Latina de South Boston was founded in 1968 by Jorge Rivera, David Rideout, John Carroll, and Lynn Minna to promote cultural, social, and recreational activities of the small Latino population in the South Boston neighborhood. Volunteers coordinated baseball, basketball, and volleyball leagues, which were sponsored by local businesses and community residents. In 1981, the organization changed its name to Sociedad Latina and moved to Tremont Street in the Mission Hill neighborhood.

Since its inception, Sociedad Latina has worked with Latino youth to promote self-sufficiency, community leadership, and advancement. The collection documents the efforts of Sociedad Latina to strengthen, educate, and empower youth of all ethnicities living in the Mission Hill, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods of Boston. Records date from 1968-2007 and document topics such as AIDS awareness and prevention, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and domestic violence prevention, pregnancy prevention, peer leader training, and tobacco use and its effects.

The types of material found in this collection include proposals, grants and contracts, correspondence, program descriptions, meeting minutes, and strategic and progress reports.

The Sociedad Latina collection is open for research Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., in the Northeastern University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Department, located in 92 Snell Library in Boston, Massachusetts. A guide to the collection is available online at http://www.library.neu.edu/archives/collect/findaids/m136find.htm.

The collection, which was processed with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, contributes to the University Archives and Special Collection Department’s collecting focus on records of private, non-profit, community-based organizations that are concerned with social justice issues.

For a list of the Department’s special collections, see: http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/collections/manuscript_collections/.

For more information, please contact Joan Krizack at j.krizack@neu.edu or 617-373-8318.