PROPOSAL TYPE
Roundtable
SEEKING
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking Specific Expertise
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
- Oral History
- Place
- Public Engagement
- Social Justice
ABSTRACT
Las Barracas, a WWII-era barracks turned Latinx farmworker housing in Boulder County, Colorado, highlights the urgent need to preserve BIPOC heritage sites. Once owned by the Tanaka family, Japanese American farmers themselves surveilled and some incarcerated during WWII, the site embodies entangled histories of oppression and exploitation. This session invites public historians to share strategies for interpreting similarly complex sites where marginalized communities intersect under white supremacy. Together, we will explore revolutionary approaches to preservation and interpretation that center community voices and embrace nuance.
DESCRIPTION
This proposed roundtable builds on the revolutionary theme by focusing on how public historians can reimagine preservation and interpretation through BIPOC and community-centered heritage sites.
I will present on Las Barracas, a WWII-era structure in Longmont, Colorado, originally built as military housing and later repurposed for Mexican and Latinx agricultural workers. The site was owned by the Tanaka family, one of Boulder County’s largest Japanese American farming families, who themselves were surveilled during WWII and had relatives incarcerated at Amache. Las Barracas represents the layered experiences of communities of color navigating survival, resilience, and complicity under white supremacy.
The project to preserve and interpret Las Barracas raises questions central to revolutionary public history:
-How do we expand definitions of “significance” to include overlooked or modest structures tied to marginalized communities?
-How can descendant and local communities be equal partners, rather than passive audiences, in shaping interpretation, particularly when histories intersect across communities?
-What frameworks allow us to balance preservation goals with living community needs, especially when those needs differ across groups?
-How do we interpret histories where marginalized communities both resisted oppression and held power in ways that perpetuated exploitation?
This session will not be limited to one site. I am actively seeking collaborators who are working on comparable projects with BIPOC, immigrant, Indigenous, or working-class heritage sites who are grappling with:
-Identifying under-documented places that matter to marginalized communities.
-Engaging descendant communities as partners in preservation and interpretation.
-Navigating contradictions where histories of oppression and complicity coexist.
-Challenging preservation systems to recognize significance beyond Eurocentric criteria.
By convening practitioners with diverse perspectives, this session will model how public historians can embrace complexity as a revolutionary act. We especially invite colleagues with expertise in oral history, grassroots engagement, decolonial interpretive practices, or advocacy for equity in preservation.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly:
Elisabeth Rios-Brooks, Boulder County Parks & Open Space, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be sent by November 15, 2025. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.