In past years, Voces y Caras held a physical exhibit during Hispanic Heritage Month at UNF\u2019s Thomas G. Carpenter Library for 11 years, then moved to the UNF Gallery of Art in 2023. This year\u2019s exhibit opened during Downtown Jacksonville\u2019s First Wednesday Art Walk, drawing community members, students, and alumni alike.<\/p>\n
For this year\u2019s featured artist, MOCA and Voces y Caras partnered with Cuban American painter Ricder Ricardo<\/a>. Two of his oil-and-laser-engraving pieces, \u201cThe Lake\u201d and \u201cThe Beach,\u201d hang alongside the project\u2019s interview archive, displaying the faces of interviewees who have taken part over the past 14 years.<\/p>\n Voces y Caras<\/p>\n Voces y Caras, Spanish for \u201cVoices and Faces,\u201d is a passion project of L\u00f3pez Baquero. The project is a digital oral history initiative<\/a> at UNF that engages students of Latinx heritage in developing questions, recording interviews with members of the growing Latinx community and documenting their experiences as immigrants.<\/p>\n According to the site<\/a>, the project serves four purposes:<\/p>\n Recognizing immigrants as essential to the community L\u00f3pez Baquero used the podcast format in a previous job before bringing it to UNF, at a time, she said, when podcasts were becoming a more prominent medium.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to highlight the people, the voices and faces of the community,\u201d said L\u00f3pez Baquero.\u00a0<\/p>\n L\u00f3pez Baquero calls her teaching style \u201chorizontal\u201d and \u201cvery collaborative.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe students had the freedom to learn, and I would be there for support,\u201d she said. Students picked their own podcast topics, and she guided them rather than directed them.<\/p>\n That freedom sent her students in varied directions: Yadhira Gonz\u00e1lez researched LGBTQ+ history in Latin America, Alma Cruz looked at Dominican culture and clothing, and Oscar Andrade traced K-pop\u2019s influence on Latin American dance.<\/p>\n To learn how to communicate their research naturally through a podcast, L\u00f3pez Baquero used performances and theater exercises to help students become more comfortable speaking and projecting their voices before recording.<\/p>\n While the in-class monologues and plays helped students learn to project, \u201cit also helped them feel more comfortable with one another,\u201d L\u00f3pez Baquero said. This interactive environment directly laid the groundwork for the students\u2019 foray into formal academic research and public presentations.<\/p>\n The Students Yadhira Gonz\u00e1lez, a public health major and heritage Spanish speaker, said that comfort came with a language lesson, too. <\/p>\n \u201cShe empowered us so much that we kind of uplifted each other,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said.<\/p>\n Practicing in the Spanish language lab with her classmates helped her sharpen both skills. \u201cI had to learn how to better communicate, since I am a heritage speaker, so I only learned how to speak from other people. I didn\u2019t read or write,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI mean you can see us talk in Spanglish now,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said, nodding at fellow student Cruz. \u201cIt\u2019s a skill that I have gained that I can put into use later on.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruz, a Spanish and psychology major, said the curriculum built in proper research and podcast production, with students learning how to interview, write, record and present their work to a professional standard.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to learn how to speak up, how to ask the right questions, how to write and talk at the same time,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s community focus also shaped how Cruz approached her research. Her work included interviews with people in the Dominican Republic, while the larger Voces y Caras project focuses on sharing stories from members of the Hispanic community.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a space where you can connect and notice, \u2018I\u2019m not the only person going through this,’\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n Undergraduate Research: UNF Latinx For Gonz\u00e1lez, working on the UNF Latinx project presented them with the opportunity to get involved in research.<\/p>\n \u201cI was trying to get into undergrad research, but it was kind of difficult trying to connect with other professors,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said. \u201cBut then once I got into a class, and I realized like research was embedded into the class, I was like, oh, this is so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n For Andrade, an international studies major at the university, the experience also changed how he approached communicating with others. Presenting his research required him to become more comfortable talking about his work and answering questions.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I can be as shy as I was, because you have to talk to people and connect with them,\u201d Andrade said.<\/p>\n The student researchers presented their work at the UNF Student Research Symposium in April and were named the Office of Undergraduate Research\u2019s Researchers of the Month in September.<\/p>\n Building on momentum from local presentations like the UNF Student Research Symposium, the team took their research to San Antonio this month, where they presented alongside L\u00f3pez Baquero and Dr. Andrea Gayt\u00e1n Cuesta at the Latin American and Caribbean Digital Humanities Symposium.<\/p>\n Their presentation, \u201cUNF LatinX: Podcasting Latinx Studies as a Pedagogical Tool,\u201d was supported by UNF\u2019s Digital Humanities Institute and a conference travel grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research.<\/p>\n With an audience of \u201cmostly graduate students, Ph.D. students and other professors,\u201d Cruz said many audience members seemed engaged with the UNF Latinx presentation, adding that \u201cthe professors liked to see this initiative that we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Cruz, toward the end of the podcast panel, \u201ceverybody was very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey really liked the fact that it\u2019s a space for Latinos to use their voice, and it\u2019s a space for students to create community in the classroom,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cIn this era where everything is very AI, having a space where students have to talk and collaborate and create this whole podcast is very meaningful. Seeing other graduate students really inspired all of us to continue our education. It was a very good experience for growth.\u201d<\/p>\n For Gonz\u00e1lez, the future of the project and podcast comes back to its ability to connect people and the surrounding community.<\/p>\n \u201cAs AI is growing, this is one of a few things that are still made by humans, and we\u2019re actually connecting with each other, and we\u2019re connected with the community,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said.<\/p>\n Exhibit at MOCA L\u00f3pez Baquero said she wanted the opening to make the project visible to the wider public, not just the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n A recording studio was set up inside the MOCA theater, open to anyone who wanted to sit down and record an interview with a loved one, adding directly to the project\u2019s growing archive.<\/p>\n Daisy Miranda, an international business and Spanish sophomore at the university and a member of the campus LASO chapter who attended the opening, said it was her first time at the Art Walk.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I arrived, it was very packed already, and seeing all the people who showed up for our presentation, and just as a whole, I think it was really meaningful,\u201d Miranda said.<\/p>\n She said the interviews collected for Voces y Caras stretched beyond the usual voices.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just adults or professors that you could interview,\u201d Miranda said. \u201cIt was people who come from different backgrounds, people in the LGBTQ+ community, people who have different careers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nConnecting heritage Spanish speakers to their cultural backgrounds\u00a0
\nLetting those students see themselves in the stories of others\u00a0
\nBuilding community both in and outside the classroom<\/p>\n
\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1952FB84-D1CD-4B86-BACB-6191D5683B2D_690BBFA5-35D1-4B0E-AB3D-AC1405D4E516-600x400.jpg\")
Left to Right: Jacqueline Gonzalez, Alma Cruz, Oscar Andrade and Yadhira Gonz\u00e1lez in the podcast lab (Courtesy of Alma Cruz).<\/p>\n
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The student researchers presented their work at the UNF Student Research Symposium in April and were named the Office of Undergraduate Research\u2019s Researchers of the Month in September (Courtesy of the UNF Office of Undergraduate Research).<\/p>\n
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Constanza Lopez and featured Cuban-American artist Ricder Ricardo pose in the MOCA exhibit (Courtesy of Clayton McCarl).<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_0703-e1789479807498-450x600.jpg\")
Spanish and Psychology student Alma Cruz speaking at the \u201cVoces Y Caras\u201d MOCA exhibit opening (Courtesy of Clayton McCarl).<\/p>\n