Bruzos Moro, AlbertoDavis, NathanNelson, Oriana S.2025-08-052025-08-052025-04-28https://theses-dissertations.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp01vm40xw024For my senior thesis in the Spanish and Portuguese (SPO) department at Princeton University, I’m working with Alberto Bruzos Moro to use oral history methodology as a means of sharing unknown stories about marginalized people. It will not provide any generalizable claims about any of the communities involved, namely Afro-Colombians from the Caribbean coast and Afro-Puerto Ricans. The stories collected from the interviews will be used in the creative portion of my thesis, which will have two parts as I pursue the creative arts track of the Spanish concentration. The first section will discuss the purpose of oral history along with historical and social context regarding the African diaspora in the West Indies. The second portion will be an original, bilingual play that demonstrates the differences and shared experiences throughout this diaspora. I was inspired by my previous project which investigated Benkos Bioho: an important figure in San Basilio de Palenque (located in Colombia). While locals believe Bioho founded their beloved land and fought for their freedom as the first free town in the Americas, scholars claim that historical evidence negates this story and have downplayed his significance to the community. To argue that the story of Benkos Bioho has academic and cultural value, I synthesized journals related to critical fabulation, oral traditions, and cultural memories to support the cherished narrative. This work is important because the majority of enslaved people’s stories are only known through the voices of colonizers and enslavers. Therefore, their memories and stories often died when they did. Although the circumstances aren’t the same today, black people still experience racial discrimination that silences them. Additionally, I’m motivated by my family history. My parents immigrated to the United States from Trinidad and brought many stories of their homeland with them. However, they don’t know a lot about their ancestors since they were enslaved as well. Even though I recognize that I’m not latina, Trinidad was also colonized by Spain and participated in the Atlantic slave trade, so I feel united in the struggle of silenced voices through disaporic connections. I chose oral history for this project because it will allow marginalized people to choose which stories they want to share with others in their own voice. The audience will be able to hear their intonation, pauses, dialects, volume, etc. which reveals a deeper layer than just the words. Other reasons that support the value of oral history will be described in methodological portion of the thesis, which is divided into three subsections. The first will be used to discuss the motivation for the thesis as detailed above. Then the contextual section will follow. This is where the history of slavery and race dynamics in Puerto Rico will be explained. The last subsection which will explore how scholars combine oral history and theater to present powerful works and will discuss their corresponding processes. The interviewee will have a very important role in this project. I ask that they fully review the consent form to ensure they feel comfortable doing everything they are asked to do.enPrinceton University Senior Theses