Welcome to the Institute of Oral History. The Institute was established in 1972 for the
purpose of "preserving the history of the region adjacent to the Rio Grande both in the United States and in Mexico." Since that time, the Institute has built one of the largest border-related oral history collections in the United States. While an emphasis has been on the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region, the collection also contains interviews dealing with the history of communities all along the U.S.-Mexico border. Current holdings include over 1000 interviews, representing over 1600 hours of tape recorded interviews and more than 20,000 pages of transcript.
These materials cover a wide range of subjects, spanning social, economic, political, cultural and artistic concerns.
Copies of the oral history tapes, transcripts, indexes, and summaries are housed in the
Special Collections Department, University Library, UTEP. The public is invited to read transcripts and listen to tape recordings there.
Kristine Navarro McElhaney
Director
