Documenting the Salvadoran Diaspora in Canada

Through a long-term collaboration with the Salvadoran Canadian Association (ASALCA), the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project has been documenting the experiences, histories, and contributions of the Salvadoran diaspora in Canada. Through interviews, oral history recordings, and community conversations, the project explores migration histories, the political and social drivers of displacement, cultural identity, and the ways Salvadoran communities in Canada have preserved historical memory while building new forms of community life. These interviews highlight personal narratives of migration, solidarity activism, cultural heritage, and the ongoing connections between diaspora communities and El Salvador.

This research contributes to multiple community-based outputs developed in collaboration with Salvadoran community organizations. One major outcome will be a collaborative community book that documents the history, resilience, and cultural contributions of Salvadorans in Canada through testimonies, archival materials, photographs, and historical reflections. The research also contributes to the development of a future digital museum dedicated to Salvadoran migration and heritage in Canada, which will bring together oral histories, photographs, archival documents, and multimedia materials to create an accessible public resource preserving the collective memory of the Salvadoran diaspora.

The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.