A Place to Get Away: Researching the Archival Whispers of Latinx Environmental History

This essay argues that “archival whispers” offer researchers critical insights into the significance of urban hybrid landscapes for Latinx communities and can enrich the historiography of Latinx environmentalisms. The author defines an archival whisper as a piece of information that reveals stories and histories that were not fully silenced but were also not fully preserved. Because Latinx environmental activism and outdoor recreation fall outside of the traditional definitions of mainstream environmentalism or outdoor leisure, scholars must rely on collecting whispers to reconstruct how and why Latinx communities protected and valued access to outdoor recreation and cultivated an environmental ethic.