Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

Interview With Colonel Jaime Guzman Interview With Colonel Jaime Guzman
Date: 3/1/1990Call Number: LA 108AFormat: Cass ACollection: El Salvador
Colonel Jaime Guzman of the El Salvadorian army, in an interview held at the School of the Americas, explains the women’s involvement in the military as social workers and their impact on society, the fight against the guerillas, the effect of Nicaragua’s change of government on El Salvador, and why Central Americans train at the School of the Americas.
El Salvador Focus El Salvador Focus
Date: 4/13/1990Call Number: LA 088BFormat: Cass BCollection: El Salvador
El Salvador, the internal dynamics of peace negotiations are discussed, such as UN mediation, the outside support for the FMLN, Washington’s position on providing aid and women’s issues in El Salvador.
Excerpts from Bishop Romero and Dolores Huerta speeches Excerpts from Bishop Romero and Dolores Huerta speeches
Call Number: CD 415Format: CDCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Excerpt from speech by Bishop Romero. Excerpt from speech by Dolores Huerta.
School of Assassins: Narrated by Susan Sarandon School of Assassins: Narrated by Susan Sarandon
Call Number: V 747Format: VHSProducers: Maryknoll World ProductionsCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Using rarely seen footage, this documentary shows how officers who studied at the school are responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of people, including Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. In addition to shedding light on the secret world of the School of the Americas, the program also follows efforts of church people, activists and members of Congress to close it down.