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

Felix Matta speaking at Puerto Rican Independence Event Felix Matta speaking at Puerto Rican Independence Event
Date: 11/17/1989Call Number: LA 028AFormat: Cass ACollection: Puerto Rico
Felix Matta speaking at a Solidarity event for Puerto Rican independence in San Francisco. Gloria Alunzo and Leslie Mullin give introductions. Slightly off-mic
Speech by Julio Rosado about Puerto Rican Independence Movement Speech by Julio Rosado about Puerto Rican Independence Movement
Date: 2/25/1989Call Number: LA 030Format: Cass A & BCollection: Puerto Rico
Former political prisoner and grand jury resistor Julio Rosado speaks on the status issue in Puerto Rico and calls for the decolonization and self-determination of the island. Set against the changing agenda of the government of the United States towards Puerto Rico, Rosado stresses the need for a plebiscite as opposed to a referendum and explains the difference between the two processes. The incentive for the US's proposal of a referendum, he argues, is to make Puerto Rico into a market for the assembly and distribution of American goods. Rosado traces the history of US/ Puerto Rico relations from the late nineteenth century to the present and discusses the different positions of the three main electoral parties in the island: The New Progressive Party (pro-statehood), The Independence Party, and the Popular Democratic Party. The Independence Movement of which Rosado has been part for several years asks for the removal of all the instrumentations of power (such as the armed forces and the federal courts of the United States) that have served to exercise colonial control in Puerto Rico.
Speech by Julio Rosado about Puerto Rican Independence Movement (2 of 2) Speech by Julio Rosado about Puerto Rican Independence Movement (2 of 2)
Date: 2/25/1989Call Number: LA 031AFormat: Cass ACollection: Puerto Rico
Continuation of speech by Julio Rosado on Puerto Rican Independence (LA 030). Question/ answer section. 10 min.