Our Stories Are St. Louis History
There is something powerful about hearing someone tell their story in their own words.
Not summarized for them. Not interpreted through someone else’s perspective. Not reduced to a statistic or a moment in history.
Last year, the Missouri History Museum created space for exactly that.
Community members Jacquie Duty and Jairo Javier Morales shared stories of courage, identity, family, and their connections to St. Louis in a conversation moderated by Adam Flores. As I recently revisited the video from that gathering, I was reminded of something that feels especially important:
Latino history is St. Louis history.
The connections between St. Louis and Latin America are not new. They are woven through generations of families, businesses, neighborhoods, culture, migration, entrepreneurship, food, music, activism, and community building.
Yet so many of those stories still live primarily around our kitchen tables, inside family photo albums, tucked into boxes in closets, or carried quietly from one generation to the next.
That is why storytelling matters.
More Than a Storytelling Event
When we gather again on October 8, we will continue creating space for members of our community to share their experiences.
But this work is about more than what happens on a stage.
It is also about asking ourselves what gets preserved.
History is built from the things people leave behind: photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, business records, flyers, clothing, signs, recipes, documents, objects from important moments and even everyday items that help future generations understand how people lived.
For many Latino and immigrant families, those pieces of history may still be sitting in our homes.
And we may not recognize them as historical artifacts.
A photograph from the opening day of a family business matters.
A flyer from an early community celebration matters.
Letters between family members living in different countries matter.
Materials from advocacy efforts, cultural organizations, neighborhood gatherings and immigrant-owned businesses matter.
These items help tell a fuller story of who built St. Louis and who continues to shape it.
Who Gets Remembered?
At Auténtico Podcast, we have always believed in the importance of owning our stories.
There is power in telling our stories, but there is also power in making sure they are not lost.
When communities are absent from archives and historical collections, future generations can be left with an incomplete picture of the places they call home.
That is why I hope this year’s gathering encourages all of us to think differently about the things we have saved.
What is sitting in your home that tells part of the Latino experience in St. Louis?
What did your parents or grandparents keep?
What represents your own journey here?
What tells the story of a business, organization, neighborhood, celebration, challenge or community movement?
Could something you have help the Missouri Historical Society preserve a more complete history of our region?
Save the Date: October 8
This October, we will gather again to listen, learn and continue documenting the stories that make St. Louis what it is.
Before then, I invite you to watch last year’s conversation featuring Jacquie Duty and Jairo Javier Morales, moderated by Adam Flores.
Listen not only to their stories, but also to what they might awaken in your own.
Then look around your home. Open the photo albums. Look through the boxes we all seem to have tucked away somewhere.
Ask your family questions.
Because the history of St. Louis does not belong only in textbooks or museum exhibits.
It lives in our families.
It lives in our neighborhoods.
It lives in our stories.
And those stories deserve to be remembered.
Hispanic Heritage Month Storytelling: Thursday, October 8, 2026, featuring local community stories, music, cultural resource tables, and food and drinks.