When my colleague Jerry first learned about Carlsbad Caverns National Park, he came across a tale about the caverns’ discovery. A 16-year-old named James White and a “Mexican friend” climbed down a hole in the ground in 1898, he learned, and the two began mapping one of the largest cave systems in the world. It’s an amazing story. But when Jerry first heard it, he questioned why someone who contributed so much to the modern understanding of this amazing place remains an unnamed “Mexican friend.”
Why didn’t historians record and preserve the friend’s identity? Why didn’t someone deem that information important? Who gets to tell the story of Latinos in the U.S.? What other stories are we missing?
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