Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA) records, 1960s-2005

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Summary

Creator:
Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean and Human Rights Archive (Duke University)
Abstract:
Clippings, reports, publications, oral histories, and photographs from Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Dominican Repulic, Grenada, and other Caribbean countries, collected and produced by the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA). Materials document human rights, government and democracy, and labor conditions in the Caribbean, and largely date from the 1970s and 1980s.
Extent:
6 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.11660

Background

Scope and content:

The EPICA collection consists of approximately 7.5 linear feet of material contained in six cartons. Countries represented include Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, Grenada, and the French Antilles. Within each box, documents are in folders labeled by country and year(s), about 10-15 folders per country.

The documents were collected in the Caribbean by staff of EPICA (Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean, a small DC-based group originally funded mainly by the Latin American and Caribbean Office of the National Council of Churches, but no longer operating). The founder and first director of EPICA was the Rev. Philip E. Wheaton.

The collection consists of EPICA's research and subject files about various Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and the French Antilles (French West Indies). Documents were collected in the Caribbean by staff of EPICA. Materials include newsletters, leaflets, position statements, advocacy materials, analytical papers, and the like, from grassroots groups, political parties, church bodies, academics, etc., as well as oral histories on audiocassette, with transcriptions, used in the creation of the book Caribbean Connections: Moving North (2005). Most of the material is from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Organizations represented include Sistren, the Catholic Church, the Inter-American Development Bank, Centro Dominicano de Estudios de la Educacion (CEDEE), Movimiento Campesino Independiente (MCI), and others. The collection also includes folders of notes, arranged geographically, from untaped interviews with grassroots activists, political party figures, academics, journalists, trade unionists, etc.

For each country there is also a folder of notes from interviews with grassroots activists, political party figures, academics, journalists, trade unionists, etc. These are not transcripts, as the interviews were not taped, but handwritten notes on what the person said.

In addition, there are printed materials, mostly publications by EPICA.

Biographical / historical:

EPICA was originally founded in 1968, as the Ecumenical Program for Inter-American Communication and Action. It aimed to provide resources for political and economic analysis, spiritual reflection and social action, projecting the voices, perspectives and movements of the global South; strengthen ties of solidarity with grassroots organizations and movements in the global South; raise critical awareness among people of the United States about the impact of corporate globalization, neo-liberalism and militarism in the Americas and the struggle of the poor to create just and peaceful alternatives; mobilize constituencies to challenge USA, corporate and global institutions that cause economic injustice, violence and exclusion in the Americas.

Acquisition information:
The Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean Records were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2018 and 2020.
Processing information:

Processed by Meghan Lyon, Aug. 2018.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2018-0033

Arrangement:

Arranged into series: Country Files, arranged geographically by country; Publications, listed by title.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean Records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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