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The Immigrant Archive Project is an independent national initiative dedicated to preserving the life stories of America's immigrant population by recording, in their own words, the intimate stories of immigrants of all nations. The content of these interviews will be shared with listeners via radio, television, internet, and traveling educational as well as art installations.

The project hopes to preserve the struggles, dreams and accomplishments of America's vast and diverse immigrant population so that future generations may learn from their collective experience.

The Immigrant Archive Project has been established by Latino Broadcasting Company (LBC), a minority owned, nationally syndicated radio network.

Sofía Ímber was born in Romania on May 8th, 1924 but moved as a child with her parents to Venezuela, where she became an influential journalist and intellectual. In addition to her work as a communicator on print media and on TV, she founded the Contemporary Art Museum of Caracas (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas)(1).

Sofía got married to the writer Guillermo Meneses, and they had four children: Sara, Adrianna, Daniela, and Pedro. She accompanied Guillermo on diplomatic missions to Europe, and during the time they spent in France and Belgium, Sofía connected with a group of Venezuelan artists and intellectuals, “the dissidents”. Coming back to Venezuela years later, she got married to her second husband, Carlos Rangel, who was also a journalist.

Sofía’s influence flourished out of her writings. In fact, her essays reached not only Venezuela but were also published in Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico. She had a permanent column in the newspaper El Nacional, named Yo, la Intransigente, which was also the name of the anthology of her essays, published in 1971. Furthermore, Sofía directed the section dedicated to culture in the paper El Universal, but her most popular work was the TV show Buenos Días, which she produced and moderated with her husband, Carlos Rangel, until the year he passed away. Buenos Días featured a number of current internationally renowned intellectuals, including José Antonio Abreu, Vladimir Bukowsky, Gilberto Freyre, J.K. Galbraith, George McGovern, and Lech Walesa. The program provided a window into current social, economic, and political discussions through TV.

Her passion for communication extended to her love for making knowledge accessible, including the visual arts. She took advantage of the funds provided by the government during the oil boom in the 70s and acquired a number of art pieces and supported temporary art exhibits. Those efforts would then culminate in the creation of the MACC. Following her mission of providing bridges between the people and cultural expression, she kept entrance to the MACC free of cost. The museum also went mobile when its bus drove around the city taking books and videos to neighboring regions(2). Despite her social contributions, in 2006, Sofía and other Venezuelan intellectuals signed an open letter condemning Hugo Chávez, then president, for antisemitic declarations during Christmas 2005. Subsequently, she was removed as the director of the museum she herself had created(3).

Yet her career was marked by numerous prizes in and outside Venezuela. For example, she was the first woman ever nominated for the National Journalism Prize of Venezuela and subsequently won other awards including the Order of the Liberator General San Martín and the Picasso Medal from Unesco, the Argentinian “Orden de Mayo”, and the Brazilian “Ordem do Rio Branco”.

She passed away in 2017 at the age of 92.

–Vanessa Rodrigues Barcelos da Silva
Graduate Student Assistant for Manuscripts and Archives Management, Summer 2024

(1) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sof%C3%ADa_%C3%8Dmber
(2) Tartakoff, Laura Y. "The Presence of Sofía Imber." Society, vol. 47, no. 1, 2010/01//, pp. 48-53. ProQuest, http://access.library.miami.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/presence-sofía-imber/docview/2176791774/se-2, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-009-9272-z.
(3) Blackmore, Lisa. "Cultural Revolution." New Statesman, vol. 137, no. 4896, 2008 May 12, 2008/05/12/, pp. 42-43. ProQuest, http://access.library.miami.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/cultural-revolution/docview/224334915/se-2.

Dr. Clarence P. Idyll joined the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Miami in 1948 as research associate in fisheries.  He conducted studies principally for the Florida State Board of Conservationa and for several foreign govvernment.