The Leila Míccolis Brazilian Alternative Press Collection consists primarily of political and countercultural pamphlets and periodicals, concrete poetry, neo-concrete poetry and other vanguard/avant-garde artistic experimentation, fanzines, film reviews, university publications, theater, and musical pieces.
As opposed to the commercial and widely-circulated press of "official" Brazilian governmental venues, the publications contained in the collection especially treat stigmatized or marginalized groups, such as Afro-Brazilians, women, sexual minorities. It accomplishes this goal by utilizing various mediums including literary pieces, editorial cartoons, political comics, sociopolitical critiques of "Brazilianness," humor, and the promotion of ecological and environmental awareness. The collection also contains a large variety of materials from the 1970s Marginália movement, a term used to describe a series of underground publications which circulated during the military dictatorship.
The collection was painstakingly accumulated over the course of forty-five years by Míccolis who decided to place the archive in a North American university so as to assure the preservation of the collection, as well as to prevent its censorship.
Ofelia González was an actress performing in theatre, mostly in Havana's Palacio de Bellas Artes and New York's Repertorio Español. She also acted in film and TV. The materials document her acting career especially her portrayals of Bernarda in The House of Bernarda Alba in New York, Nurse in Romeo and Juliet in New York, Serafina in The Rose Tattoo in Havana, Medea in Medea in New York, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie in New York, Celestina in Celestina in New York, Clara in The Visit in New York and Mother in The Guns of Mother Carrar in Havana.
The bulk of the material consists of photographs from performances and newspaper clippings with reviews of performances. The papers also include correspondence and memorabilia.
