About the research

This project, in every way a labor of love, was researched by Destry Maria Sibley with the generous support of a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship.

Destry traveled throughout Mexico visiting key points of relevance to the history of the Niños de Morelia: grave sites, memorials, statues, murals, schools, and boarding homes in cities including Veracruz, Morelia, Puebla, Guadalajara, and locations throughout Mexico City.

She conducted extensive archival research at the National General Archive of Mexico, the College of Mexico, the Ateneo Español, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the newspaper archives of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Michoacán University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo -- as well as informal archives across Mexico.

Most importantly, Destry met and recorded the oral histories of the surviving Niños de Morelia, now between the ages of 85 and 95. She also interviewed their family members and descendants, as well as historians, experts, and other Spanish refugees.

Destry's radio piece builds from their stories as told to her, as well as archival interviews recorded in the 1970s, early 2000s, and 2010s.

Articles from the project

• ‘It Wasn’t a Very Happy Childhood’: Rediscovering the Spanish Children of Morelia

• A Parable of Refugees, or a History That Is True

• Friendship, Luck, and Play: A Story of Refugee Resilience

• A Lesson from Mexico: How to Forgive Historical Wrongs to Do Right in the Present

• This is not the first time that immigrant children have been at risk. Here is the story of a moment when public intervention helped.

• The Art of the Wobble: A Year of Lessons from the Oldest of the Old

Images on this site used courtesy of The General National Archive of Mexico, the Ateneo Español, the Filmoteca of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Fondo Foto Car, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa, the German Federal Archives, the National Digital Archives of Poland, and Daroca family archives.