Though the data collected and the Cemetery is opened to the public, our class remains the stakeholders of this project for the time being. This project is still in the beginning stages, we still are contemplating on how we can spread the word of this massive project to the community.
Being on the Border, The Valley is home to a vast arrangement of people. I have seen individuals from many corners of the world here. Individuals residing here may not have a connection the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery. Making our target community for the this project modest. The communities that I believe who would want to be included in this project are
1) Individuals that are curious about the history of the Valley.
2) Individuals who have family members resting in the cemetery.
3) Individuals who could use our data for future research.
Within those individuals I expect, Valley natives as well as others from around the world and the nation. Making the cemetery and its individuals, members of many different communities.
With that being said, as a class we each are part of these communities. We may all might not be part of each and everyone of these communities. Speaking for myself, I am part two of these communities. I am a Valley native, curious how the Valley residents of the past lived, to my knowledge I do not have family members but would like to take the opportunity to conduct research of the data collected.
It is possible to conduct investigations without culture affiliation within this project. But I believe, by involving individuals with cultural affiliation we would gain a substantial amount of insight to the members of the cemetery. Through the weeks of data collection, we have encountered many graves with little or no information. By allowing the community that does hold a cultural affiliation with the cemetery, we may gather the missing information for those graves. Furthermore they could provide first hand accounts of the individuals found in the cemetery.
It is hard to estimate what communities would be neglected or forgot about if we only chose to work with certain communities. If we were to choose to work with family members of the individuals of the cemetery, we would possibly close all the doors for the community who desires our data for research. Lacking of knowledge of how family members feel about our class conducting our fieldwork, it is hard to presume how those family members would feel about the class releasing the data to individuals who would use it for research. On the other hand, if we were to chose to work with solely individuals who would take part only for the benefit of data to used towards research. We could possibly neglect family members of the individuals of the cemetery.
By involving multiple communities a power dynamic may arise between the communities. By adding each community the goals of the project may shift, and finding the balance between the communities may be a tedious task.
