UPR Caribe Digital is a pioneering project led by the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPR-RP), focused on training community groups in Digital Humanities following the postcustodial model (Becerra-Licha 2017; Olliff & Dill 2021), in which the concept of “archive” is deeply rooted in memory as heritage. This model preserves data in the form of digital artifacts, allowing creators to retain control of their records while archivists provide support in their management and administration (Memory 2019; Matusiak & Flynn 2025). Over the past three years (2023–2025), under this initiative, 15 Puerto Rican community groups have developed digital projects conceived as living archives to preserve and enrich their historical and cultural collections, serving simultaneously as spaces for remembering and the production of situated knowledge. The projects—focused on energy sovereignty, Afro-descendance, the eradication of violence against women, resistance to military practices on civilian land, and the rights of LGBTQ+ elders, among others—highlight the claims and needs of communities historically marginalized by the government in this Caribbean archipelago.

Building on this experience, a multidisciplinary team of specialists in Humanities, Anthropology, Journalism, Information Science, Media Studies, and Cultural Management designed, throughout 2025, a Digital Humanities Hub (DH Hub), the first in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands. The creation process was extensive and included, on one hand, the research and analysis of 15 Digital Humanities centers across approximately 10 countries to identify reference models, infrastructure examples, and best practices to guide the implementation of the DH Hub. It also involved consultations with various stakeholders using qualitative and quantitative methods: 16 community groups and nonprofit organizations, around 100 librarians and archivists affiliated with UPR-RP, 47 graduate and 34 undergraduate students from different faculties, and 13 professors from the Río Piedras Campus, where the Hub will be located.

The interviews, focus groups, surveys, and online questionnaires conducted with these stakeholders, through community engagement practices and horizontal collaboration, revealed their level of knowledge in Digital Humanities, their areas of interest in research and creative project development, the resources they manage, as well as the needs and limitations they face—needs that could be addressed through the DH Hub.

In the case of community groups, it has been observed that most are in the process of or beginning audiovisual projects, digitization and cataloging of collections, organization of physical archives, design, management, and creation of digital resources, as well as documenting projects through interactive tools that integrate interviews, geography, and narrative. However, they face challenges related to the use of digital technologies, including a lack of training and professional development for their teams, unfamiliarity with useful organizational tools, difficulties in integrating digital technologies, and technological obsolescence—that is, they have tools or systems that are outdated.

The design of the DH Hub addresses these identified needs. Its operational model will take into account training, support in the digitization of archives, and improvements in digital accessibility, recognizing that these are priority areas which, if addressed, can substantially strengthen the operational capacity of these groups and enhance their impact on the communities they serve.

The Hub aims to achieve these objectives through three operational pillars: a Digital Humanities Summer Institute, an annual Residency, and a Collaborative Workspace (Figure 1). The Summer Institute seeks to provide personalized support to participants in developing Digital Humanities project proposals, which they will carry out during a Residency at the DH Hub. The Residency will be the program where selected Summer Institute proposals receive mentorship and support over an academic year, following the principles of the postcolonial and postcustodial model implemented in UPR Caribe Digital. The Collaborative Workspace will function as an incubator for creativity and innovation in Digital Humanities. Through the incorporation of minimal computing tools and digital literacy workshops, this physical space will serve as a training center, project laboratory, and meeting point for idea exchange and collaborations fostered within the DH Hub community.

Figure 1. Community engagement in the three operational axes of the DH Hub

In these three initiatives, training in the use of new platforms is designed so that community groups historically marginalized by official institutions have the capacity to explore emerging technologies. With the use of open-source tools, collectives will be able to incorporate the postcustodial model that makes them owners and administrators of their own collections beyond the university, prioritizing community management and long-term sustainability. These projects will be listed in digital repositories and will address some of the most pressing concerns of our time. Consequently, the calls for the three cohorts will address central issues for environmental organization in Puerto Rico: the right to land and food, climate change, and the ecological impact of digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.

This DH Hub project aligns with Subtheme 3 of DH2026 (Remembering | Digital Humanities and the Memory of the World) by considering community archives as living sources for research and creation, questioning who remembers, what is preserved, and for whom. This initiative seeks to become a meeting point for collaboration and free training for the entire university community and groups of Puerto Rican society interested in Digital Humanities. UPR Caribe Digital has developed allies in the third sector during these years, so the activities and training workshops will be announced through its various digital dissemination channels (social networks and mailing list, among others) to ensure the participation of a broad and diverse audience. Likewise, the collaborative space will be located in the Faculty of General Studies of the public university, facilitating its physical accessibility for the interested community. The Hub aspires to foster engagement by facilitating connections and horizontal collaboration among students, faculty, researchers, librarians, archivists, journalists, and community organizations, promoting equitable access to digital tools, methodologies, and resources.