Wells / Hajjar Central America Solidarity Collection, 1958-1992 and undated

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Summary

Creators:
Nicaragua Task Force
Abstract:
The Wells / Hajjar Central America Solidarity Collection represents the grass-roots organizational, operational and public relations efforts of a network of political action groups founded in the late 1970s by former California State University, Fullerton professor of history and art Carol Wells and her husband, Theodore [Ted] Hajjar. Beginning in 1979 and continuing throughout the eighties and early nineties, Wells and Hajjar founded and promoted political action groups such as the Nicaragua Task Force, Solidarity Feminist Network, the US Committee in Solidary with the People of El Salvador, the New American Movement, and many others. The network of organizations included in this collection campaigned for non-interventionist policies including the US withdrawal of troops in Central America and an end to US financial and military aid in the region. The group worked against US partisan policies in Central America between 1979 and 1992, though the bulk of the organizational records herein cover the period of 1979-1989. The collection is comprised of three series’ which contain administrative and operational records for organizations and movements, periodicals and pamphlets for not only these organizations but others which they worked and/or co-existed with, and audiovisual cassette tapes featuring news, interviews and documentaries taken from both US and Nicaraguan television broadcasts primarily between 1981-1990.
Extent:
5 Linear Feet (4 records boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 shoe boxes)
Language:
Languages represented in the collection: English and Spanish .

Background

Scope and content:

The Wells / Hajjar Central America Solidarity collection includes the organizational, administrative and working papers for several grass-roots political groups founded by Carol Wells and Ted Hajjar in the late seventies and early eighties. The groups founded and operated by both Wells and Hajjar originally sought to oppose United States (US) interventionist policies in Nicaragua, which remained its primary focus, but was later expanded into other Central American countries.

The two primary organizations comprised herein are the Nicaraguan Task Force (NTF), along with several smaller subsidiaries, and Solidarity: A Social Feminist Network (SOLIDARITY). The NTF is the predominate organization in the collection and the source of the majority of records contained in Series 1. These include but are not limited to bank statements, purchasing and inventory invoices and receipts, telephone and utility statements, a book of folkloric guitar sheet music, and several handwritten meeting notes and planning agendas by Carol Wells. There are also several governmental agency reports, news clippings, magazine articles and copies of speeches—not produced by NTF—but concerning the socio-political and economic conditions and regimes in Central America during the era, as well as information on the US/Reagan Administration’s policies of intervention in this region.

The NTF’s sub-committees represented here include the US Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Frente Democractico Revolucionario (FDR), the Frente Marti para la Liberacion National (FMLN), and the New American Movement (NAM). The records herein representing these sub-committees include meeting agendas, minutes, resolutions, steering and planning goals, expansion projects, fundraising, and countless newsletters. The newsletters are both the sub-committees’ own newsletters as well as ones received from a myriad of organizations serving similar Central American grass-roots movements. SOLIDARITY is a sister organization to NTF but with its central foci on the women’s socialists movements of these same time periods. SOLIDARITY was never specifically designated to a particular Central American country and strove to increase awareness and bi-partisanship network with other socialist movements. The SOLIDARITY records contained in this collection include organizational and structural planning, meeting agendas and minutes, brochures, fundraising flyers, and a large quantity of SOLIDARITY’s own newsletters, resolutions and annual conference reports.

The collection also includes extensive propaganda materials in both print and media formats. These include pamphlets and periodicals, complete newspapers and indiviudal newspaper clippings, flyers and brochures as well as Video Home System [VHS] and Betamax [Beta] cassette tapes featuring documentaries, news broadcasts, interviews from both U.S. and Nicaraguan television broadcasts and in both English and Spanish.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Carol A. Wells and Theodore Hajjar, 2016.
Arrangement:

The collection has been organized into the following series:

Series 1: Organizations and Movements, 1979-1989 and undated, 2 boxes

Series 2: Pamphlets and Periodicals, 1977-1992 and undated, 3 boxes

Series 3: Audiovisual Materials, 1958 and 1981-1990, 3 boxes

Physical location:
Please consult repository.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
800 N. Dartmouth Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711, US
Contact:
(909) 607‑3977
specialcollections@claremont.edu
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