Browse Items (35 total)

This interview was conducted in Spanish by Johana Bautista-Ayala with her mother, Elsi Bautista. Throughout the interview, Elsi tells us her family’s perspective and history on their migration experience from Honduras to the United States due to environmental factors, primarily the disaster caused by Hurricane Mitch. Elsi recounts much of this…

Yazmin García Rico is Director of Latinx and Hispanic Policy and Strategy at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS). She recounts her activism during her tenure in college, helping Latinx youth navigate college enrollment and her outreach efforts to connect farmworker communities with healthcare and other resources.…

At a young age, Norma Martí migrated with her family from Puerto Rico to a diverse, working-class neighborhood in northwestern Indiana, part of metropolitan Chicago. She shares her formative experiences there, what enabled her to attain a college education, and her encounters with discrimination in her first role as an educator. She subsequently…

Luis Olivieri-Robert is Community Relations Analyst for the City of Raleigh, a role through which he has served Latine and migrant communities since moving to North Carolina from his native Puerto Rico in 2002. He recounts his early life, educational experiences, and professional development in Puerto Rico and the continental U.S., having taught at…

Born in Guatemala but raised in Siler City, North Carolina, Hannia Benítez currently serves her local communities as Deputy Director at El Vínculo Hispano/The Hispanic Liaison’s office in Lee County and as Chair of Siler City’s Immigrant Community Advisory Committee (ICAC). Hannia shares her foundational experiences, including the need to be her…

Adolfo Briceño is Program Manager of Human Relations and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the City of Winston-Salem. He shares his early life experience in Mérida, Mexico, where he was born and educated. Having studied economics, he grew disillusioned with the field while working as a mortgage analyst at a Cancún bank and switched careers to…

Katelyn Robalino is a Community Connections Coordinator for the Affordable Housing and Community Connections Department at the Town of Chapel Hill. She was first interviewed by New Roots in 2013 when she was a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill; this 2023 interview is an update on her journey, the various professional roles she has held, and lessons…

This oral history interview was conducted by Sophie Therber with interviewee Marlene Castillo via Zoom on August 2, 2021. The main focus is Marlene’s involvement with the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina (AMEXCAN) and her experience helping Latino immigrants mitigate the COVID pandemic and hurricanes. Marlene describes her experiencing…

This oral history interview was conducted by Sophie Therber with interviewee Lariza Garzón via Zoom on August 3, 202. The main focus is Lariza’s involvement with the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry helping farmworkers mitigate the COVID pandemic, extreme weather, and other challenges such as mental health and the collective trauma that farmworkers…

Gianella Romero is the current Executive Director at El Centro Latino in Hickory, North Carolina. She begins the interview by talking about herself, her family roots, and her journey from being in the healthcare field to transitioning into her current role as Executive Director in the non-profit sector. Gianella also discusses her Mexican-American…