R-1006 -- Briceño, Adolfo.
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 become a journalist for El Diario de Yucatán. During his tenure there, Adolfo was approached with a job opportunity by Qué Pasa, a North Carolina-based newsletter serving the state’s Spanish-speaking community. After five years at Qué Pasa, he again switched careers to work in fair housing investigation and landlord-tenant mediation for the City of Winston-Salem. Though his duties have expanded, he still works in this role today. Adolfo shares several stories from his time as a journalist, including his coverage of deportation, and imparts his thoughts on discrimination in the US drawn from his experiences in local government.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29334">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2023-05-26
No restrictions. Open to research
R1006_Audio.mp3
R-1005 -- Thomas, Gayle.
This oral history interview was conducted by Sophie Therber with interviewee Gayle Thomas via Zoom on July 19, 2021. The main focus of this interview is Gayle’s involvement with the Farmworker Health Program and her experience helping farmworkers mitigate the COVID pandemic and extreme weather. Gayle has known from a young age that she wanted to “help poor people,” in her words, and found an opportunity to help Spanish-speaking populations in North Carolina. She shares her personal journey of getting involved in farmworker health, as well as the challenges of including farmworkers in responses to COVID and extreme weather. She emphasizes the importance of the outreach workers who bridge the gap between medical providers and members of the farmworker community. She discusses unique challenges that farmworkers in North Carolina face, such as lack of access to transportation, crowded working conditions, and agricultural exceptionalism promoting a culture of exploitation in their work.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29331">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2021-07-19
No restrictions. Open to research
R1005_Audio.mp3
R-1015 -- Luna, Martin.
North Carolina resident Martin Luna recounts his experience moving to the United States from Jalisco, Mexico in 1985 as a recently-graduated food engineering student. Luna arrived to work at the Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina over the summer as an international student worker. Throughout the interview he describes the importance of several interpersonal relationships that shaped his work experience and that created the opportunity for him to attempt to pursue graduate school at Clemson University. He references the language barrier as a recurring challenge in his U.S. education. He also describes the role mental health had in his experiences in the U.S. Luna reflects on his experiences in both Mexico and the U.S.’s education systems, and closes the interview describing the kinds of challenges current Latin American immigrant students face within education systems and how they compare to the ones he experienced.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29328">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2023-03-31
No restrictions. Open to research
R1015_Audio.mp3
R-1008 -- Robalino, Katelyn.
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 learned along the way. Soon after graduation, she worked as a Bilingual Teaching Assistant at a Montessori school in Charlotte and subsequently moved to Louisville, KY, where she held two AmeriCorps VISTA appointments and was a staff member for local nonprofits focused on community education and advocacy. Katelyn shares reflections on many topics throughout her interview, including imposter syndrome and other challenges she has faced, her sense of purpose and justice, and her ideas about leadership and the sharing of power. Lastly, she emphasizes the value of lived experience as a professional asset, which she believes has helped her in her current role at the Town of Chapel Hill.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29340">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2023-05-30
No restrictions. Open to research
R1008_Audio.mp3
R-1004 -- Mandujano Acevedo, Nicandro.
This interview was conducted by Sophie Therber with interviewee Nicandro Mandujano Acevedo via Microsoft Teams on August 4, 2021. The main focus of this interview is Nicandro’s involvement with the North Carolina Farmworker Health Program and his experience helping farmworkers mitigate the COVID pandemic. Nicandro emphasizes the need for improved communication with farmworkers in regards to COVID and other disasters, as well as the overall challenges of working with farmworkers in North Carolina. He explains the tension between the need to develop thoughtful emergency response plans and the unexpected, unplanned nature of emergencies. Despite the hardships of COVID, Nicandro explains that the pandemic created an opportunity for better communication between farmworker health sites, collaboration with other organizations, and communication between sites and farmworkers.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29196">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2021-08-04
No restrictions. Open to research
R1004_Audio.mp3
R-1003 -- Rivera, Natalie.
This oral history interview was conducted by Sophie Therber with interviewee Natalie Rivera via Zoom on August 5, 2021. Natalie is from rural North Carolina and has been working with immigrant communities since college. This interview follows her many roles in organizations dedicated to immigrant health and well-being. The main focus of this interview is Natalie’s involvement with the Farmworker Health Program and her experience helping farmworkers mitigate the COVID pandemic and extreme weather, as well as other challenges such as HIV education, Internet access, and emergency-related communication in Spanish. Natalie describes her experience addressing disasters such as COVID and hurricanes, discussing the need to set protocols to address disasters and explains how sometimes immigrant communities do not receive the help that they need in the face of these disasters. She emphasizes the way that communities can come together to accomplish amazing feats in the face of adversity.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29193">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2021-08-05
No restrictions. Open to research
R1003_Audio.mp3
R-1002 -- Castillo, Marlene.
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 managing AMEXCAN’s NC Latino COVID-19 Task Force, connecting a variety of stakeholders such as health departments, community-based organizations, community partners, and state leaders. A key part of Marlene’s role in addressing the COVID pandemic has to go to small businesses such as restaurants, flea markets, and stores to distribute crucial supplies and resources, as well as creating events to bring different providers together to distribute resources such as vaccines and dental screenings. She discusses the many different approaches that she and AMEXCAN have taken in order to provide as much help to immigrant communities as possible. Marlene emphasizes the need for collaboration in the face of adversity and the importance of community networks. The interviewer, Sophie Therber, is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill conducting research for her honor’s thesis in the Human Development and Family Studies department.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29190">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2021-08-03
No restrictions. Open to research
R1002_Audio.mp3
R-1001 -- Garzón, Lariza.
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 and immigrants face. Lariza describes working to help farmworker communities recover from hurricanes and facilitate processes of healing within these communities. Lariza draws connections between the trauma of immigration to North Carolina and the trauma associated with disasters such as hurricanes and COVID, discussing the importance of allowing community members to share this trauma and have conversations about what is needed to promote collective healing. She emphasizes the humanity of farmworker communities and the magnitude of the community response to COVID.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29187">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2021-08-03
No restrictions. Open to research
R1001_Audio.mp3
R-1000 -- Valdez Place, Soraya.
Soraya Valdez Place is a Spanish Professor at Lenoir Rhyne University and the Community Outreach Specialist for the Catawba County Library system in Hickory, North Carolina. She is originally from San Salvador, El Salvador and first moved to the United States in 2004. Soraya tells the story of her life and explains what growing up was like for her in El Salvador. She reflects on the struggles she and her family faced and touches on the violence, natural disasters, and the rampant civil war that plagued her country. She shares the story of moving to the United States for the first time and the challenges of learning English and eventually, how she came to live in North Carolina. She also shares her experience of her time in the Peace Corp and serving abroad with her husband. Soraya speaks on the differences between life in North Carolina, specifically Catawba County, and life back in her home of El Salvador. Lastly, she touches on her work in Catawba County as a Spanish professor and a Community Outreach Specialist, serving as a bridge for the Spanish-speaking community. Soraya closes the interview by telling me about the different issues the Latinx community faces in Catawba County and her work to address these issues by creating workshops and classes through the local library system.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29184">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2022-02-10
No restrictions. Open to research
R1000_Audio.mp3
R-0999 -- Pagnini-Ibarra, Mónica.
Monica Pagnini-Ibarra is a former business owner and family lawyer from Maracay, Venezuela and currently serves as the Client Services Advocate at El Centro Latino in Hickory, North Carolina. Monica begins the interview by sharing what life was like for her and her family living in Maracay, Venezuela and recounts her favorite childhood memories. She opens up about the political insecurities, violence, and turmoil she and her family faced in recent years in Venezuela. Mónica goes in depth about the political insecurity she experienced, the threats she received for her partaking in legal protests, and how those threats ultimately led her to flee her native country in 2015. Mónica also tells me about the successful business she started in Venezuela and her steps to becoming a family lawyer and serving in tribunal courts. She then shares what life was like for her in North Carolina after fleeing her country and explains the challenges she faced starting a new life here. Mónica discusses her current role at El Centro Latino and describes the workshops and special events she helps create for the community. She closes the interview by speaking on the resources she believes are most needed by the Spanish-speaking community and what she has planned next.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
<a href="http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sohp/id/29181">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.</a>
2022-03-28
No restrictions. Open to research
R0999_Audio.mp3