“I’m a man. I’m a trans man. I also want to do gender the way, like butch lesbians do.” Welcome Project at Valparaiso University · Immutable Fact Transcript for Immutable Fact So I grew up in Wisconsin in a suburb of Milwaukee. And it was everything that a suburb is, like a deconstructed city. It […]
We All Played Together
“Once I got to be in seventh grade, eighth grade, we crossed 15th Avenue and nothing ever happened.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for We All Played Together It’s the Froebel neighborhood, in Gary. It ran from 15th Avenue on the south end to 11th Avenue on the north end, and it went from Broadway […]
Becoming a Teacher
“I did not want to be used as the token Latin.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for Becoming a Teacher In the fall of 1960, I went to IU and studied education. And I did some work at Indiana Northwest. And then I wound up at Bloomington. I got my degree in Education in 1966. […]
The Neighborhood
“Nobody ever said, ‘Hey, you’re a Mexican,’ or ‘Hey, you’re an Italian’ or anything like that.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for The Neighborhood Did he ever suffer any discrimination? I don’t know. Because I was a kid and he was working in the mill. My mom definitely did not suffer any, I don’t think, […]
Travel Bug
“These interpersonal relations are the ones that are really the most meaningful.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for Travel Bug I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, although I was born in Wabasha, Minnesota, and the family moved to St. Paul when I was two, and my father died shortly thereafter. So my mother raised […]
Settling in Gary
“So my dad said, ‘Well, you know what, I don’t have to live here.’” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for Settling in Gary My dad left, he ran away from his father, at the age of thirteen. He left Mexico and worked on a tramp steamer. A tramp steamer was a boat, I think, that […]
The Power of Education
“I think she expected me to come home and you know, be a doctor and open up a clinic somewhere. She didn’t expect me to come back and challenge her religion.” https://youtu.be/4zgIxCLP1zk Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for The Power of Education My mom was very adamant that we had to finish our education. And […]
School Days
“I was the only Caucasian in the whole class.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for School Days I went to Froebel School, kindergarten, in about 1948. My kindergarten class was basically all white. I had Mrs. Reising for a kindergarten teacher. And I remember that everybody had to have a rug. And at ten o’clock […]
Shocking
“Being exposed to [people of different races] helped me… so I never really faced the same challenges that my parents probably did.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for Shocking It’s actually difficult a little bit because, I mean, I was born in Afghanistan. I mean, I was probably two years old, maybe even less than […]