“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 […]
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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 […]
Because I Can Forgive
“I can understand him so much more now as an adult but as a child it was very hurtful.” Edited by Rebecca Werner. Transcript for Because I Can Forgive So my mom and my birth father divorced when I was a baby. My birth father came back from Vietnam with a severe case of PTSD […]
To Germany and Back
“It really makes you a woman and makes you responsible.” Edited by Nick Ladeau. Transcript for To Germany and Back I graduated from Froebel High School, and my intention was not to go anyplace. I wanted to go to school. And I wanted to be a teacher. And my husband then because we were, after […]
Not at the Expense of Being Myself
“…they wanted to fit in… they loved the idea of community… I mean, I think everybody wants that sense of belonging.” Edited by Rebecca Werner. Transcript for Not at the Expense of Being Myself PART ONE Everybody Wants that Sense of Belonging [00:00-03:27] So I was born in 1976 in a small town in Texas. […]