neighborhood life
Watching Fires
"No other part of their humanity could be seen beyond the color of their skin."
Welcome Project at Valparaiso University · Watching Fires This interview was recorded over Zoom. Transcript for Watching Fires I...
We Don’t Make Excuses
"We don't ever want the kids to be able to say we weren't there." https://youtu.be/MsGxtfUb9Kw Edited by Welcome Project Intern Ella Speckhard Transcript for We Don't Make Excuses I kind of feel like today the school is not the community...
The Patch
"Anybody who was not well-connected, you go to the Patch." https://youtu.be/ppzO37KeKCg Edited by Welcome Project Intern Ella Speckhard Transcript for The Patch My grandmother, my mother’s mother, was a twin. And they left Poland and they didn’t speak English. They...
Gary Made Me
"I always want to make my city proud." https://youtu.be/J28TV88EKQs Edited by Welcome Project Intern Ella Speckhard Transcript for Gary Made Me I always like to say that Gary made me. Like, there’s a phrase—I don’t know if people have ever...
In This Community
“If I wasn’t at home or at school, I was in East Chicago hanging out with my grandparents.” https://youtu.be/-GuAPV9Hy5Y Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, Multicultural Collections Coordinator, Library and Archives Division, Indiana Historical Society. Transcript for In This Community My great-grandmother and her...
Block and Pennsy
“These communities have been erased.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhIZBN0-c4k Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, Multicultural Collections Coordinator, Library and Archives Division, Indiana Historical Society. Transcript for Block and Pennsy In the 1920s you have this curious, fabulous mix of people from all different backgrounds – middle...
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
“That duality of culture…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkmNlzIuJfs Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, Multicultural Collections Coordinator, Library and Archives Division, Indiana Historical Society. Transcript for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church I feel like the Irish or the Eastern European, like, Slovaks, the Croatian, the Hungarians –...
Pick Up That Slack
“The tradition of the mutual aid society dates all the way back to the earliest days of the Mexican colonies in Indiana Harbor and Gary, Indiana.” https://youtu.be/QH9lQD9OTSc Historian Emiliano Aguilar, doctoral student Northwestern University Transcript for Pick Up That Slack...
Me Coming Home
"...the Mexican-American community in the United States – it wasn't really taught in high school." https://youtu.be/7RlvTsqhRMc Transcript for Me Coming Home That’s another mentality, too. Growing up in East Chicago, everyone wanted to know where you were. And you always...