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Through interviews and field research the goal of the Oral History project is to develop histories of and from the Latino residents of Somerville, Massachusetts, with the aim that these histories will both enhance the general awareness and appreciation of Latino contributions to the city, and empower Latinos through the acknowledgement and documentation of their voices. This project pairs Tufts undergraduate students, with high school students from Concilio Hispano's AHORA program. Along with the professor heading the project, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez, seven Tufts students and ten AHORA students have participated in the Oral History Project this semester, fall 2003. I have been working with Bich-Phuong Nguyen, from Somerville High, and Jessica Tejada, from the Prospect Hill Academy Charter School, who live in the 530 Mystic Ave housing developments and are respectively seventeen and sixteen years-of-age. Both Bich and Jessica are children of immigrants; Bich's family is from Vietnam and Jessica's from El Salvador. Bich came to work on this project through her connections with the Welcome Project while Jessica took up this opportunity through the AHORA program directly. Both have expressed their gratefulness in getting to know members of their community through the execution of this investigation. |
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Somerville Oral History Project Fall 2003 group photo
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Project Topic
My topic has focused on how Somerville Latinos define community and what kind of community services, community-building activities, and community strengthening organizations Latinos organize and participate in.
Project Aims
Specifically, I personally am interested in the multiple ways community is constructed because I want to help build positive communities throughout my lifetime.
Another aim of this project has been the education of my AHORA students. I hope that they have gained greater perspectives on their communities and confidence in their abilities to coordinate with people and speak formally with narrators, have learned from the oral histories of their neighbors, and have been inspired to someday soon take on college projects. |
For the greater Somerville community, my aim is to present a report (and make available taped interviews, interview reports, a web page, and digital photographs) to show how Latinos are helping to strengthen their communities and helping each other find peace and succeed - with the objective to provide a ‘counternarrative' that opposes debilitating stereotypes of immigrants and is socially empowering. I want both greater-Somerville and individual Latinos recognize and appreciate Latino communities. It is also vitally important that people, both outside of and within Latino immigrant communities, come to view themselves as part of common communities. The hope is not for strong segregated immigrant communities, but strong interconnected and inclusive communities.
…They wonder if there are elderly homes through which old people can come together to meet and discuss things. “No,” says the old man, “if we need to meet and discuss things we simply meet and discuss.” They wonder if there are food banks to help feed this man for he has nothing. “No,” he says, “when I need food, people give me something to eat.” They think he is homeless because he owns no house. But he doesn't feel homeless; people let him sleep on their floors at night.
Personal communication, Nelson Salazar, 10/17/03. |
Investigators: 
Bich, Nora & Jessica |
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