Utah Speaks
Utah speaks, and USU is listening.
An oral history project by Special Collections and Archives in the Merrill-Cazier Library, in which 44 Cache Valley Latinos recorded their life stories, is nearing completion, said Randy Williams, coordinator for the project.
“We’re calling it Utah Speaks because that’s what we’re trying to do – listen to what people are saying,” Williams said.
She said the organizers for the projects wanted to focus on Latinos in Cache Valley because of the ongoing controversy concerning Latinos.
“We wanted to show there are more similarities than differences (between whites and Latinos),” she said. “Our goal is to find out what it’s like to be Latino in Logan.”
Williams said the interviewers, including students and volunteers from the community, focused especially on gathering stories about their subjects’ work and home lives, as well as any immigration stories they may have.
Folklore is the expression of groups of people and how they interact with each other, Williams said. So, the formulation of a life story is an expression of folklore.
The reason this is so important is folklore reveals a person’s values.
“The bottom line of folklore,” Williams said, “is it does express deep-seated beliefs a person has.”
Through these life stories, Williams said Special Collections is looking at the flesh of history rather than just the bones, or dry facts.
Jose Camilo, senior in economics and finance, said he found it fulfilling to hear people telling their stories.
“Every person has a different story,” he said. “I heard people who came to this country because of war, others came because of economic reasons. I was surprised at the range of experiences.”
Camilo said he got involved because he felt connected to the project.
“It’s a part of the Latino community, and I’m a part of the Latino community,” he said.
The collection of interviews is just one of several done by Special Collections as part of Utah Speaks. Past collections include Mormon folklore, and future ideas include interviews with all kinds of people affecting land management in Utah, from farmers and land management specialists to snowmobilers and Bureau of Land Management employees.
“We’re especially proud of the Latino project,” Williams said. “There was lots of community involvement, and it’s the first that will be totally digital. It’s the most exciting oral history project I’ve been involved with.”
This year’s project, called Latino Voices Project, took two and a half months of interviewing, Williams said. The interviews were conducted mostly in Spanish, with the choice of language given to the interviewees.
Williams said this was a matter of making the interviewees as comfortable as possible, though now the interviews will need to be translated. The few interviews conducted in English will also be translated into Spanish.
“For most people, English wasn’t their first language,” she said. “My feeling is, if I was being interviewed, even if I was in Morocco, if I was talking about my life experiences, I will want to speak in English.”
The interviews will be available in a digital format and will be accessible on the Special Collections Web site the first of the year. People will be able to use the collection for research or personal history purposes, Williams said.
“There may even be hidden things that I’m not aware of that will be useful down the road,” she said.
Her only regret is that other opportunities for collections like this have passed by.
“Imagine what it would be like to have 40 interviews from Shoshone in the 1870s,” she said, “or 40 teenage girls from 1890s Cache Valley … or 40 young men getting ready to go to war.”
Williams said the interviewing process is done, but the door is not closed on the collection. Anyone who would like to add an interview to it is welcome to do so, she said.
-elizabeth.lawyer@aggiemail.usu.edu