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76. Interview with Luis Martinez

Creator:
Martinez, Luis
Date Created:
1976-07-15
Description:
Luis Martinez was born Sept. 6, 1931, in Raymondville, Texas. He first came to Minnesota with his family in 1935. He followed crops in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan before settling in East Grand Forks, Polk County, in 1953. He worked at several auto dealerships before becoming self-employed as an auto dealer in 1973. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Work and business experience, including how he became the manager of an auto dealership - family history - his Spanish-language radio programs on Crookston and East Grand Forks stations - and his role in establishing the first school for migrants in the Red River Valley.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

77. Interview with Luz and Virginia Campa

Creator:
Campa, Luz; Campa, Virginia
Date Created:
1976-07-02
Description:
Luz Campa was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 1909. He came to Bridgeport, Texas, in 1914 and to Minnesota in 1929. In 1967 he opened a restaurant. Subjects discussed include: Life in Mexico, Bridgeport and Brownton - and how he got started in Minnesota.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

78. Interview with Manuel Contreras

Creator:
Contreras, Manuel
Date Created:
1975-07-16
Description:
Manuel Contreras was born in Durango, Mexico, in 1904. He was raised by his sisters because his father was shot in a fight and his mother died at childbirth. He and his sisters had ranches that were taken away from them during the Mexican Revolution, in which Contreras fought at the age of ten. Fearing for his life, he escaped from the country in 1924. In that year he and a sister traveled from Texas to Minnesota. Later he worked in the fields in Lake Lillian and Chaska, and in 1933 he came to St. Paul. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The Mexican Revolution, including its leaders and its effect on Contreras's family - life in St. Paul in the 1930s - work in sugar beet fields in rural Minnesota and in meat packing plants in South St. Paul - work in a munitions plant in New Brighton - family life and history - and the people and customs of St. Paul's Mexican-American community. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish, transcribed into English.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

79. Interview with Manuel P. Guerrero

Creator:
Guerrero, Manuel P
Date Created:
1976-08-24
Description:
Manuel P. Guerrero was born May 31, 1935, in Marion, Indiana. He served in the army from 1954 to 1956, attended the University of Notre Dame and Franklin College in Indiana and graduated from Indiana University Law School in 1962. In 1964 he was elected to a six-year term as an Indiana circuit court judge. From 1971 to 1974 he was a visiting professor in criminal justice at the University of Minnesota, and in 1974 he became chair of the university's Department of Chicano Studies. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Moves of his parents in the United States - his brothers and sisters - early years in Marion, Indiana - school years - service in the army - college years - the role of church in his life - professional career - family - the role of Chicanismo in his life, and the role he hopes it will play in the lives of his children and grandchildren.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

80. Interview with Marcelino and Irene Rivera

Creator:
Rivera, Marcelino; Rivera, Irene
Date Created:
1975-08-19
Description:
Marcelino Rivera was born in Mexico City in 1906, fought in the Mexican Revolution and left the army when he was 18 to come to the United States. He crossed the river into Texas and worked at various jobs, ending up in St. Paul, where he met his wife. Irene Rivera was born in Texas in 1910. She worked in the fields before coming to Minnesota in 1925. She settled in St. Paul in 1931. The Riveras were married in New Ulm, Minn., in 1932. Subjects discussed include: Marcelino Rivera's life in Mexico and the United States - Irene Rivera's life in the United States - community life on the West Side in St. Paul - the Our Lady of Guadalupana Society, established in 1931 - community customs and celebrations - and advice to younger Mexican Americans. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Irene Rivera spoke for Marcelino Rivera, who was ill
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

81. Interview with Maria A. Alvarado (Sister Engracia)

Creator:
Alvarado, Maria Antonia
Date Created:
1976-08-08
Description:
Sister Engracia was born in Mexico in 1947 and assigned to St. Mary's College in Winona in 1966. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Her childhood in Mexico - her three years of religious training - her apostolate in the United States, mostly in Minnesota as a Lasallian Sister of Guadalupe. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

82. Interview with Maria G. de Palomo

Creator:
de Palomo, Maria Garcia
Date Created:
1976-08-02
Description:
Maria Palomo was born in March of 1901 in Bustamante, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She was married in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, and then moved with her husband to Fort Worth, Texas. In 1930 they moved to Fairfax, Minn., and later that year to St. Paul, where they settled. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Maria Palomo narrates her early family life and her brother's involvement in the revolution in Mexico in 1910. In 1930 her family was contracted to work in Fairfax, Minn., and in that same year they moved to St. Paul. Because the employment situation was poor, the family worked during the summer months on the farm and returned to St. Paul with the Salinas and Guzman families in the winter. She describes numerous Mexican foods and dishes, including the preparation of atole de mesquite, mole and queso de panela. She talks about her frequent visits to Mexico and her failure to understand why her American-born children hesitate in trying new foods and dishes while visiting relatives in Mexico. She also describes her husband's job with the railroad, her factory work, and the houses they lived in on St. Paul's West Side. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

83. Interview with Maria J. Bosquez

Creator:
Bosquez,Maria J.
Date Created:
1975-07-08
Description:
Maria J. Bosquez was born Maria de Jesus Gutierrez in Saqualco de Torres, Jalisco, Mexico, on May 30, 1906. She remembers the Mexican Revolution's effects on her home town. She took training and became a teacher. At age 21 she married Concepcion Bosquez of Villita de Encarnacion, San Juan de Los Lagos, Mexico. On Feb. 5, 1928, they entered the United States at Laredo, Texas. They arrived in Minneapolis on Feb. 11 or Feb. 12. Mr. Bosquez had been employed by the Milwaukee Railroad. Both she and her husband immediately became involved in the activities of the Mexican-American community in St. Paul, although they lived in Minneapolis. Her family of eight was born and raised in Minneapolis. She was employed by Woolworth's for 15 years. She retired in 1968. Subjects discussed include: Early life in Mexico - the St. Paul Mexican-American community, including its families, activities, leaders and organizations - problems of adjusting to life in the United States - her husband's activities at work and in the Mexican-American community - her family in Minneapolis and Mexico - the Mexican Revolution - the Christeros War in Mexico - her philosophy for living. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: The interview is in Spanish, transcribed into English. Bosquez was very involved in Mexican Independence Day programs and remembers many names.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

84. Interview with Maria R. Moran

Creator:
Moran, Maria Rangel
Date Created:
1975-07-22
Description:
Maria Moran was born in St. Paul in 1928. Her parents had come from Mexico in the 1920s. In the late 1950s she founded the Ballet Folklorico Guadalupano, which strives to preserve the regional dances of Mexico. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Ballet Folklorico Guadalupano - childhood life in the West Side community, including early childhood experiences in dancing - regional Mexican dances, costumes and music.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

85. Interview with Marietta Andrada

Creator:
Andrada, Marietta
Date Created:
1978-11-01
Description:
Marietta Andrada, a daughter of Benigno and Belen Andrada of Richfield, Minnesota, was born in 1958. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Growing up as a second-generation Filipino - the importance of family and the Filipino community in the Twin Cities - and discrimination. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Andrada's sister Cristeta was also interviewed for this oral history project.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

86. Interview with Marilyn McClure

Creator:
McClure, Marilyn
Date Created:
1976-08-02
Description:
Marilyn E. McClure was born in Blooming, New Mexico. She attended an Albuquerque high school and Macalester College in St. Paul. She holds a master's degree, has worked for the St. Paul schools and at the time of the interview is a bilingual, bicultural social worker for Ramsey County Mental Health. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Educational and employment background - the Ramsey County Mental Health Spanish American Project - referrals - graduate students in social work - future of the program - and change in the Mexican-American community.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

87. Interview with Marvel H. Chong

Creator:
Chong, Marvel Hum
Date Created:
1979-06-08
Description:
Marvel Hum Chong was born in Minneapolis in 1910. She is the youngest daughter of Bing Hum, an immigrant from China who arrived in Minneapolis before the turn of the century. He was a native of the Taishan District of Guangdong Province in South China, and before he came to Minnesota he worked on a railroad in Montana. He married an Irish Canadian, Sarah Cassidy, and they settled in Willmar, Minnesota, a railroad transfer center west of Minneapolis. Hum opened a laundry in Willmar and later purchased the Glarum Hotel, which he operated for many years before moving his family to Minneapolis in 1908. In Minneapolis Hum opened another laundry and three different restaurants in succession. Marvel Hum Chong attended Marcy and Wittier schools in Minneapolis during her elementary years and West High School in her first year of high school. She then moved to Hibbing, Minnesota, to live with her older sister and brother-in-law and graduated from Hibbing High School in 1927. She attended the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1931, and following graduation she worked as a hostess at John's Place Uptown and the Chinese Gift Shop, both Chinese-owned businesses in Minneapolis. In 1941 she married the owner of the Gift Shop, Stanley Chong, a Chinese immigrant's son from the West Coast. The shop was sold when Chong was drafted into the army for a brief period during World War II, and after his discharge the couple lived on the West Coast for a few years. In 1944 they moved back to Minneapolis and established the International House of Foods, a highly successful wholesale and retail business in Asian foods. Their daughter, Siu-linn, was born in 1946. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Marvel Hum Chong discusses her father's background in China and the United States - his varied interests in such fields as Christianity, Western law, and languages - his role as interpreter for Chinese in court in the Twin Cities - his part in the organizing of the Chinese Students Club, which included students from China at the University of Minnesota and the children of Chinese immigrants of high school and college age. She also discusses Chinese activities in the 1970 Aquatennial in Minneapolis - Chinese community organizations - and discrimination in housing for Chinese immigrants. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: This interview is particularly interesting because Marvel Hum Chong grew up in one of a half dozen intermarried families in the Chinese community in the Twin Cities during the pre-World War II days. She provides considerable insight into their experience as an interracial family.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

88. Interview with Mary Kim Bilek

Creator:
Bilek, Mary Kim
Date Created:
1979-03-02
Description:
Mary Kim Bilek was born June 13, 1938, in Seoul, Korea. Her mother was a teacher, and her father worked for a newspaper. During the Korean War (1950-1953) the family had to leave Seoul and with tens of thousands of other Korean civilians fled to the island of Cheju, a small island off the southern tip of Korea. During the years they were refugees on Cheju, Mary's mother and grandmother both died. In 1954 the family returned to Seoul, and at age fifteen Mary attended school regularly for the first time. Although her education had been disrupted, her two older brothers had also fallen behind, and all three children graduated from high school in the same year. As the only girl, Mary assumed she would not be sent to college and decided to try to go the United States to continue her education. Before the Korean War she had corresponded with a pen pal in North Carolina with the help of an American missionary in Korea. After the war she wrote to the pen pal again, and the American's family was able to arrange a scholarship for her at a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. She graduated with a major in physics and then entered the University of Minnesota for graduate study in mathematics. She completed her graduate work in 1963 and married a college friend, Larry Bilek, a Minnesotan, the same year. She worked as supervisor of statistics for medical services at the University of Minnesota Medical School until her first child was born in 1968. She then became part-time senior research analyst for the Minnesota Department of Health and was also employed in research in the medical school's department of neurology until her second child was born. In 1975 she was employed by the university's College of Liberal Arts as head of data services, and since then has become the college's budget and planning officer. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Mary Bilek discusses her family background in Korea - experiences during the Korean War - her first impressions of the United States - college life - concern for her children growing up in an affluent society - marriage to an American - and differences in childrearing practices in Korean and American cultures. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Mary Bilek represents Koreans who have become well-acculturated to American society, and is apparently equally comfortable with Americans and Koreans. Nevertheless she is committed to teaching her children certain Korean values that she considers important.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

89. Interview with Matilda Mejia (Sister Marta)

Creator:
Mejia, Matilda
Date Created:
1976-08-09
Description:
Sister Marta was born in Mexico in 1930 and spent her early years there. She became a Lasallian Sister of Guadalupe in her twenties and in 1955 arrived in Winona for her assignment to live and work at St. Mary's College. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family history - her religious work in Mexico - and her assignment to St. Mary's College. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

90. Interview with Matthew Casillas

Creator:
Casillas, Matthew
Date Created:
1975-06-23
Description:
Matthew Casillas was born Aug. 24, 1931, the fourth of ten children. He was educated locally and entered the armed services. For ten years he lived and worked in California, where he went to college and earned a degree. He returned to St. Paul and went into business for himself in 1965. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: St. Paul's West Side community - Our Lady of Guadalupe Church - the Neighborhood House - new programs by and for Mexican Americans in the local community - family history - family ties - and community cohesiveness. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Much traffic noise from Concord Street. Three or four interruptions from customers entering to do business required recesses from the interview.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

91. Interview with Maurice Schanfield

Creator:
Schanfield, Maurice
Date Created:
1977-01-13
Description:
Maurice Schanfield's father came to Canada from Romania in 1883, landing in Montreal and working on the Canadian Pacific Railroad until reaching Winnipeg - from there the family hitchhiked to Minneapolis. Schanfield was born in 1904 in Minneapolis. His father died in January of 1911, leaving a widow and four small children. Schanfield entered his uncle's insurance business, attended the University of Minnesota, married his wife, Norma, in 1943 and has four daughters. Although refusing to join organizations, he is active in Alcoholics Anonymous. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: The early Jewish immigrant neighborhood in south Minneapolis - the Depression - religious training and beliefs - anti-Semitism - education - experiences with card gambling and alcohol addictions - intermarriage and child-rearing - and religious faith and peak experiences. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: His sister Esther Schanfield Rosenbloom was also interviewed for this oral history project.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

92. Interview with Michael Hong Wong

Creator:
Wong, Michael Hong
Date Created:
1979-06-07 - 1979-07-03
Description:
Michael Hong Wong was born in Austin, Minnesota, in 1948. His grandfather emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China to Albert Lea, Minnesota, in 1927, by way of Canada and Seattle, Washington. At the time of Michael Wong's birth, his grandfather, father, and uncle were partners in a Chinese restaurant in Austin, but a few years later the family moved to Fargo, North Dakota. Because this city was a crossroad in the movement of military personnel during and after World War II, business opportunities were good, and the elder Wongs worked at the Pheasant Cafe, one of five Chinese restaurants in Fargo during the 1940s and early 1950s. When Wong was about five years old, the family moved back to Minnesota, where they established the Wong Cafe in Rochester. Wong attended public elementary schools in the city and graduated from John Marshall High School in 1966. He entered the University of Minnesota the following fall and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor of fine arts degree, majoring in painting. Later he returned to the university for graduate study and received a master of fine arts degree, with a major in photography, in 1975. During his undergraduate years at the university, Wong was actively involved in the Asian American Alliance, organized on the campus during the 1960s. In 1976 Wong returned to Rochester and worked in the family restaurant, while his wife, Isabel Joe, completed an internship in dietetics at Methodist Hospital. In 1977 they returned to the Twin Cities, and Wong taught for two years at the Minnetonka Art Center (now the Art Center of Minnesota). He also engaged in freelance photography and was one of the early members of the Minnesota Asian American Project, a pan-Asian organization in the Twin Cities area. In 1980 and 1981 Wong was employed by Weigen Graphic Center in Minneapolis and also continued his work as a freelance photographer. He has frequently photographed special events in the Asian community, including those of the most recent arrivals, the Indochinese. He also participated in the collection of photographs for an exhibit entitled Asians in Minnesota" that opened in the spring of 1982 at the Minnesota Historical Society and was sponsored by the Society
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

93. Interview with Nathan M. Shapiro

Creator:
Shapiro, Nathan M.
Date Created:
1976-05-12
Description:
Nathan M. (Nate) Shapiro was born in Minneapolis in May of 1911. His father had come to Milwaukee several years earlier and then moved to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to work as a coppersmith for Leinenkugel Breweries. Next his father moved to Minneapolis, established an auto repair business and later owned a confectionary. Shapiro graduated from North High School and worked at a Snyder's drug store, later becoming its manager. When Prohibition ended in 1934, he and his brother Monroe (Curly) opened Curly's nightclub. When his brother died in 1945, he sold it and went into the theater business and later the insurance business. He married his brother's widow and adopted their son and daughter. Shapiro was a regional officer in the Sertoma Club and a community fund raiser. He was also a close friend of Hubert Humphrey and active in the Democratic Farmer Labor Party. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family background, including his grandfather's supervision of a distillery in Russia and his work as a peddler - his own childhood and education - business experiences - the breakup of a theater owners' monopoly in the 1940s in Minneapolis - concerns about child-rearing and Jewishness - anti-Semitism - intermarriage and strong concern for the relationship between the Gentile and Jewish communities (he and his children are Unitarians) - friendship with Hubert Humphrey - leadership in the Sertoma Club - and activity in the DFL. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Schwartz was very ill with cancer at the time of the interview.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

94. Interview with Paul C. Borge

Creator:
Borge, Paul C.
Date Created:
1978-10-27
Description:
Paul Borge was born in 1904 in Narvacan, a town in Northern Luzon, Philippines. His father was a farmer who earned just enough from fishing and raising rice, corn, and vegetables to support a family of eight. Two of Borge's cousins were studying for the Methodist ministry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and for several years Borge pleaded with his father to let him go to the United States, too. The Borge family was devoutly Methodist, and finally his father agreed to let him go to the United States on the condition that he also study for the ministry. Borge's father sold a cow, a horse, and a piece of land to pay for the trip. Borge arrived in Seattle in 1926 and first worked at several jobs on the West Coast, including farm work with other Filipinos, and labor on the tracks for the Northern Pacific Railroad. In the spring of 1928 he arrived in Minneapolis on a railroad pass. He chose Minneapolis because his cousins had moved there, and because he hoped to enroll at the Northwestern Bible College to fulfill his promise to his father to study for the ministry. As the Depression deepened after his arrival, however, it became evident that he could never earn enough money to make the study possible, and he eventually abandoned the idea. In 1934 he married a Scandinavian American and became a permanent resident of Minnesota. During the 1930s Borge served as a butler in the home of Charles B. Sweatt, an executive of the Minneapolis Honeywell Company, and also in the home of Minneapolis businessman Cavour S. Langdon. In 1942 he got a job as a personal attendant in a railway car reserved for the president of the Great Northern Railroad, and he moved his family to northeast Minneapolis, where many Filipinos were moving in the early 1940s. After World War II the family moved to Columbia Heights, again consistent with a general trend among the Filipinos, many of whom were moving to the northern suburbs. Borge worked for the Great Northern until he retired in 1969. Throughout his many years in Minneapolis and the northern suburbs he had been active in Filipino community organizations, and since his retirement he has also been active in a number of church and civic groups, including the Community Methodist Church and the Kiwanis Club in Columbia Heights. In 1980 he was elected to the National Commission on Race and Religion of the United Methodist Church. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Paul Borge discusses his family background in the Philippines, the family's conversion to Protestantism, and the many stories he heard in childhood about the cruelty of Spanish rule in the Philippines. He also describes incidents of discrimination he experienced on the West Coast of the United States, the difficult economic struggle for young Filipinos in Minneapolis, and his work as butler in the Twin Cities homes of wealthy businessmen Charles B. Sweatt and Cavour S. Langdon. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Borge's experiences are typical of many young Filipinos seeking education in the Twin Cities in the late 1920s who had to take jobs as butlers in the homes of wealthy Minneapolis businessmen. His employment by the Great Northern Railroad in 1942 reflects a decision by the company to replace Japanese with Filipinos in service jobs on the trains because of anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

95. Interview with Peter Moreno

Creator:
Moreno, Peter
Date Created:
1976-08-06
Description:
Pete Moreno was born Oct. 6, 1924, in Renville, Minn., moved with his family to St. Paul in 1925 and has lived in Minnesota his entire life. He has worked with a housing authority and the Ramsey County Office of Equal Opportunity, and at the time of the interview is state director of federal Migrant Education Program for children. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Experience in government agencies - goals, philosophies and activities of the Migrant Education Program - and directions in which the program is moving.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

96. Interview with Philip C. Ahn

Creator:
Ahn, Philip C.
Date Created:
1979-12-07
Description:
Philip C. Ahn was born in Korea in 1928 to a family of third-generation Christians. His father owned a jewelry business, and his mother was a deaconess in the Presbyterian Church. When Korea was partitioned after World War II, Ahn's parents feared that the Communist government in North Korea would not look favorably on businessmen and Christians, and the family fled to South Korea. They arrived in Seoul at the height of postwar chaos and unemployment. At age 18, however, with five years of high school English, Ahn got a job as interpreter at the U.S. embassy. He also enrolled at a pharmacy school which later became part of the National University in Seoul, and he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1949. During this period a good friend, Young Pai, who was a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, urged Ahn to join him in Minnesota to continue his studies. Ahn was eager to do so and took the government examinations required for study abroad in 1949. He passed the examinations but did not have the necessary financial resources. With the onset of the Korean War and the arrival of United Nations troops, however, the demand for translators and interpreters increased, and from 1950 to 1951 Ahn worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army's 17th Regiment. In 1951 he joined the Korean Army and served as a lieutenant in the liaison corps, where he was an interpreter for the Korean Military Advisory Group, a group of American advisors. In 1953, at the end of the war, Ahn left Korea and enrolled at Macalester College just as Young Pai was leaving. Ahn majored in biology and chemistry and graduated in 1957. He took a job in Austin, Minnesota, as a junior scientist at the Hormel Institute of the University of Minnesota Graduate School. While in Austin Ahn married Betty Engel, also a graduate of Macalester College. Ahn stayed in Austin from 1957 to 1960 and then became an assistant scientist at the U of M Medical School in Minneapolis, where he worked as a physiological chemist from 1960 to 1962, a period in which the basic analysis of nutrition and heart disease was being launched. In 1962 he transferred to the nutrition division of the Home Economics Department on the St. Paul campus, where he worked as a lipid chemist. In the early 1970s Ahn became an associate scientist in the newly established Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the College of Home Economics and College of Agriculture. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Ahn discusses his family background and early experience in Korea during the post-World War II and Korean War periods - the close-knit group of Korean students at Macalester during the 1950s - interracial marriages - difficulties of childrearing in American society - Korean wives of American servicemen who have settled in Minnesota - and the history of the Korean churches in the Twin Cities area. Ahn provides valuable information on the early Korean students at Macalester College during the 1950s, who were the first significant group of Koreans to arrive in the state, many of whom remained as permanent residents. He also contributes useful insight into the acculturation of those who intermarried.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

97. Interview with Ralph Delgado

Creator:
Delgado, Ralph
Date Created:
1976-07-26
Description:
Ralph Delgado, his older brother, Ray, Jr., and his younger brother, Francis, run a 900-acre potato farm, one of the largest in southern Minnesota. They, along with their father, Raymond, Sr., started buying land in 1953 after many years of doing farm work for other farmers. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Management and operation of the farm - hobbies and interests - family - education - discrimination - and advice to future generations.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

98. Interview with Ramedo J. and Catalina Saucedo

Creator:
Saucedo, Ramedo J.; Saucedo, Catalina
Date Created:
1977-04-06
Description:
Ramedo Saucedo was born in St. Paul in 1930. Catalina Saucedo was born in Maxwell, Texas, in 1930 and moved to St. Paul in 1943. They were married in 1956 and have two children. Subjects discussed include: Ramedo Saucedo discusses life on St. Paul's West Side - his education at the University of Minnesota and several graduate schools - his teaching career at University and Southwest High Schools in Minneapolis, including the Hispanic Cultural Enrichment Program in that school system - and his work as the state's Mexican consul. Catalina Saucedo discusses her work at the consulate and her career as accountant, tax consultant and real estate agent as well as her participation in the Mexican-American community in St. Paul. They also discuss travels to Mexico. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Ramedo Saucedo compiled Mexican Americans in Minnesota: An Introduction to Historical Sources"
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

99. Interview with Rev. Dagoberto Aguilar

Creator:
Aguilar, Reverend Dagoberto
Date Created:
1976-08-03
Description:
Born in Turialva, Costa Rica, in 1927 - studied and became a minister in Mexico City - worked as a missionary in Central America - received an assignment in Philadelphia, where he worked for several years - called to work in 1973 with Spanish-speaking people in Minneapolis, including some Mexican families. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: History of the Primera Iglesia Bautista in Minneapolis - religious and social activities and social services at the church - the need to maintain Spanish in that church - hopes of church members, including continued parishioner growth and construction of a church building of its own. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: In Spanish.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories

100. Interview with Robert Yu

Creator:
Yu, Robert
Date Created:
1979-02-01
Description:
Robert Yu was born in about 1915 in the city of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. During his childhood his father was postmaster general of China. As the eldest son, Yu enjoyed a favorable position in the family, and his father set aside a considerable sum of money to enable him to study in the United States after graduation from college. While studying at the University of Nanjing, Yu met his future wife, Victoria (Yu), and after their marriage Yu's father agreed to send them both to the United States. Robert and Victoria Yu arrived in the United States in about 1939. Although Robert Yu had intended to attend graduate school after his arrival, he had not made arrangements with any specific university. In Seattle, where they disembarked, they met a Chinese graduate of the University of Wisconsin who suggested that Yu attend the University of Minnesota and offered to accompany them to Minneapolis. After their arrival Yu applied to the University of Minnesota and was accepted as a graduate student in the College of Business Administration, and he later transferred to the College of Agriculture, where he majored in agricultural economics. While Yu was a student at the university, two sons, Robert and Victor, were born to the family. Yu completed his master of arts degree in 1941, but because of the Sino-Japanese War he could not return to China immediately. He took a job for a short time at the Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis and then took a job in Washington, D.C., where a third child, Joyce (the interviewer for this oral history interview, and who was interviewed for the project as well), was born. In Washington Yu worked as a Chinese-area specialist at the Department of Agriculture. During World War II the United States planned (but never carried out) a landing on the Chinese coast, and Yu provided information on Chinese agriculture in the proposed landing area. In 1947, with the war over, the Yu family returned to China, where Yu took a job as vice-president of the Farmers' Bank of China in Shanghai. As rampant inflation and civil conflict made living in postwar China increasingly difficult, the family returned to the United States in 1949 and settled in southeast Minneapolis, the area where they had lived during Yu's time at the university. Yu again took a job with the Pillsbury Company for a short time, but next he became a vice-president of First National Bank of Minneapolis. In 1979 Yu retired from that job and accepted a teaching position in Taiwan. While Victoria Yu also decided to live in Taiwan, where many relatives live, all three Yu children have remained in the United States. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Yu discusses his family background in China - his first trip to the United States, and his fears that he and his wife would be turned away by immigration officials - first impressions in Seattle - Chinese student life at the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses during World War II, when the students were cut off from family resources - political views in the Chinese community in Minnesota - views toward normalization of U.S.-China diplomatic relations in 1979 - discrimination toward Chinese people - and problems of child rearing in the immigrant community. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: Yu reflects the views of the intellectuals from northern China (Mandarin speakers), most of whom came either as students to the University of Minnesota or as political refugees settling in Minnesota after World War II. He is particularly perceptive about divisions within the Chinese community and about changing views of Chinese settlers over the years.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota Historical Society
Type:
Sound Recording Nonmusical
Format:
Oral histories
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