Oral history prompt 3

    The interview went well. We had a pleasant conversation and the interviewee was easy to talk to. In hindsight, however, it could have been better. For one thing, we had not received previous confirmation for the videotaping, so we could not take a video. Another mistake was that we blazed through the list of questions and did not ask any follow up questions until we got almost all the way through the list, making it difficult to carry on with the interview past the fifteen minute mark. However, we did manage to make it a full hour interview using follow up questions and in the end we got some interesting information from our interviewee. In the future I would come prepared with more questions and have immediately responded with a follow up question in case of an interesting point the interviewee makes but does not elaborate on. There were many cases in the interview where the interviewee mentioned a significant part of her life and did not elaborate on it and instead of asking a follow up question, we overlooked it. Despite these errors, we were able to obtain interesting information from her. For example we found out why she became a doctoral student and why goals are such an important thing to her.

Oral history prompt 2

    Maria Jimenez came to Houston in the fifties and went to Franklin Elementary. It was here that she first experienced racism toward Mexican-Americans. At Franklin, she was not allowed to speak Spanish and was cut off from her culture entirely. Even speaking Spanish to classmates who understood it caused her to receive threats of being reported. Her teachers refused to pronounce her surname correctly and her classmates openly made fun of her heritage. 

This article interested me because it shed light on the plight of the Mexican-American of the fifties and sixties. This is an issue which has been swept under the rug, so to speak. It seems to me that it has been obscured by the African-American Civil Rights movement, Gay Rights movement, and the Vietnam War protests. These were major events that dealt with pressing issues, but they seem to have garnered much more attention than the Mexican-American Civil Rights movement, which dealt with an equally pressing issue. It was interesting, albeit saddening, to be able to learn more about the daily lives of Mexican-Americans in a much more oppressive America.

https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/2015/07/a-life-of-activism-maria-jimenez/ 

Oral history prompt

    In this oral history, Marilyn Hillerman and her daughter, Andrea Crook, went over the time when Andrea began to experience an unspecified mental illness. She called her mother one day and Marilyn knew from how her daughter spoke that she needed help. Marilyn offered for Andrea to stay at her home, but she refused. Marilyn then visited Andrea and they both got into her car and went onto the freeway. At this point, Andrea panicked and attempted to jump out of the car window, and her mother held her back. They received a police escort to a hospital. Andrea refused to take her meds until her grandfather called, urging her otherwise and informing her that he had been through the same issue. It was then that Andrea began to recover from her illness.

Follow up questions: 

(directed to both) How has this experience changed your life?

(directed to Hillerman) When you were on  the phone, how did you notice that your daughter was in distress?

(directed to Crook) Before you were treated, how was this illness affecting your everyday life? 

https://storycorps.org/listen/marilyn-hillerman-and-andrea-crook-151009/# 

Persepolis prompt 4

     Persepolis is a memoir about an Iranian woman who faces racism in foreign countries and sexism in her own country. It is part of the broader conversation of racism and sexism in the world. It is a helpful book for those who are unaware of their privilege because it could make them aware that there are people being judged for their race, gender and anything else that they cannot change about themselves. As a white, heterosexual male, I could never experience her hardship. I would not even be aware how easy my life is compared to what she has gone through if I had not read the book. I don't experience racism, sexism or the hardship of being an immigrant the way Marjane has. This book has brought light to the issues of racism and sexism in a way like no other. Through telling a personal story instead of a third-party description of what it's like to face those issues like I have seen in news and other media allows the reader to empathize and become more aware and understanding.