Carnegie Public Library Oral History Project with Spanish Speaking Old Timers (MSS 776)

Project Background Information:

The initial project goal was to "make an oral record of the way of life in rural villages of San Miguel, Mora, Guadalupe, and Colfax counties as it was lived by the Spanish-speaking people from the period of 1890-1930." The project was the idea of Eileen Eshner, then head librarian at the Carnegie Library in Las Vegas, NM. The Carnegie Public Library received funding, circa 1975, for the project via a Library Services Construction Act grant, administered by the New Mexico State Library. A subsequent grant, circa 1993, from the State of New Mexico enabled translation, transcription and indexing of the tapes from Spanish into English. Original interviews were conducted by Bernabé Jaramillo and Mary Valdez.

Digitization and Public Access:

In the late 1980s UNM’s Center for Southwest Research (CSWR) acquired the English translations on audio cassettes. Even though the English translations have much value - especially the indexes that come with them, many researchers were eager to hear the actual Spanish interviews that retained important dialogue, personal attributes, cultural exchanges and regional language nuances. Recognizing the need to preserve the actual recorded interviews, in 2023 CSWR borrowed the original cassette tapes from the Carnegie Library and digitized them. In collaboration with UNM University Libraries CSWR and Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) and the Carnegie Public Library, the interviews are now available below for listening.

The list of original interview participants does not fully match the English translation/transcription interviews list because a few were not sent to be translated for unknown reasons and some were recorded in English and therefore originally left out of the “English Translations/Transcriptions” edition. Also, in some of the interviews more than one person is featured in the recordings.

CSWR Manuscript Collection:

These interviews are part of the Carnegie Public Library (Las Vegas, N.M.) Oral History Project with Spanish Speaking Old Timers collection (MSS 776), Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico. See finding guide: New Mexico Archives Online

Copyrights:

Carnegie Public Library, City of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The audio interviews are made accessible for purposes of education and research. Reproduction of works protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

Indexes:

Indexes (by interviewee names, topics discussed, and locations) were created at the time English audio translations and English transcriptions were produced, but they can also be cross-referenced to the original interviewee names and interview number listing below.