Here are your photos! Feel free to download and print your high quality portrait, or email your photo to anyone you’d like. Visit StoryCorps’ Flickr album to find and download your photo directly.

In Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Chimayó, people have talked about family, history, and heritage in all kinds of ways. We’ve heard from teachers, mothers, master adobe builders, curanderas, pueblo leaders, activists, artists, and beyond. People have talked about having children, getting married, building homes, red chile, green chile, migration, genealogy, and living in New Mexico for 12 generations. They’ve talked about losing loved ones, maintaining culture, and finding strength in family and friends when times are hard.

Some of these conversations have already played on KUNM. (Click here to listen.) All will join a national oral history archive at the Library of Congress. All have gone home with you on a CD to listen to and share.

From everyone at StoryCorps Historias: THANK YOU! It has been a pleasure and an honor to hear your stories.

Sincerely,
The StoryCorps Team

P.S. We’d also like to extend a special thanks to our wonderful hosts, KUNM and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, as well as to our many community partners: Connecting Community Voices, De Colores, LULAC National Education Services, KUNM youth radio, Southwsest Organizing Project, New Mexico Humanities Council, ArtStreet, HealthCare for the Homeless, Tale & Trails Storytelling, Latin American & Iberian Institute, The University of New Mexico, the Sierra Club, Varones del Siglo 21, National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico, National Latino Behavioral Health Association, Las Comadres, New Mexico HIV/AIDS Advocacy Network, New Mexico AIDS Services

MobileBooth West in Reno

For one of the first conversations of the week, Reno local and Moscow native Sacha Gousev came with friend Kim Palchikoff to talk about his life-long circus career as a master juggler with the Moscow Circus.

Sacha Gousev and Kim Palchikoff

Sacha fell in love with the circus at the age of five when his parents took him to see his first show. “Moscow Circus is a little different than American circus,” Sacha explains. “It’s kind of like . . . du Soleil, you know? It’s a big, big production. It’s not like here, with clowns walking around and selling ice cream and stuff. I was pretty amazed. I remember jugglers. Especially jugglers.”

Beginning that day, Sacha practiced relentlessly for his first tryout. His hard work paid off when he was accepted at the age of ten to Moscow’s Circus College. He spent years studying acrobatics, theater, music, comedy, dancing, and trapeze, slowly distinguishing himself as the best juggler in the school.

“In Moscow,” Kim explains, “the circus is pretty prestigious.” “Yeah,” Sacha agrees. “I guess it’d be like . . . a rock star here.” He recounts stories of touring the Soviet Union’s fifteen republics as a master juggler. “Elephants,” Sacha warns, “are dangerous. Bears—they might seem cute, but they’re also dangerous.” Always looking to expand his theatrical and performance skills, Sacha later joined an avant-garde harlequin theater group, their political satire drawing attention of fans as well as the KGB.

Circus Circus in Reno

Sacha came to Reno about 20 years ago, overcoming Cold War barriers and checkpoints. He worked for a while as a clown at Reno’s Circus Circus Casino. “But American humor is different than Russian humor,” Sacha explains. Decades of show business wearing on him, Sacha stopped performing after a few years. He has recently embarked on a new career. Together with his mother, Sacha started Reno’s first Russian Orthodox Church, where he now serves as church deacon.

Mobile West is thrilled to be working with KUNR in Reno, where people are coming from all over and around the city to share the stories of their lives.

Our evening listening event was a hit. Hugo Morales and Lourdes Oliva Medina of Radio Bilingüe welcomed everyone to Arte Américas while our community partners—many accompanied by family and friends—introduced themselves.

Snacking on ceviche, taquitos, and aqua fresca, people settled into chairs as StoryCorps’ Anna Walters played some favorite clips from past StoryCorps conversations. Martin Pereyra López, representing the Union de Ex-Braceros e Inmigrantes, ended the evening with an unexpected concert, playing a song he wrote about his time as a bracero in the valley.

MobileBooth West couldn’t be happier to be in Fresno, where participants are sharing multigenerational stories of family, migration, education, the campo, and the Fresno that pulsed at the heart of California’s Chicano and Farm Workers movements.

Site Supervisor Whitney Henry-Lester, Facilitator Virginia Lora, and Miami-Dade Community College students

While in Miami, MobileBooth East is partnering with WDNA public radio to record the stories of Latino and Hispanic communities as part of StoryCorps Historias. And we were thrilled to welcome new Mobile Facilitator—and Miami local—Virginia Lora to the road.

Manuel and Mercedes Quiroga

For the first conversation of the day, Mercy and Manny Quiroga talked about family. Manny began the conversation by sharing memories of his father, Manuel Quiroga, who Manny remembers as a strong, determined man, “with great hands.” Manny particularly remembers the time that his father sawed through a ficus tree in their backyard in Havana, Cuba. Fifteen feet in diameter, the tree was so large that its roots were interfering with the house’s plumbing. Manny’s father only had access to a tiny pruning saw, so he spent every Saturday and Sunday for two years sawing, stroke by stroke, through the ficus’s huge trunk.

A few years ago, Manny decided to commission artists Haydée and Sahara Scull to create a portrait of his father in his typical plaid shorts, t-shirt, black socks, and loafers. After some thought, however, Manny realized that the portrait would really be incomplete without his mother. Yet he could hardly include his mother while omitting the rest of the family. Plans for the portrait eventually grew to include Manny’s entire family, their business, their car, and the street on which they lived in Havana. At this point, Manny’s wife Mercy pointed out that her family also lived on that block. Their mothers, after all, were old friends: the ones who introduced them.

Its evolution complete, the painting now hangs in the Quiroga home: an enormous, three-dimensional street scene of both families on their block in La Habana Vieja.

Quiroga Hermanos, Calle Muralla 458, through the artistry of the Scull sisters.

Geographically speaking, Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S., boasting miles of open beaches and waterways. We kicked off opening day in the heart of downtown. Jacksonville’s Hemming Plaza—originally a village green—was the first park in the city, and is now the oldest.

Frances Kinne inaugurated the booth with the first conversation of the day, but Frances has been the first of many things. She was the first woman to become president of a Florida University when she took the position at Jacksonville University. She later became chancellor, and then chancellor emeritus. Frances shared stories of living in China, Japan, and occupied Germany while married to her husband Colonel Kinne, during World War II.

Alton Yates joined his daughter Toni Yates in the StoryBooth soon after. At the age of nineteen, Mr. Yates left his hometown of Jacksonville to serve in the Air Force. While stationed in New Mexico, he joined a research division studying the effects of g-forces on the human body. He did this by becoming the division’s “human guinea pig,” literally placing himself inside rocket sleds for testing. Mr. Yates remembered coming home from the relative egalitarianism of the military to return to a Jim-Crow era Jacksonville. He still has a scar on his head from an injury he incurred at a Civil Rights demonstration. The demonstration took place in front of a Woolworth’s department store that still stands downtown, not far from where MobileBooth East sits today.

“When I was 11 years old,” Lee continued, “I used to take two big mules and turn ground all day long, out in the country. It weren’t easy.”

The oldest of eleven children, Lee worked 72 acres of cotton, corn, and tobacco on his family’s land in North Carolina. The job was year-round and left him with little time for school. “I got to school about two days a week, and I was the biggest kid in school. I got disgusted with school. My dad said, ‘you’re worth more to me at home than you are in school. You got to work on this farm. We got to live.’ And so it was hard,” Lee remembered. “And I still have a problem with not being able to read and write. But God sees me through.”

Lee brought his guitar to the booth. While growing up, he used to play clubs in Virginia and North Carolina. Today, Lee fills the booth with his bluesy renditions of “Tell Me Why” and “Amazing Grace.” You can listen to him sing by clicking on the links.

Nancy’s story was different. “I had a problem, years ago, with drugs and alcohol. If it weren’t for JCOC and their programs and guidance, I probably wouldn’t be here today.” Nancy has been sober over six years, and she now works as JCOC’s kitchen manager.

Nancy and Lee have known each other since 1995.

“He’s easy to talk to,” Nancy explained. “Kind-hearted, good Christian. Proud to say he’s your friend and you know him.”

Lee agrees. “Ever since I met Nancy, we’ve always been good friends, yes sir. I couldn’t ever say anything against this woman.”

We cut the StoryBooth ribbon in this historic city on a cold day in front of the Akron-Summit County Public Library. WKSU, our public broadcasting host, warmed up the crowd with coffee and pastries while former Deputy Mayor Dorothy Jackson and Reverend Dr. Ronald Fowler christened the booth with the first conversation of the day.

Reverend Ronald Fowler served as Senior Pastor of the Arlington Church of God, in Akron for over 40 years. He has also served as a bridge-builder and adviser to countless Akronites, including Deputy Mayor Jackson herself. A tireless social activist, Dorothy Jackson was the first African-American woman to serve in an Akron mayor’s cabinet. Her lifelong work on behalf of fair housing, disabled workers’ rights, and as an interpreter for the deaf has earned her many humanitarian awards as well as a place in the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.



Don and Patrick Primm kicked off Akron’s second interview with a conversation about car-racing, car-selling, and the changing industry. His father, brothers, and uncles all worked at Goodyear, but Don Primm took a different route into working with cars. At a time when “Porsche” was still a mostly unknown word in the U.S., Don founded one of first American Porsche & Audi dealerships. Now 78, Don recently retired, leaving the dealership in the hands of his children, including Patrick.

Father Bob: A True Man

Jim Murray and his son Bob Murray came to the MobileBooth to talk about Father Bob, Jim’s older brother and a devoted priest. Jim and Father Bob are the two youngest sons in an Irish-Catholic family of five boys, all with big personalities. The other brothers became engineers, attorneys, and insurance partners, but Father Bob knew from the age of nine that he’d become a priest.

Jim recalled, “He was never a pastor…He was quiet. If we were in a room, and if there were thirty people in that room, I’d go around and meet thirty people and I’d remember who they were and where they were from. But if there were two people in that room that were hurting, and one was thinking about suicide, somehow they would talk to Father Bob. And he would make them feel better about themselves.”

Father Bob’s life was cut short by sickness when he was just in his 40s, and Jim named his son after him. Jim explained, “He did his best. In a quiet way. And sometimes in our society we forget that to be quiet, to have inner peace, to have inner strength-that that’s what should be admired in our society. And I’m not knocking our society, it’s a great society, but sometimes there are people that see life in a different vision than we do, and it’s healthier than the way we look at it.”

Lillian Roudebush: A Caretaker Across Generations

When they were young, Emma Lee McCloskey and her brothers had a babysitter, Lillian. To Emma Lee, she was more than a babysitter. “I don’t think that would be the term I’d use. She was so much more than that.” Throughout Emma Lee’s childhood, Lillian would take her on walks around the Erie cemetery and down the street to spend time with elderly neighbors.

Years later, Emma Lee was a single parent with a son of her own, and Lillian cared for him as well. She took Brad on walks similar to those she’d taken with Emma Lee. Both Emma Lee and Brad remember the cemetery filled with tulips, and the PB&Js that Lillian would make, using more jelly than anyone else would consider. They also both remember the day she was hit by a truck in a terrible accident. Emma Lee and Brad were with Lillian through her recovery, through the sickness that ensued, and through her death in a nursing home.

Emma Lee recalled, “I know that between the two of us and all the people she impacted through her long life, and the way she didn’t dominate but allowed other people to come forth…she taught us by her heart and her caring spirit that one becomes family by being family. And that’s what she was to us.”

Clarence E. Beyers: Champion of Music and Community

Bruce Morton Wright, director of the Erie Chamber Orchestra and Erie Opera Theater, is widely credited with jump-starting Erie’s strong music community. A lesser known fact is that Erie’s music community was also backed by a behind-the-scenes benefactor.

One day 30 years ago, Clarence E. Beyers strolled into Bruce’s pick-up orchestra holding a duct-taped viola case. Bruce didn’t know it at the time, but Clarence was a visionary, and would slowly make his vision a reality. Bruce explained, “Clarence’s dream was to have an organization that could provide quality performances for the community but free of charge: to break down that barrier.”

Unprompted, Clarence began to fund—and continued to fund for decades—Erie’s free music programs, gradually establishing an entire season of free orchestra and opera performances in Erie. And he did all this without seeking acknowledgment.

“Now, Clarence was a special man. There are very few people that I have ever met that want to support something without anybody knowing that they had…He didn’t want to have his picture taken, take bows, or anything whatsoever,” Bruce said. Over the years, Erie’s music community flourished. “But if it weren’t for that individual,” Bruce explained, “that Mr. Beyers, that Clarence, that person that walked in with that viola with that duct tape keeping that case closed, if it hadn’t been for that input, that generosity to get us started, we wouldn’t be here. And I just hope that this community takes a moment to appreciate what he did for it.”

When Esmeraldaliz Torres was seven, she wanted to play the violin. She had signed up for classes at Erie’s Inner-City Neighborhood Art House, but the violin didn’t work out for her. Instead, they gave her a cello.

Esmeraldaliz’s mother Janet remembers the moment she first saw her daughter play. Esmeraldaliz was only seven years old, and Janet “got scared for her first performance because the actual cello was bigger than her.” They both laugh when they talk about that day. “I really didn’t know how you were supposed to play the cello, so I put a miniskirt on her, and that didn’t work because it had to go in between her legs. They ended up making a long skirt for her.”

Now eleven, Esmeraldaliz is one of the best cellists at the Inner-City Art House, and Janet is still front-and-center at her performances.

Not everything has always gone so seamlessly in the Torres family. Janet’s own mother wasn’t around when she was growing up in the Bronx. No one she knew played the cello, and few people in her family finished high school. Esmeraldaliz is an honor student, but she still struggles sometimes with math. Janet remembers working together on long division. “At the time I was still going for my GED because I was a high school dropout. But it was a pretty good process because we learned together… Once I got on that graduating stage, it was like I could to anything. All I could hear was my name being screamed. My kids and my husband.” Leaning into the mic, Esmeraldaliz imitates her family, yelling “Mom mom mom!”

At the end of their conversation, Janet looks at her daughter. She asks: “What’s the first memory you have of me?”

Esmeralda takes a moment before she replies: “The first time that I ever performed. When I saw your face.”

“And what did you think?”

“I thought you were really proud of me.”

“I was.”

“She was actually, like, kind of crying.”

Janet laughs. “Tears of joy, though. I was real proud. It’s like I couldn’t believe that I did such a good job that she was up there.”