This past week StoryCorps headed south to Austin, TX, for the 2011 South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Summit and Film Festival.   Interactive indeed!  The Austin Convention Center was buzzing – or dare I say a-twitter – with activity.  Thanks to our friends at P.O.V. and PBS who sponsored a series of interviews, we recorded interviews with bloggers and web developers and documentary filmmakers. In homage to the interactive nature of the conference, here’s a recap of the conference in the form of a twitter feed:

• @herbadmother @unmarketing “I’m a #mommy blogger and proud of it!”  Catherine Connors talks with friend  Scott Stratten about parenting and working from home.
• From the #Upper Peninsula in Michigan to #Afghanistan, Cole, Matt, Dominic & Heather discussed their upcoming doc: Where Soldiers Come From http://huff.to/hIbxJy
• @mollycrabapple @jahfurry, friends and collaborators, Molly Crabapple & Jeff Newelt talk illustration, comics, burlesque and dystopian internet futures
• @jw @rachelruns, Husband and wife, Josh and Rachel Williams discuss raising a family and the ups and downs of building an internet startup: @gowalla
• Filmmakers PJ Raval and Kyle Henry spoke about influence versus inspiration and the poignant moments of their lives. http://bit.ly/gVooi8 http://bit.ly/diLac2
• @pamslim @stephanieklein, new friends, Pamela Slim and Stephanie Klein talk inspiration, risk-taking, and breaking free (Yippee!) from the cubicle
• @kinodeluxe Professors and filmmakers Andy Garrison and Bart Weiss talk sound. How are we influenced by sound? It’s the first sense to develop and the last to go.
• 8 homemade bombs, 2 years in prison, Bradley Crowder talks with doc filmmaker Katie Galloway about activism and ideology  http://to.pbs.org/dSEv4p
• @paolo @amanda_hirsch Twitter pals, Paolo Sambrano and Amanda Hirsch met for the first time in-person at StoryCorps! They talked writing and internet friendship

We didn’t know what bi-polar was, we didn’t know what autistic was. We just knew there was something wrong with their behavior. We said, “Okay, we can observe behaviors.” That was our method. When we started watching the behaviors of people, we understood what was happening and their behavior told us what to do.

Another problem was that all of the materials available from the state were in English and were designed for middle class people. Ignacio translated the materials into Spanish, but it wasn’t just a language issue. Ignacio also had to culturally translate the materials for the Mexican-American population he was working with. One strategy was to get the fathers involved: ”If I got the father involved in the program, the mother and children would follow. That’s what the culture indicated.”

Another strategy Ignacio used was to work with curanderos, or medicine doctors. They had a lot of influence in the community and controlled what people used for medication.

We got a hold of those curanderos and told them, “I’m gonna give you a little pill, this is called Thorazine. Will you give it to Miguel? But only give it to Miguel and no one else.” The curanderos were great for the people because most of the people didn’t know doctors. They were the guys that helped the families get by and provided the services that people needed.

Eventually, Ignacio and his colleagues were able to grow their informal mental health network in the Rio Grande Valley into something larger. They were recognized by the state, and Texas even used their model to start bringing services into other under-served communities.

Looking back, Ignacio is proud of what he accomplished. “I used to work from seven in the morning to nine at night for 30 years,” he says. “Helping kids is one of the best things there is. You don’t care how long you work.”

Ignacio and Adreinne’s interview was recorded in partnership with Las Comadres para las Americas and the Austin History Center.

Charlotte Flynn, who celebrated her 90th birthday on March 28, came in with her son Greg and talked about growing up in St. Louis and meeting her husband, Bill. After graduating from Washington University in 1941, Bill got a job working as an engineer on the Panama Canal. Three months later, Charlotte joined him in Panama. She told her son Greg about a night in Panama she will never forget :

On December 7, 1941, it was the first day that Dad had a chance to take me sightseeing in Panama. And it was about five o’clock. All the transportation were Army buses….and they all congregated at the train station. And were getting ready to go home and all the service men were just streaming out. And we said, “What’s going on?” They responded, “We don’t know. Get back to your base as soon as possible!”

So then we got back to our apartment and we didn’t know what was going on. We were just married, and we couldn’t afford a radio….Then when our neighbors came home, we found out about what happened. I was starting to fix supper, and then all the lights went out. And after a little while, they went on, stayed on for half an hour, and from then on we lived in blackout.

Every plane in the Panama Canal was up in the air. And you just heard that noise all night long, just zooming around. So it’s a night that’s well etched in my memory.

Soon after, construction on the canal stopped and Bill began working for the Army Corps on Engineers.

While we were recording at Family ElderCare, Julie Moody, a reporter from KUT, Austin’s public radio station, came to check it out. She spoke with Charlotte and Greg, as well as with Emma Long, who recorded an interview later that day. Visit the KUT website to hear more from Charlotte and Emma.