Monday, November 16, 2015

Angela Reyes's Oral History

Interview with Angela Reyes
November 8, 2015
Detroit, MI
Chicana Por Mi Raza


"I really did not come up with any issues with scanning and taking notes. The notes part was easy. Ramiro synched the timer on his phone with every take, so the notes could have a correct time next to them. I would def recommend trying it. As for the scanner, it was fairly easy to scan all the documents, except we did come up with some issues when documents were awkwardly sized. There were a few documents that we came across that were too long or wide for the scanner. Maria brought with her a clear plastic film that we used to place over the documents (in this case a newspaper article) and we took a picture of it with one of our phones. We also scanned the item in chunks for safe measure. The images we scanned in chunks will have to be stitched together at some point, so for clarity, we used the same item number for each piece (when naming the document to be saved). For multiple images for one document, we named them as follows AR2015_A001, AR2015_B001, AR2015C001, etc. (this is just an example, not an accurate document title but you get the idea). Overall I really enjoyed the interview, it was not only very informative but also emotional and empowering."
Lizette Esquivel, Data Wrangler/Co-Event Recorder


"Organizing for our interview was pretty seamless. I prepared all necessary documentation, made sure all film equipment was rented, and re-read the research our group had organized a week prior on Angela Reyes and DHDC. While we were always a little past the scheduled time to begin, our whole time there ended right when we said it would; some things took longer than expected (such as finding a space to film) while others took less time than I had scheduled (setting up lighting and camera). I love how our group blurred the lines of roles and assisted one another with filming, planning, and scanning. That way we each got a taste of what each of us was responsible for.Filming at DHDC was a brilliant idea on Angie’s part. She was able to give us a tour, which is part of her oral history actually, and just hearing about how the idea for DHDC came to be while being in the building was very essential to the way we’d like to curate Angie’s biopage. I was delighted when Angie extended an invitation to return for a dinner sponsored by DHDC. There was definitely a connection made between a Southwest Detroit elder and three young students from Southwest Detroit, which was more than I expected to experience. Angie even gifted me some white sage when I told her that I also smudge for clarity. How amazing and generous is that? As an event recorder, however, I failed to actually take pictures! I plan on using the tour footage to extract some stills as there were shots where we were in the frame along with Angie. It is important to note that we kept remembering and vocalizing that we needed to take pictures, but because we were stationed in one room and filming in another, I think photos kept getting pushed to the end until it was time to go. So, word of advice: write out exactly what needs to be done at the interview and cross it off as you go along."
Ramiro Alvarez, Production Manager/Co-Event Recorder



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