Theory and Functional Skills-Everything a University Class Should Entail

As an Anishinaabe woman who has been inculcated in the importance of knowing the history of her family, community, and nation, I was very interested in taking Latina Oral History with Professor Cotera. The very first day of class I realized that the adventures upon which we were about to embark would be applicable to my own interests and projects in language and cultural revitalization in my home community in that I would be gaining skills that I could use to preserve the unique experiences of the members of my tribe. The theoretical background on the construction and preservation of history was important in that it emphasized the need to preserve the histories of marginalized people. The readings from Archives Power demonstrated the importance of archives as places of power and truth that can authenticate historical narratives and preserve and disseminate knowledge. I learned that archives are subject to the same biases that permeate our society in that some archives are deemed more valuable than others based on the interests of those who may or may not choose to house a collection. I discovered the archivists have an immense responsibility to make sure that a multitude of histories are preserved.

            One of the most valuable things I learned about oral history is that there is more than one way to conduct oral history interviews, although there are some conventions, such as open-ended questions, that make the process run more smoothly. When Elena Herrada was discussing her oral history project, “Los Repatriados,” she discussed how the framing of the project or a question can encourage or inhibit participation or a response. I also became aware of how an interviewer and interviewee can have different ideas about what may or may not be important and that it is sometimes best to let the narrative take its own course. A good oral historian helps the interviewee to begin the narrative, asks only enough questions to sustain the narrative, and, most importantly, listens carefully.

            When it came to assisting in the oral history of Elena Herrada, I found that our lessons about the Chicano and Chicana history gave me a more complete understanding of Herrada’s experiences. Being familiar with labor movements like the United Farm Workers union and government initiatives like the repatriation of Mexican immigrants and Mexican-American citizens allowed me to comfortably follow the trajectory of Herrada’s life and would have assisted in determining what types of follow up questions would be the most appropriate to the Chicana Por Mi Raza project. This class made me familiar with the logistics and resources required of embarking on such a project. We found that having to borrow equipment from the university’s media lab was problematic in that often times the video cameras reserved for the project were not always available. This lead to our group’s specific problem of being unable to upload the video files from the media cards. We also discovered that an immense amount of planning goes into each potential interview, and that the best laid plans often fall apart at the last minute. We were definitely shown how to be flexible when circumstances change.

            Creating the digital archive was very informative. While sorting through the archive, my group and I thought a lot about what would be useful to future scholars. We found a very old newspaper and a funeral program that gave insight into some of the people who working on labor issues in Detroit during the 1980’s. We also found quite a

 bit of information about the planning of “Los Repatriados” oral history project and materials that related to issues that were touched upon in Herrada’s oral history interviews. I wish we could have had a little more time to go through the archive because I was worried that I may have scanned some superfluous items. The actual scanning lent me several real world skills. I was taught appropriate formatting of media files and resolutions for high quality scans that translate well into a digital archive. I also learned to be flexible in the type of scanners that were available for us to use but found that I preferred the more complex scanner upon which we had originally be trained.

            The cataloguing of the archive was far more tedious than the scanning, but we benefitted from the easy to use catalog that Maria Seiferle-Valencia put together and her catalog guidelines. Tina and I did our best to catalog while we were scanning, but I had to spend several hours after the scanning was complete to finish the catalog. I found that using two computers was very efficient for when I did not have the archive with me. One computer displayed the scans from the external hard drive, while I put the data into the spreadsheet on the second computer in order to avoid having to switch between windows. I might have enjoyed the cataloging more, and with far less eye strain, if I had had the actual archive with me. However, there is risk associated with carting someone’s personal archive to different locations. Despite my dislike for the catalog, after being very intimately acquainted with it for such a long time, it was very helpful when the scans were uploaded to the Medici site. Instead of having to gather and type the information from the archive as the scans were being uploaded to the site, all we had to do was copy and paste the information from the spreadsheet.

            In addition to the real world skills of archiving and conducting oral histories, our focus on Chicana feminism led to a greater apprehension of women of color feminism and social movements. Chicana history was very important to this class as many of the things that we read about came up in many of the oral history interviews. Our readings, like 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History, gave us brief glimpses of how Aztec ancestry, “La Malinche,” Indigenous women’s acts of resistance against colonization, women’s roles in the war for independence, the Mexican-American war, and the Mexican Revolution informed the Chicano movement and Chicana feminism. Shared Aztec ancestry and a mythical homeland gave Chicanas and Chicanas an identity around which to organize. “La Malinche,” a woman who assisted Cortez and became known as a traitor among Mexicans, became a term for Chicanas who were deemed divisive to the Chicano movement of the 1960’s for their demand for equality within the movement. We learned that there is a long history of women’s resistance to patriarchy and colonialism and how those women served as inspiration in later labor and social movements. Maylei Blackwell’s book, Chicana Power, and Kimberly Springer’s book, Living for the Revolution, gave us further insight into feminist organizing within nationalist movements and demonstrated how oral histories are utilized to bring marginalized voices into the common historical narrative. This class has meant a lot to me, and I look forward to utilizing what I’ve learned in my future endeavors.