This is the end... Grace's Final Reflection

This semester was a growing experience for me because it complicated my view of history and the history making process. I learned to embrace forms of history that might be rejected by some historians as imprecise, untrustworthy, or illegitimate. I learned to focus more on whose stories are being told and who is telling those stories. I found that the ability to disperse one’s own interpretation of events to a wide audience is inextricably intertwined with power over narrating the past and how that past relates to the present. Studying oral histories and archiving in the context of Chicana feminism was fundamental in getting a solid understanding of these issues of power that we learned about. Being able to apply these strategies in the real world to contribute to interpretations of history and to tell the story of mid-Western Chicana feminists was an opportunity that few get and an experience that I will never forget.

Methodologies of Archival Research

Like I mentioned in my blog post from the beginning of the course, my first impression of archival research was not a positive one. Before this semester I conceived of archives as dusty collections with few pieces of interesting material and mostly information that would be used by scholars to, say, estimate how many people were killed during the Civil War. This class changed my perception of archives and the methodologies of archival research entirely. I learned through cataloging Elena Herrada’s archive that archives certainly do not need to be boring and that the stories they tell can be extremely interesting and full of revelations for the reader.

Before this course, the process of archival research was entirely hazy for me. I had no idea what organizational systems were used or how people found useful information. I also did not really have a concept of personal archives. Our trips to the Bentley Historical Library and the Labadie Collection were very instructive (and fun) experiences that taught me much more about public access to archives and how personal archives can contribute to a broader understanding of a topic (such as radical politics). The trip that Ari and I took to the Burton Historical Collection also illustrated another common use of archival research: ancestry research. We researched alongside a group of Daughters of the American Revolution who were researching the ancestors of their group (focusing on past leaders and their accomplishments). I was surprised by the number of people who were at this collection, fully engaged in archival research. This was evidence to me that more people are engaged in archival research than merely college students and academics and that archives serve a valuable purpose beyond the realm of academia.

I really appreciated being able to engage in archival research myself and also experience the other side of this process by organizing and cataloging an entirely new archive. I learned about how much attention to detail is required in organizing and creating a finding system for an archive. Specifically attention to what tags might be relevant and considering how people might want to use these histories in the future. I know from my own experience of looking for information on Elena Herrada on the websites for the Reuther library, Burton Collection and quite a few others that it is important to include tags that might be valuable for researchers and the importance of specific descriptions. On the other hand, from a research point of view I learned the necessity of putting oneself in the mindset of the cataloger to perform a successful search.

Methodologies of Oral History

            I again had little understanding of the methodologies or even the concept of oral history before this course. Through this course I was able to learn quite a bit of practical information that synced neatly with course readings on the topic of oral history. It was valuable for me to learn all the necessary techniques and all of the back-up procedures. I gained a useful skillset through the process of creating oral histories: from the ability to manipulate a sophisticated camera to understanding the effect of surroundings on film quality and adjusting surroundings accordingly.

We learned in both our practice run and in Elena Herrada’s interview that ambient noise can provide a distraction and that there are different options for different types of noise. In the case of the initial location we planned to film at, when we realized that the building (the Boulevard House) was undergoing repairs that promised to be loud and distracting exactly during the time we planned to do the interview, the best thing to do, we decided, was to abandon that location in search of a newer, quieter one. In this case we were not able to adjust the noise level in our surroundings by stopping the source of the noise but rather by replacing our film environment entirely. In other instances, we had more power in controlling extra noises in our filming. When the mic changed positions on our interview subject or made other problematic noises, we were able to pause the interview and make appropriate adjustments. Some other types of ambient noise we were not really able to control at all. The heater, for instance, turned on and off during our interview and made noise during these times but we just had to accept that as part of the oral history. During our practice run, Ari and I also encountered noisy chipmunks, but again, in some cases there is no way to control for external noises and they end up becoming a part of the oral history.

            I was impressed by how well our experience of oral histories stood up to what we had read and heard about oral histories. For instance, we learned that subjects will usually be able to tell their entire story with the interviewer just asking a question or two and found this to be the case in interviewing Elena. Our experience also coheres with the “Doing Oral History” reading which says: “The passage of time enables people to make sense out of earlier events in their lives” and “Actions take on new significance depending on their later consequences” (Ritchie 34). We could see this in Elena Herrada’s oral history because she would describe certain people and tell us what happened to them after the point in time she discusses in her story. She did this because part of their character is defined by events that occur after a certain memory or certain point of time. For instance, the fact that a person (in an extreme case) committed suicide later on in their life is an important piece of information about who that person was and what they might have been dealing with throughout their life. Therefore, although it is not part of the chronological flow of a story describing something that person did earlier in their life; it is still an important detail that contributes to how the subject has come to view the person who committed suicide and their interactions with each other. We saw how time can influence people’s memory in these types of non-chronological descriptions that were included in the memories we heard.

            Through this class I learned both about the technical side of oral history and the more abstract, including how memory works in relation to time. I learned also how academics integrate oral histories into their works through reading Maylei Blackwell and Kimberly Springer. Both of these authors use oral histories among other sources of information to help create a more inclusive concept of the respective movements they analyze. Through this course we learned about the methodologies of oral history from all angles: the point of view of the recorder, the subject and the historian analyzing the history. We also gained the confidence to be able to perhaps conduct our own oral history projects in future, or at least play a supportive role or advise others who may work on similar projects.

Working in “Real World” situations

            I would have to say that I feel I learned the most about “real world” situations when all six of our group members arrived at the Boulevard House with all the equipment and eventually realized that the oral history would not be very good film quality if we filmed it there. The flexibility we needed to have in order to change locations (and Elena Herrada being gracious enough to allow us into her home on an unplanned filming visit) spoke “real world” to me. This experience taught me that something is most likely going to go wrong and you have to be willing to do whatever you can to recover it. Even (and maybe especially) the world of oral histories has times when you become thrown into different circumstances than you had planned for and you have to try to redeem the situation as best you can. I learned from the other members of the team who blended seamlessly into the new location that carrying out these oral histories in the “real world” – with a real subject and a real national project interested in the results of our oral history – means that things can and probably will go wrong but being able to adapt is key to being able to succeed.

Chicana Feminism

From our readings on Chicana feminism, I realized how much I am interested in the concepts expressed by many Chicana feminists. I found that I really appreciate the concept of the connection between social justice work and feminism in particular. In this course we learned about the social justice actions of women of color feminists and the concept of third world feminism. This concept is a very interesting one because it is a unifying view of marginalized women all over the world (across national/cultural lines).  I appreciate the social justice lens applied to a feminist consciousness that is observable in the actions and archives of third world feminists and women of color feminists. Before this, I was not really clear on whether identity as a women played a role in other social justice pursuits, but also through readings such as Triple Jeopardy, I came to understand that these two areas can be powerfully related and that this nexus can actually be a point of mobilization – women who see a need in social justice areas can use their common identity as women to create cohesive groups that can work together to produce valuable, tangible results. One example of women unifying to create tangible results is the women of the Brown Berets working together to create a free clinic in East L.A.

            Chicana Feminism is powerful in creating tangible results. Although there was an ideological struggle to decipher exactly what the calling of Chicana women should be (whether they must choose between their identities as Chicanas and their identities as women); women still bonded together through this struggle and were able to create tangible change in their communities no matter what side of this ideological line they fell on. We have learned that Chicana feminist organizations (and many feminist organizations in general), were not always able to create sustained organizations that lasted more than a few decades; however Maylei Blackwell and Kimberly Springer were both very powerful in showing the successes of many women of color feminist organizations while they lasted and their legacies today.

            I learned a lot through our conversations about Chicana feminism and believe that hearing oral histories by Chicana feminists (although some of the subjects of these oral histories do not identify as such) was invaluable in expanding my understanding of Chicana feminism from what we discussed in the rest of this course.

What I learned about Myself

            I learned that I have a genuine interest in Archives and Oral Histories as recordings of the past. I learned through this process that I am capable of performing tasks not commonly done by undergrads such as facilitating the recording of different voices about contributing to our understanding of the history of America. This project opened my perspective to life outside of undergrad classes (which is typically pretty hard to do when classes take up so much time) and helped me feel that, even as an undergrad, I can make an impact on audiences wider than the university.

This course was hugely helpful in utilizing multiple teaching methods to increase my understanding of the theoretical concepts we discussed. The combination of readings, lecturing and actually being able to create archives and oral histories ourselves was something that allowed more depth of understanding than would have been conveyed with merely reading or lecturing about this material. Being able to act on what we had learned and seeing the challenges in our own experience that we had read about in the experience of accomplished scholars helped me to feel truly engaged.