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Mary just a quick word about collecting Oral history. You probably have
been doing it for a long time so please excuse me saying stuff that you
might already have been practicing (just pretent that I'm talking to
someone else). I've found that if you go into an "interview" loaded
with questions you won't get as far a if you just let "them tell their
story (their stories)." Many times asking "when did so and so pass?"
will make for a difficult question as compared to "Were you married
when so and so died? . . .and "were any of your children born yet when
so and so had passed?" Later you can calculate from their birth the
date. Something about asking them to remember exact dates that throws a
wrench in the whole works. I have had good success with questions like:
"Tell me about what things were like when you were in grade school?"
"Tell me what it was like during the depression?"
"Tell me what things were like when you were 20 years old?"
"Oh, tell me more about that story?"
"Oh, tell me about your parents and did they ever tell you stories
about their parents?"
"Tell me about if you heard of relatives living in other parts of
Mexico?"
"etc., etc., etc.,"
Once they start rolling on some story let them go even if they stray,
but be ready with some related question to gently bring them back on
topic if the straying goes to far. Its amazing how much people that say
they "don't remember anything" know when you let them just tell stories.
joseph
Mary Allen wrote:
Thank you, Victor. Now I know where San Felipe is located and
it is not a surprise visit. And I will purchase a cellular phone.
There are two more places I need to visit, but perhaps not on this
trip: San Luis Potosi, SLP and Salinas, SLP. Something to look forward
to.
It's a strange feeling: I have been working so intensely on this
project for the last few weeks. Now that I have a few photographs,
their faces are so etched on my mind that I dream about them. I feel
as if I know them and I am just going to go "meet" them on their own
turf. I have been sharing each step with my family and we all feel as
if something great is about to happen, as if one of them walked in the
front door, we wouldn't be surprised. It's just that we have been
looking for them for so very long and now, suddenly, they start to
appear with their stories, some of them quite sad. They are more than
names and dates and pictures; they are real. As if they are coming
home to us.
Mary
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