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Oral history interview with Julia Lara

Anacostia Community Museum

Object Details

General
Associated documentation for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
Interviewer
Corporan, Héctor, 1945-
Names
Council of Chief State School Officers
Lara, Julia, 1951-
Collection Creator
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
Place
Dominican Republic
Saint Thomas (United States Virgin Islands : Island)
New York (N.Y.)
Washington (D.C.)
United States
Topic
Women
Dominican Americans
Dominican American women
Latin Americans
Emigration and immigration
Education
Education, Bilingual
Identity
Civil rights movements
Manners and customs
Human skin color
Group identity
Racism
Race
Interviews
Interviewer
Corporan, Héctor, 1945-
Culture
Dominicans (Dominican Republic)
See more items in
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Extent
2 Digital files
1 Sound cassette
Date
1993 March 9
Archival Repository
Anacostia Community Museum Archives
Type
Archival materials
Digital files
Sound cassettes
Citation
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Note
The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Scope and Contents
Julia Lara spoke about her parents, brother, and extended family; her elementary school experience and living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; immigrating from Santo Domingo to St. Thomas to New York City; learning English in St. Thomas; attending Catholic elementary school and high school in New York City, community college in NYC, Middlebury College in Vermont, and Columbia University; race in Dominican Republic and the United States; how she identified herself; the impact of the civil rights movement on her; her decision to change her educational focus from political science to education; moving to Adams Morgan community in Washington, DC; her work with the Council of Chief State School Officers; bilingual education; and the merging of Bell Multicultural High School and Cardozo High School. Lara explained why skin pigmentation is an issue within the family unit in Dominican Republic; however, she was not treated differently even though she was the darkest skinned child in the family. She also explained the woman's role in the household, the difficulty getting visas out of Dominican Republic, how life adjustments in New York City differed from adjusting to life in St. Thomas, Latinos of African descent have been placed in a situation where they have to become African American denying where they come from and who they are, racism within the Latino community in Washington, DC, and the relationship between race, culture, and nationality. Julia Lara was interviewed by Hector Corporan. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include white noise and static; interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part. There are several minutes of sound distortion where voices are difficult to understand and some original audio might be missing.
Collection Restrictions
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1712088000981-1712088003365-1
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa77518747e-d085-4cc9-b184-1cd654f5bf0b

Related Content

  • Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records

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