Re: [ranchos] ORAL HISTORY

[Joseph Puentes <makas@...>]

Wow, what a find. I wish I was there because around 1953 or so my 
Grandfather also went to El Paso to visit relatives and then went back 
to Jalisco for a visit. Possibly he is in those records you mention.
but as to your question. I am no expert in oral history but before she 
died a couple of months ago I was talking to my Aunt who has Jalisco 
roots every other week for the last two years of her life. I badly need 
to transcribe all those conversations that are on tape along with 100's 
of other hours of interviews with relatives. I wish I was 20 people as I 
could spend 20 life times just interviewing relatives. I think that is 
the main thing you should do is gather gather gather. Get the data while 
it is available. One day another generation will die along with all the 
stories that only they and possibly a few others knew.
there are some good discussion groups on oral history and maybe you 
might want to join this one and ask some general questions there. If you 
find some good nuggets that are of general worth to us please feel free 
to share them with the group. Even though I'm trying to stay on target 
of our geographical area and the genealogy of that area subjects of 
general use are always welcome to be discussed especially when they have 
to do with a subject I consider more important than research. . .the 
collecting of Oral History!
joseph:

Mon, 15 Dec 2003 15:05:12

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yolanda medina-perez wrote:

> Recently I went to the library at UTEP in El Paso and discovered two 
> interesting projects, one which deals with oral history and 
> basically dealing with their memories of life in El Paso and of 
> course how they lived back in the early 1930s, 40s, etc.  My cousins 
> grandmother was interviewed and recorded. The conversation was later 
> transcribed and is available to the public. The second discovery 
> were the files of Cleofas Calleros. During the 1940s, people who 
> lived in in the US and were originally from Mexico would go to his 
> office for documentation if they needed to go into the interior of 
> Mexico. In these records I found pictures of my four grandparents, 
> uncles,aunts,cousins and inlaws. Some of the documents give place of 
> birth, place, parents, spouse and their prsent adddress. They even 
> include a brief physical description.  WOW! what a find, they also 
> made copies for me. Just visit the 6th floor at UTEP Library but be 
> prepared with list of names and plenty of time. The one draw back is 
> the very sad fact that the files from A-E FILES WERE DESTROYED 
> before the new owners offered the collection to the University. 
> Thanks to UTEP I now have a little more info about my family and 
> some very treasured pictures, Oh and by the way they allow you to 
> take a digital camera in and take pictures.     
> Now my QUESTION????
> Have any of the ranchos members done any oral history work and if so 
> what would be a good format for genealogy/family purposes?  Help 
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