Kiger Hour spotlights Latino community in Cache Valley

Folklore archives curator Randy Williams and Professors Maria Spicer-Escalante and Eduardo Ortiz introduced an audience to the Latino/Latina Voices Project on Thursday evening at Café Sabor.

Their discussion was part of the Kiger Hour, a monthly program sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. They spoke about the history of the project and the recent addition of youth narratives to the oral history collection in the Merrill-Cazier Library's digital collection.

The project, which seeks to capture what it means to be Hispanic in Cache Valley, started at Utah State in 2007 when Williams was moving records from the old Merrill Library’s archives and realized the perspective of the Latino population was not well represented.

“When we were getting ready to move from that library we had to box up stuff,” Williams said. “When I was going through the materials I kept saying to myself that there wasn’t anything in special collections that really reflects the Latino community. It just bugged me.”

Forty-seven people were interviewed for the project in 2007 and the interviews were transcribed and translated into English and Spanish. After winning a Human Ties Award from the Utah Humanities Council in 2009, Williams realized the project was still incomplete — it was missing the perspective of younger Latinos, he said.

 “We discovered that we needed to know more about what the youth were thinking,” Williams said. “So we started asking the youth.”
Ortiz said it is important to realize there is a separation between the first and second generation of immigrants.

“The difference between those two groups is huge,” Ortiz said. “In order to help this second generation it is important to understand the complexity of this group and the challenges they are facing.”

All of the students in Mountain Crest High School’s Latino Discovery class were interviewed for the project.

Emmie Staker co-founded Latino Discovery, which includes native students as well as immigrants.

“The new students that I have really felt a part of something,” Staker said. “They all loved it.”
One of the students interviewed was Luis Aduardo. He talked about the positive effects of his parents' decision to move to Cache Valley. He also talked about the struggles he has faced, including his grandmother's deportation five years ago.

“I’m glad that I finally got to say something about how I felt about living here in Cache Valley,” Aduardo said. “I hope that the community will realize that people need to work for what they have and that life isn’t always easy.”

Spicer-Escalante said that although Hispanics face many hardships, they generally view coming to the United States as a good thing and work hard to improve their skills.

“One thing that they all agree is that sacrifices and persistence is important to be successful,” she said.

Spicer-Escalante is pleased with the success of the project.

“I can't think of a better way to bring the Latino community to light,” she said.
Williams asked members of the Latino community in attendance to contribute to the effort to continue to grow the project.

“We hope throughout the years to add more interviews,” Williams said. “We hope that you tonight will help build up the voice of the Latino people by adding letters, diaries and journals.”

Brooke Larsen, McCarty Hatfield, Tricia Olson, Rhys Stephens and Landon Graham contributed to this article.