With funding from the NEH, the Oral History Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas embarked on an effort to document Latinx impact on Southern Nevada’s educational systems, business sectors, politics, and cultural life. The project supported student success and inspired investment from the local community, all while documenting and preserving 160 oral histories that ensure Latinx history will be represented in broader narratives of the region in years to come.
“The project documents the city’s Latinx people, where and how they lived, and what their jobs were like, and while doing so documents the evolution of Las Vegas itself.”
–Claytee White, director of the Oral History Research Center
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The success of Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada was in large part due to the contributions of students at UNLV and the leadership of project manager Barbara Tabach. Tabach hired and supported students whose families came from throughout Latin America and who were already involved in the local community. In addition to building a skill set by documenting, transcribing, and editing interviews, students helped the project access local organizations and leaders, ensuring that the oral histories represented the diversity of Las Vegas’s Latinx community. As a result of their efforts, the project documented the oral history of Geoconda Argüello-Kline, the first female Secretary Treasure of the Culinary Union Local 226; Frances Montes, the first woman to serve as president of Hispanics in Politics (HIP); and Otto Merida, co-founder of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, among many others.
In addition to documenting and preserving the oral histories, the project engaged with and was supported by the local community in a number of ways. With the local public radio station, the project produced a podcast called Latinx Voices Unveiled. The project hosted public events that featured live interviews and food from the cultures represented in the project. During Hispanic Heritage Month, the City of Las Vegas invited student workers to participate in a program about the project. Both the city and several local businesses were motivated to make significant financial contributions to the project—and a local historic preservation society gave the students small grants to support their studies.
Asked about the need for this project, Claytee White, director of the Oral History Research Center, said that “When it came to individual communities, we didn’t know enough about their contributions. We interviewed the first Latinx judge and football player, and learned about the Latinx role in school integration. The project documents the city’s Latinx people, where and how they lived, and what their jobs were like, and while doing so documents the evolution of Las Vegas itself.” Researchers are already using the collection to understand Latinx lives and contributions in the region, ensuring that future histories of Las Vegas will be more complete and rich.