Title: Juana Valdez oral history, 2011

Identifier: OH0265   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/16148)

Description: Audio recording and text transcription of a Latino oral history for an event held at Joyner Library on April 10, 2011. Ms. Valdez was born in 1968 in Oaxaca, Mexico. She began working at an early age, and advocating for the fair treatment of Mixtec workers in Mexico. She speaks of learning Spanish in school. After her husband left for the United States, she followed with their children, crossing the border in Arizona and going to Florida to pick cucumbers. Eventually she came to Tarboro, N.C., where she worked in a factory. She began working with Juvencio Rocha Peralta, founder of the Asociación de Mexicanos en Carolina del Norte (AMEXCAN), developing programs for Mexican immigrant youth in North Carolina. The interview forms part of the Latino Oral History Archive, and was conducted by Drs. Ricardo Contreras (Anthropology, ECU) and David Griffith (Anthropology and Coastal Science and Policy, ECU) with funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council.