Video Based – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org Oral History Project Mon, 30 Oct 2023 13:59:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/websiteAssets-18-150x150.png Video Based – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org 32 32 Hada Matías https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2023/10/29/hada-matias/ Sun, 29 Oct 2023 22:39:30 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=660

Hada Matías

Interviewed June 21, 2023

Hada Matías was born in Dover, New Jersey and grew up in Elgin, Illinois. In this interview, she examines her family’s Puerto Rican heritage and her own racial identity. She shares insights into her childhood and her growth as a trans woman and a human being. She also explains the challenges and joys of being trans in the United States today.

In this clip, Hada explains her family’s origins in Puerto Rico and shares memories from her uncle’s restaurant, Pat’s Grill.
In this clip, Hada explains how her feminity became a problem in her family, forcing her to hide herself.
In this clip, Hada explains how she went from “living in survival mode” to finding identity, healthcare, and community.
In this powerful clip, Hada shares the joys and challenges of being trans. She also talks about the importance of mutual respect and education, as well as the specific relationship between the cisgender Latinx and trans communities.
In this clip, Hada explains how, at age 17, she traveled to Japan to fulfill a lifelong dream. She also talks about the worries and lessons that came from a recent trip to visit family in Puerto Rico.
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Ramon Angel Campos https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2023/07/03/ramon-angel-campos/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 17:39:24 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=593

San Luis Potosí, 1958

Ramon Angel Campos

Radio Personality, Musician, Comedian – Interviewed By Anthony Villanueva, 2022

Ramon Angel Campos was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 1942. As a young man, he traveled across Mexico and Central America as part of several musical groups. He regularly performed comedy and impressions under the stage name “Quello El Bello.” In the 1950s and 60s, Campos rubbed elbows with illustrious actors and musicians of Mexico’s world famous Golden Age of Cinema — La Época del Oro del Cine Mexicano — such as Agustín Insunza, Libertad Lamarque, and Manuel Medel. 

Ramon Angel Campos came to the Chicago area in the mid-1960s and has resided here ever since. In 1978, he started Radio Fiesta, Elgin’s first Spanish-language radio program, and was its host for more than twenty years. Over many decades, he organized dances, parties, and musical performances across Chicagolandia, the state of Illinois, and the United States.

In this Spanish-language clip, Campos talks about establishing his first musical group as a 12 year-old boy. He also shares how he developed his impressions of performers like Cantinflas while sitting in the balconies of Mexican theaters.

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Tony Figueroa https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2022/09/04/tony-figueroa/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 20:02:02 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=341

Tony Figueroa

Waukegan community leader, interviewed 2022

Tony Figueroa describes his parents’ lives in Puerto Rico and their arrival to Waukegan, Illinois in the 1940s. The Figueroas were among the earliest Puerto Rican migrants to the Chicago area.

Tony Figueroa describes his father’s experience working in foundries in Waukegan. He remembers the vibrant African American neighborhood where he and many other Puerto Ricans lived. 

Tony Figueroa describes the founding of the Puerto Rican Society in the 1950s and its development into one of Waukegan’s most important organizations under the leadership of Edwin Montano and others.

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