Aurora – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org Oral History Project Fri, 02 Jan 2026 05:26:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/websiteAssets-18-150x150.png Aurora – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org 32 32 Elizabeth Barrios https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2025/07/08/elizabeth-barrios/ Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:30:36 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=938

Elizabeth Barrios

associate Professor, interviewed 2025

Elizabeth Barrios is currently Associate Professor of Spanish at Albion College. Barrios grew up in Mérida, Venezuela, but emigrated with her family to the Aurora, Illinois area at age 12, just as Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela for the first time. In this interview, Barrios describes with brilliant complexity the challenges of being part of an early wave of Venezuelan migration to the US, and how it shaped her worldview, career, and scholarship. She shares her deep insight into the roots and reality of the recent out-migration of millions of people from Venezuela to places such as Illinois. This interview is part of a Mellon Foundation-funded series of oral history interviews that will examine the history and present of the Venezuelan migration to Chicagolandia.

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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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Margarita “Mary” Decker https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2022/07/12/hello-world/ Tue, 12 Jul 2022 15:13:25 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=1

Margarita “Mary” Decker

Aurora community leader, interviewed 2020

Mary Decker was born María Margarita Rodríguez in 1944 in Crystal City, Texas. Her parents moved to Aurora, Illinois in 1950 where her father worked at Austin-Western’s manufacturing facility. Margarita was a precocious and athletic child. She later became a community leader in Aurora, married welder Stanley Decker, and worked for the Aurora Urban League. Decker eventually became one of two Spanish-speaking real estate agents as Aurora’s east side Mexican immigrant population boomed in the 1960s. In this interview clip, Ms. Decker describes her advocacy on behalf of immigrants in Aurora and her successful campaign running for Kane County Board in 1972. It is likely that Ms. Decker’s victory in that election made her the first Latino or Latina elected to a county-level political office in Illinois history.

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