Series

Oral history interview with Victor D. Bencomo Acevedo

• 2018-05-04 (Creation)

95 megabytes; 1 online resource (2 audio files (1 hr., 13 min., 49 sec.)) MP3 and MPEG-4

This oral history interview with Victor D. Bencomo Acevedo was conducted by Kristin Cole and Sankar Raman in two sessions on May 4, 2018. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In the first interview session, Bencomo Acevedo discusses his family and early life in Venezuela. He talks about his college experience, his opposition to the government of Hugo Chávez, and the oppression he and his family experienced. He discusses studying economics and working at Benesco Banco Universal. He describes dealing with food shortages in Venezuela; the attempts on his life by Venezuelan paramilitary groups, known as "colectivos," including the kidnapping of his sister, as a result of his attendance at a protest; and his escape from Venezuela in 2014. He talks about studying business English in Portland, Oregon, as a student through the Kaplan International Institute, receiving word that he had been officially declared a traitor to Venezuela, and the plight of his family still in Venezuela. He discusses the process for applying for asylum in the United States; the mental toll of his experiences; and the community he has found in Portland.

In the second interview session, he discusses the risks involved in sharing his story, his sister's kidnapping by colectivos, and the safety of his family at the time of the interview in 2018.

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/

• English

Gift of The Immigrant Story, July 2020 (Lib. Acc. RL2020-018).

An article about Victor D. Bencomo Acevedo, "How to Save a Life from the Rumble" by Rebekah Hildebrandt, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/save-a-life/

Preferred citation: Oral history interview with Victor D. Bencomo Acevedo, by Kristin Cole and Sankar Raman, SR 12267, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition.

Sarah Stroman

• United States--Immigration and emigration
• Venezuela--Politics and government--1999-
• Immigrants--Oregon
• Political refugees--United States
• Venezuelans--Oregon
• Paramilitary forces--Venezuela

• Cole, Kristin (Contributor)
• Raman, Sankar (Contributor)

• Interviews