Series

Oral history interview with Brianda Alcazar

• 2018-07-22 (Creation)

35 megabytes; 1 online resource (1 audio file (1 hr., 15 min., 12 sec.)) MP4

This oral history interview with Brianda Alcazar was conducted by Keven Salazar on July 22, 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 this interview, Alcazar discusses her family background and early life in Michoacán, Mexico. She then describes coming to the United States with her family at age 6 and settling in the Portland, Oregon, area. She talks about her education and learning English as a second language. She discusses balancing her schoolwork with the expectation that she would fulfill traditional gender roles at home; leaving home at age 15; and continuing her education as a teenage mother. She describes her living conditions during the first years after the birth of her oldest child. She talks about studying at Portland Community College, her involvement with the Women's Resource Center, and balancing her education while raising children. She discusses the importance of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in her daily life. She talks about dealing with racial discrimination, including explaining racism to her children; and describes her ethnic and cultural identity. She closes the interview by talking about her current activities and plans for the future.

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 Brianda Alcazar, "The Strength within Yourself" by Nancy E. Dollahite, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/strength/

Preferred citation: Oral history interview with Brianda Alcazar, by Keven Salazar, SR 12269, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

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

Sarah Stroman

• United States--Immigration and emigration
• Undocumented immigrant children--United States
• Immigrants--Oregon
• Mexican Americans--Oregon
• English language--Study and teaching--United States--Foreign speakers
• Immigrant children--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States
• Teenage parents

• Salazar, Keven (Contributor)

• Interviews