Oral history interview, Carmen Ramirez, 2013 (video and transcript)

Carmen Ramirez, born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1960, was the Program Coordinator for the Community Relations division of the City of Longmont at the time of this interview; she was also head of the Latino Task Force of Boulder County and active on the committee member of the Boulder County Latino History Project. She speaks about her early childhood, with her grandparents and aunt in El Paso, and about her difficult teen years, when she lived on the streets. She started college but dropped out after marrying and having a child whom she had to support. Later she married Ray Ramirez and moved to Longmont, where she worked originally with a subsidized housing problem. She talks about her current job, as a cultural interpreter and mediator, and her participation in the Next Generation Leadership program, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. She describes forms of racism experienced in Texas and Colorado and speaks warmly of the support given to her by her husband.