Oral history interview, Erminda "Oli" Olivas Duncan, 2013 (audio and transcript)

"Oli" Duncan is a native of Longmont. Three of her grandparents were from New Mexico and one from Texas. They came to Boulder in the 1920s as sharecroppers. Her father was a coal miner, and was active in the union. She went to high school in Boulder, married, and had three had three children. When her husband died in 1988, she went to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, studied English, and became an English teacher. She started a project to do interviews with Latinos in the 1980s after two unarmed Latino youths were killed by police in Longmont. She talks about discrimination that existed in Boulder County for her parents (such as “whites only” signs), ethnic identity, the importance of education, and the way people mispronounce Hispanic names. She also discusses various terms that are used for people of Hispanic origin and explains that she defines herself first and foremost as an American.