Washington County Oral Histories

Vangie Sanchez oral history recording

An audio recording of an oral history of Vangie Sanchez. Evangelina Sanchez was born in Needville, Texas. She finished high school in Texas, and at age 19 joined the migrant stream with her mother, stepfather, siblings, and two children. After living and working seasonally in Colorado and California (where they were introduced to the labor activism of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers), Vangie and her family settled in Washington County in 1967. She eventually left field work to become a home school counselor for Migrant Education, and went on to work for such other social service organizations as Valley Migrant League, Virginia Garcia Clinic, and Legal Aid. While raising her children as a single mother and working, Vangie graduated from the short-lived Colegio César Chávez in 1978. She eventually transitioned to social work and became a child protective service investigator for the state of Oregon, working specifically with Hispanic families. At the time of this interview, Vangie is an instructor for a class for foster parents at Portland State University.
In this interview, Vangie Sanchez recounts her experiences of work, education and migration. She reflects on the discrimination and racism that she and her family experienced in Texas and Oregon, the difficulties of raising her children as a single mother, and both the tensions and opportunities for cooperation between Mexican Americans and people born in Mexico. Vangie also elaborates on her values and her personal and ethnic sense of identity. There is a transcript of this interview.

Sanchez, Vangie

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Hispanic Americans -- History

Washington County (Or.)

1 sound file (1 hr., 8 min.)

English

WCM_OH_414

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Sprunger, Luke

WAVE

Sound