Oral history interview with Katherine L. Rankin conducted by Claytee D. White on June 16, 2014 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In the interview, Rankin discusses her childhood, her move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and her career as a librarian. Rankin talks about how she began her library career on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona before accepting a position as an audio and visual materials cataloger at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in the 1970s. Rankin later describes her work with the American Library Association, getting tenure at UNLV, and her role as a map cataloger in UNLV Special Collections and Archives.
Oral history interview with Cherina Kleven conducted by Cecilia Winchell on June 9, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Cherina Kleven talks about her family and childhood growing up in Taiwan amongst six siblings. She shares her family's history and how they immigrated to Las Vegas while she was a teen, as well as her employment history and how she met her husband. Cherina talks about racial and gender discrimination and the obstacles she has overcome to be the only working female in her family, the only woman firefighter at her station house, and the first female Asian American Assistant Fire Chief in the United States.
Oral history interview with Robert Kim conducted by Kristel Peralta, Cecilia Winchell, Ayrton Yamaguchi, and Vanessa Concepcion on March 05, 2021 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Kim describes his career in law. He talks about his Korean roots, the model minority myth, and experiencing racial discrimination. Lastly, Kim discusses the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, his involvement with the Asian Bar Association of Las Vegas, and the importance of electing Asian Americans into political positions.
Oral history interviews with Dennis McBride conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on various dates in March, April, and May 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. McBride goes into detail in this 4-session interview and covers a wide variety of topics, including: the history of Boulder City, working at various cultural institutions in Las Vegas, the evolution of the LGBTQ+ community in Las Vegas, researching his own history and publishing a book, and local advocacy groups. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Oral history with Nympha Comacchio conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on May 09, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Comacchio recalls her childhood in the Philippines and growing up in a large family. After attending elementary school, Comacchio immediately went to work on her father's lumber farm, performing manual labor until she was seventeen. Later, she recalls finding employment as a seamstress in Manila, where she met her first husband when she left to work in Saudi Arabia for better pay. Comacchio describes how she was able to receive a student visa to finally immigrate to the United States, where she first arrived in California. Eventually, after meeting her second husband and hearing about housing prices in Las Vegas, Nevada, they purchased a house in the city in 2000. After briefly working for the New Frontier, Comacchio began working for the Wynn and Encore, where she found out about the Culinary Workers Union and became more active in that organization. Throughout the rest of the interview, Comacchio touches on the responsibilities of being a housekeeper, the current challenges they face, and how she feels about the growing AAPI population in southern Nevada.