The manuscript synopsis for the television series Good Ole Hank is accompanied by a letter from Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures (Hollywood, Calif.), rejecting the proposal.
Sandra Peña’s story begins in East Los Angeles, where she spent her first fifteen years with her parents (both from Michoacán, Mexico), and her younger sister. The father's managerial position at Master Products allowed the family to live rent-free in a company-owned house behind the main factory, because he collected the rents for the company's two other dwellings. In this interview, Peña recalls the family move to Porterville, in California's Central Valley, her return to Los Angeles at nineteen, and her work with Parson’s Dillingham, a contractor for the Metrolink rail system. She draws the link between the Los Angeles and Las Vegas construction communities by describing her husband's move to Las Vegas to find work; a chance Las Vegas encounter with a friend from Chino, California; her ability to gain employment in Las Vegas at Parson’s, a company that had joint ventured with Parson’s Dillingham, and her move from there to Richardson Construction, a local minority-owned company. As Peña says, "It's kind of all intermingled. Even if you go here and you go there, it's like everybody knows everybody." Throughout, Peña weaves her family story into the narrative as she describes her youth, the birth of her son, the illness and death of her father, and her family's participation in her current employment with Richardson. As she remembers the people, places, and events of her life, Peña speaks to the ways one woman of color built on her interstate construction connections and rose in a male-dominated industry.
Oral history interview with Nathalie Martinez conducted by Rodrigo Vazquez and Barbara Tabach on June 24, 2021 for Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Nathalie Martinez, one of the original members of the Latinx Voices project team, dicusses her personal history and the history of her parents who immigrated to the United States from Colombia and El Salvador. She shares her educational background and experiences working as an interviewer for the Latinx Voices project before its culmination and her graduation in 2021. Nathalie also talks about her work on the project's podcast and her work linguistically translating the interviews from Spanish to English.
Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández and Rodrigo Vazquez. Born (1985) and raised in Nevada, Ace is the Senior Conference Sales Manager at Wynn and Encore. His parents immigrated from Dominican Republic and are casino dealers. Ace is a UNLV graduate with degrees in Business and in Theatre Arts. Enthusiastic support of local theatre arts, he is active with the Super Summer Theatre Advisory Board. Married to Raul Daniels.