Oral history interview with Erica Mosca conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Stefani Evans, and Jerwin Tiu on February 3, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Mosca reflects on her life journey from a low-income Asian American to a current serving Nevada State Assemblywoman. She recalls that most of her childhood was in Palm Springs, California where she enjoyed a diverse community of students within her education system. It was not until she moved to Navato, California where she first experienced the economic and resource gap between economically diverse areas. Mosca went on to be involved in a college readiness program and received a scholarship to Boston University. After college, Mosca went on to work for Teach for America where she was stationed on the east side of Las Vegas at Goldfarb Elementary School where she grew a passion for leadership. She eventually returned to school and graduated from Harvard University, returning to Las Vegas to start her nonprofit "Leaders in Training." Mosca hopes to inspire change in her communities by enacting legislation and initiatives targeted towards the communities she was and continutes to be a part of.
The Dunes Hotel and Casino Records are comprised of administrative, publicity, and entertainment materials documenting the history of the Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from the years 1954 to 1992. Included are correspondence, contracts, photographs, hotel budgets, and an early aerial photograph of the property. The material provides a significant amount of historical documentation of the hotel that was long known to tourists and residents as the "the Miracle in the Desert."
The Dunes Hotel Photographs (1950-1993) consist of administrative, publicity and entertainment images documenting the history of the Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to materials focusing on day-to-day activities at the hotel (correspondence, contracts, personnel, budgets, etc.) the collection provides insight into the hotel’s entertainment and public relations activities. Although there are chronological gaps in the collection, particularly during the later years of the Dunes (1970s-1990s), it provides a significant amount of historical documentation on the famed Strip hotel that was long known to tourists and residents alike as the “the Miracle in the Desert.”
The MGM Mirage Records on Mandalay Resort Group consists of materials from Mandalay Resort Group’s office of public relations and community affairs records, which was closed after Mandalay’s corporate merger with MGM Mirage in 2005. The files, dating from 1968 to 2005, provide documentation of Mandalay Resort Group’s external affairs and internal operations. They contain subject files, photographs, negatives, slides, correspondence, VHS tapes, corporate publications, press releases, press kits, wholesale room agreements, hotel ephemera, employee newsletters, and press clippings. Of particular interest are files and photographs documenting the planning, development, construction, and opening of the Mandalay Resort Group properties.