Text
Sound
Sound
Robert “Bob” Agonia (1938- ) was born in Garden Grove, California on a migrant camp made up of Filipino and Mexican-American workers. Agonia’s father was a farmer on a 70 acre farm owned by the Beggs family. Agonia did not spend much time living on the migrant camp, as his father moved the family to a private residence when Agonia was four. Agonia attended school, during an era of school desegregation in Garden Grove. He recalls that his mother dealt with segregation during her schooling, being forced to attend a school miles down the road from her home despite living across the street from another school. Agonia recalls his community being very diverse with families sharing Filipino and Mexican-American heritage and his neighbors being Japanese Americans. Agonia participated in a multicultural Boy Scout troop. After high school, Agonia joined the Peace Corps and served in El Salvador. While there, Agonia worked in an agricultural research center in Santa Tecla where he helped local farmers select the proper insecticide for their crops. After the Peace Corps, Agonia had his choice of government jobs, ultimately selecting to work for the Internal Revenue Service. Agonia’s work with the IRS is what eventually brought him from California to Las Vegas. He quickly realized that the type of IRS cases he would be handling in Las Vegas were completely different from the work he was accustomed to in California. One of those unique cases required him to close the doors of a downtown casino. Since moving to Las Vegas, Agonia was critical in establishing a Las Vegas LULAC chapter, an American GI Forum, an EEO council, and the UNLV Engineering school.
Text
The Mollie Gregory Collection of Oral Histories contains audio interviews and brief transcripts that focus on welfare, family, and women's issues in Nevada from 1970 to 1974. Gregory interviewed Nevada residents including Maya Miller, Ruby Duncan, and Mary Wesley, who described their lives during the anti-poverty and women's rights campaigns in the early 1970s. The collection documents views on welfare; the Equal Rights Amendment; race, discrimination, and civil rights; and political campaigns.
Archival Collection
The International Food Service Executive Association (IFSEA) Records contain the organizational records from the IFSEA dating from 1916 to 2010. Included are meeting programs and minutes, menus, conference reports and proceedings, financial reports, newsletters, award certificates, scrapbooks, and stewards and caterers records focusing on the hospitality and food service industry. Materials are from both national and regional branches of the organization and include records from the United States military, with whom IFSEA has partnered with since the 1960s. Club artifacts and trophies are also contained in the collection.
Archival Collection