Session 1: Interviewed by Marcela Rodriguez-Campo. Barbara Tabach also participates in the questioning. Session 2: Interviewed by Rodrigo Vazquez. Monserrath Hernandez also participates in the questioning. Patricia Vazquez was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV and shares her experiences growing up in the Valley as a Queer Latina. At a young age, she remembers traveling back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. to visit family. When she started school she shares how her home language, Spanish, became her family's "secret language" as she began to learn English. During elementary school Patricia was tracked into the special education program, and remove from the mainstream classroom. She would find her love for learning in books and libraries as she taught herself how to read in English. Despite being tracked into less advanced courses, Patricia would end up taking AP/ Honors courses in high school after forging her favorite teachers signature, which changed her educational trajectory. After coming out to her family, Patricia went nearly a decade distanced from her mother and continued her college education at Arizona State University. There, she would complete a bachelors in painting and a masters in comparative literature. Her work with the Chicano Studies program at ASU helped her develop her Chicana identity and begin her involvement in social activism. In Las Vegas, she worked to fight for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights with the American Civil Liberties Union , and later with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. She also conducted several lectures for the Latino Youth Leadership Conference on sexuality, gender, and homophobia for over a decade. She has served as an English Professor at the College of Southern Nevada for the last 20 years and is an avid hiker, traveler, and painter.
In this interview, Helen Daseler shared memories of mining work in Colorado, living in Europe, and working for the U.S. government, in addition to opening the "Las Vegas Day School". Helen was born in 1929 in Newton, Iowa. She matriculated at George Washington University but earned her degree from the University of California Santa Barbara. After graduation Helen married Jack Daseler who joined the "Lighter-Than- Air Program with the Navy and flew blimps along the Pacific Coast, Atlantic Coast and South America. Later, Jack worked as a teaching principal in France and Germany where their three children were born. Helen and Jack, both certified teachers, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, 47 years ago and started the Las Vegas Day School in a Unitarian Fellowship building on Bond Road (Tropicana). The initial class started with 14 students. Helen taught kindergarten the first year, and Jack assumed the administrative and management duties. As the nineteen seventies approached, they played a major role with school integration in Las Vegas. Since Jack, the daily operations of the school are performed by the three sons, Neil, Jack, and Frank. Helen is retired and lives in Las Vegas.
Floyd Francis, an unidentified man, and Jake Beckley in the "old swimming hole" on the Von Tobel and Beckley property
Transcribed Notes: Transcribed from photo sleeve: "Another view of Floyd Francis, an unidentified man and Jake Beckley in the swimming hole on the property in Paradise Valley owned by Von Tobel and Beckley."; Transcribed from background history: "Early Las Vegas History by Florence Lee Jones, April 1969: In the years immediately after the auction of lots and the start of Las Vegas in 1905, a swimming pool was unknown in the area - but the late Ed Von Tobel, Sr., and his partner in the lumber business, Jake Beckley, solved that problem, as this picture shows. Von Tobel took this picture, showing from left Floyd Francis, who worked for more than 20 years at the Von Tobel Lumber Company; an unidentified man; and at right, Beckley. At their 120-acre ranch in Paradise Valley, which was a week-end retreat for the partners, they drilled three wells so they could irrigate their fruit orchard and truck garden. One of the wells had such a heavy flow that they dammed up a natural wash and created a swimming pool, a
Jeremiah David Wright Hoggard was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on November 25, 1914. As a child, his parents would take him to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meetings, and he joined the organization before serving in the United States Air Force during World War II. In 1945, he was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base. By the next year, Hoggard moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with his two sons after being recently widowed.
Folder of materials from the Mabel Hoggard Papers (MS-00565) -- Personal papers file. Photographs depict speakers at an event, crowds gathered outside, and a posed group photograph.