Archival Component
Archival Component
Archival Component
Archival Component
Oral history interview with Stella Kalaoram conducted by Kristel Peralta and Cecilia Winchell on August 2, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project.
Stella Kalaoram discusses her childhood in Singapore, the occupations and ethnic diversity of her family, and the four languages she speaks: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. She shares her immigration journey to the United States with her husband, from Singapore to San Bernardino, California in 1990, and their move to Las Vegas in 2000. Stella also shares her employment experiences as a dental assistant, a housekeeper for the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, and as a shop steward for the Culinary Workers Union. She also talks about contracting COVID-19 and her hospital experience, her family's differing religious faiths, and her translation work to empower the Asian-American community.
Subjects discussed include: insurance benefits; Volunteer Organizer (VO); mask mandates; vaccine hesitancy; food traditions; language barriers; Baba and Nyonya cultures.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Cynthia Leung conducted by Vanessa Concepcion, Kristel Peralta, and Stefani Evans on June 24, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project.
Cynthia Leung shares her personal history growing up in Palm Desert, California and the story of how her artistic parents met. Cynthia's mother, a brush artist, immigrated alone from Shanghai and Taiwan to the United States where she met her husband and Cynthia's father, a Chinese-American architect. Cynthia talks about her educational pursuits and her move to Las Vegas to become a defense attorney. She discusses her career as a prosecutor before becoming the first Chinese-American women elected as a Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge, and her experiences within the court system witnessing discrimination, mental illness, and the opportunity for diversity in law.
Subjects discussed include: Joy Luck Club (book); Women in Need of Change (WIN) Court; alternative courts; Las Vegas legal community.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Tina and So Lin Kwan conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on November 6, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project.
Tina Kwan and her mother, So Lin, discuss their family's history within Guangzhou, China and the United States. So Lin shares how her siblings immigrated to the United States and sponsored the rest of their family to join them in Las Vegas. Tina, So Lin's daughter, discusses her educational career pursuing medicine with degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno; the University of Arizona; and with a fellowship at Arkansas Children's Hospital before joining Children's Heart Center Nevada where she is a pediatric cardiologist. Tina and So Lin talk about the Kwan's restaurant, the Fortune Inn Restaurant, which was open for 15 years and closed in 2005. They also discuss Chinese superstitions and customs, diversity within Southern Nevada, anti-Asian discrimination, and learning English as a second language.
Archival Collection
Archival Component
Archival Component
Archival Component