Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández. Rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom since 1998, Felipe Goodman is a native of Mexico City. He identifies as a Mexican Jewish American, and shares the complexities of these.

Interviewed by Elsa Lopez. Abraham Gomez is a College Navigator for the Nevada Treasurer's Office where he is responsible for providing and distributing information on post-secondary resources that may enable Nevadans to go to college. Gomez was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada and grew up on the East Side near Desert Pines High School. He received an Associate of Arts from the College of Southern Nevada before obtaining a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies from the University of Nevada, Reno. After graduating he worked as a GEAR UP Ambassador for Nevada State College where he advised a cohort of 46 low-income students on the importance of continuing their education. He has volunteered with various organizations throughout Southern Nevada and continues to work to better his community and make education accessible to students everywhere.

Bruce Layne came to Las Vegas in March of 1955 when he was 10 years of age. He attended High school at Bishop Gorman and college at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where he received a B.S. in Economics. In college, he played baseball for three years and was named All Conference Player in 1966. Growing up in Las Vegas, two of his closest long time friends are Governor Bob Miller and Tito Tiberti. Bruce later went on to become the President of Layne & Associates Insurance which was the largest Insurance Agency in Nevada. Bruce tells fabulous stories of his 40-year experience in the Las Vegas community. When he first arrived there were only about 25,000 people living here. Since then, Bruce has been witness to the enormous growth the city has undergone. Throughout the interview, he discusses his book, My Gift, which he wrote after he discovered he had Parkinson's disease in 1999. The book contains valuable advice on life and it has touched the lives of many people who have read it. Today Bruce Layne is relentlessly fighting his battle with Parkinson's disease both for himself and for thousands of others. He continues to have a positive attitude and is supported by his wife, Sherry Layne, and his two sons, Chad and Trevor. VI

On September 28, 1998, K.J. Evans interviewed former United States Senator Howard Cannon (born 1912 in St. George, Utah) about his life and political experiences. Also present were his wife, Dorothy Cannon, his daughter, Nancy Downing, and another participant identified as Caroline Rose. Cannon first talks about his family background and his parents’ occupations before mentioning his involvement in a music band and his pastime of flying aircraft. He then discusses his first political involvement and mentions his work for the Las Vegas City Attorney’s Office. Evans then asks about Cannon’s service with the Air National Guard and his combat experiences during World War II, specifically on D-Day. The interview then moves to a discussion on some of the work Cannon fulfilled as a senator, particularly military-based projects and black projects, and his work in creating Nellis Air Force Base. Evans later asks Cannon questions about his interaction with presidents, his thoughts on the Vietnam War, his support for civil rights, and his politically liberal stance as a lawmaker. Cannon also provides details on his relationships with Senators Walter Baring and Alan Bible, his interaction with Lyndon B. Johnson, and his campaign against Chic Hecht.

Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández, Nathalie Martinez and Rodrigo Vázquez. Irene Cepeda is a woman dedicated to serving the Latinx as well as all minority groups in education in Southern Nevada. As a Las Vegas native, she grew up alongside the Latinx community here and is a proud Latina from Nicaraguan roots. She is dedicated to uplifting the Latinx community through her work with the Latino Youth Leadership Conference and college access specialist at Nevada State College. Now, as representative of District D on the Clark County School District Board of Trustees, she seeks to tackle the issues the district faces from acts of White supremacy to a lack of funding for English Language Learner families.

When Shirley Mudra arrived in Las Vegas in 1966, she came tearfully. But as the wife of a Nevada Test site manager and mother of three young children, she was accustomed to adapting. Indeed, she adapted and remains a Las Vegas resident. Shirley and her husband Paul (above photo) met while both were in the Air Force. She was the daughter of a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, homemaker and railroad worker and describes her upbringing. She also talks about her joy of enlistment in the Air Force and the transition to being a wife, mother and her employment at the Department of Energy. Shirley's narrative includes details of early Las Vegas life, raising children here and becoming part of the changing community through friendships.

Most Las Vegas residents like living in Southern Nevada, but few make the leap of faith that Ron M. Portaro did in 1994. The business and development consultant gave up a "tenure-track, full time, full-benefits, kids-could-go-to-college-for free job" to keep his family in Las Vegas. He had no local job, so he commuted twice a month to the Cleveland and Toledo areas for two years to complete the consulting assignments that fed his young family. As the Ohio native discusses the dysfunctional family into which he was born and was raised, he also talks about forging his own path as an overachiever, about going to college at Penn State at Altoona on a mining engineering co-op program with Morton Salt, working six months out of the year in the salt mines and attending classes the other six months. After transferring to the University of Toledo, he formed his own painting business to pay his tuition and graduated in management in 1978 and earned his JD and MBA in 1981. His mentor at University of Toledo asked him to teach labor management. While teaching labor relations he also began representing athletes as a player agent in the National Football League and the United States Football League back in the day and the Canadian Football League. From there, he became associate director for the Northwest Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation at the University of Toledo and later with the Cleveland State Labor Management Center. It was with the latter that he learned the benefits of the BUILT-RITE model of business relations to promote cooperation between and among the building trades, contractors, and owners. In this interview, Portaro speaks to the BUILT-RITE model for cooperation, his 1993 move to Las Vegas and fortuitous meetings of Pastor Paul Goulet of the International Church of Las Vegas, City of Las Vegas councilman Arnie Adamsen, and Charlie Kajkowski of the Las Vegas Public Works Department. He reveals how these connections eventually not only shaped Portaro's life in Southern Nevada; they also enabled him to turn his life experiences, education, and skill set to benefit his church, his family, and his adopted community. The commitment Portaro made in 1994 to remain in Las Vegas has benefitted Southern Nevada tourists, residents, and business owners in countless ways we can appreciate only when we stop to think about how many people had to cooperate and communicate to make our large infrastructure projects come to fruition.