Oral history interview with Mach and Arlene Manuel conducted by Kristel Peralta and Stefani Evans on June 28, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Mach and Arlene Manuel share the story of their overseas courtship and how they came to be together in the United States. Arlene was raised in the Philippines while Mach was born and raised in San Diego, California. Mach describes his visit to the Philippines as an adult when he began to connect more to his Filipino heritage. The couple shares how they dated for 13 years before Arlene moved to San Diego, and how the Manuel family came to live in Las Vegas in 2017 to pursue Arlene's nursing career. Arlene and Mach talk about cultural differences and discrimination, emigration and diversity, religion and identity, and Filipino food, among other topics. Subjects discussed include: Manila, Philippines; discrimination of class; and anti-Asian hate.
Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández, Rodrigo Vazquez, and Laurents Benitez-Bañuelos. A native of Jalisco, Mexico, moved to Las Vegas when he was about 20-year old in 1987. Attended CSN and UNLV. His history with Las Vegas is embedded in the 1980s Las Vegas gay scene and education for AIDS. He is and activist and the Executive Director of Aid for AIDS of Nevada. He and Theodore Small are the first same-sex marriage in Nevada.
On February 12, 1975, collector Laura Bell interviewed her neighbor, plant mechanic foreman, Neil H. Holmes (born on November 16th, 1897 in Chicopee, Kansas) in the collector’s home in Boulder City, Nevada. This interview covers the construction of Boulder (Hoover) Dam. During this interview Neil also discusses local living conditions in 1931.
Emilie Wanderer was the first woman to establish a law practice in Las Vegas. She also helped to start a family court in Nevada with a social worker and a marriage counselor on staff. She and her son John were the first mother-son team to practice law in Nevada.
An oral history statement conducted by herself. Lucile Whitehead Bunker (b. 1907 in Overton, Nevada), at the request of Doreen Day, provides an oral history statement about her experiences growing up and living in Southern Nevada. Bunker recalls her first experiences in Las Vegas and Overton and talks about her family, specifically about her mother, an ice cream maker, and father, the first assessor of Clark County. She then speaks about her various positions, including being a secretary at a school and law firm, a schoolteacher, and a deputy county clerk. She also describes her experiences as the wife of former Senator Berkeley Bunker, particularly living in Washington, D.C. where she met several presidents and attended several events with other lawmakers’ wives. Bunker additionally talks about her missionary work in her church and the various locations to which she travelled. She concludes the statement by talking about her interests in china painting, the early above-ground atomic testing, and the building of Hoover Dam.
On February 8, 1977, Mark Lucas interviewed Edmund “Ed” Fleming (born 1915 in Virginia, Minnesota) about his experience in Southern Nevada. Fleming first talks about his moves to and from Nevada before describing the mining practices within the small towns in Southern Nevada. He also talks about his experience as a teacher in Pahrump and Goodsprings and his eventual move to Las Vegas, where he continued in the educational field. Fleming also talks about religion, transportation, funding for education, inflation, and cultural arts as they all relate to Las Vegas.
On February 28, 1979, collector Alick Dziabczenko interviewed Jack Leavitt in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this interview Mr. Leavitt talks about his childhood in Las Vegas. He also talks about his family life and his career in the city, as well as some of the many changes he has seen in Las Vegas.
On March 9, 1978, Shirley Dianne Long interviewed Al Lermusiaux (b. 1926 in Corrales, New Mexico) about his work in construction in the Las Vegas Valley. Lermusiaux begins by talking about his move to Las Vegas, his family and what brought him to the city. He shares many anecdotes about the construction of different iconic buildings in Las Vegas, the inner workings of the business, payments to employees and the changes in technology. Lermusiaux, in particular, talks of the telephone system in the fifties and the changes in structures and their regulations. During his interview, Lermusiaux lays out an image of old Las Vegas and Henderson, giving detailed descriptions of the layout of the city, the projects he worked on and the effects of the weather on building structures in Las Vegas.