Oral history interview with Magdalena Martinez conducted by Monserrath Hernandez and Barbara Tabach on April 4, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Magdalena Martinez recalls her childhood and growing up in Los Angeles, California. Martinez's parents are from Durango, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States in the 1970s. Martinez describes the generational differences that the women in her family faced and how the feminist movement of the 1970s did not resonate with women of color. Her family moved to Las Vegas in 1986 where she attended Bishop Gorman High School. After transferring to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from community college and joining a student organization that would later become Student Organization of Latinxs, she became an early member of the Latino Youth Leadership Conference (LYLC) sponsored by the Latin Chamber of Commerce. Martinez describes how the LYLC has evolved over the years, and talks about her role in those changes. She discusses past work for CSN, NSHE, and currently is the Director of Education Programs with the Lincy Institute.

In recalling his career in the public sector, Boulder City native Jacob Snow credits fellow Nevadans Robert Broadbent and Bruce Woodbury as two mentors who helped shape his world view. After attending Boulder City schools and serving a religious mission in Hong Kong, earning his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Brigham Young University, and working as community development planner for the City of Provo, Utah, 1987-1989, Snow has lived and worked in Clark County. Snow's degrees in geography and urban planning and his experience in transportation directly benefited Clark County residents from 1989 through 2015; we continue to derive indirect advantage of his knowledge through his current consulting business. In this interview, he speaks to the ways infrastructure accommodated Southern Nevada's growth. He discusses McCarran's Terminal Three, the Las Vegas Monorail, UNLV's football stadium, the Bruce Woodbury Beltway, and the Fremont Street Experience. He explains the ethos of McCarran Airport; why the Monorail will likely never go to McCarran Airport; how Clark County financed the CC-2015 Bruce Woodbury Beltway, and why we see the concept of "complete streets" applied more in the City of Las Vegas and the City of Henderson than in Clark County. Snow discusses his work under Clark County director of aviation Broadbent as assistant director of aviation for planning at McCarran International Airport; his career as general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, where he worked with Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, and his three years as city manager for the City of Henderson. In speaking of all three roles, Snow draws upon his knowledge of transportation as it grew and was shaped by his previous positions. And in all three roles, Snow exemplifies the lesson Broadbent impressed upon him early in his airport career: "[Y]ou've got to be able to bury the hatchet and build bridges.

Known for “raising hell and making a difference” in the Las Vegas Valley, Thomas Rodriguez has dedicated more than four decades of his life to the political, educational, and social advancement of the Latinx community. Tom was born in 1940 to Jennie Gomez and Joseph Rodriguez in a Topeka, Kansas neighborhood its residents called The Bottoms. Mexicans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, African Americans, among other peoples lived in this diverse and beloved community. In 1956, the Urban Renewal Program, a program funded by the Federal Government that sought to raze neighborhoods the city considered to be “slums,” forced The Bottoms’ residents to abandon their homes. Rodriguez recalled the effects that this event had on his family and on his educational career. Despite his family’s relocation, he graduated from a high school located in a nearby neighborhood in 1958. Years later, the activism and ideology of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s taught Rodriguez that to overcome the injus

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.

On February 17, 1980, Judith Chavez interviewed Thelma Coblentz (born 1911 in New Jersey) about her experiences in Southern Nevada. Coblentz first talks about her move to Lovelock, Nevada, where her husband provided medical care as one of the first physicians in the small town. She later talks about her move to Las Vegas and some of the services she helped to provide at Nellis Air Force Base. Coblentz later describes Downtown Las Vegas, specifically the development of the casinos and shopping businesses. She later talks about the rainstorms and dust storms that the city would experience before recalling some of the entertainers who would perform on the Las Vegas Strip. The interview concludes with a discussion on the first physicians in Las Vegas and the increasing population of the city.