Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández. Francisco 'Cisco' Aguilar is a lawyer and the Founding Chairman of the Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School. He talks about growing up in Tucson, Arizona in a Mexican household and continuing his passions to engage in social change as a lawyer. His career and community engagement led him to become a lobbyist, a fellow in Germany, and serve on various committees such as the Catholic Charities Board, Opportunity 180 Board, and the Nevada Athletic Commission. His oral history demonstrates his dedication to providing a future to the Latinx youth of Las Vegas.
Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández and Rodrigo Vazquez. Born (1985) and raised in Nevada, Ace is the Senior Conference Sales Manager at Wynn and Encore. His parents immigrated from Dominican Republic and are casino dealers. Ace is a UNLV graduate with degrees in Business and in Theatre Arts. Enthusiastic support of local theatre arts, he is active with the Super Summer Theatre Advisory Board. Married to Raul Daniels.
Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández and Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez. Eric Calvillo was born into a Mexican American household in San Jose, California in 1980. As he recalls, it was there that his fixation with the colors and recurring themes of his family's Mexican roots told hold of his imagination. Today, this is core to his growing art career. Art has not been his sole ambition. Before moving to Las Vegas in 2005, Calvillo attended a San Francisco culinary school. He relocated to Las Vegas to complete his culinary internship at the prestigious Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio. Eventually, he began to pursue a professional art career as a painter of Día de los Muertos motifs and beautifully portray the Mexican tradition of celebrating the lives of the deceased. Through his use of acrylics and oil on canvas, Calvillo conveys the emotion of his culture and then, being a skilled carpenter, crafts his own frames.
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.
Jillian Hrushowy arrived in Las Vegas in 1959 as part of a company hired to appear at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel in a production called La Nouvelle Eve. She has remained here (other than three short-term contracts in Reno, Nevada) until present day. She is now the production manager for Legends in Concert at the Imperial Palace Hotel. She was an only child, born in Rhodesia to English parents and raised in a home with servants and tutors. Her mother exposed her to the arts at an early age. Jillian took dancing lessons from the age of three years until she began dancing professionally. When she was fifteen years old, both parents agreed it was time for her to leave Rhodesia and finish her education in England. Living alone was difficult and lonely, but it afforded her a wealth of opportunities otherwise unavailable. She worked as a dancer in small, local productions while still in high school. When only eighteen, she got a job dancing in La Nouvelle Eve in Paris which eventually came to Las Vegas. This interview focuses on the years from Jillian’s arrival in 1959 until she retired from dancing in 1979. It follows her transitions from dancer, to principal dancer to production manager. [The first twenty minutes of the tape is warped and the text is garbled. The transcriber has lightly edited the transcript.]
On March 2, 1972, collector R. A. Grau interviewed former Justice of the Peace, Alma Athella Huffman (born May 2nd, 1909 in Bunkerville, Nevada) in her daughter’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers the history of Southern Nevada. Alma also offers an in-depth description of early life in Bunkerville, Nevada.
On November 3, 1978, Jane P. Kowalewski interviewed Mazie Martin Jones (born in Las Vegas, Nevada) about her father, Doctor Roy Martin, the first doctor to own a private practice in Las Vegas. Jones explains how her father first arrived in Nevada and his different investments in real estate, hospitals, and hotels. She goes on to explain her father’s hotel pursuits after retiring from medicine in the late forties.
On March 8, 1975, Kathy Mandel interviewed housewife Madeline Kadin (born in New York) in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also present for the interview is Madeline’s husband, who is referred to as “Mr. Kadin.” The three discuss differences between early Las Vegas and the present. The Kadins also explain the history of Helldorado and how it has changed over the years.