On March 19, 1978, Marcela Yepes interviewed Richard Erbe (born 1922 in El Monte, California) about his experiences in Las Vegas, Nevada and specifically about his career in education. Erbe first talks about his family background and German ancestry before describing how he ended up moving to Nevada. He then describes his wife’s father’s background in the gaming industry and some of the early illicit casinos that existed in California. The interview shifts to Erbe’s educational background, his first teaching position as a fifth grade teacher, his experience in the military, and his reasoning for not seeking employment in the gaming industry. The two also discuss church activity, politics, and social activities in Las Vegas. The latter part of the interview includes Erbe’s viewpoints on the issues in the educational system, his experiences as a principal at multiple Clark County schools, and some of the challenges he encountered in the administrative side in the field of education.
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