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 March 3, 1980, Wanda Cortés interviewed University of Nevada, Las Vegas counselor, Ann K. Johnson (born August 28th, 1954 in Garland, Arkansas) about her life in Southern Nevada. The two discuss Johnson’s educational and occupational history. The interview concludes with a discussion on the population’s rapid growth during the seventies.
In 1991, Todd Jones arrived in Las Vegas to become a professor of philosophy at University of Nevada Las Vegas. He immediately liked the John S. Park neighborhood, where he had friends—members of a poetry group and other professors. He was attracted to the vintage esthetics and the feel of streets lined with large trees. It was a contrast with the explosion of homes being built in the city during the 1990s. Todd knew if ever bought a house, it would be there. In 2000 he did. He describes his impressions of the neighborhood's history as an old Mormon area. He also classifies the residents as being members of what her describes as three or four very distinct populations: "urban professionals, old Mormons, professors and lots of immigrants from Mexico. Todd talks about the neighborhood website that once existed and his impression of the political leanings of residents. At one point he worked as a Democrat precinct captain.
From the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas, OH-01039. On March 25, 1981, collector Sonny Neighbors interviewed his mother, Margo Knowles (born October 13th, 1935 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Margo speaks about growing up and going to school in Las Vegas. She also discusses her work as a telephone operator in Las Vegas, and at the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada.