Nora Luna (1971 - ), the daughter of Mexican immigrants, recalls her growing up experience in the Las Vegas Valley. During her childhood, she and her siblings frequently persuaded their father to take them out to eat to the Circus Circus buffet. She enjoyed playing the carnival games at the Circus Circus. She attended Las Vegas High School. In 1994, she graduated from UNLV with a degree in criminal justice. Her education inspired her to work with the community’s youth. She tutored children at the Y.M.C.A. of Southern Nevada. Luna also worked for a program, Anahuac, which sought to deconstruct some of the myths that often prevent Latinos from attending college. In Reno, Nevada she worked with non-profit organizations to implement evidence-based practices for youth development. Luna has worked for Nathan Adelson Hospice as the Director of Diversity and Grant Funding since 2008. She seeks to find culturally competent care for Latinos and ensures that the hospice provides informational r

Interviewed by Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez. Barbara Tabach also participates in the questioning. Valorie J Vega was born in raised in Los Angeles County. Her father, Fred Vega, was one of the first firefighters hired in the Los Angeles County area. Vega was one of three children, and remembers spending her childhood surrounded by family. In college, Vega began studying biology only to realize that she was better suited studying Spanish. Upon completion of her undergrad, Vega went on to earn a Master's in Spanish interpretation. As a result of her studies, Vega was able to secure a job in the Court Interpreter program in Las Vegas, moving here in 1978. Her position in the interpreter program, led her to pursue a degree in law which in turn led to a successful career as a lawyer and a judge.

For the first 19 years of her life, Mary Martell Shaw called Central America home. Then thanks to misrouted luggage, she met the love of her life Rollin H. Shaw, a civil engineer, at a time in when his atomic energy career was taking off. In October 1943, they married in Costa Rica and for the next two decades traversed the country: Hawaii to California to Panama—wherever a project required Ronnie's engineering skills. Mary supported her husband every step of the way, with every new location. As a traditional homemaker of the era, she became adept at raising their four kids while packing boxes, enrolling them in school and setting up a warm home wherever they landed. The move to Las Vegas in September 1964, however, left her a bit challenged: there was a shortage of adequate housing, a concern for where to send her two daughters and two sons to school, and the feeling that they wouldn't be here long. Years later, Mary and Ronnie would retire to the city where their roots ran deepest, Las Vegas. With great wit, Mary recalls the long absences demanded by Ronnie's work with the Atomic Energy Commission. She also tells stories of the great fun they and their fellow Nevada Test Site employees had at parties, of her learning to paint with watercolors, and the pride she has of all her children's successes based on their education in Las Vegas.

Shortly before the University of Georgia granted Betsy Fretwell Master's degree in public administration in 1991, she applied for a one-year internship with Clark County, Nevada. The County hired her, but Fretwell did not complete her internship. Instead, the County promoted her, hired her full-time, and soon had her lobbying for the County's interests in Carson City. Her insistence on learning all sides of a question and communicating that knowledge to the decision makers was one of the skills that made her so valuable to Clark County administrators. In this interview, Fretwell discusses her South Carolina childhood, her affinity for the University of Georgia Bulldogs, and the path she took to occupy the office of city manager for the City of Las Vegas. She talks about her years at Clark County and a term at the City of Henderson, but she mostly focuses on her sixteen years at the City of Las Vegas, first as assistant city manager under Virginia Valentine and later as city manage

Ron Current's heart was always in the right place, with respect to social activism and his dedication to empowering the black community in Las Vegas. Inspired by Black Panther Party founders, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, Ron started the Black Panther Party Las Vegas Chapter. He was also the director of public relations for the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; an organization created to work in tandem with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, to eliminate racial inequality. Ron describes the overall atmosphere of the Westside community in Las Vegas during the early days, as chaotic, drug infested, and riddled with daily gang related shootings. He also recalls the historic preservation attempts made by leading members of the Westside community, such as Sarann Knight Preddy. Ron recalls working at the University Medical Center while recruiting for the Black Panther Party Las Vegas Chapter. This interview demonstrates the power of love. As the founder and leader of the Black Panther Party Las Vegas Chapter, Ron was named one of the most influential blacks in Las Vegas by the Sentinel Voice. He recalls utilizing his hands-on leadership approach towards capacity building and the successful implementation of community mobilization strategies and methods. He was a champion for educational equity, equal access to employment opportunities, and economic equality in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dr. Darville Knowles was born in Miami, Florida, in 1948. His mother and father were schoolteachers in Dade County. After their divorce in 1962, Darville's mother relocated to Las Vegas with her two sons and took a teaching position here. Dr. Knowles comments on the differences between Miami and Las Vegas as far as segregation regarding housing, education, and job opportunities. He also mentions that his grandmother had emigrated from the Bahamas and that she impressed on them to make their own situation and community better. He recalls that track and field athletics were desegregated before the contact sports, such as football and basketball. Darville and his brother Michael (a lawyer in Miami) both graduated from college. Darville attended Howard University and Stanford University Medical School and completed his internship at the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis. Dan Wilkes, a family friend and pathologist in Las Vegas, convinced Darville to look at Las Vegas for job opportunities. After trying St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles, Dr. Knowles finally settled in Las Vegas in 1982 and "grew' his practice at Sunrise Hospital. Dr. Knowles comments on health problems in Las Vegas related to eating choices, lack of exercise, and poor air quality. He describes how HMOs have changed the practice of medicine and gives his opinions on how health care should be addressed by Congress. He also discusses the future of medicine, the research he was involved in, and the AIDS crisis. Dr. Knowles talks about how medicine has changed since 1982, the large number of respiratory problems that he treats, and comments further on HMOs and the fixture of medicine in Las Vegas. He also shares that he found time to author a murder mystery and has plans to write more.

On June 26, 1975, Sharon Hildebrandt interviewed Dorothy Ross Fletcher (born 1936 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about growing up in and living in Southern Nevada. Fletcher first talks about that various towns in which she lived while growing up before discussing the schools she attended. She also discusses the changes in schools, her involvement in politics, church activity, gambling as a recreational activity, and prominent visitors who came to Las Vegas. Fletcher also talks about living in Nevada during World War II, the atomic testing, environmental changes and extreme weather, and the social changes in Las Vegas. The latter part of the interview involves discussion of real estate, the introduction of air conditioning for cooling, changes on the Las Vegas Strip, recreational activities available to youth in Las Vegas and the increase in the nonnative population.