Coralville Oral History Project
Dublin Core
Title
Coralville Oral History Project
Description
The Coralville Oral History Project provides first-hand affective accounts of various individuals that have called Coralville their home. Whether they came here as recent immigrants, students, or have had family roots here for multiple generations, these stories reflect the growing diversity that exists here in Coralville. This is an ongoing collection with the hopes of getting more oral history narrators. No story is too big or too small for this collection!
Collection Items
Linda Wong
Linda Wong is one of the daughters of Tom Wong, the man that opened up the first Chinese restaurant in Coralville, Ming Garden. In this interview, she reflects what it was like growing up in Iowa as the only Chinese family from 1957 onward and how it…
Shri Vishalini Rajaram Oral History
Vishalini was apprehensive to speak with me at first. As a relative newcomer to America much less Coralville, she expressed worry that she would not have much to add on an oral history about residents in Coralville. Instead of focusing heavily on…
Leah Scharlott Oral History
When I first approached Leah, I told her this was an interview about her affective experience living in Coralville. While this is always true for all my interviews, I also focus on the narrator’s life story outside of Coralville. As a city located in…
Councilwoman Hai Huynh Oral History
In an interview scheduled to go from 9 AM to 11 AM, councilwoman Hai Huynh and I spoke for over five hours. Between laughter, tears, and reflection, Hai told me how her grandma taught her the meaning of community, how she struggled and succeeded…
Rehab Karar Oral History Interview
Rehab's story was incredibly powerful. The first few moments of the interview she was admittedly nervous. However, after a few minutes, she settled into the interview and began telling amazing stories. The story that will stick with me the longest is…
Qing Xu Oral History
Coming from China to America as a dependent to her husband who was a PhD student at the University of Iowa, Qing Xu spoke little English. To learn she took English classes at the Coralville Public Library and Kirkwood Community College for a couple…
Celine Fender Oral History Interview
My interview with Celine was filled with laughter but also quite a few somber moments. Between hearing she was named after Celine Dion and how she wants to make Coralville’s nickname “the ville,” she told me stories about being a care-taker for then…
Omega Dancel Oral History
This was my second time interviewing Omega Dancel. The first was for another oral history project that aimed to capture the stories of Asian American students and alumni at the University of Iowa that you can find here. In that first interview with…
Comments