Oral history interview with Julia Lara

Julia Lara spoke about her parents, brother, and extended family; her elementary school experience and living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; immigrating from Santo Domingo to St. Thomas to New York City; learning English in St. Thomas; attending Catholic elementary school and high school in New York City, community college in NYC, Middlebury College in Vermont, and Columbia University; race in Dominican Republic and the United States; how she identified herself; the impact of the civil rights movement on her; her decision to change her educational focus from political science to education; moving to Adams Morgan community in Washington, DC; her work with the Council of Chief State School Officers; bilingual education; and the merging of Bell Multicultural High School and Cardozo High School. Lara explained why skin pigmentation is an issue within the family unit in Dominican Republic; however, she was not treated differently even though she was the darkest skinned child in the family. She also explained the woman's role in the household, the difficulty getting visas out of Dominican Republic, how life adjustments in New York City differed from adjusting to life in St. Thomas, Latinos of African descent have been placed in a situation where they have to become African American denying where they come from and who they are, racism within the Latino community in Washington, DC, and the relationship between race, culture, and nationality. Julia Lara was interviewed by Hector Corporan. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include white noise and static; interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part. There are several minutes of sound distortion where voices are difficult to understand and some original audio might be missing.