Oral history interview with Patricia Walker

Patricia Walker spoke about her childhood growing up and her school experience in San Jose, Costa Rica as a person of African descent; the differences between her parents' childhoods and her childhood in Costa Rica; history of Costa Rica; and her family history, including her grandfather who migrated from Jamaica to Costa Rica to work for the United Fruit Company, and her mother's side of the family migrated from Barbados. Walker explained the educational and language differences throughout her family across generations as well as the relationships and interactions among various communities in Costa Rica because of cultural, racial, and ethnic differences. She explained her identity as Afro-West Indian female born in Costa Rica. Walker also spoke about why and how she immigrated, as a child, to the United States; her first impression of the United States; racism she experienced as a child in the United States; being raised by her aunt, a strict disciplinarian, before her parents immigrated to the United States; her educational experiences in the Washington, DC area; her aunt's and parents' work and experience in the United States, and their return to Costa Rica; and her brothers, husband, and child. She explained how Costa Rica has changed since she was a child; why she does not plan to live in the United States the rest of her life; her thoughts on interracial marriage; cultural differences between her and her husband, who was from Grenada; her relationship with African Americans and West Indians in the United States; how her West Indian and Catholic upbringing, culture, and identity influenced her work and her life; and the differences between Costa Rican / Latino culture and West Indian culture. Patricia Walker was interviewed by Anthony Knight. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include white noise and static, and some background noise; interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part. There is a short sudden interruption in recording.