Louis Cervas is my uncle, who was born in San Luis, and is a very easygoing, nice person. And on March 30, 2024, me and my mom went to Louis' house and recorded the interview in separate rooms using Zoom. In order to record the interview, me and Louis went into separate rooms in his house, as not to cause sound interference, and I used the Zoom's recording function in order to record the interview as the 2 of us talked. As the interview went on, I looked at a script with all the questions and their respective themes, and asked these questions to Louis according to the correct order. As for transcribing the interview, I took the recording for the interview, and used a function in Microsoft Word that transcribed the recording into written text. I then analyzed the text, highlighted certain themes, and edited the transcript to make sure that the grammar was all there. Overall, the interview was a very eye opening experience, that gave me great insight into how Louis' experiences as a Hispanic person impacted his life, and how the experiences he felt made an interesting parallel to the things I learned in class.
Themes that I came up with:
Biographical Information
Educational Trajectory
Work Experiences
Identity and Language
Pandemic
Uprisings
Finance.
In order to find these themes, I basically paid attention to the words that were based both in the questions, and in Louis' answers to determine what theme they fit in or not. For example, whenever Louis mentioned aspects of his life, I knew that such elements fit into biographical elements, due to them being about specific areas of his life. Throughout the interview, I used this scheme in order to figure out which themes applied to which passage, and highlighted them accordingly, being able to identify certain themes, through the presence of certain key words, and connecting the dots in order to figure out which theme is being reflected in the passage.
In terms of relevant themes in the essay, the ones that were the most relevant for what we were discussing in class were Identity and Language, Biographical Information, and Uprisings. There are many ways in which these themes were covered in a way that tied into the lessons I learned throughout my Latinos in the U.S Class.
For example, in regards to the Identity and Language theme, when asked about whether he prefers a specific label, Louis states that he most identifies with the label of Hispanic. Louis mentions that he prefers this because it's the most common label for people of his nationality, and if he's going to be labeled anything, Hispanic would be the most preferable thing to be labeled. And one of the stories we discussed in class, Disposable Strangers Mexican Americans, Latinxs, and the Ethnic Label ‘Hispanic’ in the Twenty-First Century by Suzzanne Oboloer, goes over the label of Hispanic, and how its usage watered down the identity that Latin American's had. In essence, this information shows that Louis is not really hugely interested in specific labels, and generally just is fine being himself, and using the broad label of Hispanic to identify himself.
As for Biographical Information, Louis detailed throughout the interview how, while his life wasn't the most challenging ever, there was a lot of stuff that he had to deal with when he was younger. His family, despite not being dirt poor, didn't really have a ton of money, and as such, they couldn't have things like Christmas Presents or Toys. And yet despite that, Louis tried to keep his head up, and try to improve as much as he can. This can be connected to the article, UndocuHoosiers: Resist and Persist in the Era of Trump, because, while both Louis and the article's struggles face very different struggles, you can see the subtle parallels in practice, with both Louis and the immigrants having to face difficult challenges due to them being Latino immigrants. Every group of people is going to face problems due to their inherent identities and both the challenges Louis had to face in his daily life, and the protesting of the people mentioning in the article demonstrate how these problems take place in different ways, and how you can be able to stand up and overcome them.
Finally, for Uprisings, when asked about the situation around George Floyd, Louis gave some very interesting commentary, revolving around how certain minorities, including Hispanics, have more of a disadvantage when dealing with the police in the form of negative bias,. I was able to connect this commentary to the overall themes that we've been discussing in our class. Throughout our class, we've been discussing several important protests and protesters, such as the Dream 9. The Dream 9 is a group of undocumented activists who staged an incredibly risky and important protest. Like the protests that happened in the wake of George Floyd, protests that were staged by people like The Dream 9 fought for a very important and relevant issue, and as such, Louis' commentary makes a great connection to the struggles people like the Dream 9 face due to their identity.
Overall, this was a very interesting interview, that allowed me to learn more about Louis, and really expanded the scope of what I was learning in class.
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