Carlos Chavez La Yarda Interview

Carlos Chavez La Yarda Interview

La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.)

Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Carlos Chavez was interviewed by Emily Raymond on March 9, 2021, as part of an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River, the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. Carlos grew up in East Lawrence, and recounts his memories of his childhood as part of Lawrence's Mexican-American community in the 1950s and 1960s. Carlos describes jobs that he had while growing up, pasttimes enjoyed by neighborhood children, and aspects of the social life of Lawrence's Mexican-American community. He describes his experience returning to Lawrence after military service in the mid-1970s. Carlos also discusses experiences of discrimination and segregation faced by the Mexican-American community in Lawrence.

Chavez, Carlos

La Yarda Oral History Project

Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.)

2021-03-09

Raymond, Emily

Published with the permission of Carlos Chavez. This work is the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

To access the audio recording of this interview, go to https://archive.org/details/8-cchavez-20210309.

The Watkins Museum of History also holds items related to this collection.

Additional research on the La Yarda community is held at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.

MP3 (audio recording)

PDF (transcription)

Oral History

8-CChavez-20210309.mp3 (audio)

8-CChavez-20210309.pdf (transcription)

Lawrence (Kan.)

1920s - 1970s

Raymond, Emily

Chavez, Carlos

MP3

0:36:43

192 kbps