Asturian-American Migration Forum

[Art: I've changed the name of the thread.]

Alberto Prieto Calixto wrote:Queridos paisanos:

Thanks for making the First Symposium on the Asturian Presence in the United States a success. It was a pleasure having all of you here. Our conversations regarding the Asturian experience in the US were extremely enlightening. Still I think that there are many aspects that we couldn’t cover or discuss in depth due to lack of time.

I hope that this initiative does not stop here and I encourage you to think about a Second Symposium for 2008. I am asking Art to create a new discussion topic in www.asturianUS.org called, “Symposium 2008” where we all can contribute with thoughts and suggestions on how to achieve this goal.

Un abrazo y hasta pronto,
Alberto

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[Art: he cambiado el título del tema.]

Queridos paisanos:

Gracias por lograr que el Primer Simposio sobre la Presencia Asturiana en los Estados Unidos fuese un éxito. Fue un placer teneros a todos aquí. Nuestras conversaciones acerca de la experiencia asturiana en los EEUU fueron muy reveladoras. Creo, sin embargo, que se nos quedaron en el tintero numerosos aspectos que debido a la falta de tiempo no pudimos tratar.

Por ello espero que esta iniciativa no termine aquí y pido a todos que vayamos pensando en un segundo Simposio para 2008. Le estoy pidiendo a Art que cree un tema de discusión dentro de la página www.asturianUS.org llamado “Simposio 2008”, donde todos podamos contribuir con ideas y sugerencias respecto a cómo llevar a cabo este proyecto.

Un abrazo y hasta pronto,
Alberto

We also wants everyone to know that this thread is open to anyone who has ideas for the second symposium. The goal is to get input from as many people as possible.

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Queremos también que cada uno sepa que este hilo es abierto a cualquiera que tenga ideas para el segundo simposio. El objetivo es recibir aportaciones de tantas personas como posible.

I think we should have a session on oral histories, and one on how to collect oral histories (suggestions concerning questions to ask, techniques for getting people to open up and share their memories, methods of recording, where to store them and in what format to make them widely available, etc.).

Suronda and Kenya have some experience in this area, as does my wife Evelyn, who last week captured several hours of my dad's memories on a tiny and unobtrusive Sony digital voice recorder. As a retired psychiatric social worker, she's very good at getting people to talk about themselves and their memories.

Maybe Suronda, Kenya, Evelyn and others could post their suggestions on this website to help people get started. If we don't start collecting the oral histories from the oldest generation now, both in the EEUU and in Asturias, they will soon be lost forever.

Bob......Excellent suggestion on the oral histories. I regret deeply not having done this in the past. This is the very crux of what we are doing..it really is all about the people and their experiences and challenges. This is why I so very much enjoyed hearing your dad and Ron reminisce about thier youth in WV. By the way, please say hello to your dad when you speak to him!!

Tony

I've been following the conversation about the planned simposio for 2008. I think the idea fits very well with ideas that Kenya and Mark from the archives at U. of Southern Florida had. Wouldn't it be great to get a team of folks gathering histories? I think this is very do-able since we have a variety of folks scattered throughout the U.S. and Spain. Perhaps we could recruit folks from among our membership. I've already begun to investigate the Niagara Falls community (the one nearest to me) and I've started thinking about getting some oral histories done there this summer.

I'm not sure about the state of social history (labor history, women's history, miniority history) in Spain, but I get the feeling that it really hasn't received the kind of attention that it has in the United States since the 1960s. Do many academic historians take an interest in the history of "the people" or is their more weight given to the history of empire, los indianos, eta? I'd like to have perceptions from those on "the other side of the pond."

Great ideas! Regarding the place to host the second Symposium I'd like to suggest some area of relevance to the Asturian American community (New York, PA-WV area, Miami, Saint Augustine). We already covered Tampa in the First Symposium, so a geografical change would pobably be advisable. Of course we would need somebody from any of these areas willing to organize the event. Any ideas?

Alberto

Some suggestions for the 2008 Symosium on the Asturian Presence in the US have already filtered in, and I would be very interested in learning our members' responses to them. They are:

University of South Florida (Tampa)

Centro Asturiano de Miami

Centro Asturiano de Nueva York (they have no building, but there are facilities that we might use.

Asturias (no suggestion yet for sponsorship, but there is a nice facility near Luanco)

West Virginia (no suggestion yet for location or sponsorship)

I am interested in learning which locations appeal to our members in all countries and those of the various Centros Asturianos. Cost, obviously is an issue for most of us. How far are people willing to travel. What time of year might be best, etc.? Who would be interested in participating? Please post a reply as soon as possible.

How far are people willing to travel. What time of year might be best, etc.?

My guess is that unless they intend to dedicate an entire weekend to the event generally speaking you can count on people traveling 3 hours at most. If you think about it, 3 hours each way is 6 hours driving, that would leave them 4 hours at best to dedicate to the conference. If their day of leisure starts at 8 AM what they would like to see/hear should happen between 11:30 AM and 3 PM when it’s time to head on home.

Sleepy driving is worse than drunk driving, because of that DMV regulations prohibit commercial drivers from having days longer than 10 hours, with severe penalties for those that don’t abide by the rules.

I would guess that the best time of the year for this type of stuff is the late summer, people often are on vacation, and generally speaking the demands of both home and work are less.

Personally - I would love to see the West Virgina area. It sems that so many Asturian lives are connected to that area. Is the area easily accessible by air? Another idea is St. Louis. Plenty of non-stop, affordable flights, lots of meeting space alternatives....a small, but vibrant Asturian community. Since you are talking about 2008, I would be out of law school and available to do event coordination, which I do have a little experience with.

I'd like to respond to both Elí and Mdhsuarez.

Eli wrote:unless they intend to dedicate an entire weekend to the event

That's certainly an open question, but the first simposio was a 2-3 day event, and not a second too long.

Mdhsuarez, I agree that WV would be a great location. Ron's got a big basement. (Just kidding, Ron!)

I've been looking for a good excuse to get to know the St Louis Asturian community, and it sounds as though it's more alive than the WV community.

It's not necessary, but it would probably be easier for us to have a college (or some other organization with a building) host the event.

Hmm. I wonder if a local newspaper or TV station would have space they could provide. That'd make it easier to get good media coverage.

Hola a todos.
Por si puede servir de algo, yo había recogido un link, en mis investigaciones sobre los españoles en USA, que tiene mucho que ver con la propuesta de las historias orales.
Se trata de vascos y he podido comprobar que tienen muy bien organizado, en general, todo lo referente a publicar su presencia en los Estados Unidos.
http://www.basquemuseum.com/oralhistory/index.htm

(en espanol abajo de la respuesta en ingles)

I just joined this site, so not sure what you guys have been discussing, etc...

But I think that considering all the movement that is going on in Tampa regarding preserving the cigar factories, etc. I think it would be quite a statement to hold the symposium in Tampa's Centro Asturiano. (it would show solidarity and send a message to the community here.)

Also, if you hold the event in New York, I would recommend that you contact New York University's King Juan Carlos Center.

They are a cultural institution within NYU that hold numerous FREE lectures, seminars, symposiums, about Spain every year. (with emminent academics that focus on spain) They have great facilities that are located in Washington Square Park. I think that they would be open to something like this.

However, I have a very strange feeling that you will probably get a higher turn out in FLorida than New York. As well as press. On any given day, there are numerous "Spain" events going on in New York, people I don' think would get as excited as in Florida or Asturias.

University of South Florida (my husband is currently getting his PhD there) is a great school, and in my opinion, have more of an interested solidifying their bonds with the asturian immigrant community/history. In the "reserved" part of the library, they even have an asturiana oil painting.

If you guys hold it in Asturias, why don't you try to coincide with the festival held every year in Oviedo, "Dia de las Americas" However, if you hold it in Asturias, I am not sure how many Spanish-Americans, or immigrants would be able to attend because of the distance.

Anyway, just my two cents. Obviously I'm a bit bias cause I am in Florida, and would love to attend, but I do strongly believe what I said about NY.

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Acabo de hacerme miembra de esta pagina, osea que no se que han hablado antes, etc .....

Pero creo, que considerando todo el movimiento que esta occuriendo en Tampa para preservar los edificios/factorias de cigaros, etc, Creo que mandaria un mensaje bien fuerte si teneis el symposio en el Centro Asturiano de Tampa. Ensenaria solidaridad, y un mensaje que los descentientes asturianos estan serios en preserve sus pasado.

Tambien, si tenies el evento en Nueva York, creo que debais contactar el Centro Rey Juan Carlos de la Universidad de Nueva York.

Son una institucion cultural de NYU que tienen varias lecturas, eventos, symposios, etc. cada ano que se enfocan en Espana. (siempre tienen academicos importantes de Espana y tambien que estudian espana) Tienen un edificio grande que esta ubicado en Washington Square Park. Creo que estarian mas que despuestos a participar en algo asi.

Pero creo que vais a tener mas gente atender este evento en Tampa que en NY. Y tambien vais a recibir mas covertura de prensa en FLorida que N.Y. En cualquier dia en NY, hai various eventos que se enfocan en Espana. No creo que la gente en NY van a ser tan emocionales/excitadas como las personas en Florida O Asturias.

La universidad de Florida (my marido esta sacando su doctorado ahi) is una buena escuela, y en mi opinion, estan super interesados en cultivar y solidificar sus enlaces con la comunidad asturiana/emigrante. En la parte reservada de la biblioteca hasta tienen un Oleo de una asturiana.

Si lo tenais en Asturias, porque no tratan de coincidir con el fiesta de oviedo que se celebra todos los anos "Dia de las americans" Ahora, si lo teneis en asturias, no estoy segura cuantos Espanoles-Americanos, o emigrantes van a poder atender por la distancia.

Bueno, es solo mi opinion. Obviamente soy un poco "bias" porque estoy en Florida, pero creo lo que digo de NY.

Welcome to the planning of the simposio, Sandy! If you're interested in helpng plan the second conference, I can add you to the user group, which would give you access to all of our conversations. Let me know.

You raise an interesting point about press attention. I know it was covered in the Asturian press, but I don't remember hearing anything about the American press covering the event. That may have been our fault. In the rush to get ready I didn't think of contacting them and I don't know if anyone else did.

I think the hardest part is finding someone(s) who will be interested and able to coordinate the plannng. They'll probably have to be able to work locally, so that limits our possibilities.

Ron (Clarksburg, WV area) and Hilda (Miami) have shown the strongest interest in coordinating the next symposium. From what I've seen, both have the all-important organizing abilities.

At the end of the last conference Mark Greenberg of USF offered that school as the host of the next symposium, but I don't think we've heard from him since the first symposium. Mark did say that USF has an unusually strong interest in Asturian immigration, so they might be a very good fit.

There's a lot of interest in our topic in Asturias. Proof of that is that at least half of this forum's members are living in Asturias. So having the next conference there would make very good sense. And the press coverage there would be excellent.

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¡Bienvenida al planeamiento del simposio, Sandy! Si estás interesada en ayudar en la planificación de la segunda conferencia, puedo agregarte al grupo usuario, lo que te daría acceso a todas nuestras conversaciones. Dime.

Planteas un tema interesante sobre la atención de la prensa. Sé que fue cubierta en la prensa asturiana, pero no recuerdo oír nada del acontecimiento en la prensa americana. Ésa pudo haber sido la culpa nuestra. Con la prisa prepararme no pensé en contactar con la prensa y no sé si lo hizo cualquier otro.

Quizás la parte más difícil sea encontrar a alguien que podrá interesado y coordinar el plannng. Tendrán que probablemente poder trabajar localmente, de modo que los límites nuestras posibilidades.

Ron (de la zona de Clarksburg en WV) e Hilda (de Miami) han demostrado el interés más fuerte en coordinar el simposio siguiente. De lo que he visto, ambos tienen las capacidades de organización todo-importantes. Al fin de la conferencia pasada Mark Greenberg de USF ofreció esa escuela como el anfitrión del simposio siguiente, pero no creo que hemos oído de él desde el primer simposio. Mark nos dijo que USF tiene un interés inusualmente fuerte en la inmigración asturiana, así que tal vez cabe bien la universidad con nuestro tema.

Hay muchísimo interés en nuestro asunto en Asturias. La prueba es que por lo menos la mitad de nuestros socios del foro viven en Asturias. Entonces celebrar la conferencia siguiente allí tendría mucho sentido. Y la prensa asturiana cubriría la conferencia con entusiasmo.

Art! mira que el mundo es pequeno. Yo he trabajando indirectamente con el Senor Greenberg, y no sabia que estaba interesado en cosas asturianas!

Creo que si, tienes razon - En Asturias seria un puro exito. Creo que la gente en Asturias son muy sensible a su historia de emigracion. Ademas, es un tema diferente y interesante. En Madrid, por ejemplo, se que han tenido varios programas de cine, lecturas, sobre emigrantes lations en USA, y fue un exito. Creo que en asturias el interese seria mayor! Especialmente si puedais tener el apoyo de esa oficina que maneja la promocion asturiana afuera de asturias (no me acuerdo como se llama), pero me imagino que pueden "sponsor" un evento como este.

Creo que en USF tambien seria un exito, y alomejor como es una universidad, puedan ayudaros pagar por algunas cosas. Tambien si se hace en la universidad, alomejor tendriamos accesso a mas recursos, como su oficina de relaciones externas, etc. Pero es una pregunta que solo el senor Greenberg puede contestar. Si quieres me puedo poner en contacto con el, y preguntar que opciones hai. Este ano fue el 50 anniversario de USF, y se que el estaba super occupado con un libro sobre la escuela, razon segura que no has oido de el.

Cualquier cosa que necesitan estoy aqui. Si tienes algo administrativo que no tienes tiempo de hacer, no tengas pena en mandarlo en mi direcion. tambien puedo ayudar con cosas de prensa.

La emocion y inter-acion que hais podido cultivar con este foro es increible. Da gusto ver tanta gente de TODAS LAS PARTES de USA, y oir sus historias. Nunca en vida me hubiera imaginado, por ejemplo, que West Virginia tenia tantos Asturianos! (creo que voy a tener que ir para mis proximas vacaciones - EN SERIO!. jejej) Este foro es la hostia!!!

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Art! The world is small. I have worked indirectly with Mr. Greenberg, and I had no idea that he was interested in Asturian things.

I think that yes, you are right, in Asturias it would be a success. I think that people in Asturias are very interested and aware of their immigrant past. Additionally, its an interesting and unique topic. In Madrid, for example, I know that they have had movie series, lectures, etc, that focused on Latinos in the US, and it was a major success. I think that Asturias, the interest would be greater. Especially, if you guys can get the support of that office that manages promotion of asturian culture outside of asturias, (I can't remember the name) But I can imagine, that they should be able to sponosor event like this.

I think it would be successful in USF as well. And, since its a university, maybe they could help us pay for a few things. Also, if we have it at the university, we could have access to more resources, such as their office of communication. However, that is a question that only Mr. Greenberg could answer. If you want, I can get in contact with him, and ask him what options are available to us here. This year was USF's 50th anniversary, and i know that he was super busy making a book about the school - reason you probably have not heard from him.

I'm here, whatever you need. If you have something administrative in nature that you don't have time to do, don't worry about sending it my way. Also, I probably could help out with press.

Its amazing the emotion and interaction of members you've managed to cultivate on this forum. Its really cool to see people from ALL PARTS OF THE US, and hear their stories. I would have never thought that there was such an Asturian history in West Virginia. (I think i have to go on vacation their now - FOR REAL! lololol) Honestly, this forum is "the bomb" !!!!!!!

I've been following the conversation about the planned simposio for 2008. I think the idea fits very well with ideas that Kenya and Mark from the archives at U. of Southern Florida had. Wouldn't it be great to get a team of folks gathering histories? I think this is very do-able since we have a variety of folks scattered throughout the U.S. and Spain. Perhaps we could recruit folks from among our membership. I've already begun to investigate the Niagara Falls community (the one nearest to me) and I've started thinking about getting some oral histories done there this summer.

I'm not sure about the state of social history (labor history, women's history, miniority history) in Spain, but I get the feeling that it really hasn't received the kind of attention that it has in the United States since the 1960s. Do many academic historians take an interest in the history of "the people" or is their more weight given to the history of empire, los indianos, eta? I'd like to have perceptions from those on "the other side of the pond."

Well Suronda,
Maybe that social history is not so developped in Spain as it is in U.S.A but there are many scholars working in that area, even in Oviedo University. Specially women's history. The University has just announced the creation an european master degree about that matter. Also popular history, "the historiy of the people" is being been developped. Professor Jorge Uria from the contemporary history department of Oviedo University works about leisure history. And other colleages of him are working about oral history. Maybe you could contact all of them in order to prepare the simposio for 2008 and all the things you talked about.

Thanks Miguel Angel ... it's good to know that a "People's History" will be put together by scholars in Spain. This isn't the history that most Americans learn about themselves, and for sure it isn't really the history we learn about other countries. It's good to have a "people's" voice in constructing a national discourse.

Where do things stand on organizing the next Simposio? Have we found a site?