¿Qué es la historia oral?
What is Oral History?
Many Indigenous communities have engaged in oral history as part of their traditions and as a way to pass on the histories of their peoples from generation to generation. Therefore, this practice existed long before we called it oral history. There have been many important projects, such as the Federal Writers’ Project (WPA), which collected over 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery through its Slave Narratives collection.
Decades later, a wave of oral history projects emerged during the civil rights era. Interest in ethnic and immigrant communities gave rise to projects such as the Ellis Island Oral History Project and JJapanese American Relocation Digital Archive, which has collected the experiences WWII people’s testimonies. The UTEP Institute of Oral History has also been an active participant in collecting the histories of Braceros.
The Columbia University Oral History Research Office, founded by Allan Nevins, became the first and largest organized oral history program in 1948.
In 1966, the premier national organization promoting oral history, the Oral History Association, was founded. By the 1970s, more oral history centers began to emerge at universities. The UTEP Institute of Oral History, founded in 1972 with interviews dating back to the 1960s, is part of this history.
For a historical account of oral history, see Rebecca Sharpless, “The History of Oral History,” in Handbook of Oral History, ed. Thomas Charlton, Lois Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless (Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2006).
What is oral history?
The Oral History Association defines oral history as:
Oral history refers to both the interview process and the products that result from a recorded spoken interview (whether audio, video, or other formats). In order to gather and preserve meaningful information about the past, oral historians might record interviews focused on narrators’ life histories or topical interviews in
which narrators are selected for their knowledge of a particular historical subject or event. Once completed, an interview, if it is placed in an archive, can be used beyond its initial purpose with the permission of both the interviewer and narrator. OHA Core Principles - Oral History Association
What is the role of the interviewer?
The interviewer is the person who conducts the interview with the narrator. If you are doing this as part of a class and you are the one designing and directing the project, you will be also designing the questions and choosing the topic. If you are adding oral histories to an already existing collection, you will likely use questions that have already been written for this project. Regardless, an interviewer is the main contact and should prepare to know the topic, be familiar with the questions and possible follow up questions, which means you should be an active listener.
Who is the narrator?
This is the person who answers the questions and provides their perspectives on the topic, which can vary depending on the purpose. It could be a life story, an account of a specific event set in time, etc. Narrators are also referred to as interviewees or participants.
In the last 20 years, and with the help of digital tools, oral history projects have entered the field of digital humanities. Oral history projects range from audio to video form, might include transcripts, and typically include artifacts such as pictures, digitized letters and newspapers and other personal documents narrators want to include as part of their archive. As part of the process of recording the interview, especially if conducted in the narrators’ environment, we can often include pictures of their surroundings, themselves, and their families. However, before we embark on an oral history project with the Latina/o/e community, we must spend time in the community and discovering what might be an unexplored idea, topic, or theme that we want to learn more about. For example, if it is a project within a semester long class, the topic often arises from the class or the course might already have an archive you can contribute to by collecting more oral histories to add to it, indexing, transcribing, translating, or working with a digital humanities tool or platform to enhance the existing archive.
What is an archive?
An archive, also known as a repository, is the place where you store all the information (data) you collect from the narrator. An archive can be physical or digital, and it will include the audio and/or video recording of the interview, the signed informed consent, photographs, and other ephemera the narrator provides as part of their oral history file. In
many cases, these items are digitized, which makes it easier for us as students, researchers, faculty, and community members to access archives, learn and incorporate them into our classrooms, for example.
The interview.
The oral history interview is a question-and-answer format that requires active listening and an interviewee that is informed and shows interest on the topic to be discussed. The majority of your questions should be open-ended, and you should be ready to ask follow-up questions. Ensure your questions are clear and in chronological order and don’t rush the process. There is no magic number of questions you should ask but prepare plenty of questions to make sure your interview is as thorough as possible. Bring a notebook in case you want to jot down something the narrator said that you would like to follow up on. Remind your narrator you would like to take pictures or if the interview will be via video so they can dress appropriately for the interview.
Logistic considerations are important, so make sure you know where you are meeting your narrator, and that the place is quiet and with minimal interruptions. Make sure you know how to use the equipment and test it ahead of time. As part of your interview, make a habit of systematically noting the interviewee's name, the date and place. It is recommended that you come with another person with you so that they can observe the equipment, take action pictures and be an extra set of hands in case you need it. It is important that you consider how to best establish trust, respect and comfort, this will help everyone feel at ease during the whole process. For more information, visit the website of the Oral History Association at https://oralhistory.org/
