Go to main content

This interview with Isabella Zuleta was conducted on April 21, 1976. The interview subject, who was born in Colombia, was twenty two years old at the time of the interview.
In addition to the audio recording of the interview, there is a typed summary and abstract.


Original abstract (1976):

Ms. Zuleta is a twenty-two year old native of Colombia who came to Rhode Island nearly eight years ago and recently graduated from URI. She came from a rather well-to-do family in Colombia. She described her childhood in a city in Colombia but spent a good deal of her early life out of her homeland. Her father (a psychiatrist) and her mother divorced when she was four years old. When Isabella got a little older her mother left Colombia and took up residence with relatives in various countries in Western Europe. She lived first in Spain, then in France and finally in Italy. Next the mother decided to move to Panama. After a brief stay there she moved to Miami. Her mother did not like Miami so they moved to Rhode Island. (She did not know why her mother chose Rhode Island.) They lived in North Kingston where her mother found life difficult because there were no Spanish-speaking people. Her mother would rarely leave the house. Finally they decided to move to a small Spanish-speaking neighborhood in South Providence where her mother felt more comfortable and where she still lives. The daughter recently moved to Woonsocket to live with another family.

The informant was very talkative and at times rambling. I think she reacted to my questions in a very personal way--that is, She is trying to form some compromise in her life between her Latin heritage and her experience in America.

Finally, I think this informant who came from a well-to-do family, who traveled extensively and who is very well educated presented a considerably elitist point of view.

Metric
From
To
Interval
Export
Download Full History