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Gregory Jaramillo attended Colorado State University and received his license to practice medicine from the University of Colorado, Denver. He has been director of the Salud Family Health Center in Longmont, Colorado. He discusses the importance of community health centers, work he has done with organizations such as the YMCA and subsidized housing programs to help people access better education and lifestyles, and his general philosophy of life. He talks about positive changes brought about by Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) and electronic medical records.

Richard Behrmann is a long-time resident of Niwot and Longmont in Boulder County. He was active in farming, as were his father and grandfather. He provides detailed accounts both of farming activities (such as threshing, how to keep a "buck rake" running straight) and of equipment (such as descriptions of Pitman mowers and grain binders). He also provides information about school and social life (including about Jitney dances), his brother's experiences in the U.S. Navy in World War II, and local lore.

Mary Martinez describes her childhood during The Depression. She first lived in Denver; after her mother died when Mary was five, she lived in Milliken, CO with her grandparents who were immigrants from Mexico. She describes working in the beet fields. After her grandparents died, she and her five sisters had to support themselves. They hired as agricultural workers in Johnstown and were helped by the WPA and relief programs. She describes how the family and others stole coal from trains during the Depression for heating. She married a coal miner, came to Longmont in the 1940s. She tells about her drive to obtain education and do meaningful work, which included acquiring her GED degree at age 42, becoming a nurse's aid, and later a Licensed Practical Nurse, the first Latina in the area to become an LPN. She worked at Longmont United Hospital for many years. She also talks about her other community involvements, serving in the state Office of Volunteers, and the close-knit nature of her family.

Peg Brown relates her experience of having her and her partner's house flood during the Boulder County Flood of 2013. She describes the flood itself, evacuation from her neighborhood, returning to survey the damage, how she and her family members and friends reclaimed many items and lost many more, her painstaking recovery of photographs and papers damaged in the flood, and the role of FEMA in providing assistance. She speaks movingly about her own emotional reactions to the damage of the flood, the way the neighbors pulled together, and of lessons learned.

Tony Shockency, who had recently stepped down as Executive Director of the YMCA in Longmont, was born in North Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1956. His family was mixed-race, and he grew up in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. He describes the discrimination he faced as a child and teen. He speaks about his ideals that include a society built on equality and non-discrimination, and opportunity, and about why he saw working for the YMCA as a way to implement those ideals. He talks of his success in changing the culture of the Longmont YMCA to be inclulsive of Latinos, and of his passionate commitment to civil rights work and social justice.

Marta Moreno is the Executive Director of El Comit{u1EBB}, a non-profit organization that focuses on helping underserved people in Longmont, primarily Latinos, solve legal problems, achieve citizenship, recoup wages, and overcome unfair treatment among other services. She talks about growing up in El Paso, Texas, the influence of nuns and priests had in her life, and her educational experiences there. She moved to Boulder in the mid-1970s when her husband was hired as a mechanical engineer for IBM. She talks about leading a movement to have the Catholic churches here offer Spanish Mass. Later she moved to Longmont. She describes discrimination against Latinos in El Paso and in Boulder County. She ends by explaining the history of El Comit{u1EBB}, and describes many of the ways in which it helps the community.

Leroy Schlagel was a prominent Longmont farmer whose family emigrated from Germany and Russia. Mr. Schlagel touches on a variety of topics: homesteading in the Longmont area, early white settlers' interactions with Indians, muskrat trapping, sugar beet farming, playing baseball with the Altona Grange on Nelson Road, other early families in the area (the Butterworths, Cushmans, Wagners, Voakes and Rudys), and the origins of the Left Hand Water Supply Company, which he helped to found. Mr. Schlagel began working in the beet fields at six years of age; he bought his first land when he was 18-years-old (80 acres at $200 an acre on Nelson Road), and he describes not only farming life, but also the decline of farming in the area and what the loss of that way of life has meant culturally. He also talks about his involvements in the 4-H Club, which led to his meeting President Truman; serving on the St. Vrain Valley School District school board, and planning the community of Clover Basin.

Sonia Marquez is the director for Northern Colorado of CIRC (Colorado Immigration Rights Coalition) and has set up youth groups in Longmont (LYFE) and Lafayette). Her maternal grandparents came to Longmont around 1932 from northern New Mexico in a covered wagon; her grandfather, John Borrego, worked in the fields and then in meat packing. Her father came from Chihuahua, Mexico, when he was 19 and worked on farms and in construction. She describes discrimination experienced by relatives in Longmont during the 1930s and later, including signs in businesses that stated that dogs and Mexicans were not welcome. Sonia talks about her difficulties going through school in Longmont as a Latina, her college education, and being fired from the Longmont Youth Center, which was protested by many of the center's clients. She speaks of the work that CIRC does, especially around immigration reform, her passion for empowering young people, and the importance of perserving people's stories and culture.

Russell Zweck was interviewed at his farm at 11007 N. 85th, Longmont, Colorado. Mr. Zweck's grandfather acquired the property from a land grant to a soldier during the Indian Wars. He has the original deed signed by President Andrew Johnson. Mr. Zweck owns 224 acres. He recalls and reflects on a time before refrigeration was available, when barter was the principal method of economic exchange, when German prisoners of war were imported for labor in Longmont, and when boys had BB guns and played marbles for keeps. He remembers when tires, rubber boots, shoes, sugar, and flour were rationed; bacon fat and newspapers were saved; and high school buddies died during WWII. He talks about the changes that have taken place between the World War II era and the late twentieth century in Boulder County with regard to culture, values, and the economics of farming.

Virginia Maestas was born in Colorado and grew up in Longmont, Boulder and the San Luis Valley. Both of her parents were born in New Mexico and worked as migrant farm workers. Later her father worked in the Great Western Sugar plant and Green Mountain Cemetery. Her mother did domestic work. Virginia describes her childhood, including the challenges of the living conditions, schooling without accommodation for her lack of knowledge of English (which led to her dropping out in Junior HIgh School), prejudicial treatment of Latinos, and the small size of the Latino community in Boulder County when she was growing up. She also tells about her return to school to obtain a GED at age 26, a college degree at age 46, and her subsequent career as a teacher. She discusses changes in the Boulder County Latino community and changes in attitudes toward Latinos over time.

Arthur Trevino describes the damage to his rental home in Longmont, caused by the Boulder County Flood of 2013. Art's experience was complicated by several factors: he had moved to Boulder only four months before the flood; during the most severe flooding, he was negotiating flooded roads between Westminster and Longmont while his wife with Alzheimer's disease was at home being taken care of by his adult son; and his landlord was out of town for more than a month after the flood. Art describes the work that he and his son did to reclaim the house from damage. He talks about his calm and resilient attitude in the face of challenges; the plentiful help provided by rescue workers, volunteers, government workers, and neighbors; and the general feelilng of heightened community that was a silver lining of the disaster.

Edwina Salazar is the executive director of the OUR Center in Longmont, Colorado. She was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1948. Her father's family, of Jewish origin, was from Northern New Mexico but had moved to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Her mother's family members were farm workers who settled in Erie. Ms. Salazar attended a liberal Catholic school in the 1960s where the nuns and priests were active in civil rights and anti-war movements. Her mother, who died when Edwina as 14, cleaned houses and insisted Edwina get an education so she could do better. Ms. Salazar attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins where she discovered her passion for social work. She describes civil rights and anti-war agitation while she was there. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. She moved to Longmont in 1992, where she helped arrange for a monument in Kensington Park for two unarmed Hispanic youths killed by police in 1980. She describes the OUR Center and her work with it.

This interview begins by covering Virginia Alvarez's early life in northeast Boulder County where her parents were farm workers. Her parents moved to Boulder County from Mexico in 1929, before Virginia was born in 1942. When she was a child, they did farm work in the Longmont area, moving around from one farm to another annually. Virginia talks about feeling isolated when she was very young because there were not many Hispanics in her elementary school and initially she did not speak much English. She went to school in Longmont from first grade through high school, and she remarks on the dynamics between Hispanics and Anglos in the schools, which were, for the most part, lacking conflict. IBM brought in many new Latinos in the 1960s. She describes her family as being poor, too poor for her to join clubs at Longmont High School, for example. She worked for an OEO program with senior citizens in the 1960s throughout Boulder County. She learned her life philosophy from her family, which is to respect people and to do whatever job you're doing the best that you can. Virginia says she sees less division now between Anglos and Hispanics in Longmont, in part because Hispanics have opened businesses that non-Hispanics also support, and in part becasue Hispanic children are getting educations that are opening doors for them.