FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2015
FPAA Partners with Southwest Folklife Alliance on Oral History Project
Nogales, (Aug. 18) How did the Mexican produce importing industry grow from just a few rail car loads to hundreds of thousands of trucks today? How has this growth affected the socio-economic and cultural areas of whole communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, its government, families and individuals? Those are some of the questions that the project called The Crossroads of Confianza: A Study of The Fresh Produce Industry in Nogales, Arizona may be able to answer.
The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in conjunction with Southwest Folklife Alliance, SFA, a nonprofit folk arts organization and the University of Arizona are working together on a new oral history project. Eventually, the results of the project will be part of the Library of Congress, and will become part of the nation’s rich history.
This initiative is being conducted by Occupational Folklorist, Nic Hartman, who will be collecting stories of the produce industry in Nogales. These stories will become part of a collection of occupational studies that include Idaho firefighters, New York tugboat captains and Vermont farmers, said Hartman.
“This will be an asset for the whole community as, it helps us understand how Nogales has developed into the city that we know today,” said Lance Jungmeyer, president of FPAA.
This will be an asset for the whole community as, it helps us understand how Nogales has developed into the city that we know today.
This will be an asset for the whole community as, it helps us understand how Nogales has developed into the city that we know today.
The assemblage of stories will be conducted via personal interviews. Hartman encourages anyone interested in participating to contact him by phone at 812.457.6467, or by email: nichartmann@email.arizona.edu.
