Abstract Angel Saltos tells the story of how, as a recent young student immigrant from Ecuador, he landed his first professional job with ABL Associates, a D.C. public relations marketing firm. Saltos who studied public relations and marketing at American University was interested in the Hispanic Marketing arena. In the late 1980’s Hispanic marketing was a brand new field. Tensia Alvirez, President of ABL Associates, was known in the D.C. community for her public relations work with private and...

Abstract Norberto Borja describes the early years when his family migrated from Colombia and lived on Ontario Road in Adams Morgan. Borja describes the neighborhood in the 1970’s: full of Latino families who knew each other. He describes his first job working at the SED Center, located next to his house. Borja first got involved in the D C Latino Festival in the early years when it was held on Colombia Rd. He describes how his young Colombian group of drummers was asked to perform in the Festival. By...

Abstract The interview is in Spanish. Willians Silva talks about his early years in Peru before he immigrated to the Washington metro area. He talks about his first job in housekeeping at the Grand Hotel in Washington D.C.. He talks about being fired for trying to organize a union at that hotel. He talks about the difficulties of union organizing. But despite his despair at being fired, Silva met Arturo Griffiths who was an Organizer with Local 25. That friendship led to Silva's participation in the...