Alicia Escalante Oral History Interview

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An oral history consisting of a single digital video recording (2018.78.12.1). It was collected as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Interviews. In this interview, Alicia Lara, a Chicana activist from East Los Angeles, discusses her early life; her activist work fighting for welfare rights, women’s rights, and economic justice; and her participation in the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Lara begins the interview by discussing her upbringing and family life in El Paso, Texas. She describes how her father was abusive and recalls how her mother fled to Los Angeles to live with her sister. She also recounts how she ran away to join her mother when she was a child. Lara then talks about her early years in East Los Angeles before turning to a discussion of how she became involved in welfare rights organizing.

Explore Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ↗