Oral history interview with Hamed Ahmady conducted by Stefani Evans on March 22, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Culinary Union Local 226 organizer Hamed Ahmady recalls his childhood as the oldest of six children in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan. As an child, he remembers hearing about the September 11, 2001 attack in New York while living in a Taliban-controlled city on a television connected to a concealed antenna that received signals from Uzbekistan. He recalls how, one month after he graduated high school, he became an translator for the U.S. Army, which he did for more than four years. He talks about securing his Special Immigrant Visa (SIV); landing in Los Angeles, California in 2013 and moving his family to the United States; and supporting his siblings and parents in Afghanistan. He also discusses relocating his family from California to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2018, finding a mosque community, and working with Culinary Union Local 226.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Lorraine Longhi conducted by Stefani Evans on March 31, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Longhi recalls growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada through eigth grade until she moved to Arizona. After graduating from high school and Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Longhi worked for the Arizona Republic newspaper, where she covered education and city government. Longhi identifes as mixed race and speaks of a Las Vegas childhood punctuated with annual visits to her father's family in Yonkers, New York, and her mother's Taiwanese family in Taipei. In this interview, she discusses favorite Taiwanese and Italian foods she remembers from her childhood, and memories of cultural festivals at Chinatown Plaza. She also recalls first experiencing questions about her personal identity in Arizona, remarking in retrospect on the diversity of her childhood in Las Vegas. Longhi returned to Las Vegas in March 2022 to begin work as assistant city editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Tia Ka'auamo conducted by Jerwin Tiu and Stefani Evans on April 28, 2023 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islanders Oral History Project. In this interview, Tia Ka'auamo recalls her childhood in Hilo, Hawai'i, and in rural Makawao, Maui as the middle of three daughters born of a Korean-Japanese father and a Filipino-Okinawan mother. She discusses living in state-funded housing in Hawai'i, and with various family members due to difficult personal situations. Ka'auamo discusses earning a bachelor's degree in psychology, spending a summer study abroad in Berlin, Germany, and attending law school. She talks about learning Tagalog from her paternal grandmother, who was punished if she used her language in school, and questions the ways others use language, food, and culture proficiency to determine their identity. Ka'auamo moved to Las Vegas in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and currently works a legal records specialist for the Office of the City Attorney at the City of Las Vegas. She also recently organized the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Committee of city employees.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Homero "Alex" Garza and Crisanta "Cris" Marshall conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on October 28, 2025 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, the two siblings describe their childhood and experience as children of immigrants living in Nevada. Cris, born in Ojinaga, Mexico, and Alex, born in Bunkerville, Nevada lived with their parents, who immigranted to Nevada when Cris was young, to work on ranches in Bunkerville, Hiko, and Alamo, Nevada. Their father, a hardworking and educated man who ran successful businesses in Mexico, eventually built and ran a corner store and gas station. The two recall that growing up in a small town in the 1970s was difficult, and they faced many obstacles and discrimination during their upbringing. They talk about how their parents instilled a strong work ethic in all of their children. Alex worked as both a special education teacher and real estate agent, while Cris spent over fifteen years as an emergency phone operator for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. They are both extremely grateful for the opportunities their parents gave them, and both admire them fondly. At the time of the interview, both siblings live in Las Vegas and are active in their community.
Archival Collection
Photographs of the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Las Vegas, Nevada (2020) are comprised of digital images captured by Aaron Mayes, UNLV Special Collections and Archives Curator for Visual Materials, to document what quarantine measures and restrictions to tourism, business, and everyday life in the Las Vegas Valley looked like in the spring and summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Included are images of the Las Vegas Strip, Downtown Las Vegas, local businesses, parks and outdoor recreation spaces, celebrations and events, and Lied Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
The Reverend Donald M. Clark Papers (1953-1976) contain correspondence, meeting minutes, organizational plans, newspaper clippings, and personal memorabilia related Clark's work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Economic Opportunity Board (EOB) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
The George Knox Roth Collection (1959-1980) consists of newspaper clippings (including photocopies), magazine articles, newsletters, technical reports and publications, correspondence, notes, and photographs relating to the Atomic Energy Commission, the environmental impact of nuclear testing in Nevada, Nevada mining, Airwest and the Hughes Airport, and other aspects of Howard Hughes’ Nevada operations. The George Knox Roth Collection also includes correspondence and expense reports related to his own company, General Research Consultants.
Archival Collection
The Cynthia Cunningham Papers date from 1970 to 1979 and document Cunningham's career as an English instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and as a member of the Nevada State of Board of Education. Included are Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) materials, audio tapes, posters, newspaper clippings, survey results, and reports that explore the issue of gender bias in schools. Materials on the Health Systems Agency contain organization by-laws, memberships, agendas, minutes, correspondence, and publications.
Archival Collection
Aaron Williams Papers (1965-1981) consist of scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, certificates, newspaper clippings, reports, and programs. Many of the clippings and some of the correspondence contain references that give insight into the role of women in North Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The scrapbooks and newspaper clippings document Williams' career as well as issues he dealt with as councilman and commissioner. These issues include those related to community and infrastructure development, such as airports, sewage treatment plants, senior citizens, health, and urban planning as well as North Las Vegas and Clark county political activities during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Archival Collection
The Nevada Women's History Project Records (1995-2008) contain the early organizational records of the Nevada Women's History Project (NWHP), which was created to collect and disseminate information about women throughout Nevada's history. The collection reflects the early organization of the Nevada Women's History Project's (NWHP) Southern region and the variety of events and projects with which the organization was involved with across the state of Nevada. Materials include membership lists, meeting minutes, press releases, project files, and NWHP newsletters.
Archival Collection
