Voice of Witness (VOW) supported an 11th grade class at Mission High School with an oral history project showcasing the histories of migration within the school community.
Through our ongoing partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District, the project gave students in an honors English Language Arts class the opportunity to conduct interviews with family and friends about their experiences with movement across borders. In collecting these first-person narratives, students gained skills in oral history and practiced principles of ethical storytelling.
The curriculum was inspired by Jose Antonio Vargas’s 2018 memoir, Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen, which chronicles his experience immigrating to the United States from the Philippines. In their oral history projects, students transformed the transcripts from their interviews into stories and monologues, which were then performed and showcased on a class website.
Many of the stories center on movement to the Bay Area, documenting paths of immigration from Mexico, El Salvador, and West Africa or cross-country migration from areas like Louisiana. These narratives deal with themes of place and displacement, of creating a home in unfamiliar territory and overcoming the many obstacles that come with putting down roots in new communities.
One oral history shares the experiences of a 27-year-old Chinese immigrant who arrived in the United States only recently and spent the height of the pandemic years here:
“I’m nervous. I’m scared to share this experience with someone else. Some of the stories I’m about to tell you even my family don’t even know. The United States of America in Chinese means ‘beautiful country’ but the fact is it might look nice and beautiful but it’s not. I faced racism when I just got here … No matter where I go, I feel unsafe. The accent I have exposes that I’m Chinese. I stayed at home for two months.“
Another student performed her mother’s story of a growing up in Mexico City and journeying to the US while pregnant with her first child as a single mother:
“I would have stayed in Ciudad Mexico, but my abuelita passed, and I couldn’t bear looking at the house where we spent time without shedding a tear … No one knew I was leaving. I was emotional, and my hormones did not help while on that journey. Squished with other people, you could feel the anxiety inside the truck on that day. The coyote was paid by my brother… I prayed and prayed that everything would be alright.”
Conducting these interviews created the opportunity for students to listen deeply to the meaningful stories that may not have otherwise been shared in their families and communities. They then carefully edited and recited the monologues in a way that honored their narrator’s authentic voice.
Storytelling projects foster vital student skills, including social-emotional learning, critical thinking, communication, and literacy. Conducting interviews and editing narratives can also cultivate empathy, challenge stereotyping and bias, and build curiosity, belonging, and community engagement.
Work With Us
Are you an educator interested in bringing ethical storytelling and oral history into your classroom? VOW has extensive experience working with teachers, school districts, and education organizations to create curricula and activities that increase student engagement and learning in the classroom.
Reach out to learn more: edu@voiceofwitness.org
Oral history is a powerful foundation for dramatic arts projects. Interested in more oral history-based theater? Learn about VOW’s collaboration supporting Oakland Technical High School’s performance of Voices of the Storm.
