Skyline College/North San Mateo County Oral History Archives, Skyline College Library
Student project for LSCI 110 – Digital Oral Research Project, Skyline College

A Reflection of the Past: Sonia Hiatt

Click on the links below to hear audio segments from an April 2008 interview by Vanessa Appleton
with Sonia Hiatt who tells about her journey from El Salvador

Sonia Hiatt

Table of Contents:
1. A Personal Introduction
2. Cultural and Political Life

3. Leaving Home

4. Learning English

5. Expectations of a New Home

6. Why California

7. What a Difference

8. Discrimination

9. Making Friends

10. David

 11. What is Life like Now?

Segment 1
A Personal Introduction (32 seconds)
Sonia talks about where she came from and

Tells us about her family

Sonia with her brother, Wilfredo, and father, Manuel in 1964

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 2
Cultural and Political Life (10 minutes 5 seconds)
Sonia talks about life culturally and

Politically in El Salvador

Map of El Salvador

Flag and Coat of Arms for El Salvador

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 3
Leaving Home (1 minute 30 seconds)
Sonia lets us know why she chose to leave

Home and come to the Unites States

Infant coffins from the massacre at San Francisco Angulo, Tecoluca, El Salvador 1981

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 4
Learning English (41 seconds)
Sonia tells us about learning English

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 5
Expectations of a New Home (1 minute 36 seconds)
Sonia lets us know what her expectations were

Coming to a new country and what she would say

To someone who wanted to move here

Sonia and David in Montreal

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 6
Why California? (1 minute 31 seconds)
Sonia tells us about the different states she lived in

And why she made California her home

Sonia currently lives in San Jose, CA

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 7
What a Difference (1 minute 47 seconds)
Sonia tells us about the differences culturally and

Politically between El Salvador and her new

Home in the United States

Flor de Izote the national flower of El Salvador

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 8
Discrimination (1 minute 58 seconds)
Being in a new country and learning the language

Is difficult enough without the discrimination she

Encounters

Volcano in Santa Ana, El Salvador

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 9
Making Friends (29 seconds)
Was it hard making friends in a place

You’ve never been to before?

Catholic Church in Santa Ana, El Salvador

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 10

David (1 minute 57 seconds)

Sonia tells us how she met her husband, David

Sonia and David on their wedding day August 7^th 1993

Back to Table of Contents

Segment 11

What is Life like Now? (3 minutes 50 seconds)

Sonia lets us know what her life is like now

After 28 years in the U.S.

Sonia and David in front of Notre Dame in France

Back to Table of Contents

Image sources:

Flag of El Salvador

Coat of Arms of El Salvador

Map of El Salvador

Map of California

Infant Coffins

Church

Flower

Volcano

*These audio files may be played with Windows Media Player or Real Player.
To download a free copy of Windows Media Player, click here.
To download a free copy of Real Player, click here.

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last revised: 6-2-08
by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA
These materials may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as: North San Mateo County Oral History Archives, Skyline College Library. All commercial rights are reserved. To contact the coordinator, or send comments or suggestions, email: Eric Brenner at brenner@smccd.net