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

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

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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

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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

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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