ORAL HISTORY: MIGRATION AND LOCAL IDENTITIES - Academia

Maija HinkleAmerican Latvian Association Oral History Project, USACREATING A COLLECTIVELATVIAN-AMERICAN NARRATIVEFROM GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL LIFESTORY INTERVIEWS55In this paper I will focus 1) on first, second and third generationLatvian-Americans, who came to the United States as refugees afterWorld War II and 2) on their recent efforts to create a collective narrativeof their experiences using individual life stories and in focusedgroup discussions of their exile experiences. As Inta Carpenter hasextensively documented, the refugees started to contextualize theirexperiences and forge their émigré identity already in the DP camps inGermany right after the war (Carpenter, 1990, 1996). The efforts haveintensified as the first generation is leaving the stage and émigrés havehad to readjust to the new situation after Latvia gained independence