Home

By Meghan Valdes, 2015
Listen to this edited audio piece through OHMA’s SoundCloud channel

Arnaldo L. was born in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States as a child with his family in 1993. In this audio clip, he talks about his ideas of “home,” and describes the day he left Cuba for good.

Meghan Valdes is a New Jersey native, recently graduating summa cum laude from Rutgers University where she obtained her B.A. in history—and discovered her passion for oral history. Working at the Rutgers Oral History Archives, she has conducted interviews with World War II veterans and transcribed interviews for the ACLU Oral History Project, which seeks to document the changes in the American Civil Liberties Union in the post-9/11 landscape. She came to OHMA straight off of an internship at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, where she served as the memorial exhibition intern for the museum’s In Memoriam exhibition, which honors victims through photographs, biographies, and audio remembrances. Her interests include jazz, travel, diners, and listening to jazz at diners she’s traveled to.