Interview with Narciso Airey
IntervieweeInterview with
Narciso Airey
Jamaican, 1924 - 2018
Date2001 January 16
Mediumdigitized audio cassette tape
DimensionsDuration (tape 1, side 1): 46 Minutes, 4 Seconds
Duration (tape 1, side 2): 46 Minutes, 10 Seconds
Duration (tape 2): 20 Minutes, 39 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 52 Minutes, 54 Seconds
Duration (tape 1, side 2): 46 Minutes, 10 Seconds
Duration (tape 2): 20 Minutes, 39 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 52 Minutes, 54 Seconds
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineGift of the CHS Exhibitions Department
Description(.1-.2) Two audio cassette tapes of an interview with Narciso Airey, who was interviewed by Fiona Vernal on January 16, 2001. (.3) Black and white portrait photograph of Narciso Airey.
Topics discussed include Airey's childhood in Jamaica and Honduras; his parents; his education; migrating to the United States in 1945 under a work contract; traveling to the United States on a ship and flying on an airplane in the United States; differences between Jamaica and the U.S.; going back to Jamaica at the end of his work contract; returning to the U.S. in 1951 to work on a tobacco farm; working at Coleman Brothers in Granby; racial discrimination; marriage; living in Florida; differences in opportunities when living in the U.S. on a contract versus permanently; the West Indian community in Hartford; Jamaica's independence from British rule; the West Indian Social Club; playing dominoes and cricket; the Caribbean American Society; Jamaican dominance in the West Indian Social Club; generational differences; moving around Hartford; and his family.
Tape 1: 2013.26.18.1a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and a J-card.
Tape 2: 2013.26.18.2a-c consists of one side, the tape, and a J-card.
2013.26.18.3: photograph
Topics discussed include Airey's childhood in Jamaica and Honduras; his parents; his education; migrating to the United States in 1945 under a work contract; traveling to the United States on a ship and flying on an airplane in the United States; differences between Jamaica and the U.S.; going back to Jamaica at the end of his work contract; returning to the U.S. in 1951 to work on a tobacco farm; working at Coleman Brothers in Granby; racial discrimination; marriage; living in Florida; differences in opportunities when living in the U.S. on a contract versus permanently; the West Indian community in Hartford; Jamaica's independence from British rule; the West Indian Social Club; playing dominoes and cricket; the Caribbean American Society; Jamaican dominance in the West Indian Social Club; generational differences; moving around Hartford; and his family.
Tape 1: 2013.26.18.1a-d consists of two sides, the tape, and a J-card.
Tape 2: 2013.26.18.2a-c consists of one side, the tape, and a J-card.
2013.26.18.3: photograph
Object number2013.26.18.1-.3
NotesSubject Note: In 1999, the West Indian Social Club of Hartford and the West Indian Foundation asked the Connecticut Historical Society to join them in documenting the lives of the West Indian immigrants who first came to the Hartford area in the 1940s to work on local tobacco farms.What began as a project designed to record the experiences of these early pioneers - mostly men from Jamaica - subsequently grew to include audio and videotaped interviews of men and women, elders and young people, longtime residents and more recent arrivals to the Greater Hartford area, both from Jamaica and the other English-speaking, independent countries in the Caribbean.
The exhibition explored a common thread that seems to link people’s individual stories: the challenge of putting down roots in a new place while maintaining ties with the people, history, and cultural heritage of their homelands in the West Indies.
The exhibition, "Finding a Place, Maintaining Ties: Greater Hartford’s West Indians," was on view at the Connecticut Historical Society from July 2, 2002 – August 31, 2003.
Subject Terms
On View
Not on view
