America Works

Juan Salcido Sanchez, who like his father before him, works behind-the-scenes at leading racetracks throughout the United States as a groom and caretaker for elite racehorses, talks with folklorist Ellen McHale at the Palm Meadows Training Facility in Boynton Beach, Florida, as part of her Occupational Folklife Project “Stable Views–Voices and Stories from the Thoroughbred Racetrack.”

Alison Smith, founder and director of Addi’s Eats Pet Food and Supply Pantry, a food bank that assists pets and their care givers in Bismark, North Dakota, speaks with documentarians Margaret Mary Miles and Catherine ten Broeke as part of their Occupational Folklife Project “Homeless Shelter Workers in the Upper Midwest.”

For several generations, the small town of Hugo in southeastern Oklahoma has been a “wintering over” town for family-owned circuses. Many of its residents are working or retired circus workers and circus references are found throughout town –from store signs to gravestones. Joel Mashburn, a Hugo pharmacist who is fascinated with circus elephants, explains how they intersect with  his life and work to researchers Tanya Finchum and Juliana Nykolaiszyn for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program “’Big Top’: The Show Goes On.”

As part of a larger Occupational Folklife Project on “Grass-Roots Agriculture in Vermont,” Bruce Hennessey and Beth Whiting, owners of Maple Wind Farm in Huntington, Vermont, talk with folklorist Andy Kolovos about moving to Vermont in 1999 to become farmers; how their small business expanded into a diversified produce and livestock operation employing 18 workers; and how they are trying to move towards more humane and ecologically friendly farming.

Natalie Ameral, a port sampler in the large fishing port of New Beford, Massachusetts, talks with fieldworker Madeleine Hall-Arber about her specialized job collecting and analyzing the species, sizes and genders of fish harvested by the port’s fishing fleet. She reports her findings to the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses her results to inform their regulatory and environmental decisions. One of the first women to work serve as a port sampler, she was interviewed for the Occupational Folklife Project “Working the Port of New Bedford.”

Master taxidermist Sonny Amato, who has been operating his own taxidermy business in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for over 50 years, talks about learning and plying his trade with folklorist Doug Manger, who interviewed him for the Occupational Folklife Project “Baton Rouge, Small Businesses and Trades.”

Dale Baumgartener, long-time Head Cheese Maker at the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a farmer-owned cheese and dairy cooperative, talks with folklorist Jared Schmidt for his Occupational Folklife Project “Tillamook: Cheesemakers in Coastal Oregon.” He talks about growing up on a dairy farm, his start in the cheese industry, and his pride in working for a nationally respected brand like Tillamook Cheese.

Phuong Mai Nguyen and her husband Amp Phettaphong, owners of the popular Indochine Café in Columbus, Ohio, came to the US as refugees and, after working a variety of other jobs, stared their own restaurant. The couple talk with folklorist Jess Lamar Reece Holler at their restaurant between lunch and dinner shifts by as part of Hollar’s Occupational Folklife Project “Back of House: Kitchen Workers in Central Ohio.”

German sausage maker George Neiden, who owns and runs the Old Country Sausage Kitchen in Maple Heights, Ohio, talks with folklorist Lucy Long about learning and plying his trade – (and the delight he takes in creating new sausage flavors!) — for her Occupational Folklife Project “Ethnic Grocers in the Urban Midwest.”

Jade Sato, the founder and owner of Minoru Farm in Brighton, Colorado, talks with documentarian Katelyn Reuther about being part of a growing movement of Asian American farmers, many of them women, who are experimenting with raising and marketing Asian heritage crops, like sisho, ginger and gobo root, for a rapidly diversifying American palate. Their talk is part of Reuther’s Occupation Folklife Project “Finding Roots: Asian American Farmers in Contemporary America.”