Roland Emerson Roebuck spoke about his extended family history and ethnic background, which included Puerto Rican and Dominican ancestry. Roebuck also spoke about the neighborhood in Puerto Rico where he grew up, childhood activities and games, the importance of religion in the family, the disciplinarian of the family and in the community, and community, cultural, and family values in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Note, Roebuck was born in Bronx, New York.
Roebuck explained the caste system in the Virgin Islands; race, color, and racism in Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and the United States; his distaste for the United States because of US treatment of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands; and he and his wife moved to Washington, DC to attend school in 1974. He also spoke about his college experience in St. Thomas, and his experience in the United States Air Force, particularly being stationed in Okinawa and Vietnam.
Roebuck explained how the community changed since his arrival in Washington, DC; and described interactions with and among the Caribbean, Afro-American, Latino, and Afro-Latino communities. Specifically, he talked about challenges Salvadorans face; how a police interaction affected race relations; racial problems within the Latino community; relationships between Afro-Americans and Afro-Latinos; the importance of understanding cultural differences and not faking integration; the massive migration of Puerto Ricans to mainland United States in 1930s and 40s, and their experience and community; and the origin of the "Afro-Latino".
Roebuck also explained the bilingual and monolingual approaches to language; and how the values and sentiments of the newly elected Republican administration in Puerto Rico do not align with the majority of Puerto Ricans. He also spoke of the effects and pressure of assimilation and loss of culture experienced by Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders when they travel or move to the mainland of the United States.
Interview is in English. Digital audio files include white noise and static, and some sound distortion during portions of the interview. Overall, the interviewee's voice is intelligible for the most part.
General:
Associated documentation, including partial transcripts, for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives. The textual transcripts are not verbatim of the audio recordings.
Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
