Eliezer Lopez
Casting A Wider Net: A Community Oral History Project
Casting a Wider Net is a community oral history project developed to collect and share the stories of Cape Verdean, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran members of the commercial fishing industry. The project provided ethnographic training for 9 individuals from those communities who led the documentation effort, conducting 14 interviews in English, Spanish, Kriolu, and Vietnamese.
Casting a Wider Net is funded in part by a Wicked Cool Places grant from New Bedford Creative, a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and an Expanding Massachusetts Stories grant from Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Genesis Galan
Eliezer “Eli” Lopez is a retired fish cutter who was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New Bedford as an infant. He dedicated over 40 years of his life to working in the fishing industry in New Bedford. In his interview, he mentions the different fish houses he worked for and the people he worked with. Eli also describes the culture of the time, and his experience with alcohol and substance abuse, and shares his personal journey towards spirituality, highlighting challenges and lessons learned. He discusses the changes in the industry and emphasizes the need for more education and understanding of the industry's culture and history.
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