C.A.R.T.S.

Eva Castellanoz: Interview

Eva Castellanoz is a master of the Mexican folk art of azhares. She has been making wax flower bouqets and crowns for almost 40 years. But making azhares is only a part of what she does; Eva is also a curandera, or healer. Eva has a lot to share with us about self-disovery, courage, and living a meaningful life. To collect information about her life and develop this online guest artist profile, City Lore anthropologist Makalé Faber interviewed Eva and conducted background research on the political, geographical and historical context in which Eva grew as a person and as an artist.

Students can research traditions in their own communities and interview tradition bearers in their own neighborhoods.Giving students the opportunity to get to know community members, especially community-based artists, is a wonderful way to foster a sense of belonging in students.

Interviews with community-based artists and visits to their studios give students first-hand knowledge of how social studies, language arts, math, and science subjects are used and expressed in art.

Teachers (with the help of students) should contact a local arts-in-education organization, state arts council, or folkore society, to obtain contact (and background) information on community artists to interview. There are many printed and online resources designed to maximize the learning potential of community-based interviews. Many other similar resources may be found throughout CARTS. To help students get the most out of their interviews, we offer a set of guidelines below.

Asking Good Interview Questions

Interviewing people is one of the tools folklorists use to study culture. In addition to having curiosity, a good interviewer needs to be a good listener.

Asking questions that produce interesting answers isn't always easy. Lots of questions may be answered with just a simple "yes" or "no" and don't tend to lead to in-depth responses. Below are some suggestions to help you out.

1. Before you ask a question of someone else, ask yourself what information you're really looking for and how you'll use the information.

Are you looking for ways someone's life is similar to or different from your own?
Do you want to find out how someone performs or creates something?

2. Good interviewers also do some investigating in preparation for their interviews.

Take time to study information about the interviewee and brainstorm a list of questions you'd like to ask her.
Review your questions and practice them by interviewing a friend. If you don't get the kind of answer you'd expect, you might revise the questions so the interviewee can better understand.

3. Perhaps the most important interviewing skill is to be polite as you ask questions and listen to answers.

Sample Questions to ask Eva:

How do you prepare spiritually and emotionally for making azhares?
Do the flower styles vary with each artist or is there a standard way to make azhares?
A lot has changed culturally in Nyssa since you first moved there. What changes please you the most?
What interests you about the paper arts of other cultures—like Japanese oragami?
Why don't you mass-produce your azhares and sell them to people you don't know?

Online Interviewing Resources

Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques, by Peter Bartis, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress is a basic, accessible guide to developing collection projects.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwk.html

Louisiana Voices, www.louisianavoices.org, is an extensive online guide adaptable for any region. Unit II Fieldwork Basics offers interviewing tips, ethical considerations, and samples of forms to use in conducting folklore fieldwork.

My History is America's History, http://www.myhistory.org is a National Endowment for the Humanities site offering students and families a structure for studying, collecting, and preserving personal histories and mementos.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage http://www.folklife.si.edu has a handy online student guide to planning and conducting fieldwork, "Discovering Our Delta," http://www.folklife.si.edu/MissippiDelta/discoveringourdelta.htm

Folklore Links, George Mason University
http://mason.gmu.edu/~myocom/links.html

Virginia Folklife Program
http://www.virginia.edu/vfh/vfp/home.html

Folklife and Fieldwork, Library of Congress
http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwk.html#whom

Family Folklore Interview Guide, Smithsonian Institution
http://www.cimorelli.com/pie/library/intrview.htm

Eva Castellanoz
Photo courtesy of Oregon Historical Society
Photographer: Nancy Nusz, Oregon Folklife Program Director