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ROSALEZ: What is your name?
NOSEK: My name is Cristina Nosek.
ROSALEZ: What is your place of birth?
NOSEK: El Salvador, Central America.
ROSALEZ: What is your date of birth?
NOSEK: July 24, 1954.
ROSALEZ: What were your parents' names?
NOSEK: My mom's name is Ana Dolores Cabrera. And my dad's name is Ruben Dario Gutierrez.
ROSALEZ: What were their occupations?
NOSEK: My mom is a teacher, and my dad, he used to work on farms. He worked as a
vet in farms on animals.ROSALEZ: Do you have any siblings?
NOSEK: No, I don't.
ROSALEZ: How would you define the term community activist?
NOSEK: To me, to be a community activist is to try to help people in your
community. And give, in some way, an example to them. 00:01:00ROSALEZ: And how do you identify yourself?
NOSEK: As an immigrant in this country, and sent to be here, because I have met
so many people and I do my best to help people in the community. It can be American or Hispanic at the same time.ROSALEZ: And who is your role model?
NOSEK: It was my grandma. I always. . . she was an inspiration to me. She became
a widow when she was pregnant from her last kid. And all of them were ten together. And she worked a lot. And I always admired her for how successful she 00:02:00was in her life.ROSALEZ: And what characteristics did you model after your grandmother?
NOSEK: I think the most important is how she worked and how she cared for her kids.
ROSALEZ: And what was your immigration to the United States like?
NOSEK: It was hard because the reason I moved here was because we had a war
against the communists in El Salvador. I was here before just for vacation. I never thought I was going to move to live here. So it was really hard to leave my country.ROSALEZ: And how old were you when you left El Salvador?
NOSEK: I was 26 years old.
ROSALEZ: And what inspired you to get involved with your community?
NOSEK: Seeing all the problems that people go through in the community. And
00:03:00trying to help them to be more open to the community. I think that a lot of Hispanics, we tend too much to be outsiders in our own community. And I think that affects us and affects our kids too.ROSALEZ: What problems did you see?
NOSEK: One thing I think is very important for immigrants is to learn the
language. And right now we have so much help, so many programs for people to learn the language and I think that so many people, they will be more successful if they do that.ROSALEZ: And what role, if any, did ethnic discrimination play in becoming active in
the community?NOSEK: To tell you the truth, I've been so blessed. I know it's discrimination
00:04:00in everywhere, even in our own countries and I haven't really. . . I look at discrimination, to me, I look at these people that are insecure with themselves. And that's why they want to blame discrimination on other people.ROSALEZ: Did you see any discrimination in the community?
NOSEK: Not really. I haven't seen. To me, Beaver Dam, the community, I've been
more active. I see a lot of people that really, really care about the immigrants in here. I work at the high school and I see so many programs that they do. And I see too the caring of the teachers to try to help the immigrant kids. And even, like I said, in general, in the community, I work with the Chamber of Commerce in a program that they had, Fiesta Beaver Dam, and the idea of the 00:05:00program was to get the two communities together. And they went through a lot of work to try to do this. But like I said, I personally, I haven't been discriminated and secondly I see around and I see all the support that people have for other countries, really.ROSALEZ: What role, if any, did gender discrimination play in becoming active in
the community?NOSEK: For me to become active in the community, it wasn't really
discrimination. It was just trying to help parents to understand the system in the United States and like I said, if the parents understand that, I think they open for their kids so many programs, so many opportunities and it was more try 00:06:00to embolden them more in the community than discrimination.ROSALEZ: What role, if any, did your faith play in becoming a community activist?
NOSEK: Very important role. Because I think that. . . you're talking about my religion?
ROSALEZ: Your religion, your political leanings, can be interpreted widely.
NOSEK: Yeah, especially at my age, you get to the point that you want to be
helping more people for your experience. And I've been so blessed to help kids and parents at the school at the same time to help families through real estate. Because I think it's so important for them, going back, if they're here, to be 00:07:00more knowledgeable about the system in the United States because that will help them to grow up in their family and grow up in their job too.ROSALEZ: You talked about being involved in programs in the high schools. Can
you tell us a little bit more about each of these programs?NOSEK: Well, I'm an ELL tutor. It's English learning language. And besides
helping them with the language, one of my goals in the school has been for parents to understand their kids' grades, the parents to understand that it's very important for the kids to be involved in the school and programs in the school because all this will help them in the future when they apply for 00:08:00scholarships or for any help from the government. Sometimes I think the kids, one of my goals too, is really see the kids involved in the community. Volunteer in the community. As a matter of fact, some of them are starting to volunteer with me in some programs or activities in the community. I think they don't know about these programs and when they volunteer, they really enjoy it and like it. And that's one of my goals, for all the Hispanics to be part of the community.ROSALEZ: I know that you started a program where high school students can meet
with local business and community leaders.NOSEK: Yeah.
ROSALEZ: Can you tell us more about that?
NOSEK: Yes, I see more. . . you know, teenagers, they don't know what they're
00:09:00going to do in the future. And I think that it's important for them to know the different careers, what the careers will imply. And one thing that I've been doing is to bring people from the community like lawyers or even the sheriff because it's so important for them when they're thinking about going in certain careers to have an idea more from the person that's working there about what the career is about.ROSALEZ: When you said you were involved with the parents in high schools and
you were targeting the Hispanic community, what language did you use? Did you use Spanish? Did you use English?NOSEK: With the parents, I use 100% Spanish. Because that's one of the main
00:10:00reasons I'm in the high school. They have parents that don't speak any English and that's why they need me to be present in meetings, to translate for them, meeting for their kids. Any of the information from the school to the parents, I'm starting to do a lot of translation for documents that the parents get in Spanish. We have new students that they don't speak any English, so I'm working with them a lot, translating for them their tests and some part of their classes.ROSALEZ: Can you talk about the goals and achievements of the Women's Affiliate
of Beaver Dam?NOSEK: One of the goals from the Women's Affiliate, the most important goal for
them is to help the community. We have one activity in the year. It's an art and 00:11:00craft fair that we do in one of the parks. And all the money that we get from that activity goes, everything goes back to Beaver Dam and some of those that we do, we could give some scholarships. We give scholarships with help from the fire department. We do different things. The Women's Affiliate has been around 50 years in the community and we have given back to the community more than $300,000.ROSALEZ: What inspired your involvement as an ELL tutor?
NOSEK: Seeing the difference that I make in some kids. Like I said, going back
to being involved in the community or when a kid has some way a problem with something and I can help them resolve their problems. But more important is to 00:12:00get the parents more involved in the school and in their kids' grades. And no more about how the high school system works. Because a lot of parents, they have kids in high school that they don't have any idea even the grade system. I've been doing a lot of translation for them to understand the system and I've been in this program for two years. And in the two years, we have taught seminars for the parents to go through how the high school system works in Spanish.ROSALEZ: Do you think this has been helpful?
NOSEK: I see that a lot of parents are more involved with their kids. The other
00:13:00thing is like they are more comfortable to go to the school and ask for my help, whatever they need, if they need to know grades about their kids so they need to know they are or how they are behaving or any problem, they usually call me to help them to translate for them.ROSALEZ: What changes or improvements would you like to see in your community?
NOSEK: You know, like I said, Beaver Dam is to me a really family community. I
don't see that many big changes that people should do because it's a very caring community. They do a lot of fundraisers. They help different organizations. There are so many organizations in here. I see people, I see a lot of personal 00:14:00help. Like somebody is sick and they do a fundraiser. I see a lot of people to go to those. It's a lot of organizations helping to pay. I just went to an activity for one of the magazines in here last Wednesday and all the money goes to the veterans. So it's a lot of things going on in this community.ROSALEZ: How can the youth become more involved in the community?
NOSEK: Volunteering. I think, like I said, that's one of my goals, to get more
of the Hispanic kids to volunteer in the community because it's a lot of people doing it right now. It's a different organization; different clubs that 00:15:00volunteer and different things. I just have some Hispanic students, two of them, to help the lake association to do some work in the lake and I think that will be the best step for them in being involved in the community.ROSALEZ: And how have you been supported by your family and friends throughout
your work in the community?NOSEK: A lot. Especially my husband. We live here only, my girls live in
Florida. So we, in Beaver Dam, it's only the two of us. And he is very, very supportive for me to be involved in the community. He has worked with me on a lot of projects.ROSALEZ: What do you think has been the most impactful or risk-taking? And
00:16:00risk-taking can be very broad.NOSEK: Uh-huh. In the community?
ROSALEZ: Yes.
NOSEK: I think real estate is really. . . Because it has been a lot of challenge
to me, especially because sometimes I choose to help the Hispanic customers more than what by law I should do. Because not that I'm crossing the law or anything like that but I help them more than what another person will do. Because to me, when I work with a Hispanic couple, that I know how much that money cost to them, I try to get the best that I can for them. I have a lender, like in Madison, and between both, we do seminars for the people. And we try to work 00:17:00with the. . . like I said, I haven't really have people that will tell me, "No, we don't want to help you, because you are Hispanic." I have always been, like I said, blessed in that way. I always, when I talk to people and I explain to them, you know, like you said, I have even renters that I said, "I know this family, they're really good. They'll be good renters. It's between you guys, I'm not charging you anything. Just talk to them but I told you, you will be happy with them." And they do it. I haven't had anybody that said-- In Beaver Dam, they know the Hispanic families are really good renters. I have investors that I sell several homes that they rent to Hispanics because they know that the Hispanic people sometimes, when they rent, they prefer not to eat than don't pay 00:18:00the rent. Like I said in this area, people work a lot with the Hispanic community. I don't know, like I said, it's hard for me because I haven't seen somebody that I can say, I had to tell them, "He's Hispanic." If I work the bank, always, they show me it's a problem with their credit, it's a problem with this. If there's a problem with the credit, it doesn't matter if Hispanic or American. They don't gonna get that loan.ROSALEZ: Do you have any words of advice for the upcoming generation of activists?
NOSEK: Yes, I think one of the things is to keep both languages because that
will be so helpful for them to be involved with different communities and try to make people more knowledge[able] about the programs and the culture in this 00:19:00country because it will help a lot, not only them. It's their kids and to be very, very involved in the community. I think that makes a big difference for them and for their kids.