Interview with Robert "Bob" James, November 3, 2022

Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project

Interview Summary

Robert James served as a married Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador in a community development program from 1976-78. He discusses being recruited by a friend, and praises in-country training and his host family. He discusses the disputed presidential election of 1977 and ensuing inter-military violence that took place throughout the country and the US embassy downplaying this violence. He discusses subsequent lack of El Salvadorian government support for the community development project he was working on under the Ministry of Interior and his moving to rural Osicala where he taught women’s nutrition and English and started a gardening program. He talks about encountering continued military violence, including the murder of his neighbor, and draws lessons for current threats to democracy. He talks about almost being imprisoned in Honduras. He concludes that he was more impact by people’s severe poverty and that all peoples share the same goals for their families.

Interview Accession

2022oh1704_pcrv0674

Interviewee Name

Robert "Bob" James

Interviewer Name

Evelyn Ganzglass

Interview Date

2022-11-03

Interview Rights

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James, Robert Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 03 Nov. 2022. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

James, R. (2022, November 03). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

James, Robert, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. November 03, 2022, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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