Interview with James B. Kelly, January 5, 2022
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
James Kelly served as a Peace Corps volunteer in an agriculture extension/youth development program El Salvador from 1969-72. He discusses having to be deeply closeted as a gay man during the entire application, training and service process. He discusses the evolution Peace Corps training (his was one of the first groups to get pre-service cultural training in the host country) and later as a Peace Corps training contractor for 25 years. The Peace Corps disseminated his master’s thesis recommendations worldwide for helping Headquarters and Country Offices provide critical information and support to LGBTQ applicants and Volunteers during training and while serving. He discusses close friendships he made in El Salvador and his ongoing love of Latin America. He also discusses medical issues he had, including having to be reassigned and evacuated. He opines on Peace Corps’ impact and problems with US foreign aid. He concludes discussing his on-going service activities.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Peace Corps (US) El Salvador (Country of Service) Agriculture and Youth Development (Peace Corps program) 1969-72 (years of service) San Pablo Tacachico (name of the first town in which he served) Candelaria de la Frontera (name of the second town in which he served) Viet Nam war (historical context) medical problems and evacuation diversity in Peace Corps, Peace Corps training Many Faces of Peace Corps CHP International (training contractor for which he worked) Institute of Cultural Affairs “Diversity’s Hidden Dimension: Gays and Lesbians in the Peace Corps,” title of his 1991 Master’s Thesis LGBT Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.Interview Rights
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Kelly, James B. Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 05 Jan. 2022. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Kelly, J.B. (2022, January 05). 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.
Kelly, James B., interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. January 05, 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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