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Title
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Lois Archuleta
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Quote
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"Utah Humanities is a vehicle for personal learning about being a human in Utah. And for demonstrating our sameness and celebrating all the different human characteristics of our fellow Utahns, present and future."
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Story
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Archie, my husband and Utah Humanities board member, wanted to be a part of what was happening in different Utah communities, past and present, exploring and sharing with people as a whole. He wanted an opportunity to explore different areas of the state he adopted as his/our own. It was a chance to expand our own view of “Utah Humanity,” and show and learn more.
For example, the visit to Topaz, in Delta, Utah, has never left our minds. It touched us deeply. The ancient people’s rock carvings also helped us know who we are, all humans, living together over time.
He always wanted to do something that would help his people, women and children, especially. But when he came to Salt Lake, there were no Mexican restaurants, there were very few. And so he got involved with the NAACP. And through that, you know, continued caring for people.
His mother loved people. And so, she would see people in the street, and she [looked for] people that needed help, she would invite them to their house, to feed them. They always kept hot dogs, and beans and rice on hand.
And so, the story is that she would see people, she would feed people. So, there was always that involvement with caring for people around you, because they didn’t have anything. They were migrant workers. They struggled, and you think of their background and what they had to do.
The humanities help us love people. I sometimes wish we could all be more sensitive and accepting of everybody else’s ways. And people – kind of a slang term is “fly your freak flag.” This idea that everybody has something that’s different. You might look at it as freakish, [but to] somebody else, that’s what is their passion, right?
We all have like things that we identify with. And when I heard that, about a freak flag, I was like, “Oh, I just wish we allowed each of us to fly our freak flag.” You know whether that’s LGBTQ; whether that is a stay-at-home mom, whether that is a social activist. Whatever it is that we do, that’s important to us, I wish we could all accept that.
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interviewer
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Randy Williams
