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Collected Item: “Sonora Reyes Oral History, 2022/08/04”

Title

Sonora Reyes

Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.

Kit Heintzman

Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.

Sonora Reyes

Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.

kheintzman@gmail.com

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#Arizona, #author, #boundaries, #celebration, #CFS, #COVID+ #disabled, #fatphobia, #funeral, #hope, #Latinx, #longCOVID, #mentalillness, #moving, #psychiatry, #quarantine, #queer, #racism, #schizoaffective, #shootings, #Tempe, #vaccination

What is the format of your recording?

Audio

In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.

Tempe, Arizona

What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*

nonbinary, they/them

What is the age of the interviewee?

25 to 34

How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*

mixed

Describe the oral history.

Some of the things we discussed include:
Being COVID high risk and early adoption of safety precautions.
Grandfather passing away in February 2020 and uncertainty about safety at the funeral: elbow bumps, masking.
Being on AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) insurance in Arizona at the beginning of the pandemic.
Being disabled, applying for social security with employer’s support for 1+ year, losing that social security after getting a book contract.
Chronic fatigue and schizoaffective disorder.
Fatphobia in the healthcare industry.
The difficulty of finding doctors who care.
Living in a transgenerational household at the beginning of the pandemic and moving out, living out of a suitcase, and moving back home.
Mother working in education, schools shutting down.
Paying attention to personal stories of COVID through Twitter.
Finding in-person writing groups pre-pandemic and transitioning to Zoom.
Spending the pandemic writing and releasing first book, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (2022).
Being the target of online rightwing trolls after book release: death threats and homophobia.
Post-trolling anxiety about in-person book events in 2022.
Vaccination wait times.
Catching COVID post-vaccination circa Jan 2022; COVID-spreading through the household.
Long COVID: exhaustion, increased dependence on a cane, snoring.
Anti-Asian racism during the pandemic; police brutality.
The division among people after the murder of George Floyd; police bias and their handling of the protests.
Safety as a precondition for health.
Hope about COVID’s endemic status.

See also:
https://www.sonorareyes.com
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonora-reyes/the-lesbianas-guide-to-catholic-school/
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780063060234
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71WhI7hylFc
https://querytracker.net/success/sonora_reyes.php

On what date did you record this oral history?

2022-08-04
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