Oral history interview with Amparo, 1980

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Name: Amparo (Interviewee); Courtwright, David T., 1952- (Interviewer); Joseph, Herman, 1931- (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with Amparo, 1980
Other Titles: Reminiscences of Amparo, 1980; Oral history of Amparo, 1980
Abstract: Amparo starts the interview with context about her family and youth in Puerto Rico. She describes moving to New York City in 1947. Amparo reflects on how she first started using heroin in 1952 as an employee at Long Island College Hospital. She describes the dealing operation of the coworker who introduced her, her initial reaction, and what appealed to her about heroin. She describes different asp ects of use: her addiction within seven days of use, her switch to mainlining a year later, and her needle maintenance regimen. She discusses the struggle of maintaining addiction as quality and prices of the drug changed. She describes being arrested in the 1970s, her experience as an addict in prison at Matteawan, treatment programs, and starting methadone maintenance. She reflects on her health and how she had made it to the age of seventy-one at the time of the interview
Collection Name: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection
Subjects: Drug addicts--United States; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States; Methadone maintenance--History--20th century.--United States; Puerto Ricans--New York (State); Amparo
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 1980

Physical Description: 61 pages
Note (Biographical): Amparo was born on October 30th, 1909 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the youngest of eight children. She came to New York in 1947 aboard the Marine Tiger in search of work and because family members in Puerto Rico were deceased. She first lived at 103rd St reet in Manhattan and found work in Brooklyn: first at a shoe factory on Nostrand Avenue and later at Long Island College Hospital, where she worked for 11 years. In 1952, Amparo was introduced to heroin by a co-worker at the hospital. Amparo eventually moved to Brooklyn. In 1970s she was arrested and sent to prison for 2.5 years at Matteawan. Upon release, Amparo joined a methadone clinic. Amparo was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project
Note: Interviewed by David Courtwright and Herman Joseph on June 3, 1980. Interviewee speaks in Spanish and an English translator was also present for interview
Note (Provenance): David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais, Gift, 1988
Language: English
Library Location: Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Browse Location’s Digital Content
Catalog Record: 11704607
Also In: Oral History Archives at Columbia; Time-Based Media; Time-Based Media
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-6er3-b218
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.