Every Life is A Library

Our mission is to collect the untold stories of Douglas through collaborative community conversations, preserving the voices, memories, and lessons of our elders through oral and video recordings and making our discoveries available to the public. We volunteer our time and share a passion for local history and a commitment to story-telling. Ceci Durazo Lewis and Ginny Jordan were born and raised in Douglas, their grandparents were founding pioneers. I arrived in nearby Bisbee in 1983 and am honored to be included. Ceci completed her PhD in Mexican-American Studies in 2016 at the University of Arizona with a traveling museum exhibit and dissertation that focuses on the agency of women of Mexican heritage in Douglas during the first half of the 20^th century. Her work has become the model for our current collaborative conversation data collecting. I received a PhD in History from the same university in 2015 and am the author of Agrarian Revolt in the Sierra of Chihuahua (University of Arizona Press, 2019). Ginny is a lifelong community member and has a deep understanding, love, and commitment to the people and the town of Douglas. We primarily serve the community of Douglas and its diaspora; we also serve the larger audience for local history interpreted and placed into a broader context.

Douglas Oral History Facebook page

Mayor Donald Huish, Douglas, Arizona

The Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, Arizona, U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution

Ceci’s great-grandfather’s store: El Volcan

Cochise County Historical Journal

Mr. Rivera, coffin builder on International Street

Mining group: Tombstone, Bisbee, Copper Queen Mine, Douglas, Arizona was where the smelter was located

Benson, Arizona

Fort Huachuca, Arizona home of the Buffalo Soldiers 

Douglas History Facebook page

Douglas Williams House, James Douglas Mine owner

Bisbee Co-op

The cities Beth lived in in Mexico, Zacatecas, Mexico City

Sierra Madre Alliance in Chihuahua, Mexico

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

Agrarian Revolt in the Sierra of Chihuahua, 1959 – 1965, Elizabeth Henson

Cochise College, Cochise County, Arizona

Bisbee High School, Bisbee, Arizona

Buena High School, Sierra Vista, Arizona

Tombstone High School, Tombstone, Arizona

Douglas High School, Douglas, Arizona 

Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English

Chihuahua City in Sierra Tarahumara  in the Sierra Madre

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist