Washington County Oral Histories

Sister Ina Marie Nosack oral history recording

Sister Ina Marie Nosack was born in 1926 in Gervais, Oregon. She spent her senior year of high school at Saint Mary of the Valley (now Valley Catholic) and after high school entered the convent at Sisters of Saint Mary. While working as a teacher, Sister Ina earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in education. She spent several months in Mexico learning Spanish, then worked in the Amazon region of Peru as the principal of a school from 1966 – 1973. After returning from Peru, Sister Ina resumed work as an educator, but after some years made a conscious decision to work with the Hispanic community and became the director of religious education at the Saint Alexander parish in Cornelius. St. Alexander was the first church in the area to offer mass in both Spanish and English.
Sister Ina Marie details the ways she sought to assist families and individuals in and beyond her formal duties at Saint Alexander parish. Sister Ina recounts the pain of seeing migrant families struggle to survive or support loved ones, but also the joy of seeing migrant workers and their children build successful lives for themselves in Oregon. She recounts tension between different groups, but also how individuals from different backgrounds came together to provide aid and form bonds with newer arrivals. There is a transcript of this interview.

Noasack, Sister Ina Marie

Latino Oral History collection

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Hispanic Americans -- History

Washington County (Or.)

Cornelius (Or.)

1 sound file (25 min.)

English

WCM_OH_327

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Sprunger, Luke

MP3

Sound