Interview with Patricia Anne Butler, July 5, 2023
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Patricia Butler served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1985-88. She discusses working with local communities as a civil engineer on appropriate technology water and sanitation projects in small rural villages for two years building schools in her third year and making friends by teaching English. She discusses Peace Corps training in Colorado and the Dominican Republic and working with a Canadian priest and a local development organization. She also discusses the profound impact service and the diverse friendships she made had on her world outlook and career, including her political awakening by experiencing the lingering influence of the Trujillo dictatorship and the aftermath of elections that brought a politician from the Truijillo regime back to power. She reflects on differences between American and Dominican societies; and she talks about presentations she made in her children’s schools.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Peace Corps (US) Dominican Republic (Country of Service) water and sanitation (Peace Corps program) 1985-88 (years of service) Father Louis Quinn (Canadian priest based in San Jose de Ocoa, also known as Father Lou who received the Canadian merit award of Membership to the Order of Canada for his development work) Hermandad (local development organization based in San Jose de Ocoa) Northern Arizona University (college from which she graduated) Evergreen Colorado (site of technical Peace Corps training for PCVs going into water and sanitation projects world-wide Los Tramojos, Los Limones (villages in which she did water projects) Joaquín Balaguer election (historical context)Interview Rights
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Butler, Patricia Anne Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 05 Jul. 2023. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Butler, P.A. (2023, July 05). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Butler, Patricia Anne, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. July 05, 2023, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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