Detail View: Colorado Coal Project: Interview with Louis Guigli

Collection Name: 
Colorado Coal Project
Title: 
Interview with Louis Guigli
Creator: 
Margolis, Eric, 1947-
Creator URI: 
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n00101170
Creator: 
McMahan, Ronald L.
Creator URI: 
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no94033808
Subject: 
Coal miners--Children--Colorado
Subject: 
Coal mines and mining--Colorado
Subject: 
Labor disputes--Colorado
Subject: 
Prohibition--United States--History
Subject URI: 
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2010108614
Subject: 
Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining--Colorado
Subject URI: 
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85128770
Subject: 
Coal miners--Personal narratives
Subject: 
Coal mines and mining
Subject URI: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/865355
Subject: 
Interviews
Subject URI: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1423832
Description: 
Interview with Frank Guigli, who grew up in mining towns. Guigli's Italian immigrant mother came from a family of Polenta farmers and sheepherders. John Guigli, his father, came to the U.S. to be a miner and sent for his children and wife after establishing himself, but an accident befell him and he died shortly thereafter, leaving his wife a widow alone in a mining town. According to Louis Guigli, his mother (who goes unnamed), was widowed several times in her marriages to miners, trying to make ends meet by running a boarding house in the mining community. Guigli discusses the strong Catholic presence in the mining camps, and recreational activities, which included sports and "boccis". Guigli asserts that the camp was full of moonshiners, and agents would come to take samples of the wines and beers made by the moonshiners in the towns and then leave them alone for the year-but one year a bachelor told the agents that he wasn't giving them free whiskey anymore, and there was a confrontation during which two agents were shot. The police came after the moonshiner and he shot himself rather than go to jail. Guigli describes his family's farming efforts to fight the poverty and hunger that befell them when they found themselves without a father or stepfather's mining income to help them along. Guigli's home was within range of the machine guns at the mine during the strike, and his family spent multiple days hiding in the cellar, eating apples, and waiting for the shots to stop. Company doctors treated the miners and their families, but Guigli asserted that his mother used natural remedies to treat ailments, including tying garlic around the necks of everyone in the family to prevent the flu. When he needed money badly, Guigli sold newspapers, one of which was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) newspaper-but one day he saw a man shot while distributing papers and he ran off and never sold those papers again. Guigli also makes a statement about the cultural conflicts between Italian immigrants and the Spanish immigrants in the mining towns and the segregation it caused in the social scene.
Description Type: 
Sumary
Publisher: 
University of Colorado Boulder Archives
Contributor: 
Guigli, Louis
Date: 
1979-07-19
Type: 
Text
Format: 
application/pdf
Identifier: 
narv_coloradoCoal_transGuigli.pdf
Identifier ARK: 
https://ark.colorado.edu/ark:/47540/fq6b6j3267n7
Language: 
English
Coverage (Spatial): 
Walsen Robinson Mines (Huerfano, Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)
Coverage (Temporal): 
1900/1976
Coverage (Spatial): 
Huerfano County (Colorado, United States, North America) (civil)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Taylor Mine (Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Allen Mine (Las Animas, Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Walsenburg (Huerfano, Colorado, United States, North America) (populated place)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Delcarbon (Huerfano, Colorado, United States, North America) (populated place)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Alamo (Huerfano, Colorado, United States, North America) (populated place)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Morley Mine (Las Animas, Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Big Four Mine (Huerfano, Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)
Coverage (Spatial): 
Trinidad (Las Animas, Colorado, United States, North America) (populated place)