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Oral history interview with Amparo, 1980

Creator: Amparo
Project: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection.
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :Transcript: 61 pages Sound recording: 2 reels
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

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 Street 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

Scope and Contents

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 aspects 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

Subjects

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright

Using this collection

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