Civilian Life

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Okay, first of all, tell us about your grandparents. Were they homesteaders? Julia Maestas: Yes. Atencio: Names? Maestas: My grandfather was Manuel Sabino Maestas, and he homesteaded up at Los Alamos. He had, […]

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: This interview is conducted so we can find out about how life was in Los Alamos by people that lived there. Can you tell us how your father was involved with the Los […]

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Okay, Rosario, where were your grandparents from? Rosario Martinez Fiorillo: My grandparents were born in San Ildefonso. Not my father, but my mother was born in San Ildefonso and her siblings, Ernestina Gonzales, […]

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Eula, you went to school in Española, right? Española? Eula Quintana Newton: Yes, I did. Atencio: You were the valedictorian of your class? Quintana Newton: That’s right. Atencio: The Class of 19— Quintana […]

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Lydia, where are you from? Where were you born? Lydia Martinez: I was born in El Rancho, close to San Ildefonso Pueblo. Atencio: When was the first time you went to Los Alamos? […]

[Thanks to David Schiferl and Willie Atencio for recording this interview and providing a copy to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Willie Atencio: Okay, we’ll try to do this informally. First of all, can you tell us about where you were born and who your parents were? Esther Vigil: I was born in San Pedro. My […]

Cindy Kelly: OK. I’m Cindy Kelly. I’m in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s Wednesday, October 12, 2016. I’m with Robert Howes. Bob, can you say your full name and spell it for us? Robert Howes: Okay. It’s Robert I. Howes, and I better put Junior. And it’s H-o-w-e-s. Kelly: Tell us when you were born […]

Martin Sherwin: In terms of the people who were invited in, I know [George] Kennan. John Manley: That was for the Halloween meeting. Sherwin: Yes. Do you remember anything about what Kennan said? What the impression he left was? Manley: Let me try to be specific. I think I could give you some idea of […]

Louis Hempelmann:  I do not think the people who came later were ever as close as the people who were there at the beginning. Martin Sherwin: Did most of the people who came later, were they junior people? That is, younger? [Enrico] Fermi came later. Hempelmann: [George] Kistiakowsky came later. Sherwin: He did? When you […]

Martin Sherwin: What was the set-up at Los Alamos, in terms of your relationship to the director [J. Robert Oppenheimer] and how you operated? Louis Hempelmann:  I was working directly under him. I started out with my wife as a half-time secretary, and the technician I brought with me from St. Louis, and Kitty worked […]