My name is Roberto Carrillo but everyone calls me Robert. I live in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park where people from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala and China have called it home. My exposure to the different cultures in Sunset Park sparked my interest in photography, capturing the everyday lives and scenery of the world around me has taken me to Japan a number of times during my time as an Undergraduate in Brooklyn College. Oral history has played a vital part through my life as I heard my parent's experience of immigrating to the United States in search of a better future as well as similar anecdotes from neighbors, friends, and other members of my family.

At the time I didn't interpret their experiences as oral history because I was unaware of oral history as a concept but that changed when I took a Vietnam War class in Brooklyn College. Over the span of five years, I was able to strengthen my understanding of oral history by conducting projects of my own such as manuscripting an autobiography of a Vietnam War veteran, founding the Brooklyn College Listen project along with some professors, and being a research assistant for the Brooklyn College Haitian Studies Institute by using elements of oral history such as audio and visual recording, and transcribing. 

It is no secret the New York is made out of two distinct cities, the research I hope to partake involves recording the experiences of residents living in communities of color such as Sunset Park and distinguish any economic, social, and political factor that may put them at a disadvantage from someone living in a neighborhood such as Park Slope or Bay Ridge and the obstacles the residents overcome on a daily basis. This is the idea I have for my project but I still have to work on a couple of factors such as census data from the past decade. I feel excited as well as grateful for being able to partake in the Oral History Program. I look forward to hearing the ideas from my fellow cohorts and professors.