There are a few boxes in the Mississippi Department of Archives and history containing cassette tapes with voices from Delta on them.
They aren’t, as Clint Bagley said, the beautiful people of the Delta. Those voices are of the everyday folks who were alive in the late 1970s and had seen the last decades of history.
Those voices tell their story.
As infatuated as I am with the history of this town, I had no idea the Washington County Oral History project existed.
The Washington County Library System, with assistance from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, conducted oral history interviews with local citizens between 1976 and 1978. The interviewees included long-term residents of the Greenville-Washington County area in their late 50s and older.
On March 3, a short documentary called “It’s in the Voices,” will debut at the Oxford Film Festival in Oxford.
I’ve only got one complaint about the documentary, I wish it was longer.
The film splices scenes from current-day Greenville with some of the voices from the documentary and their candid assessment of the place they called home.
The filmmaker, Field Humphrey, also sat the series originator, Bagley, down with some of the recordings and filmed his reaction to hearing the voices again.
It’s obviously a moving experience for him.
The film will also be premiered at Greenville at some point in the near future and we’ll make updates as allowed. In the meantime, there is a teaser on our website and an interview with the film’s creator.
•••
Mardi Gras Madness at First Presbyterian Church is next weekend and the timing couldn’t be more appropriate.
A group of six of us are heading to Camajuani, Villa Clara, Cuba in April to continue a partnership with the Presbyterian Church there.
The church currently has a system installed by a group working outside of the Living Waters for the World. The group has since disbanded and left the church there without a partner.
The only way this mission works effectively is with a true partnership. Both groups have to be actively involved in the work done or the partnership will eventually fail.
We last visited this group in Camajuani when we went to Cuba in February of 2020. We got out of the country by the skin of our teeth just before COVID shut down the world. I thank God every day we were not delayed in leaving Cuba.
The system in place has become a mongrel with added appendages that may or may not help accomplish the job of producing clean water.
There have also been developments in mission readiness in Cuba that make it easier for us to accomplish our work.
We no longer have to carry everything needed for a system in check baggage on our flights as a warehouse of sorts has developed at one of the partner locations.
Instead of full bags of parts and PVC, we’ll be carrying other items, like medicine and toilet paper, which are desperately in short supply.
On my first trip to Cuba in 2017, I saw a country that seemed to be moving toward a better way of life. There was prosperity in places there had been none before.
On the second trip in 2020, I saw a country that had reversed its path.
I know I won’t see a thriving country when we travel there this time. According to some, the situation is as dire there now as it was in the 1990s immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
I can only hope we can bring some comfort to the people of Cuba. After all, their suffering, for the most part, is a direct result of our nation’s policy.
I know why the embargo was placed. I understand the necessity at the time.
Those times have passed. Those days are over.
All that remains is an island of people just trying to get by.
Jon Alverson is proud to be the publisher of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.com or call him at 662-335-1155.
