Erika Puussaar and Rita Tubalkain, 24 October 2002
Abstract
Erika Puussaar and Rita Tubalkain reflect on their time working in the Estonian Cultural Garden. Both coming to the United States in the early 1950s, Ms. Puussaar and Ms. Tubalkain discuss their memories of Estonia. They describe what it was like to be an immigrant coming to the United States, early jobs taken, and surviving an unfamiliar landscape. Ms. Puussaar and Ms. Tubalkain also discuss their involvement in Cleveland's Cultural Gardens, problems with funding, statuaries in the Estonian Cultural Garden and what they symbolize, and the care and upkeep of the gardens as a whole.
Metadata
Sponsor this interview
Oh no! This interview has not yet been transcribed.
Transcription is expensive and time-consuming. You can support transcription on clevelandvoices.org by sponsoring an interview. As a sponsor, your name – or the name of your family or organization – will become part of the archival record. Donations to the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities are processed via the CSU Foundation and are tax-deductible.
Cleveland Cultural Gardens
The interviews in this series originated Dr. Mark Tebeau’s Local History Seminar in 2002 and again in 2005. In a partnership between Dr. Mark Tebeau and the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation, students in Tebeau’s fall 2002 seminar conducted interviews about the Cultural Gardens to support “sound portraits” that were produced in collaboration with WCPN as part of its Accents radio program. Additional submissions were conducted in 2005, 2009, and 20012 with select excerpts being added to the…