Photo: L-R: Emily Whitfield, Melissa Chavez, Gabriela Pacheco Rosales, Larry Toda and Linda Tamura at The Dalles Civic Auditorium. Photo Richard Jensen

The Dalles is one of the oldest permanently occupied places in Oregon, significant to Native people for over ten millennia and to Euro-American settlers since the 1830s. The city, the largest in Wasco County, is located on a bend of the Columbia River at the east end of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The Dalles, Oregon has an estimated population of about 15,713 residents

In this fifth episode of this special series of The -Ism Storytellers Project, we hear personal stories from residents of The Dalles, Oregon and Hood River (about 20 minutes away). 

In 2025, Dmae Lo Roberts and MediaRites embarked on a statewide storytelling experience focusing on personal stories from both artists and community members. These stories are a form of living oral history. Six storytelling events — in Astoria, Eugene, The Dalles and three in Portland — were held with the theme of “Courage, Grace and Grit.” Each event featured a different host who curated stories from their immediate communities.

What began as a personal storytelling event has quickly become an oral history-gathering project that captures memories and experiences from some of Oregon’s prominent artists and community members.

Each event is curated by a local host who chooses storytellers from within their own communities. MediaRites asked board member Larry Toda, who has family history in the area, to be the host and curator to choose four storytellers from both the Hood River and The Dalles area. This event of The -Ism Storytellers Project held in September 2025 at The Dalles Civic Auditorium. 

This episode features music by Joe Kye at JoeKye.com. Original theme music by Clark Salisbury. Subscribe and listen to Stage & Studio on: Apple and Spotify and hear past shows on the official Stage & Studio website. 

In this 29-minute episode you’ll hear stories from…

Larry Toda (host/curator) is a MediaRites board member and board secretary and a member of Theatre Diaspora, Oregon’s only AAPI theater company, where he has performed in several productions. He previously served on boards for JACL and Portland Ad Federation. Larry is the global content creation manager for Siemens Software.

“I said, Dad, is there any truth that the Japanese killed Americans? And, and that we went to prison, like my friend said, and I thought that none of this could be true. It was just tv. It was just fabricated. But Dad said, son, it’s true. This really did happen. And for the first time, I heard through my father’s voice the fact that my grandparents lost their farm in Hood River, that they were sent to a prison camp in Tule Lake, California.”

Melissa Chavez, a self-taught painter and jewelry designer from a family of migrant workers in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, she has called Oregon home for 20 years. Inspired by her grandfather, a folk artist, and her brother, late acrylic painter Nate Chavez, her artistic path is deeply rooted in family and heritage. 

” I come from a family of migrant workers from South Texas of the Rio Grande Valley. And I never really quite felt, I kind of felt like I was. Struggling living in two different worlds. One where I wasn’t really fully accepted in the Mexican community, and then one where I wasn’t quite brown enough to be Mexican or considered Mexican with my white friends. My grandfather was a folk artist. And my brother who passed away in 2017 was also an artist and he was very much involved with like the culture through his art with food and music. And that’s when I started painting. Art and food kind of created this space for me to not only connect with my brother and my grandfather but also with my culture and community.”

Gabriela Pacheco Rosales is an instructional assistant at Mid Valley Elementary school for 25 years. She works closely with students and families affected by living illegally in the United States. As an illegal student herself, Gabriela’s skills and experiences provide the support to help such families in need.

“the beginning of United States for me was not welcoming.

“I did not feel welcome or wanted here, and I was a child, there was a lot of fear with the immigration. I always felt like there was somebody that was gonna come get me and then at any point and worse yet there they might. I’ve had the hardest time coming to terms with that of whether this is my community or not my community. And with times now the way they are, I just struggle, struggle with feeling that I had as a child and not having it anymore. Even though I’ve lived here for about 40 years. But I’ve raised my kids here. It is my community.”

Linda Tamura, born and raised on an apple and pear orchard in the Columbia River Gorge, is Professor Emerita of Education at Willamette University.  She’s the author of two books, The Hood River Issei and Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence and is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Oregon Encyclopedia (oregonencyclopedia.org).

“My parents, my family and the Japanese American community and Hood River invested so much. Some of them cleared the land for their property. They, they, they grew the trees, they planted asparagus and strawberries in between, so they had a quick cash crowd. And over years and years, they helped their orchards to thrive so much that they became an economic threat to others. So now I understood the animosity they faced returning (from WWII Incarceration Camps) to communities where many of their neighbors did not want them to return. But also cherishing the friendships of those who were kind to them, who supported them, and who welcomed them back.”

Emily Whitfield, Deputy Director of The Dalles Art Center, has prioritized including communities of color in the center’s programming. A mixed-race woman raised in The Dalles with family roots in the area since the 1890s, Emily studied political science and is passionate about connecting people to everyday impacts of policy. She’s an active volunteer and artist, focused on pottery after returning from two years in Mexico City.

“My mom is white and my dad is African American, but I mostly grew up here with my mom, and even though I often looked different from the people around me, my family’s roots here go all the way back to 1873. When I was five, my sister was about seven, we were walking down to the pool most summer days, carrying our towels, thinking about popsicles as kids do and people would spit at us when we were walking or yell that same very unimaginative slur out the window. And it’s a strange thing to encounter hate before you understand what hate is. Even now, decades later, it’s still happening.”

See the previous stories in The -Ism Project’s Special Series here:

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  • “The -Ism Storytellers Project” is presented with support from the Ronni S. Lacroute Fund through the Oregon Community Foundation and the Portland Arts and Culture Arts Access Fund. This oral history audio program is made possible in part by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the America 250 Oregon Commission.
  • This is a co-production of MediaRites and Oregon ArtsWatch. Find these stories and more at Oregon ArtsWatch at orartswatch.org.
  • MediaRites is an award-winning nonprofit production organization in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to telling the stories of diverse cultures and giving voice to the unheard through the arts, education and media projects. More info: https://mediarites.org/

This series, which marks America’s 250th anniversary of its founding, is supported by funds from the Oregon Arts Commission through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is also made possible by the America 250.

funding credits

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