Archives West Finding Aid

This oral history interview with Zsuszanna Vamos was conducted by Sankar Raman and Briana Ybanez on August 20, 2018. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Vamos discusses her family background and early life in Budapest, Hungary, including conditions under the Communist government, her education, and listening to American radio as a teenager. She talks about her interest in chemistry and her admiration for Marie Curie, as well as her experiences attending Semmelweis University to study pharmacology. She discusses her marriage to Istvan Adany and his career, and she talks about her career in biomedical research and frustration at her inability to do the research she wanted. She then talks about applying for jobs in other countries, which led to a job offer from Kansas University Medical Center. She describes the process of immigrating to the United States and adjusting to life afterward. She talks about her children, their careers, and their families. She discusses getting her green card in 1997, Istvan Adany's career in the U.S., and their move to Hillsboro, Oregon. She closes the interview by talking about her work as an artist, her thoughts on the American Dream, and her reaction to the treatment of refugees at the time of the interview in 2018.