Archives West Finding Aid

This oral history interview with Kathy Delumpa Allegri was conducted by Sankar Raman and Briana Ybanez on November 2, 2017. 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, Allegri discusses her father's work as a Philippine Scout for the U.S. Army during World War II; her family's subsequent immigration to the United States from the Philippines in 1949; and her early life on a military base in Georgia, including her family's experiences with racism. She describes moving to Palo Alto, California, in the early 1950s, growing up in a diverse community in the California Bay Area, and her high school experience. She talks about dropping out of college to help her sister raise her family after her sister's husband was killed during the Vietnam War. She discusses her marriage to Bill Allegri and living in Midwest while he completed his education and then taught high school. She describes the racism she experienced in the Midwest; returning to the Bay Area; and working as a freelance artist. She talks about completing her college degree at Colorado State University in 1989. Allegri talks about moving to Oregon in 1991, operating a wine shop with her husband from 2000 to 2014, and being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She talks about her art, teaching watercolor classes, and some of her exhibits. She closes the interview by talking about her art collection and how her Filipino heritage influenced her art.