Episode 110: Oral History Showcase: Leni's Ladino Legacy

Can We Talk?

Lenora LaMarche, better known as Leni, was born in 1921 in the Sephardic Jewish community in Seattle, Washington, after her parents moved there from Rhodes, looking for better economic opportunities. She grew up speaking Ladino, and for over 30 years, she wrote a Ladino column in her synagogue newspaper called "Bavajadas de Ben Adam"—people’s foolish little words.

In this episode of Can We Talk?, you’ll hear excerpts from an interview she did in 2001 for the “Weaving Women’s Words '' oral history project, in which she reflects on her Sephardic heritage and peppers her stories with colorful Ladino words and sayings. Her testimony is one of hundreds in JWA’s Tanner Oral History Collection.

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