Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Interview No. 1783, Avalos

Combined Interviews

Avalos grandmother is from Mexico. Her father was always on duty and her mother passed away when Avalos was four years old. After her mother passing, her grandmother adopted them and she became their mother. Avalos considers her grandmother her real mother, because she did everything for them. Avalos thanks her grandmother for everything she did for them even when she was an older woman struggling with her health. During her childhood before living with her grandmother she was at an orphanage for a couple of months. Once Avalos and her siblings went to stay with her grandmother their lives …

Interview No. 1784, Hernandez

Combined Interviews

She was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, May 12, 1929. She had a very big family and she got to meet her grandmother and she was living in Ciudad Juarez, so they moved from Alamogordo to Juarez to be with her. Her grandmother used to have a son that had an accident in a mine, and they got a lot of money for compensation, but the son of her uncle spent everything. She was only 6 years old, and her grandmother died when she was 10 years old, they weren’t living with her, but they lived close, so they visit …

Interview No. 1764, Lezema

Combined Interviews

Lezama started her journey with Farah in the year 1959 and worked there for nineteenth years. She used to make jeans and sew other clothing items. Her first time in the company was when she was 17 years old, and she worked there for three months before taking a break and going back to the company for the next nineteenth years. Lezama mentioned that in her nineteenth years in Farah she never earned the 3 dollars that they promised her she would earn if she stayed with the company for a couple of consecutive years.

While working at Farah her …

Interview No. 1781, Sanchez

Combined Interviews

Sanchez grandparents took her in and his brother after his father passed away during the war. A couple of years after leaving with them, his grandfather got fired. Sanchez grandma and mother then started to work to support the family, since his grandpa couldn’t do it anymore. Her Aunts used to work at Luby’s to help support them. After a couple of years, they went to live with her mother and his husband and he bought them a new home. Sanchez mentioned that he was a great man that always push them to do best and to go to school. …

Interview No. 1704, Kristine Levy Taylor

Combined Interviews

Taylor Levy used to be an immigration attorney and she is now a private attorney. She says that when she first graduated she had no interest on being an attorney but when she realized that being an attorney had its benefits she did not think twice and became one. Some of the benefits they had were that the donations would increase; for example they received food, clothes, wheelchairs, event surgeries that were donated from other people that were willing to help. She says that having to hire an attorney can be expensive and she sees the necessity of immigrant people …

Interview No. 1702, Larisa Veloz

Combined Interviews

Dr. Larisa Veloz explains the bi-national Bracero Program which took place from 1942-1964 which invited temporary workers from Mexico. Most of the workers contributed to the agricultural fields but a few worked at factories. The Bracero Program began as a way to alleviate labor loss during the World War II but continued for over twenty years after congress renewed the contracts.

Over 4 million contracts were granted but only to young Mexican men aged from 18-45 years old who had agricultural experience. Individuals went to contracting centers across Mexico and underwent an interview process including physical exams. Once completed, individuals …

Interview No. 1701, Juven Villegas

Combined Interviews

Juven Villegas was born on November 23rd, 1953 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua on block away from the Rio Grande. His parents, Alejandra and Juven, were both born in Mexico. His father was a part of the Bracero program and came to the border area in the 1940s. By the time Juven was born, his father was no longer a Bracero. During his childhood, Villegas grew up in the Segundo Barrio off of South Oregon and Fifth Street. While living there, he was active in his community as he was on the board of Mexican American Youth Association which was started …

Interview No. 1714, Cecilia Marquez

Combined Interviews

Cecilia Flores Marquez was born on April 11, 1945, and she grew up in Smelter Town. Her father worked in Asarco for 44 years and her mother worked in JCPenny for 11 years. Everyone in Smelter Town lived a happy life and everyone knew everyone. Back in the day, the houses weren’t in condition like they are now. Cecilia also mentioned that her family and she went to a church named Cristo Rey Church one thing that she remembers was that almost everyone in Smelter Town went to church with their kids.

Cecilia went to an elementary and middle school …

Interview No. 1713, Ismael Holguin

Combined Interviews

Ismael Holguin was born in Smelter Town (a community of people who lived near Asarco) on June 17, 1933, and he had 8 brothers and sisters. He grew up in Buena Vista. At the age of 14, his mother moved to Buena Vista so he went there with him. He worked at the El Paso Independent School district and in Asarco.

Ismael had a pretty calm life in Smelter town. He went to school and to the YMCA to play with his friends. He had the same routine once he moved to Buena Vista. He enrolled in the Navy when …

Interview No. 1718, Alicia Sarmiento Ramirez

Combined Interviews

Alicia Sarmiento Ramirez was born in El Paso Texas, on May 11, 1946, and she recently applied for the renewal of her passport and her birth certificate said that she was born in Smelter Town, Texas because at that time it used to be separate from El Paso it was like a separate county. Her father used to be a supervisor on an American Melter called ASARCO, and her mother was a housekeeper and she had 3 sisters and her mom took care of them. Her dad worked since 1945 at ASARCO as a supervisor, he got the position because …

Interview No. 1720, Ismael Ortega

Combined Interviews

His name is Ismael Ortega he was born on July 7, 1946, and raised in El Paso where he attended school, he went to El Paso High for High School. His mother was a servant for George Dickenson and lived at his house where she worked. He started working in ASARCO when he was 25 years old in the year 1974 on the month of July. He worked at the plant because he wanted to have a good future for his family, and they had good benefits, so he decided to work there. His first job at ASARCO was at …

Interview No. 1716, Anastacio Zavala

Combined Interviews

Anastacio Zavala was born in El Paso Texas, he used to live in an area called Francis. His father was a liver and he used to have a horse and they used to ride it. He started working at ASARCO on June 30, 1965, at the age of mid-30s, he started working because of the death of his neighbor, and they called him and he needed to have a high school diploma and he was able to work there. His first job was in the department and he was going to be transferred but someone had an accident and he …

Interview No. 1712, Jaime Archuleta

Combined Interviews

Jaime Archuleta was born in the lower valley in El Paso (Ysleta), but he grew up in Sunland Park, New Mexico. His mom used to stay home and take care of them, while his dad worked as a carpenter all over the southwest.

Jaime started working at Asarco in 1993 when he was about 38 years old. He wanted to work in Asarco because he left a job in Arizona where he worked on a copper smelter so his experiences helped him to get into Asarco. When he first started there he worked as a maintenance mechanic. He worked there …

Interview No. 1715, Frank Gallardo

Combined Interviews

Frank Gallardo was born and raised in El Paso, he started working at ASARCO because he had 3 uncles that used to work in there, he started working at ASARCO on August 26, 1972. His first shift on ASARCO began at 3 o'clock in the evening, he would go every Monday to see if there were any open positions for a job but for 3 years he didn’t get the chance, so one Wednesday he received a call from the industry to tell him that he was hired. He needed to meet some expectations such as the weight, that for …

Interview No. 1719, Gilbert Limon

Combined Interviews

His Name is Gilbert Limon “Wally” he was born in El Paso, Texas on August 29, 1957, he grew up in Canutillo that used to be a small town at the exit of El Paso, he graduated from high school in 1976 and then he started working at ASARCO when he was 19 years old from 1977-1999. He was amazed when he first started working there because there were a lot of people working there and, they will work like 40-60 hours a week. He first started as a minimum wage employee with 7 dollars an hour and then they …

Interview No. 1700, Joshua Rubin

Combined Interviews

Joshua Rubin describes his observations of the Tornillo Detention Centers while he was there for three months. Thousands of children from Florida, Houston, and Central American were transported to Tornillo on charter buses. Rubin was first introduced to the situation when the immigration stories were broadcasted on television. Rubin decided to drive down to Tornillo and began holding up a sign, outside the center, that stated “Free them”. Rubin was arrested by authorities but continued raising the sign to oncoming traffic for hours at a time.

Afterward, while attending an activist discussion, Rubin was inspired to take direct action and …

Interview No. 1682, Kelly Myrick

Combined Interviews

Kelly Myrick was a nationally-ranked hurdler on the 1967 and 1968 UTEP track and field teams. In the spring of 1968 he became the spokesman for a group of black athletes who were kicked off the UTEP squad after boycotting a track meet at Brigham Young University. The ensuing controversy over their action and the athletic department’s response brought negative publicity to the university and was part of the so-called “revolt of the black athlete” in the late 1960s.

Myrick begins by describing how UTEP’s dynamic young track coach, Wayne Vandenburg, assembled a talented squad of athletes from around the …

Interview No. 1717, Ines Fresquez Enciso

Combined Interviews

Ines was born in Socorro, Texas on February 12, 1933. Her parents used to have a farm in Socorro, but it was sold when they were still alive. One of Ines’s first jobs after graduating from Ysleta High School was at the Coliseum. At the Coliseum, her job was to sit at a table and organized papers and contracts of the Braceros.

At the time she worked at the Coliseum everyone was very welcoming and accepted the Braceros. Ines also mentioned that the center was seen as a totally normal thing and everyone was really nice. One of the things …

Interview No. 1688, Lucía Martinez

Combined Interviews

Lucía was born in El Paso, Texas in 1960 and was raised in the Barrio Chamizal. She has two younger sisters, Rosalva and Angelica. Her mother is from Troncoso, Zacatecas, Mexico and her family had moved to Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico because of a drought. Her paternal grandmother, Carmen was born in El Paso in 1910 but when she was fifteen she went back to Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. Her father was born there in 1932 and his family eventually came to Juárez to La Chaveña. Around the mid-fifties they came to El Paso. They bought a house by San Antonio Street …

Interview No. 1689, Rebeca Pimentel

Combined Interviews

Rebeca was born in Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Her family would move between Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and Las Nieves, Durango, Mexico and eventually crossed into El Paso, Texas. Her father left them when she was four years old and went to El Monte, California. She has three younger siblings. When she was nine years old, they moved to El Paso where her mother worked as a waitress. Rebeca started going to seventh grade at Guillen Middle School when she was fifteen years old. She did not have any schooling before and had only been in the third grade in Juárez. …

Interview No. 1691, Luis M. Villa

Combined Interviews

Luis was born in El Paso, Texas. He grew up with his parents in his grandparents’ house. His grandfather would grow corn and sweet peas and had fruit trees. He lived there until he was about fourteen years old. His grandmother was raising her brother’s daughter, his aunt who was about three years older than Luis. One day her mother scolded his aunt. His grandmother did not like this so she hit and slapped her. Soon after, his father decided for them to move out. They moved into his mother’s comadre’s house because they were moving to California. He had …

Interview No. 1690, Emma S. Villa

Combined Interviews

Emma was born and raised in El Paso, Texas in 1935. She had two brothers and one sister. One of her brothers has passed away. She is the youngest. Her father was from Mexico and crossed illegally into the United States. He had no education but had his own business building houses around Austin School. Only her sister graduated from Bowie School because her brothers had to quit in order to run the business when their father got sick. Emma was around ten years old. Both of her brothers went into the service and the oldest was in the Korean …

Interview No. 1687, Mary Zamora

Combined Interviews

Mary was born in Ysleta, Texas in 1955. She grew up in Socorro, Texas and lived there until she was seventeen years old. Her paternal grandfather was a Comanche from San Elizario, Texas and her grandmother was an Apache from Ruidoso, New Mexico. They met in San Elizario, got married, and had fourteen children. Eventually they moved to Socorro, Texas. Mary attended Socorro Elementary School. She spoke mostly Spanish but had to learn English quickly because they would swat them for speaking Spanish. Her father worked building houses, was a janitor in the Ysleta School District, and would cultivate cotton. …

Interview No. 1686, Jesus Zamora

Combined Interviews

Jesus was born in El Paso, Texas in the Segundo Barrio. He recalls living in an apartment complex facing the Franklin Canal on 7th and Virginia Street. There were a lot of gangs around including Los Equis Sietes and Los Catorces. He recalls coming home late from Armijo when he was about 6 years old. The gangs would fight on the corner of 7th and Virginia with chains and knives. He came out to run home and got hit with a chain. A lady in her seventies was watching and she came out to tell them to go home. He …

Interview No. 1685, Salvador Avila

Combined Interviews

Salvador was born in Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. All of his siblings were born in the United States. They came to El Paso, Texas in 1967 when he was in seventh grade and arrived to Canutillo, Texas where he went to school. His father was a farm worker and his mother was a home keeper that would work in Mountain Pass Cannery during the summers. His siblings and he would work in the fields picking mostly onion but also weeds and chilies. He had seven siblings but one has passed away. He had a terrible time in school. He did not …

Interview No. 1711, Beatriz Villegas

Combined Interviews

Beatriz was born in Torreon Coahuila, Mexico. She arrived in El Paso when she was 25 years old because she got married, but she used to visit El Paso frequently because she lived in Juarez with her family. Her stepdad made the family moved to Juarez because he thought that it was cheaper living there.

Beatriz has always considered herself a Mexican woman, but she knew that in reality, she was an American citizen. Throughout the years she has work as a community activist and spiritual activist when Beatriz was asked about her being a leader she mentioned that she …

Interview No. 1683, Hilda Villegas

Combined Interviews

Hilda was born in El Paso, Texas. She was raised in El Barrio Chamizal and attended Beall Elementary, Guillen Middle, and Bowie High School. She recalls that growing up in the community felt like home. She talks about the possible closure of Beall Elementary by El Paso Independent School District as an alternative to cutting costs due to underutilization of elementary schools. She feels that they are targeting areas in which the parents are not as engaged. The students would be redistributed into Zavala and Douglass Elementary Schools. Since it is one of the poorest areas in El Paso, mobility …

Interview No. 1706, Alicia Marentes

Combined Interviews

Alicia was born in Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua, Mexico. When Alicia was 16 years old she got married and crossed the border thru the river and head to Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband. As a young immigrant, she couldn’t get a job so she started cleaning houses and her first cleaning job was at a Doctor's house. With the money that she earned she saved a portion every month and used to send it to her mother back in Juarez.

Alicia then moved back to Juarez while her husband went and worked in Los Angeles. After a couple of months, …

Interview No. 1684, José Rodríguez

Combined Interviews

Senator José Rodríguez was born in Alice, Texas and grew up in Alamo, Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. He went to grade school in the mid-fifties when Mexican-American students went to separate schools from Anglo students. These schools did not have all of the resources that were in the Anglo schools. If they spoke Spanish they were paddled. He felt like he did not receive a very challenging elementary education. In middle and high school he came across teachers that saw potential in him and encouraged him to read books. They would give him books to take when …

Interview No. 1709, Lorena Andrade

Combined Interviews

Lorena Andrade is the director of La Mujer Obrera. Andrade grew up in Los Angeles, California and moved to El Paso, Texas in 1997 to volunteer with LMO. She began working with the organization in 1998.

Andrade defines leadership as being able to remember what the principles of the organization are and as a leader, ensuring that those are respected during meetings, discussions, and decision making. She also believes that a leader’s responsibility is to reinforce these principles and make sure that everyone is heard. As a leader, she works to keep the history and the values of the LMO …