Oral History Commons^™

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. 958, Esther Rollansky

Combined Interviews

Her mother was born in the colonies and her father, Samuel, was born in Poland. Samuel was a journalist for Jewish papers, a theater critic, a scholar, and the head of the Kultur Congress. He initiated love of Jewish culture and traditions- as well as socialism-into his children. They didn't only speak Yiddish at home, they lived Yiddish culture. She attended state (public) and Yiddish laic schools and became a teacher in various Jewish schools.A s a young girl she practically lived in the Yiddish theater. She met famous people in Yiddish culture from abroad, who visited her parent's house. …

Interview No. 956, Sara Salon

Combined Interviews

Her parents met in Smyrna and her father sent for her mother after he got to Posadas. They married in Paraguay because the Argentine officials didn't want to officiate over the marriage of a minor. Her mother was illiterate, yet she knew how to handle business affairs and was a musician. They participated in the small Turkish community. They moved to Corrientes and her mother's large family joined her there. The Turkish community in Corrientes was large. Her mother, with her friends, held singing and dancing sessions on Sundays to raise money to build the synagogue, which became the Asociación …

Interview No. 953, Anita Lang

Combined Interviews

Born 1918, Lang came to Argentina with her parents from Russia when she was five years old. Her parents and grandparents also were in the theater.Although her dad didn't want her to be an actress, she became one anyway. She enjoyed a happy adolescence studying and going to the Hebraica and Macabi. She started in film when a film personality saw her on the beach and asked her to come for a tryout. She acted in 8 films, one of them about a prostitute ("una mujer"). Then she got married and had two children. When she separated from her husband,s …

Interview No. 960, Bertha P. De Braslavsky

Combined Interviews

Born 1913 in small town in Entre Rios, Argentina. Her parents had lived in the colonies. They were not very interested in their daughter's education, but because they moved to Buenos Aires, she was able to go beyond the 3rd grade. She finished normal school and then studied physics at the Profesorado for secondary school teachers. Here, and at the university later, she experienced persecution because of her student activism and interest in Marxism. As a result of her expulsion from her studies in 1936, she joined the Communist Youth. Eventually she earned a degree in Pedagogy from the Universidad …

Interview No. 952, Luna And Salomón Mayo

Combined Interviews

Luna de Mayo is 98 years old and her son Salomón, a retired doctor, is in his 70s. She met her future husband in her uncle's home and her aunt said she would marry him. He was 20 and she was 17, when they arrived to Argentina. They headed straight to Posadas (by train), where he had sisters. Posadas was very poor then, and their lives were very difficult. They lived in a one room wooden house with a well and no running water. Household tasks and raising 7 children on her husband's initially meager earnings, selling in the street …

Interview No. 954, Maria Eisser

Combined Interviews

She was born in Vienna in 1922. Her father was an Austrian industrialist and her mother a Hungarian pharmacist- the first woman to graduate with this specialty in Hungary. They lived in Vienna until she was 16, when the Nazis took over and they left for Hungary. At her mother's prompting, they left Hungary in1942 for Argentina; the trip had been planned for two years and was extremely dangerous. They took the last ship that sailed the Atlantic for South America. They were supposed to go to Brazil but wound up in Argentina instead, their stay in this country facilitated …

Interview No. 955, Eugenia Sacerdote

Combined Interviews

Born in Turin in 1910. Very antifascist-saw Peronism as reply to fascism. Father died when she was about 10 years old so, was brought up by mother. Women couldn't study at that time, so she attended the Liceo Femenino, which didn't feed into the university, and then stayed home for a year. She and her cousin, who would go on to win a Nobel Prize, and who was brought up in an even more restricted fashion, studied for one year to be able to pass certain courses to get into the university. She experienced much prejudice in medical school, but …

Interview No. 959, Ruth De Sommer

Combined Interviews

Sommer left Germany at the beginning of the Third Reich, for Holland; she saw how bad the antisiemitism was. She left when she was 16, and she lived in Holland with a family, working as a nursemaid (niñera). Then she came alone to Buenos Aires in 1936; her parents arrived later. When she arrived, since she was alone (without parent's written consent) and only 20 years old, she wasn't allowed to leave the port until her aunt arrived to vouch for her. She lived with her uncle and aunt in Belgraro until her parents arrived.Her parents rented an apartment in …

Interview No. 957, Simone Barbouth

Combined Interviews

She was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1942. Her father had been born in Turkey, but he moved to Italy and went to Egypt to escape the racial laws. Her mother's family was also from Turkey, but she was born in Egypt. In Alexandria her family lived a very cosmopolitan life, speaking French among themselves and hardly learning Arabic. Her great-grandmother's generation of women could not read or write, although the men generally went to the university. In 1947 they moved to Italy, and in 1953 to Argentina. Some members of her father's family were living in Buenos Aires. For …

Interview No. 951, Mina Fridman

Combined Interviews

Parents from the Ukraine. She was born in Argentina in 1922. Lived much of her life in Rosarió. Though her father was of a good economic position, she imbibed communism from her Yiddish teacher. The Spanish Civil War also awoke her desire for social change. She entered the Communist party in 1940. She had been active in the Comisión de Ayuda a la Unión Soviética y Países Aliados and previously in Organización Popular contra el Racismo y Antisemitismo. She was also involved in solidarity work for political prisoners including her own husband.She her self was jailed twice. Her other activities …

Interview No. 931, Ralph Seitsinger

Combined Interviews

Born in Kinross, Iowa. Family background ; college education and reasons behind his career choices; early job experience: Normal School Science teacher, Boy Scout executive, military service at Fort Bliss. Discusses political career: how Raymond Telles got him involved him in politics; his accomplishments as Alderman, his mayoral term.

Interview No. 937, María De Los Angeles Skatzes

Combined Interviews

Family origin. Mar village in Kwangtung Province, China. Turning to the United Sates, her father's youth, how he came to El Paso. Growing up in a multicultural home in El Paso's Chinese community.

Interview No. 930, Harvey Hilley

Combined Interviews

Born in Socorro, Texas; second generation Texas; served in the United States Navy; participation in the local Cotton association. Discusses parents' background; the effects of the Great Depression; the CCC at Rio Vista; the effects of WWII on the Lower Valley; experiences with Braceros and previous Mexican agricultural workers; the role of Rio Vista in the Bracero Program; evolution of the cotton farming in the lower valley.

Interview No. 939, Melvin Potter Straus

Combined Interviews

Discusses his family's political ties with the Democratic Party. How as a young boy was taught loyalty and discipline as party member. The Politics and the University.

Interview No. 928, Tom Diamond

Combined Interviews

Born in Fresno, California; enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private; attended Officer Candidate School and became Capital of Artillery. Memories of childhood and education; WWII memories; service in Australia, the invasion of Luzon, the surrender of Japan; service at Fort Bliss; Meetings with the Tiguas, experiences with tribal leaders of the 1960's; gambling and lawsuits and legal battlers.

Interview No. 936, Estine Davis

Combined Interviews

Born in Troy, Texas, Childhood experiences; early work experiences; farm and segregation experiences; family relationships; encounters with racism; work experiences at Fort Bliss, and downtown El Paso; work ethics; El Paso community; Affirmative Action.

Interview No. 935, Peter De Wetter

Combined Interviews

Born in New Rochelle, New York. Discusses family background including his mother and father first hand view of the Russian Revolution in Europe as a privilege society member. WWII experiences in the U.S. Army as a member of the intelligence Corps; business endeavors before and after serving a mayor including CEO of Beking Company.

Interview No. 929, James Franklin Scherr

Combined Interviews

Born in El Paso, third generation El Pasoan. Educational background; three generations of family history in El Paso; motivations for entering politics; events leading up to his nomination and election; achievements during tenure as Alderman; legal trends in El Paso.

Interview No. 933, Hortencia Cedillos

Combined Interviews

Born in San Ignacio, Chihuahua, Mexico. Descendant of town's founders. Aunt to the town's present mayor; discusses family ancestry; life from child to adult including games, traditions, employment, travel, and social life; personal accounts of the Mexican Revolution 1910; religious traditions; cross-border issues; commerce, explanation of ejidos and colonias.

Interview No. 932, Arturo Otero

Combined Interviews

Born in Plaza de Otero, Chihuahua, Mexico. Descendant of town's founders. Discusses family ancestry; life from child to adult including games, traditions, employment, travel, and social life; personal accounts of the Mexican Revolution of 1910; relationship between town's people and Apache invaders.

Interview No. 934, Marvin Shady

Combined Interviews

Born in Larned, Kansas; earned journeyman card in International Typographical Union, member for 65 years. Family history as a strike leader/organizer. El Paso Labor Advocate, purchase of newspaper, international union, starting union brick plant.

Interview No. 945, Perla Wasserman

Combined Interviews

Active Spanish Republican cause, Pro-allied, Socialist Party; discussed she aid to political prisoner and was put in jail. Opposes Peronism but has worked with leftist Peronists.

Interview No. 938, Teresa De Gilenberg

Combined Interviews

Served in the Liga de los Derechos Humanos, and as such visited political prisoner in the Villa Devoto jail in 1950s. She herself was imprisoned.

Interview No. 944, Clara Gertel

Combined Interviews

Born Poland and moved to Argentina in 1938. Maintained some Jewish traditions, such as certain foods. Escape to Argentina and joined the Union de Mujeres Argentinas, affiliated with the Community Party. Tells about how she went to exile in France (later in Mexico), and joined the Madres de la Plaza Mayo when she returned to Argentina.

Interview No. 942, Rosita Pascaner

Combined Interviews

Born in Parana, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Tells how her parent came to Argentina from Russia when they were very young. President of Women's Zionists organization, W120. Describes acquaintance with important female figures such as Berta de Gerchunolf, Clara de Filer, and Stanovsky sister, the Singerman sister, and Fanny de Carduner.

Interview No. 946, Cipe Linkovsky

Combined Interviews

Tells how he became an actress in Argentina; began to act at an early age. Reasons towards going to Germany. Prohibition in interpreting some plays like "La Tregua". Expelled from the Communist Party; Progressive Party. Her Yiddish Theatrical career.

Interview No. 950, Bertha P. De Braslavsky

Combined Interviews

Her mother was an inventive who read cards, told jokes, sang, performed", and continued the traditions. Matilde de Chami absorbed these gifts. They lived in poverty when she was growing up.

Interview No. 947, Rosa Basedovsky

Combined Interviews

Russian parents. Passover and High Holidays were the most important festivities. Became a teacher of primary schools grades. Experiences raising a family and teaching.

Interview No. 948, Adela Maldavsky

Combined Interviews

Born in Basavilbaso, Argentina. Discuss how she became active Jewish institutions; W120; Tells about her family life in Buenos Aires.