History Commons^™

Interview No. 1630, James L. Hayden

Combined Interviews

As a career soldier, Hayden spent the better part of his life in the Army; in this interview he recalls his experiences as a fourth-generation West Point graduate, his service both in the Army Constabulary in immediate post-World War II Germany and in Korea during the Korean War, his responsibilities at White Sands Missile Range under Wernher von Braun, and his recent volunteer work as a West Point admissions advisor. Born in 1923 in New York, Hayden was expected from birth to attend West Point; indeed, his father was an instructor there at the time. Although he applied in 1940, …

Interview No. 1477, Adam Nieto

Combined Interviews

From the age of 12 until he was 15 years old, Adam Nieto worked a paper route to earn extra money for his family. After high school, Adam left El Paso for Los Angeles for two years to work, however in 1965, the draft system caught up with Adam and at the age of 21, he was drafted by the United States Army into the Vietnam War. In 1967, after his time in the military, Adam enrolled at The University of Texas at El Paso and spent four years working on his B.A. in Education. Adam was able to use …

Interview No. 1622, Michael Fushille M.D.

Combined Interviews

He describes the process of getting into medical school, and trying to keep his G.I. benefits. Dr. Fushille enlisted in the Navy before the war and was accepted, but was told to remain in school because they had no place for him. He eventually served on an aircraft carrier during WWII, where he faced hurricanes, fires, and kamikaze attacks by the Japanese. Dr. Fushille served in the combat information center on the carrier as a radar technician. He finished his medical exams in 1957, before returning to New Jersey to complete his internship; by this time he and his wife …

Interview No. 1504, John Romero

Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project

John Romero got his start in his father’s tax preparation office when he was in the 7th grade. By the age of 14, John and his other siblings would assist their father with tax return preparation. After graduating from Cathedral High School, John worked at a Safeway grocery store, working his way up to different positions within the store. During this time, John and his siblings continued to help their father at his tax business during tax season from January until April. John would work at Safeway, then work at the commissary part time and attend The University of Texas …

Interview No. 1336, Jose Bujanda

Combined Interviews

Mr. Bujanda education was limited to the third grade because he had to help his father harvest crops; he started working at a very young age in his father’s corn field, his duties included irrigating, planting seeds and harvesting corn; at the age of 15 Mr. Bujanda traveled to Hermosillo to harvest cotton, soon after he traveled to Sonora where he was working as a tractor operator; before becoming a Bracero in 1959, Mr. Bujanda was working as a chauffeur and to this day that is his permanent job; Mr. Bujanda’s first Bracero experience was in Caléxico, California where he …

Interview No. 1503, Carlos Eduardo Casillas

Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project

Carlos attended school in the United States while living in México with his family and at the age of 19, his father decided to move the family to the United States permanently. Carlos Sr. owned a transportation business and Carlos would tinker with the bus ticket machines. His fascination with computers grew and he got a degree in computer science. After college Carlos worked for his father some more before starting his own company, Icon Technologies. Icon Technologies went dormant and Carlos along with his business partner Ruben Ramirez started E.R. Computer Doctors in 2002. At E.R. Computer Doctors, Carlos …

Making Africans And Indians: Colonialism, Identity, Racialization, And The Rise Of The Nation-State In The Florida Borderlands, 1765-1837, John Paul A. Nuño

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Florida Borderlands from 1765 to 1837 was a fluid space in which established colonial and Indigenous social, political, and economic systems were in dialogue with emerging discourses associated with the market economy, nationalism, and race. Utilizing British, Spanish, and United States government documents, diplomatic correspondence, and slave claims, this work traces the racialization of diverse Indigenous and African populations. Older colonial powers and nascent nation states sought to create political and social space between individuals within these categories in an effort to better control their labor, movement, and economic status. Consequently, Seminoles and Africans resisted and adapted, depending on …

A History Of El Paso's Company E In World War Ii, Jorge Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For the most part, Hispanics in the U.S. military were not segregated into separate units, but there was, at least, one known exception. It is this particular story of a National Guard unit from El Paso, Texas designated as Company E that has received minimal attention by historians. This unit was unlike any other unit of the National Guard in that it consisted only of Mexican-Americans.

Race, Gender, And Citizenship: The Removal Of Japanese And Japanese Mexicans From The United States/Mexico Borderlands, Selfa Alejandra Chew Smithart

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the uprooting of the Japanese Mexican community from the United States/Mexico borderlands region during World War II. I argue that the development of international relations and the global organization of the economy directly informed the management of Japanese immigrants and their descendants in the United States borderlands region. In compliance with the United States' request to control Japanese Mexicans, President Manuel Ávila Camacho ordered the dislocation of the entire Japanese Mexican community and approved the creation of concentration camps and zones of confinement. Under this order, a new pro-American nationalism developed, which scripted Japanese Mexicans as an …

A Typical Scene In Mexico: Images Of War, Race, And Gender In The Mexican Revolution, Rosa Lorena Estala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

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Border Physician: The Life Of Lawrence A. Nixon, 1883-1966, Will Guzmán

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation centers on the life of Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon, an African American physician and civil rights activist who lived in El Paso, Texas from 1910 until his death in 1966. Born in Marshall, Texas in 1883, Lawrence Nixon graduated from Wiley College in 1902 and Meharry Medical College in 1906. He then established a medical office in Cameron, Texas in 1907, but due to the racial climate and violence of central Texas he moved west to El Paso in hopes of a better life.

Although several historians have mentioned Dr. Nixon in their works, they have tended to …

The Literary Fictioning Of John Gregory Bourke's Imperial Nostalgia, Toni K. Mcnair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nineteenth-century Army Captain and American ethnographer John Gregory Bourke (b. 1846 - d. 1896) meticulously described and documented a vast amount of information on military life, geography, ecology, and people on both sides of the Mexican-American border, offering observations and opinions of American, Mexican, Mexican-American, Apache, Pueblo, Zuni and Plains Indian cultures. Because of his ethnographic studies of Mexican-Americans along the Rio Grande, cultural studies scholars, José E. Limón and José David Saldí­var have identified John Gregory Bourke as complicit in the U.S. government's imperialist project. Referring to Renato Rosaldo's anthropological theory of imperialist nostalgia, These authors declare Bourke's work …

Interview No. 1639, Itzhak Kotkowski

Combined Interviews

Itzhak Kotkowski is an author that wrote about his experiences in the Holocaust during World War II; he was born in Warsaw, Poland on December 25, 1921; his family was Jewish, attended private school; Mr. Kotkowski addresses anti-Semitism among Polish people, personally never experienced it; he lived in the Jewish section, enjoyed life there until the German invasion on September 1, 1939; he recalls being at home when Warsaw was occupied, had always respected German culture; he explains his father worked hard to give them an education; he describes his three sisters, one was in Mexico, one immigrated to the …

Mestizaje: Piro Indian And Spanish Vecino In Socorro, Texas From 1744 To 1813, David Camarena

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examined culture on what is now the U.S./Mexico border, among Piro Indians and Spanish citizens (vecinos) in the community of Socorro, Texas between 1744 and 1813. The purpose was to better understand the process of mestizaje as experienced by Piro Indians as they participate in larger hegemonic Spanish civil and ecclesiastical institutions. Using archival materials along with secondary sources, this thesis reconstructs the antecedents that ultimately led the primary Indian community to transform into a Hispano settlement along the banks of the Río Grande. Pressured by vecino encroachment, participation in the Spanish wage-labor system, several environmental catastrophes in …

The Border At War: World War Ii Along The United States-Mexico Border, Winifred Baumer Dowling

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The U.S.-Mexico border, especially the shared border of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, was in many ways transformed by the effects of World War II. This study examines change or continuity brought about by the war. The border region reflected many similarities to the national reaction to the upheaval of World War II. Yet there were dramatic differences as well. Examples of continuity and change are examined through the lens of border relations, labor and the economy, Mexican Americans, border women, and health on the border.

Wartime relations between El Paso and Juarez reached a zenith of good …

El Paso, Texas, And Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, 1880-1930: A Material Culture Study Of Borderlands Interdependency, Gladys Arlene Hodges

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Material culture theory informs this study of urban history and borderlands interdependency at El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, from 1880-1930. Features incised into and structures built onto the natural environment by the first arriving colonists after the mid-seventeenth century endured for more than two centuries. Over that period, the humanly-created material environment, a social product, fed back into the development of social forms--institutions, rituals, practices, modes of interaction, activities, and beliefs. A significant number of these social forms endured into the late nineteenth century and beyond, even after mechanization and industrialization arrived in the region known …

Interview No. 1535, Armando Alvarez

Combined Interviews

Armando Alvarez was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Alvarez played for the El Paso Patriots soccer team for three years, after turning down a scholarship to SMU. After working odd jobs around El Paso, Alvarez moved to Arizona to attend Collins College and became a graphic designer. He then found employment with different small glass companies such as Kraft Quality Glass, then moved to commercial companies. Alvarez states the main difference between large and small companies is the attention to detail. This is why he opened a small business in order to pay more attention to detail. Viva …

The Japanese Revolutionaries: The Architects Of The Meiji Restoration, 1860-1868, Dana Kenneth Teasley

Student Papers (History)

Scholars have offered many conflicting interpretations of the Japanese Meiji Restoration of 1868, but few have put forth a comprehensive analysis as to the nature of the protagonists and the motivation of those who initiated this revolutionary movement. Although historical interpretations of the Restoration and its heroes have ranged from a romantic and generalized theory of economic struggle to focused studies of individuals whose motivations were singular, the true character of the samurai revolutionaries behind the Restoration is the issue here. Of those samurai who, acquired knowledge of Western civilization and technology, took part in the Restoration, and witnessed the …

Interview No. 1233, Antonio Nuño

Combined Interviews

Mr. Nuño talks about his family and what his life was like growing up; he later married, and when he was roughly twenty years old, he and his wife moved to Mexicali, Baja California, México to be with her family; he began crossing into the United States to work without proper documentation, but shortly after he obtained a bracero contract in 1949 with the help of family friends; later, he had to go through the contracting process in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, where he was stripped, medically examined and deloused; he explains that he paid bribes to go through the process …

Interview No. 1543, Julio Cesar Viramontes

Combined Interviews

Julio Cesar Viramontes was born in a small town in Mexico around Fort Hancock, Texas. Viramontes attended Cathedral High School in El Paso but did not graduate. He was introduced to the garment industry when he began working at Supreme Laundry. Viramontes was able to purchase his own Laundromat in Canutillo while still working at Supreme Laundry. He also had to opportunity to purchase a Supreme Laundromat in central El Paso, so he became the owner of two El Paso Laundromats. Viramontes also began washing blue jeans for El Paso companies after hours. The Laundromat then became an industrial cleaner, …

Interview No. 1635, Sheldon Hall

Combined Interviews

Although Sheldon Hall (b. 1917) grew up in Ohio and lived most of his early years there and later, in Snyder and Van Horn, Texas, he became a pivotal figure in the preservation and recording of El Paso’s Spanish colonial history. After a childhood spent in Columbus, Ohio, Hall attended college, earning a degree in Investment Management. Before he was able to use his education, however, the United States entered World War II, and the United States Army called upon him to join its Army Air Corps, where he worked first as a test pilot on A-31 bombers and then …

Interview No. 1634, Granville M. Green

Combined Interviews

As one of the “greatest generation,” Granville “Bill” M. Green witnessed first-hand many of the twentieth century’s historic events, including the Great Depression, World War II, and the country’s explosive post-war growth. He reminisces about his experiences working on the ground floor of the nascent airline industry, as well as El Paso’s early auto sales and banking businesses. Born in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, Green had a rosy childhood, but the Great Depression forced him in 1936 to leave Northwestern University before graduating after his father lost his job. Fortunately, Green managed to secure a position the very next day …

Interview No. 1541, Carlos Gándara

Combined Interviews

Carlos Gándara was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. As a child, Gándara had paper routes and collected bottles for extra money. Gándara was introduced to selling office products when he became a driver for BPSI (Business Products and Supplies Inc.) He moved to different office supply stores but credits BPSI for his formal training. Glen Powers was his selling mentor and motivated Gandara to become a better salesman. Gándara recieved professional manager experiance and was the manager at Struges Office Supplies for two years. He was then employed by a national office supply chain and laid off. He …

Interview No. 1542, Oscar Venegas

Combined Interviews

Oscar Venegas was born in Juarez, Mexico and obtained dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico. Venegas is a graduate of Burges High School, here he was influenced to become financially successful. He enrolled at The University of Texas at El Paso and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. After graduating, Venegas started working for local businesses, R.E. McKee and Jordan & Nobles. In 1982, Venegas decided to go into business for himself instead of working for McKee and Jordan & Nobles. With previous knowledge of sales and project managing, Venegas began his own construction company. He was …

Interview No. 1539, Juan Bárcena

Combined Interviews

Juan Bárcena was one of 7 children born and raised in El Paso, Texas. His family immigrated from Mexico and settled in central/south El Paso. He graduated from Cathedral High School and attended East Texas High School before joining the airforce. Bárcena created his company ABA Labels printing inc which creates labels for all industries servicing the El Paso and Juarez area. He created this business at the age of 40, after her long term job began laying off people. Bárcena has 50 years of printing experience, now he specializes in creating food labels and computer printing. Through an SBA …

Interview No. 1536, Richard Castro

Combined Interviews

Richard Castro was born in Del Rio, Texas to two hard working immigrant parents. Castro remembers his mother being a seamstress and working late into the night in order to make her quota. His father owned his own construction business and would give his son business advice of never putting limitations on yourself. Castro was also influenced by his brother who attended college. Even though Castro faced challenges in school, he attended and graduated from Texas State University. Castro became a teacher but did not make enough money, so he had to take on side jobs in order to make …

Interview No. 1538, Teresa Gándara

Combined Interviews

Teresa Gándara was born and raised in Central El Paso, Texas. She attended various catholic schools and graduated from El Paso High School. She credits her catholic education for helping her through school. Even though her parents did not approve of her going to college. She cleaned houses, was a house painter, and a life guard throughout her college years. These jobs helped her to pay rent and basic needs. Gándara received her bachelors and master’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. While attending school, Gándara met her mentor Connie Gamboa who taught her how to channel …

Interview No. 1534, Gary Porras

Combined Interviews

Gary Porras, founder of Garick Electric Group, was born in Camargo, Mexico on March 17, 1949. He grew up in that same city and started to work on his parent’s farm at the age of 5. Later they went to Chihuahua, Mexico where he studied elementary school and worked as a collector and delivery boy. He wanted to be a missionary so he attended a seminary during his middle school years and only stayed there for two years and decided to leave this life because he did not agree with many of the beliefs taught there. Then he remembers that …

Interview No. 1531, Roberto Torres

Combined Interviews

Roberto Torres, owner of the eponymous certified public accounting firm, here shares his experiences both as a successful professional and El Paso business owner. Born in El Paso in 1951 to Gustavo and Carolina Torres, young Roberto was strongly influenced by his father’s entrepreneurial aspirations. After graduating from Jesuit High School, Torres attended the University of Texas at El Paso, earning an accounting degree in 1974. Gaining valuable experience, Torres spent many years working for large accounting firms. Throughout his early career he learned to understand the field’s unique climate and perfected his both his accounting and interpersonal skills. In …

Interview No. 1532, Joe A. Rosales

Combined Interviews

Joe A. Rosales grew up in El Paso, Texas on the 1100th block of Missouri Street, which he calls “the barrio”. His father was a carpenter from Durango, Mexico and his mother was from Chihuahua, they had a total of 10 children including Joe. Rosales was a graduate of El Paso High School in 1957, the same year he opened his own concreate company. All throughout high school Rosales considered himself and entrepreneur, from collecting bottles, having a newspaper route, and washing cars. Since his father owned his own concreate business, Rosales learned business values and practices from his father. …