History Commons^™

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 …

Interview No. 1744, Jaime Creel

Combined Interviews

Jaime Creel was born in Mexico City. He was son of Salvador Creel Terrazas the smallest in the family of his grandfather Enrique Cuilty Creel former governor of the state of Chihuahua and Foreign Affairs Secretary during the last presidency of Porfirio Díaz, which was married to Ángela Terrazas Cuilty, daughter of General Luis Terrazas the biggest landowner in the state. He recalls his family origins in Ireland and the United States and mentions that his great grandfather came as a U.S. consul to Chihuahua City, Mexico. He remembers general things about his grandfather Enrique C. Creel and his family, …

Interview No. 1698, Carolina Sandoval Maynez

Combined Interviews

Her name is Carolina Sandoval Maynez, she is from Chihuahua, Chihuahua, she has a really big family and all summers they all go to a ranch on Valle de Allende, where she spends almost 2 months every year of her childhood. She learned a lot from this vacation because workers at the ranch had a lot of knowledge on horses, plants, cleaning, and cooking. The ranch is located near Parral, Chihuahua which is a city 2 hours away from Chihuahua, Chihuahua. At that time the phones and tv weren’t something that kids paid attention to, they would prefer going outdoors …

Interview No. 1636, Olga Kohlberg

Combined Interviews

A radio dramatization of Olga Kolberg’s life presents her educational efforts in El Paso. Mrs. Kohlberg describes the concept of kindergarten, and the importance of education in very young children. A narrator details Mrs. Kohlberg’s efforts to raise money and establish a kindergarten in El Paso. El Paso’s school system had the first kindergarten in the state of Texas thanks to the work of Mrs. Kohlberg and the other women. In 1894, the women formed the Current Events Club, later renamed the Womens Club, and led by Mrs. Kohlberg. This group set out to accomplish a number of projects, including …

Interview No. 1475, Lorenzo Cano

Combined Interviews

Interview in Spanish

Interview No. 1476, Raymundo González

Combined Interviews

Interview is in Spanish

Interview No. 1545, Rosa Martha Zarate

Combined Interviews

She recalls crossing the border twice in Tijuana; she details her two distinct experiences with border agents. She details the racial discrimination she felt in the convent from priest and other nuns; her push for Spanish Catechism and more Spanish masses. She remembers meeting Cesar Chavez; details her first protest with him, her revolutionary idealistic music, and her involvement with the Agriculture Movement, as well as the role of chicano priest and nuns in creating a better connection with the people; she recalls being seen as the evangelical voice of the Latin American Church Movement. Rosa’s activism and music labeled …

Interview No. 1506, Francisco Escalera

Combined Interviews

Escalera recalls that his father died in 1954 and his family moved from Michoacán to Guadalajara, Mexico since it was hard to earn a living. He remembers that in this place he got a job with the city government for which he worked for 34 years and in 1959 he got opportunity to go to the U.S. and got a license from his job to be absent for three month. He describes his journey from Guadalajara going to the contract center in Empalme, Sonora, then to the border in Calexico, California from which he was hired to go to Santa …

Interview No. 1697, Victoria C. Schwartz S. L.

Combined Interviews

The interview takes place at the Convent of Loretto in El Paso Texas. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born on February 9, 1940. Her brother is 15 years older than her and mentions her parents were older when she was born. Her father was 40 years old and her mother was 38. She was taught at our Lady of Mt. Carmel for kindergarten through eight grade and then attended Sisters of Loretto High School. She then attended Webster University in St. Louis and graduated in 1963. Her final vows her done in 1966. She has been …

Interview No. 1638, Margarita R. Mendoza

Combined Interviews

Margarita Mendoza was an employee for Union Manufacturing in El Paso, TX; was born in East Chicago, IN on July 28, 1927; her parents were from Durango, Mexico; her father was a farmer for his mother’s family on their hacienda, she describes how they met when she was a baby and he was a farmhand; she reveals father’s brothers fought with the revolutionaries in the Mexican Revolution, but he came to the U.S. in 1910; she relays mother’s family struggle to escape the Mexican Revolution, she describes her parent’s courtship; she mentions they had six children while working in Kansas …

Interview No. 1504, John Romero

Combined Interviews

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. 1503, Carlos Eduardo Casillas

Combined Interviews

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 …

Interview No. 1502, Arnaldo Chavarria Dds

Combined Interviews

Dr. Chavarria is the sixth child in a line of nine siblings. After graduating from high school, Dr. Chavarria briefly worked at a factory before applying and getting accepted to the El Paso Community College Dental Hygiene program. Dr. Chavarria worked as a dental hygienist before applying and being accepted to dental school in San Antonio, Texas. After graduating dental school, Dr. Chavarria worked with Dr. Watson, the El Paso City/County Health Department as well as La Fe Clinic and Sun Plaza Clinic. Soon after, Dr. Chavarria opened his practice on the Eastside of El Paso. Dr. Chavarria has received …

Interview No. 1597, Leticia Carabajal

Combined Interviews

Her maternal grandfather she explains fought alongside Pancho Villa and was eventually killed; she explains that her father is a bracero but she did not discover this until he began speaking about working in Utah, Colorado, and California; her father worked as a bracero in order to support the family, eventually buying a house with his earnings; she points out that her father does not have his bracero documentation; she began seeing articles about braceros in local newspaper, consequently she began recording her conversations with her dad and gave him a journal so he could write down his experiences; she …