Collection
Country
Month
Language
384 Matching Results
Results open in a new window/tab. Unexpected Results? Search the Catalog Instead.
Results:
1 - 24 of
384
next
Oral History Interview with Dr. Morris Baker, July 31, 2016
Dr. Morris Baker was born in 1939 in Ranger, Texas, the son of a mechanic and a domestic worker. As a child in Ranger, Baker lived in a mixed neighborhood of Mexican Americans, poor whites, and African Americans. Although, Ranger had segregated black and brown neighborhoods as well. Baker attended a one-room, all-black school called Slaughter Ward Elementary up to 6th grade. From 6th to 10th grade, Baker had to be bused to Eastland, where education ended for African Americans before they could obtain a high school Diploma. Thus, when the Brown v. Board dissension came in, his parents simply signed him up for classes in the white Ranger High School. Baker was allowed to attend as long as he did not socialize with the white high school female students or attend many of the school’s social events. He graduated as the school’s first African American graduate in 1957. Other African Americans followed. Baker then graduated from Cisco College (A.A. 1959), McMurry University (B.A. in Biology 1963), Harvard University (M.Ed. 1970), The Ohio State University (Ph.D. in clinical psychology 1976). Baker has worked for the Peace Corps, public schools in Los Angeles, California and other cities, and has taught at …
Date:
July 31, 2016
Creator:
Baker, Morris & Wisely, Karen
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Farias, July 7, 2016
Richard Farias was born in Brownsville in 1948 and moved to La Porte in 1962 when he was about to begin his Freshman year in High School. At La Porte High School, he was the only Latino and received no mentoring and no guidance during. Soon after graduating from High School, Farias joined the Air Force, spending a year (1968-1969) in Vietnam. While he met people from all over the United States, the war was a scary time for him as he survived an attack on the Air Force base. Farias' time in Vietnam, however, encouraged him to work with underrepresented youths through various capacities. Upon his return from the war, Farias worked with the Texas Juvenile Justice System as a Juvenile Probation Officer for 16 years. In the late 1970s, he served as the Executive Director for the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA) where he oversaw the George I. Sanchez School, the AAMA House (a home for drug abusers), and an AIDS/HIV Prevention Program. In 1992, Farias founded the Tejano Center for Community Concerns, a holistic way to address all needs of Latino families in Houston. Through this organization, he founded the Raúl Yzaguirre School For …
Date:
July 7, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Farias, Richard
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Mike Wilson on July 12, 2018.
Mike Wilson was born in Dayton, Ohio, in the 1960s, where he witnessed white flight and urban decay. He grew up in all-Black spaces and was surrounded by a community of Black progressives. When he was in second grade, his parents divorced, subsequently moving him to Louisiana. Upon his arrival to the South, he faced a culture shock, as he believed African Americans were more “submissive” and “knew their place.” Two years later, his parents got back together and moved to Baytown. Wilson attended Robert E. Lee High School in the 1980s, where he still experienced the remnants of segregation. As a young adult, Wilson witnessed the lack of mentorship for African American men in Baytown, which drove him to get involved in efforts to create programing to prevent gang activity and juvenile delinquency amongst Blacks and Latinos. He became the executive director for a pilot project funded by the Texas General Attorney’s Office called Gang Activity Prevention (GAP). Most recently, Wilson founded and directs Upgrade 2 the Next Level, a self-funded program for the youth in Baytown that serves as an outlet for discipline and self-expression.
Date:
July 12, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra & Wilson, Mike
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Celestino Mendez, June 16, 2016
Mr. Mendez was born and raised in the San Marcos area, where he attended the "Mexican school". He reminisced on the pervasive discrimination against Mexican Americans during his youth. His studies at Texas State were interrupted by the draft during the Korean War years. Mr. Mendez was a member of a political alliance between Mexican Americans, liberal Anglos and African Americans in San Marcos; this coalition, later called Hays County Independent Party, helped elect some of the first minority public officials in the city. Mr. Mendez was the first Mexican American trustee in the San Marcos school board; during his tenure, he pushed for the integration of the local schools. In the mid 1970s, a cross was burned in his front lawn; the act was attributed to the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Mendez also reminisced on a major boycott of the San Marcos schools in 1972.
Date:
June 16, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio & Mendez, Celestino
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Fred Aguilar, July 12 2016
Fred Aguilar was born in 1950 in a small barrio located in the affluent Alamo Heights neighborhood of San Antonio. His father's determination along with his his mother's dedication to volunterism provided him the fortitude to not only survive the discrimintation he witnessed in his youth, but to also become an community activist in both Houston and Baytown. After the Jose Campos Torres case sparked Aguilar's participation in the Houston Chicana/o Movement, he would move to Baytown where he became involved in the West Baytown Civic Assocation, the United Concerned Citizens of Baytown, gang prevention, and the co-founding of the Promise Center. He talks about how the Jose Campos Torres case outraged the Houston Chicana/o community, how he tackled gang graffiti and worked with youth on mural projects through the West Baytown Civic Association, how African Americans and Mexican Americans in Baytown came together to address police brutality after the brutal death of Luis Alfonso Torres, and how the Promise Center is committed to serving the community through child, youth, and adult programming. Aguilar also speaks about the importance of gang prevention endeavors, particularly in the area of art and culture.
Date:
July 12, 2016
Creator:
Aguilar, Fred; Enriquez, Sandra & Rodriguez, Samantha
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jesse Shead, July 22, 2016
Jesse Shead was born in 1947 in East Austin, a segregated African American neighborhood with thriving businesses. He grew-up going to African American schools, such as Campbell Elementary and Kealing Junior High, and experienced a middle-class lifestyle in his ethnic enclave. Shead went to Anderson High School before its closure and and reopening as an integrate school in 1971. After attending Huston-Tillotson University in Austin for two years, he was employed for the Humble Oil and Refinery Company in Baytown as it was transitioning to Exxon. While in Baytown, Shead witnessed instances of discrimination where he was refused service at local businesses. He talks about how desegregation efforts in Austin lead to the drain of African American professionals in the schools and overall community of East Austin, the weak company union at Exxon, how he was one of the few African Americans to work in the Exxon's processing department, his inability to rent in certain areas of town due to his race, and racial discrimination at Lee High School during the time that his two sons were attending. Shead also describes his unsuccessful bid to serve on the board of regents for Lee College, organizing around the police brutality case …
Date:
July 22, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Shead, Jesse
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with David O'Neal on July 18, 2016.
David H. O'Neal was born in 1948 in Galveston. He comes from a family of three people who traveled to the South to make a living. O'Neal grew-up in a few African-American housing projects on the island. He attended Central High, the first African-American high school in Texas, and his was the last class to graduate before the creation of the integrated Ball High. O'Neal relocated to Houston in 1966 to enroll in the University of Houston, where he would participate in student activism and the creation of an African-American fraternity (the Omega Theta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity). He returned to the island after graduating from college. In Galveston, O'Neal started a career as a post office worker, served on the Board of Trustees for Galveston Independent School District, and participated in the preservation of African-American history on the island. O'Neal talks about experiences with discrimination, how significant Central High was to African-Americans, his decision to attend college over enlisting to serve in the Vietnam War, the role of African-American fraternities, his involvement in Afro-Americans for Black Liberation and the Black Student Union, cross-racial student endeavors, African American Studies at UH, and his commitment to racial uplift. He …
Date:
July 18, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & O'Neal, David
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Alonso Martinez on July 29, 2016
Alonso speaks about growing up in San Felipe and the segregated nature of Del Rio generally. He also speaks a great deal about migrant farm work and following the seasonal harvest. He speaks about his time in the West Texas cotton fields and speaking Spanish in Anglo schools out in West Texas. He talks a little bit about the 1969 Palm Sunday march--he wasn't a participant but he talks about the march. He also talks about the importance of education he received from Bambi Cardenas and Aurelio Montemayor who were both educators at San Felipe in the late 1960s. All in all, this is a great interview that has tons of useful information on Del Rio, San Felipe, and Alonso's life story.
Date:
July 29, 2016
Creator:
Arionus, Steve & Martinez, Alonso
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Gonzales, June 11, 2015
Interview with Richard Gonzales, a journalist from Arlington, Texas. In his interview, Gonzales discusses his early life, his education, student activism, founding the Association of Mexican American Students at UT Arlington, and his political activism and advocacy for Mexican-Americans.
Date:
June 11, 2015
Creator:
Gonzales, Richard; Enriquez, Sandra; Krochmal, Max & Robles, David
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Israel Reyna, July 10, 2015
Interview with Israel Reyna, a lawyer and community activist from Laredo, Texas. In his interview, Reyna discusses his family history, residential and school segregation, student activism, civil rights organization Mexican Americans for Democratic Action (MADA), La Raza Unida, the Chicano movement, and elections in South Texas.
Date:
July 10, 2015
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Robles, David & Reyna, Israel
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Nina Duran, June 29, 2016
Ms. Duran took over La Prensa in early 2016, after her father Tino Duran retired due to health issues. In its several iterations, La Prensa has provided a voice for Mexican Americans in San Antonio since the early 20th century. Ms. Duran explains the editorial policies of La Prensa, its relations with the community and other local institutions, and the future of the weekly.
Date:
June 29, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio; Arionus, Steve & Druan, Nina
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Peter Vallecillo on June 30, 2016.
Mr. Vallecillo was raised in the Rio Grande Valley by Mexican immigrant parents. In his youth, he quickly became aware of the discriminatory attitudes towards Mexican-Americans in communities like Harlingen. Mr. Vallecillo worked in the Valley as a school teacher and coach for several years after college. As years went on, he became more directly involved in activism, working with the Texas Rural Legal Aid and eventually joining the GI Forum and most recently, founding the Southwest Institute on Poverty and Civil Rights.
Date:
June 30, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio & Vallecillo, Peter
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Clyde James, June 27, 2016
Clyde “Chico” James grew up in segregated 1940s and 1970s Lubbock. He later graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent time in Mexico City and has lived between Lubbock and Mexico City for several decades. In Lubbock, James has been active in city politics and neighborhood associations. Specifically, James helped start an effort to save a Lubbock magnet school attended by Mexican Americans from destruction by a anti-Mexican school board.
Date:
June 27, 2016
Creator:
Wisely, Karen; Zapata, Joel & James, Clyde
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Arturo Eureste, June 8, 2016
Arturo Eureste was born in Waelder, TX in 1954. He comes from a family that has been politically active as his father was involved in groups like PASSO and LULAC while his brother was a member of more radical movements such as MAYO. He discusses how his family involvement encouraged him to become active in efforts like the UFW Boycott, and through MAYO and LRUP in Houston. Mr. Eureste also shares his work with the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AMMA) and his current involvement in the community.
Date:
June 8, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Eureste, Arturo
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Leonard Sweat, June 8, 2016
Leonard Sweat grew up in Nacogdoches and participated in the protests and activism while he was in school. He worked in Lufkin, because economic opportunity in Nacogdoches was limited. He returned to Nacogdoches later in life to work as a minister. Mr. Sweat discussed growing up in segregated Nacogdoches, the integration of the schools, the brutality of Chief Roebuck, protests in the late 1960s and 1970, representation of African-Americans in politics and voter apathy.
Date:
June 8, 2016
Creator:
Sweat, Leonard; Howard, Jasmin & May, Meredith
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Pablo Avila, July 9, 2016
Pablo Avila, former Zavala County Judge, is one of the elected public officials that came to power through the Raza Unida Party. Avila was born and raised in Crystal City in a middle class family. He described his family's interest in politics and his account of public life and the relationships between Anglos and Mexican Americans. His family --his mother especially-- were very invested in national and local politics. After going to college and becoming an attorney, Avila returned to Crystal City and became involved in the local government. Eventually, he ran unopposed for Zavala County Judge and stayed in the post until his retirement in the 1990s.
Date:
July 9, 2016
Creator:
Avila, Pablo; Sinta, Vinicio & Arionus, Steve
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Gilbert Herrera, July 1, 2016
Gilbert Herrera was born in Lubbock, Texas. His father, a police officer, died on duty. Herrera was raised by a single mother. Having few economic opportunities, as a child he would break into homes to find food. As a teenager, Herrera joined a gang and eventually was jailed or imprisoned three times. He left prison a final time days before his mother died of cancer. During the early 1970s, Herrera began to lead and grow the West Texas Brown Berets. He organized several marches against police brutality and other social causes, including marches alongside African Americans, in and outside of Lubbock. Herrera is now a Baptist minister and leads a political action group in Lubbock named La Fuerza.
Date:
July 1, 2016
Creator:
Zapata, Joel & Herrera, Gilbert
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Rachel Gonzalez Hanson, July 14, 2016
Rachel Gonzalez-Hanson grew up in a neighborhood straddling the Anglo and Mexican "sides" of Uvalde. Even though she was a very good student, she had to repeat the 7th grade after participating in the 1970 Walkout. While she was very young at the time, Gonzalez-Hanson recalled being highly involved with the local activists, notably Amaro Cardona (MAYO leader in Uvalde). After her early activism, Gonzalez-Hanson remained involved in local politics, helping in Cardona's and Gilberto Torres' campaigns for County Commissioner. Throughout the interview, Gonzalez-Hanson talked at length about race relations in Uvalde, the backlash from Anglos and conservative Mexican Americans, and her later career as a manager of a community health organization covering the Winter Garden area.
Date:
July 14, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio; Arionus, Steve & Hanson, Rachel Gonzales
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Omowale Luthuli-Allen, June 17, 2016
Omowale Lithuli-Allen was born in Amarillo in 1948, and grew up in Louisiana. He discusses growing up in the Jim Crow South and some of his early activism in high school. In 1966, he enrolled at the University of Houston, where he became involved in organizations such as COBER and Afro-Americans for Black Liberation (AABL). Following his activism at UH and Texas Southern University, he became involved in cross-racial coalitions, where he came together with Mexican American activists to address social, political, and economic inequalities in Houston. Mr. Lithuli-Allen also discusses the history of the role of SHAPE Center in the Third Ward, and his involvement with My Brother's Keeper, a youth outreach initiative by the Obama administration.
Date:
June 17, 2016
Creator:
Enriquez, Sandra; Rodriguez, Samantha & Luthuli-Allen, Omowale
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Mario Cruz, July 14, 2016
Mario spoke about growing up in La Pryor, Texas. He remembered his dad working in the Blewett mines near Uvalde; he talks a bit about the culture there because it was a company town. He talked about the discrimination his father felt in the mines and how his dad organized for union representation in the mine. His family moved to Uvalde in the 1950s. He talked about the segregated schooling in Uvalde--separate schools for ethnic Mexicans and African Americans. He talked about the reprimands he would receive for speaking Spanish in school. He also spoke about the importance of education to his family. Cruz left Uvalde for San Antonio to pursue a nursing degree/career but he retired in Uvalde later in life.
Date:
July 14, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio; Cruz, Mario & Arionus, Steve
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jorge Durón Guerra, June 8, 2016
Mr. Durón Guerra grew up in a middle class family in northern Mexico; he lived in several Mexican cities while getting his education. He migrated to the U.S. upon reaching adulthood and lived for a while in Philadelphia before joining the Armed Forces. He finished his military career in Texas, and eventually settled in Austin, where he established the "El Azteca" restaurant, which stands to this day. He has been involved in community affairs for a very long time, and was one of the early members of the Austin G.I. Forum chapter. In the interview, Mr. Durón Guerra talks about the experience of migration, the discriminatory treatment that Mexican Americans received in housing, employment, etc. as well as his activism in community affairs.
Date:
June 8, 2016
Creator:
Sinta, Vinicio; Arionus, Steve & Durón Guerra, Jorge
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Grover Martin, June 9, 2016
Grover Martin was born and raised in Prairie View and went to Prairie View A&M for his BA and MA. He moved to Amarillo to work in the local air force base and continued on in another federal government job until the early 1990s. He was part of the Amarillo NAACP and experienced all black education institutions.
Date:
June 9, 2016
Creator:
Wisely, Karen; Zapata, Joel & Martin, Grover
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Isabel Jimenez, July 22, 2016
Isabel Jimenez was born in 1953 in Slanton, Texas. Her family moved to Midland, Texas and she attended De Zavala Elementary (the “Mexican” school), Austin Junior High, and graduated from Midland High School in 1971. Jimenez attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas for one year, then Midland College, and the University of Texas—Permian Basin, which she eventually graduated from in 1987 with a degree in Spanish. Beginning in 1976, Jimenez worked for Southwest Bell. She joined LULAC in the 1970s due to police brutality against Mexican Americans, not wanting her own son to experience such brutality. Jimenez was part of LULAC single member districts at the county, city, school district, and community college levels. Jimenez also participated in the Southwest Voter Registration Project, taught as a bilingual education teacher, and is now a counselor at Midland College.
Date:
July 22, 2016
Creator:
Wisely, Karen; Zapata, Joel & Jimenez, Isabel
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Carol Uranga, July 21, 2016
Carol Uranga was born in 1949 in Marathon, Texas, but she was raised in Alpine, Texas. Growing up in Alpine and later in Pecos, she saw LULAC and the Brown Berets and Raza Unida Party protest and demand civil rights for Mexican Americans. Uranga graduated from central High School in Alpine in 1968. She moved to Pecos, Texas in 1974 when she married. In Pecos she became involved with women’s rights and LULAC, going to various civil rights conferences in other parts of the state. Indeed, Uranga helped organize what was perhaps the first women’s empowerment conference in West Texas, in Pecos in 1976 or 1977. Uranga moved to Odessa in the mid-1980s, where she helped re-start a LULAC chapter. She has since hosted radio shows centered on the Mexican American culture, she has helped start scholarship programs, local cultural events, including the nonprofit Hispanic Heritage of Odessa.
Date:
July 21, 2016
Creator:
Wisely, Karen; Zapata, Joel & Uranga, Carol
Object Type:
Video
System:
The Portal to Texas History