Oralia R. Olivo (nee Ruiz)

San Antonio, Texas

March 26,2003

Monica L. Herrera

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2003

INTRODUCTION

Oralia R. Olivowas born on November 5, 1945 to Pedro and Lupe Ruiz. She is the mother of my best friend Jeannette Olivo. I've known her for about nine years now. She was born, raised and still resides here in San Antonio. She grew up on the westside of town as an only child. Before she was born her mother had had two boys who both died of crib death when they were infants. She attended Lanier High School, but dropped out as a freshman. As a teenager she worked at Cindy's Manufacturing where she sewed the saddles of the shoes. She also worked at what was then the Robert B. Green Hospital as a dietitian, and at Fort Sam Houston at the mess halls serving the soldiers their meals. After she got married the first time she never worked anywhere again. Oralia is now married to Manuel Olivo and has three children. Her oldest son is from her first marriage, he passed away two years ago from a heart attack, and she has her other two children which consist of a son and a daughter, are from her second and current husband. She also has two grandchildren who she loves spending her time with. Oralia and her family now reside on the Southwest side of San Antonio in Sky Harbor subdivision at 5911 Fisher's Bend, this is where the interview took place.

TRANSCRIPTION

What do you remember most about growing up? How was San Antonio when you were a child?
There were no malls at that time, we always went to downtown to Solo Serve, Sears, Franklin's, Guarantee, Kress, and the Alamo , the San Antonio River .

What kind of stores were those?
Guarantee was a store of shoes, Franklin's was a store of clothes, Kress was with everything food, clothing like a Wal-Mart. Sears had clothes, household items, mostly everything except no food. Grayson's was a store of clothing.

When you were a teenager what kinds of thing did you do?
I attended school at Crockett Elementary School. I attended Rhodes Junior High School then I attended Lanier High School .

What about movies, drive-in's?
Oh yeah, there was a lot of Drive-Ins, there was more Drive-Ins than movies like the Josephine, the Texas, the Majestic Theater, the Broadway Theater.

Did you have to work while you were growing up?
No, I never did. I worked because I wanted to.

When you were growing up did you have a T.V. or a radio?
Not like nowadays, not really we didn't have a T.V., we had radios but not a T.V. It wasn't like right now that everybody's got their own T.V. in the rooms. You know, it wasn't like that. We had the radios, I had a record player but it was just forty-fives. It would play forty-five records.

What about radio stations?
There was KTOR, there was KONO, there was several stations.

What kinds of sodas was there besides Coke?
Besides Coke, there wasn't Big Red. There was red but practically there was more like what they used to call them Hippo's, Coke, 7up. They were in glass bottles, not cans.

What type of music did you listen to?
Mexican music, soft music, Beetles music, Sunny and the Sunliners, Rudy and the Rinobops, the Royal Gestures.

Was it real segregated then?
Oh yeah, it was. In my time it was you know. There was a lot of it. Mostly you would see a lot of Anglos, and Mexicans. Really you would hardly see, I mean you would see colored people but they would stay on their East Side or wherever they would attend you know, their schooling. It was real segregated back then.

When you were in school were there black people in your school?
No!

Would they eat with you or shop in the same stores?
Not really you know.

Do you remember anything about the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

Yes I do. Yes I do. That day I was going to be married my first time. My mother and I, we were on Houston St. and we had heard about it on the radio that his wife and him they were downtown and we were shopping for my wedding things and I got to see the President and the First Lady real close up. They just waved at us. Yeah, I'll never forget that. From here they went to Dallas.

What do you think is the most different about San Antonio then and now?

The difference before and now is that before there was no, I mean there's always been gangs and wild people, but not as bad as today. The guys and girls, they were more polite before than now. If they would fight they wouldn't just pick on anybody, if they did fight they would have it out on there own, someplace you know not to hit anybody else. Now its horrible, you can't be walking out at night. Before you could. You could be out walking, strolling with your boyfriend or with a girlfriend or with your parents or whatever. You could go downtown walking at ten, eleven o'clock at night and I mean it was peaceful. Nowadays you can't do nothing like that. It's totally, totally different.

ANALYSIS

By doing this interview I learned a lot about how San Antonio was in the past, and what things were like for people who lived back then. I learned a lot about my friend's mom, I didn't know that she had two brothers that passed away or that she saw John F. Kennedy in person. I knew that things were very segregated back then but I just didn't realize that people were really that way here in San Antonio. The benefits of doing this interview was that you get the whole picture from a personal point of view and not just from statistics or other meaningless facts. I didn't see any drawbacks from learning history through this interview. I think that this is a very effective way of learning because not only do you get to learn things about the person that you probably would have never known, but you get a personal look at the history in their past.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

San Antonio River Oversight Committee. San Antonio River Improvements Project. http://www.sanantonioriver.org/(2000) This site is focused on improving the San Antonio River. It provides maps of the river as well as a little bit of the river's history. It also includes details about the improvements being made to the river, and has links to go to if you wish to be involved with the improvement of this historical river.

Daughters of the Republic of Texas. "The Alamo". http://www.thealamo.org/(2000) last updated February 5, 2003 This site has everything you need to know about the Alamo. It gives you links to visitor information, teacher information if you plan to take kids to a field trip there. It also has available the history of the Alamo, and what the Alamo was like during the Texas Revolution. You can also find other information like how to give donations to the Alamo.

Brown, Bob. Vetshome.com. http://www.vetshome.com (2000) This site is dedicated to Vietnam veterans. It includes everything from statistics about the deaths in this war, you can even find them broken down in racial groups. It also includes personal stories from some of the veterans who served in the Vietnam War.

San Antonio Independent School District. Sidney Lanier High School. http://www.saisd.net/school/008/ (2003) last updated May 29, 1999 This site gives the history of Sidney Lanier High School, where its name came from, and the significance of Sidney Lanier the person. You can also see the school as it is now, and find updated information about what is going on with the school.

Local Black.com and NAACP. Texas State NAACP. http://www.65.19.131.76/sanan.htm (2003) last updated October 6, 1999 This site includes the story of a local man who lived through segregation in San Antonio. He tells his story of how racism affected his life, and he thinks it is still very strong in today's society.

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