MARGARITA GARZA (nee Perez)

Margarita Garza in San Antonio (early 1960s)

SAN ANTONIO

MARCH 2013

Michael Salas

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - 127 Spring 2013

 

Biography

My mom was born August 5,1939 she will be 74 this year, raised by her mom Clara P. Martinez and he step- father A.B. Martinez, she never did get to meet her biological father. Mom didn't get to finish high school I think she got as far as high school. Margarita was married at the young age of 16 to Simon G. Salas 17 years and new US Marine, my brother Simon and I were born from this marriage which ended after four years. Mom was very smart she left that marriage quickly with my brother and I being so young my brother was 4 and I was 2 years younger. soon there was a new gentlemen in her life she met Santos Garza, this was the man that actually raised my brother and I not that I don't want to give Simon Salas any credit but he didn't raise us. I also have a younger brother named John Garza, as far as we're concerned we are brothers and we are very close because the Garza family always treated us like part of the family and not any different. Early in the marriage my mom said she worked at Luby's North Star Mall, sometime in the early 1960's and she worked there for a couple of years. She wanted a career and she went to school to learn how to type to do general office work, after graduating from typing school she got a job at St. Mary's University working in on of the departments as a clerk, she worked there for a few years before moving to a new job doing the same thing for the San Antonio Housing Authority where she worked for 20 years and retiring. My mom is a very religious person, always going to pray and attending mass. My mom has a number of hobbies shes likes crafts but mostly she likes to knit hats, socks, baby blankets and sweaters things that keep her busy.

 

TRANSCRIPTION

What was your home life with your siblings? What were your chores and responsibilities?
My childhood was very quiet, good and happy my sister and I would spend our days playing, going to school and looking forward to lunch that was when we were allowed to go home for lunch we lived very close to the school Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary School. My mom and dad were married in 1942 and I was 3 years old my sister Clara was born in 1942 and lived in a house some people would say it was a shack in back of my grand-fathers house looked more like a garage. That was 1944 the house had no gas, electricity or running water we did have a battery powered radio we listened to and our stove used kerosene and in our lamps. My dad would go and get the kerosene in a can but I don't remember where he went for it.

After my dad started to work at Kelly AFB in 1945 we moved to a big house we had electricity, water and indoor plumbing I remember it belonged to the church I know because there were always nuns hanging around all the time the house was on San Fernando and Calaveras. The story goes that he was taking auto mechanics at Lanier high school and the Army came in looking for airplane engine mechanics at the time I imagine that all the time many latinos were studying in the vocational field, welding, auto mechanics, machine shop Lanier had all those classes. Well dad did join and he spent 33 years as a civil service employee and retired in 1978. Dad was always working on cars from minor repairs all the way to major overhauls but no transmissions that was heavy work. After his retirement he started working on lawnmowers and he was always busy with that business. Asked about chores? I don't recall having any chores when I was younger, my mom did everything.

What woman was an influential role model for you? Why was she the person you admired?
My dad's older sister Odilia Martinez so nice to me his other sisters didn't like me because I wasn't their brothers child, my dad had five sisters and she Odilia was the only one that liked me she would buy me ice cream take me bike riding and roller skating she was nice to me.

Sisters Margarita and Clara (circa 1959)

What jobs were available for women when you were old enough to get a job?
Luby's cafeteria North Star My first job was working at and I worked there for a year in 1960 when it first opened. I use to take the bus from my house and go downtown and transfer to the San Pedro bus it stopped at Oblate where one of the bosses would pick all us up and take us to work. At the end of the shift the same thing the boss would drive us back to Oblate and we would catch the San Pedro bus downtown to get back home. My job at Luby's I would bus tables and refill coffee cups and I was paid very so little that I don't remember how much I got paid all I knew was that I got paid every two weeks and I would use my money to buy you boys things you needed, shoes, clothes, food and I gave my mom a few dollars to spend on herself.

What jobs were available for women when you were old enough to get a job?
Well most of the jobs were working cafeteria jobs, busing tables or washing dishes, there were some car-hop jobs some even worked at the hospitals as nurse aid and some worked in the cleaning department.

What women was an influential role model for you? Why was a person to be admired/
I remember my aunt Adele I could tell she really cared about me, I always thought she was smart because she worked for Civil Service and at the time I belived that having a job was very important.

How was your home life like with your siblings? what were your chores and responsibilities?
My childhood was very simple and quiet it was good and we were happy because we would spend the day playing, going to school, at lunch we lived so close to school that we would walk home for lunch and get a hot meal.

Margarita 1959

How were the boys treated in school? How were they treated in similar ways? Differentlt?
I did attend Lorenzo de Zavala Elememtary school.At that time there was alot of discrimination from the teachers in school, I think alot of it had to do because we were not allowed to speak in Spanish but at the time that was the only language that we knew knew.

Family at Christmas 1960

Margarita and Santos Garza 1972

Mike and his Jeep

1958

Margarita at her desk 1982

Family celebration

ANALYSIS

I'm glad I did this project because I found out a lot about my grandparents and parents about their lives as young children, even though it was not as deep as I wanted it to be it still gives me more to build on with my Mom when it comes to talking about the family. I do know that we are the th generation that has lived here in San Antonio , that should put us back into the late 1800's to early 1900's when our family came to this town. Who knows maybe we can go back a little farther but that is for another class maybe in the future. It also made me realize that I to have become part of my family's history, I'm 54 years old and I cannot believe I remember so much about my life. Many of the questions I had for my mom I really had to work on her she doesn't reveal much and I am like that also but always working on that issue.

I remember President John F. Kennedy's funeral his the coffin on back of the horse drawn wagon going down Pennsylvania Blvd., the black and white television we owned was fancy for the time but we used that TV to get a lot of information to our tiny world. I also remember when we landed a man on the moon in July 1969, again the TV big source information I remember my mom waking up my brother from our sleep to watch Astronaut Neil Armstrong walk on the surface of the moon. We had a round black and white TV set, didnt get a color TV until the 1970's with a big clicker type remote control. I think how amazing it is that we accomplished this task putting a man on the moon and in my lifetime.

Growing up in San Antonio as a kid was not very eventful so I thought but at the time this city was on the verge of an expansion, Hemisfair 1968 was right around the corner and it was getting ready to make a list of major cities that was going to help shape the state of Texas.

I did learn my grandparents did not have an easy life and my mom either when she was growing up, something she never talked about, yes she would say we were poor but we were happy. And I guess that statement says it all, it was a simple life no cell phones, no cable TV things we take for granted now were merely luxuries to many long ago. The most important points I learned from my mom was that she married very young and she provided us a safe home for me and my brother and showed us what is means to be a close family. Maybe that is why we go out of our way for our kids, not just me but my two brothers are the same with their kids. What I learned about my mom is that she was very determined to make a better living for herself and her kids, she went out and married a decent man that went to work every day, educated her and got a good job with benefits and was able to provide for all her boys. My view is that I have always admired my mom but now I have an enormous amount of respect for her too, when I left for the military she did not ask me why or get upset she knew that it was something I just needed to do for me. When my brother left for New York for college she was very happy for him and he had full support from her. What did it taught me was that this city and my family have a wonderful history and I never would of learned it if I had not taken this class, and more history to learn from both of these subjects. Civil rights issues that happened here and the way the city was shaped and how its people moved around the city. Benefits are hearing it live from another person, but at time the person didn't know the exact dates, times or places. The stories many a time with I think it was 19 so and so or it was my sister or cousin, of course at the time you don't think about writing things of importance. That's the best thing to do but like at the time we don't think about that. This is in my opinion this is possibly the most accurate way to learn about the past, both documents available on line and the spoken word from an eyewitness, and it makes you do a lot of the research yourself and especially do the writing yourself too.

 

TIMELINE

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

List a minimum of FIVE sources. There must be links to each of the sources within the transcription.
Here are three examples of annotated sources plus a source for photos/documents.

St. Mary's University is where Margarita Garza got her first job after graduating from typing school.

Lorenzo de Zavala Margarita attented school in the San Antonio Independant school district.

Hemisfair 1968HemisFair '68 was the official 1968 World's Fair held in San Antonio, Texas, from April 6 through October 6, 1968 celebrating the many nations which settled in the region.

Kelly AFBA. B. Martinez was employed as a civil service employee for 33 years and retired in 1978.

kerosenelanterns for lighting.

 

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