The woman we interviewed was born and raised in San Antonio and moved to Uvalde in 1958 with her husband. She married in San Antonio in 1949, a year after her husband graduated from Texas A&M. She has eight children, 18 grand-children and seven great-grand children. Some of here children live in Uvalde while the rest don’t, one daughter lives in Egypt. She attended nursing school in San Antonio prior to coming to Uvalde and once here she worked as a school nurse after her own children graduated. She never joined the military but she knew many, many people who did including Jack Lent, a resident of Uvalde who survived a shot that went right through his helmet. One of the things that she enjoys is going to see her grandkids’ ball games, and volunteering at the El Progresso Memorial Library of Uvalde as well as going to church. The interviewee was interviewed on September the 16th at the El Progresso Memorial Library.

I. WWII

Johanna Morales: How did World War II affect you?

N.K.: Well, we had all kinds of things going on during the war like rationing, but it didn’t affect me so much because my father was a doctor and he got the gas we needed, so we had that. I remember about the sugar stamps, because we had such a large family we got a lot more sugar than a lot of people did. So Mother would give away sugar! I went into nursing, and there were cadet nurses, but I wasn’t a part of them, because the cadet nurses had to go into the service and I wasn’t planning on going to the military. My husband to be was at Texas A&M and his father didn’t want him to, but he got out of school and joined the Army and went over seas, and he would send me letters about the war. Now, when the war was over he went back to A&M and the government paid for his school, and so he did finish. He was a class of 1945 but he finished in 1948, and then I got married in 1949 in San Antonio Texas. Anyway most everyone I knew-the young fella I went to senior prom with was killed in the war, and that was tragic. Almost everyone I knew was in the service, and some of them didn’t retire unfortunately, but my husband did and I started dating him again.

J.M.: You previously said that you knew Jack Lent whose helmet is on display at the El Progresso Memorial Library?

N.K.: Yes, he lives here, he was shot. And well my husband, he was in a jeep and it had been shot and turned over and he had a concussion, he didn’t really remember anything, so he ended in the hospital. It was hard days, because all of us had people in the service. My brother went in the Navy when he was 17 and the reason he joined was because he was told that if you entered the service you could request your position and so he wanted to be a medic, since my father was a doctor. But, he ended up being a signal man; he waved the little flag out in the Pacific. So they don’t always do what they say, I’m sorry to say.

II. Racial Influence

J.M.: How has Uvalde’s population changed in the past 10 years?

N.K.: I can tell you that when I first moved here I was horrified because at the hotel, they didn’t allow blacks to come or even Mexican people to sit at the counter. I thought it was horrible because I came from San Antonito, they didn’t do that… but it changed. Now, we have had racial tension but, I think we are about 80 percent Hispanic, its way up, I’m in the minority. I mean they get after the minority, but I’m the minority. I’m sorry that we have a couple of rabble risers that just keep people stirred up all the time. And actually, I don’t pay any attention to color, race, background, whatever, I mean, we’re all people. It irritates me because just very few, keep people all torn up. As a result, the Hispanics, think that the school is against them, that the city is against them and that’s not so, I don’t think its so. I mean, we are all created by God to be equal and we are. I don’t care what color you are black, green, and yellow whatever. But our town is really growing you know why? Because of the border patrol, there’s such an increase in border patrol people to make our border safer because there have been many illegal people coming across the river. I believe in people coming to our country but I believe in coming legally, not by crossing the river. A lot of people have died crossing that river, and especially in the summer they’ve been found dead because of the heat and all. It’s so sad.

III. The drought of the 1950’s influence in the Agricultural economy.

J.M.: I’m aware that there was a drought in the 1950’s. How did this town survive?

N.K.: Yes, I know it, it was bad. A lot of people lost a lot of money, it affected the ranchers and the crops too.

J.M.: What are the major crops here in Uvalde?

N.K.: Well, now we have a lot of cotton and winter garden vegetables like cabbage, spinach, and cantaloupes, but right now its cotton season. Lately we haven’t gotten much rain, so I prayed that we would get more rain. But my little friend whose husband is a farmer, told me “but please don’t let it rain on our crops for two more weeks because we still have two more weeks to get our cotton out”. And if they lose a crop, it means many, many, dollars. So, they depend a lot on the weather here. Since most of our places here are irrigated, if it rains…well, you can’t control that.

J.M.: So, how did this drought affect you?

N.K.: Well, to tell you the truth honey, I was having all these babies! But my husband would say to me “it’s bad times”. Really I was very fortunate; I was never affected too much.

IV. Neighboring Towns and Uvalde

J.M.: Do you think that the neighboring towns contribute or compete with Uvalde’s economy?

N.K.: Actually, I think Uvalde is sort of a hub; we have the Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which is a very nice hospital that brings in people from the towns. And, like I said now we have a lot of border patrol people living in Uvalde, they like living in Uvalde because it’s a little bit bigger than some of the other towns.

V. Religion

J.M.: So, what religion according to you is dominant in Uvalde?

N.K.: Well, we have several Baptist, Methodist and Catholic churches, but I think the dominant one is the Catholic Church, because no one else has that many services, we have five each Sunday.

VI. Education

J.M.: How have the Jr. College and the Rio Grand College in Uvalde, contributed to the towns’ economy?

N.K.: Oh, it has definitely. Many people from around here come in and so, the college has been good for our town, real good. So, you can stay in Uvalde and get a degree, a college degree. You can get a teacher’s degree out here, work on your master’s out here, so it’s nice that you don’t have to go away.

J.M.: Would you say that more of the town’s people go to college here or leave to San Antonio, for example.

N.K.: well, a lot of people go away, because growing up in a little town, the kids can hardly wait to get out of town to the big city. My kids, most of them went to A&M, one of my daughters went to St. Mary’s and then one went to Texas which is a good school. What a lot of them do is go into two years of college here then go away, because the Rio Grande is more for people who want to be teachers and such.

J.M.: Do these people come back to Uvalde after they finish school?

N.K.: Most of the people that go away don’t come back because unless you have a family business, you don’t move up in the corporate world in Uvalde. So, some people that have family business will come back but other people won’t. It is amazing to me that people who have been away for so many years have come back here to retire.

J.M.: So, do most of Uvalde’s teachers come from out of town or are they from Uvalde?

N.K.: A lot of them come from out of town, but many come from here. My daughter, who is a teacher, just moved here from San Antonio and she had been gone since 1969 but she’s happy to be back in Uvalde.

VII. Industry

J.M.: What industrial aspects do you think encourage people to come to Uvalde?

N.K.: There are a lot of people who have always been here, but, we don’t have any industry that draws people except we have “Sierra Industry” which is out by the air port. We are trying to bring in more industry, but we don’t have any.

J.M.: What about the railroad?

N.K.: Well, the train goes through here only it doesn’t stop here anymore but my first trip here, I came on a train because my aunt lived here at the time, this is when the train did stop here.

Conclusion: