Guadalupe Martinez (nee Rios)

Guadalupe Martinez in Mexico (1960)

Somerset, Texas

April 6, 2015

Selena Cisneros

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2015

 

INTRODUCTION
TRANSCRIPTION
ANALYSIS
TIMELINE

 

INTRODUCTION

My grandmother Guadalupe Martinez Rios was born on December 12, 1945 in Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Her mothers' name was Isabel Rios. At four years old she moved to the US, to a little town called Mission, TX. At six years old she went to school to first grade and only went up to second grade at seven years old. They went back to Mexico when she was eight years old. She didn't want to go to school in Mexico, so her mother didn't take her back to school anymore. She didn't do nothing until she turned fourteen years old, she got a job at a doctors clinic cleaning the offices, she only worked for a year and never worked again. At sixteen years old she got married and at seventeen years old she had her first child. She had nine children, three males and six females. Seven of her children were born in Mexico and two were born in the US.

 

 

TRANSCRIPTION

How was your childhood life?
"I loved my childhood life, but I didn't grow up with my parents. My grandmother raised me until I turned four years old, then my mother took me to the US with her and my stepfather"

What were your dreams as a child?
"I didn't have dreams, I was a trouble maker when I was a child"

Guadalupe Martinez with her oldest daughter- Chely and a friend (1965)

What duties did you have as a child?
"When I was a teenager I had to take charge of our house and take care of my younger siblings because my mother worked"

What did you do for fun?
"When I was a teenager, at fourteen years old, I would go with my friends to little clubs to dance every eight days"

How did you meet your husband?
"He was there neighbor from where we used to live when I was young"

Guadalupe Martinez and her husband Guadalupe Rios in Mexico

When did you learn how to drive?
"When I was fifthteen years old, I would steal my sister's car in the mornings, that was when she was asleep, because she worked every night"

How was your life in Mexico?
"I loved being in Mexico, but now, I wouldn't want to go back"

Did you rent or owned a house?
"I lived with my mother for a couple of years, then went to live with my mother-in-law for a good while, then my husband bought a land and built us a house"

Guadalupe Martinez and her husband Guadalupe Rios in Mexico

Did you own a car or truck?
"I didn't have a car nor truck, till I was in my early thirties I had my first car"

What were your goals?
"I didn't make goals because I didn't have time to think about myself because I was full of kids"

Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?
"Just that I wish I could rewind time and have all my children together like old times"

Guadalupe Martinez and daughters- Chely, Miriam, Mary, and Diana- McAllen, Texas (circa 2009)

Guadalupe Martinez's daughter Suzy and husband Victor (2014)

Guadalupe Martinez's husband and son Luis

Guadalupe Martinez's youngest son Guadalupe and grandson Roel- Six Flags in San Antonio (2014)

Guadalupe Martinez's son Carlos with grandson- Carlos Jr. (circa 1990)

 

 

Guadalupe Martinez's family including Selena Cisneros and Yaritza Cisneros in San Antonio, Texas(2014)

ANALYSIS

The important points for me were how my grandmother came to the United States when she was a child and how she had to take charge of their house and that she had to take care of her younger siblings when she was just teenager. What I learned about my interviewee which is my grandmother was pretty much everything, from when she was born till she got married. Everything else I knew, from when she had her children. She never talked about her life, not even when someone would ask her. Yes, because I didn't realize that my grandmother had a rough life but she still enjoyed it. Because now a days teenagers don't have to go through what their grandparents and parents went through as a child. My interviewee would tell me her story with so much happiness but towards the end of the last questions she got sentimental that she started crying. It was so sad and made me feel guilty because I made her bring back her memories. These stories taught me a lot, they are so different from someone that are in there late thirties or forties. The way I verrified my grandmothers story was by asking my aunts and mother from what they knew about her, that they have seen with their own eyes. The oral history makes you learn and it is very interesting hearing someone tell you their history and actually be their next to them tell it to you with emotions. Doing this oral interview is an effecive way how you can learn about the past, because it's a person telling you their story and not just reading it off of a book or reasearch from the internet.

 

 

TIMELINE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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