INTRODUCTION
Gloria Jean Ayala Flores was born on May 17th 1948 to her mother, Sophie Ayala and her father, Daniel Flores. She was born and raised here in San Antonio, TX with her older and only brother who was five years older, Daniel Flores. Gloria's mother was a housewife and her father worked in the civil services on Kelly Air
Force Base. Gloria attended Burbank High School until the tenth grade when she dropped out. She married David Vallejo at the age of seventeen at St.Stephens Catholic Church on Zarzamora St. Her first job was in her mid twenties were she worked at Montgomery Ward. She had five children and then divorced in 1978. Gloria later remarried to Anastacio Trejo in 1992 and then later divorced in 2004. Gloria now has 7 grandkids and hopes to see them all achieve their goals.
TRANSCRIPTION
How was life growing up in San Antonio?
Very… very quite. Very quite, very peaceful. Everything was very cheap.
Where did your parents work?
My dad worked in the civil service
here in the Kelly air force base and my mom was a housewife.
What was your relationship with your parents?
Mostly very quite. I didn’t have a real good communication with them cause they were very strict.
What was your family’s economic status?
Medium. We weren’t what you call well off rich but weren’t that that poor you know, medium.
What kind of things would you do for fun growing up?
Well I used to like to bike ride a lot. When I came home from school I had to do my chores. I had to sweep that was my everyday. Sweep and dust and then I could go out and ride a bike. I used to have one of those were the apples come in, like a crate. What do you call it? Where the apples come in? And I used to have roller skates once the roller skates were all worn out we used to put the wheels on that, like the little rascals, like a go cart. And I used to enjoy that a lot. Like a box cart.
As a teenager they were real strict if I went to the movies any place, my grandma or my brother who was five years older then me had to go with me. They didn’t let me out to go with my friends until I was around 13 or 14 years old. Like to parties or birthday parties I wasn’t allowed to go no place.
What school did you attend?
The one they tare down, Burbank.
How was your childhood?
It was ok. I played a lot with paper dolls and the bike like I told you, it was ok but kinda boring.
What was a typical day for you?
Typical day was coming from school doing the chores and when I was real real happy is when my mom brought our first TV but it was in black and white. I used to see I love Lucy. I still like it! But that was a typical day being inside the house mostly
What year was that when you got your first tv?
Well, I don’t know what year. I was born in 1948 and my mom brought the TV when I was nine or ten years old. Like late 1950s I guess.
Being Hispanic did you ever encounter any racism or discrimination?
Not me but at my house my grandma when we used to go buy groceries or used to go downtown she always used to hold my hand and she used to say a lot of comments that weren’t very nice for African American people. For example she used to be ‘no te agas paya’ like ‘don’t go over there hes a black’ when they would pass by.
But now a days I stop and think why did my grandma ever did that but my grandma was born in 1900 she died at 89 years old, but because I’m in love with Kobe Bryant, oh yes you know I’m the opposite I love African Americans, they’re hot!
Was anyone discriminate towards you for being Hispanic?
No. Just for being chubby and I still am, guys are mean.
Did you ever encounter any discrimination as a woman?
No na- ah.
How old were you when you were married?
I was seventeen and stupid!
What and where was your first paid job?
I was around maybe in my middle twenties and I started to work at , which their out of business already.
What is the biggest change you have noticed in san Antonio?
The biggest change, on food prices on everything is sky-high particularly in gas and there a lot more population a lot more express ways that’s about it.
What’s your most memorable moment?
Is downtown there still structures there like the Alamo the Brackenridge Park and it has the kitty land there or whatever. Well, it brings a lot of memories because that’s what I like about San Antonio and the missions because I used to go there when I was small with my mom and my brother.
Has there been much of a difference in women rights?
Oh yes! Yes, when I was growing up there was no women going into space and there was no women in the construction, women that worked there. There always used to be firemen but not fire women you know so yes, yes there been a change thank goodness!
What advice would you give to the young men and women today?
Don’t get married young! That’s the biggest mistake you can do. Go for your dream, finish high school, go to college that’s the biggest mistake I ever did. If I had to do it all over again I would get a real good education so I could get the things I always desired.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yes. Yes I would, that before I crock I wanna see all of my grandsons achieve their goal. And I want the prices to go down when I was growing up there used to be a gas war and they used to be competing and the highest was 59 cents a gallon that’s what I wish I know that it’ll never go down that low but a little more.
ANALYSIS
From conducting this interview I learned what it was like to grow up in San Antonio, not only from a different perspective but from someone who had lived here decades ago. Because I too have lived in San Antonio my whole life, I was able to compare some similarities and difference from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century. During the interview Gloria Flores brought up a very important point about racism. Although she mentioned she had never encountered any racism, she did mention her grandmother’s racial comments back when she was a young girl. Her grandmother was actually born in the 1900s, which explained to her why her grandmother felt that way towards African Americans. While conducting the interview I also noticed the way Gloria expressed herself during the interview. Throughout the interview Gloria’s tone of voice was fairly happy as well as her face expression and gestures. However, her face expression and tone changed when she talked about her first marriage when she was young, which she considered the biggest mistake she ever did. I was able to verify some of her stories by going online and doing some research on work places and other sites. Using popular search engines such as google were great starts. In conclusion I have learned that conducting interviews such as these, are great beneficial ways of learning not only about someone’s history, but about the history of a town, city etc. And Although I didn’t know much about my interviewee prior to the interview, in the end I gathered more information than expected in a short amount of time.
TIMELINE
- Gloria Flores was born on May 17th 1948 to Sophie Ayala and Daniel Flores in San Antonio, Texas
- Recieved first black and white television in late 1950's.
- Attended Burbank High School beginning in 1963.
- Dropped out of school in the 10th grade in 1965.
- Married David Vallejo on April 24th 1964 in St. Stephens Cataholic church.
- Frist child born on 1965.
- Had second child on June 6, 1971
- Began first work at Montgomery Ward, in 1973.
- Had third child in 1972
- Divorced David Vallejo in 1978.
- Remarried in 1992 to Anastacio Trejo.
- Divorced second husband in 2004.
- Interviewed by Daisy Diaz on March 16, 2009
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- The Handbook of Texas Online
is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture sponsored by the
Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at UT-Austin. It was produced
in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and the General Libraries at the University of
Texas at Austin. Copyright © The Texas State Historical Association.
- SanAntonio.gov The parks and recreation department provide a great history of this park including several pictures.
- Texas Escapes Online Magazine: Travel and History has an extensive collection of annotated photographs of twentieth century Texas. Included in the collection are historical images of courthouses, churches, schoolhouses, banks, jails, cemeteries, gas stations, and water towers. Website Content Copyright ©1998-2008. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
- Superpages.com is the local expert, and a top online resource for finding information and insights on businesses and retailers. Every month we help millions of consumers find valuable local business information from driving directions and hours of operation to Web links and customer reviews. Copyright © 2009 Idearc Media LLC. All rights reserved.
- About.com: Career Planning provides a brief description of a civil service occupation ©2009 all rights reserved. About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
- Funding Universe . This site provides a history of the very popular retail store, Montgomery Ward.
- Luther Burbank High School . This is a website that shows the history of Burbank; everything from its opening date in 1937 to recent times. This website also includes contact information from address to phone numbers as well as the school calendar, information on athletics department and much more.
- Photographs and/or documents on this website were provided by Gloria Flores and Herman Lopez. Although Gloria Flores lost many pictures of her younger days, She was still able to provide a few. Her first picture was take during her trip to Vegas by her friend Maria. The second picture provided was taken at the Hospital on the birthday of her grandson in 1998, taken by her older grandson. The following picture was at the hotel lobby during her Las Vegas trip taken by her best friend Maria in 1994, as well as the following picture. The last picture is of Gloria Flores and her friend, taken by her daughter on 2004.
Return to Oral History Projects
