TRANSCRIPTION
What city where you born in?
"San Antonio, Texas"
What side of town did you grow up on?
"Southside of town. Southside of San Antonio"
What is your earliest member from childhood?
"Um, I can remember since I was four years old. My Dad just had a brand new house built and we moved to that one."
Did he build it?
"He had it built."
What made you sad during your childhood?
"Not getting my way"(laughs loudly)
Describe a typically day from your early teen years? What was the hang out spot you went too or what did you do in your later teen years?
"Umm, Teenager? The hangout spot was at the next door neighbors, at my cousin's house. Everyone would hang out there."
What would you do there?
"We would just hang around outside, talk about cars and see who had smokes, that was a big thing there who had a pack of smokes."
Do you still keep in touch with any of those friends you grow up with?
"No not really, maybe a cousin here or there, once in a while maybe once or twice a year. But everyone has grown apart living their own lives."
What did you and your family do for fun?
"Like On vacation we would go to the coast that was the main thing, or in the winter we would go hunting; deer hunting. That happened for about 12 years on and off on and off. That's before everyone started going their own way, started to do their own thing."
What did you dream of being as a young child?
"No not really, I started off working as a welder. That's what my dad's trade was so that's what I picked up first. Started working on cars from 12 years old on up. They made me work, it wasn't by choice(jokingly laughs)"
Was education important back then in your school years? Or was it more important to work to support your family as early as possible?
"It was more important, teachers would encourage you to stay in school and learn a trade. We were lucky enough that a lot of us had to work to help support the family. When we did work it was for pocket money for each of us."
Were people in San Antonio racist towards Mexican Americans back then? How was the racial controversy in your growing up years?
"In the 60's the Mexican families started moving in more, there weren't that many black families. We didn't notice racism growing up, it wasn't until we got older that we noticed it."
Being Hispanic did you lose out on opportunities that maybe some of the other races had?
"No, the schools were mostly, like 90% Hispanic so I didn't feel that"
What was your first job ever, and how much did you get paid?
I went to work at a fur company, as a welder or maintenance because I have welding experience, where they cured animal skin. Back then it was $1.60 an hour.
What are some of the biggest changes that you have witnessed to the employment market?
"There is more demands on employees today than back then. Employers want their money's worth now a days; you have to give 100 percent and want it every minute you're getting paid. In the past there wasn't that much pressure. Things and people were more laid back."
What are some of the main differences from how life in San Antonio is today compared to back then?
"There's more people, there is a lot more laws, like wearing seatbelts, in order to drive a car all you needed was a driver's license. Kids didn't need car seats either. The city has grown a lot. Since I was a teenager it has grown at least 75 % bigger. It takes almost an hour now to cross San Antonio. We went from being the third biggest city in Texas and now we are the second."
What do you think of the direction the city of San Antonio has taken and where do you think it will go? Better or Worse?
"I think it will get better, they keep enforcing laws and adding work, people will continue to keep moving here."
Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?
The King Ranch King Ranch and the original owners.(Click on pamphlet photo below for more infor)
When I was growing up there were no color t.v., we didn't have microwaves either. We had percolators to make coffee. Before we went grocery shopping we had to defrost the refrigerator because they weren't frost free like they are today. Cars back then didn't have electronic parts or computers.No cell phones. back then, it was antique rotary dials, cell phones didn't start coming out until the 90's. I got my first cell phone about 1992, they were really big. In the 60's, you would see many people walk to the bus stops in order to go downtown to work. Not everyone had many vehicles like today, if they did have it was just one car per family.
ANALYSIS
I started the analytical portion of this project by pondering what oral history meant to me. I couldn't verbalize what I was thinking eloquently enough to my satisfaction so instead I looked for intellectual answers on the internet. I found a quote by Voltaire that speaks well in my opinion on the importance of oral history.
"The first foundations of all history are the recitals of the fathers to the children, transmitted afterward from one generation to another; at their origin they are at the very most probable, when they do not shock common sense, and they lose one degree of probability in each generation."-Voltaire [1694-1778]. The Philosophical Dictionary. translated 1924 by H.I. Woolf
It is important to realize that the history written in textbooks can be altered for different reasons. The reasons can be as simple as miscommunication or malicious for the effect of covering up the truth of questionable events. Winston Churchill's famous words, "History is written by the victors" remains true.
I learned much of the history of Mr. Mata's life in conducting the interview. For example, how someone could leave school so early and still achieve a level of success. I gained a new found respect for all the hard work and challenges, he and others in his generation have endured. Mr. Mata was very candid during his interview, sounding very excited and cheerful to be able to share his memories with me. I particularly enjoyed the part of the King Ranch history; Mr. Mata explains his families past and how the land, now called the "King Ranch," was allegedly stolen from them (See Pamphlet). This truth may have been lost to history if not successfully passed down generation to generation by oral tradition. That simple fact shows how important it is to embrace oral history and make it more a part of our families' traditions for generations to come.
