Irma Tenorio (nee Martinez)

Irma Tenorio Lanier High School graduate (1975)

San Antonio, Texas

March 2013

Jennifer Tenorio

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2013

 

INTRODUCTION

The biography I have chosen to do is on my mother. Her name is Irma Tenorio previously Irma Martinez. Her birthdate is July 11, 1957. She happens to share the same birthday as my dad's mom. Her parents are Maria N. Martinez and Felix Martinez. She was raised solely by my grandmother who has since passed. Her father was not around as she was growing up. He has since passed as well. My mother comes from a very large family which always made for fun gatherings. She is the fourth oldest child out of 9. My grandmother had given birth to a 10th baby but he did not survive. She grew up on the West side of San Antonio and graduated from Lanier High School. She attended San Antonio College for a year but unfortunately never continued with her education. Her only early job was at Kelly Air Force Base. She married young with my father Francisco Tenorio Jr. She then had me on December 11, 1978 and my younger brother Francisco Tenorio III on April 6, 1983. She was a housewife for most of our school years and frequently volunteered at our schools and would attend many PTA meetings. She is now out in the workforce and is currently a full time employee at QVC, a large home shopping network call center. My mother grew up Catholic and has always been a very caring person. Even though she is not the oldest in her family she is always the one that everyone comes to when they are in disagreements. She was the power of attorney for my grandmother and also handled her accounts. She always made sure everything was in order in her large family. She was the spokesperson so to speak when it came to family matters.

 

TRANSCRIPTION

What was it like growing up when you were in school?
It was hard because my mom was a single parent with nine kids and no child support from my dad. I think I was 15 years old when my dad left. My young twin sisters were like 6 years old when our dad left.

Did your Dad ever come see you'll?
No. He never looked for us. We would see him out in the streets sometimes when we would go to the store.

How old were you when you got run over?
I was like 9 or 10 years old.

Irma Tenorio 8 years old

Where did you get run over?
In front of my house. My mom would send us to get sugar from across the street. I remember pushing my brother Jerry back and I got ran over. I went to doctor and I had tire marks on my stomach. I remember thinking I would never have kids. The man who hit me would come check on me at the house.

How did you and your siblings get to school?
Walking. We walked all the way from elementary to junior high. It was three miles to get to the middle school. At Rhodes middle school.

Would you walk every day?
Yes we would wake up early. We would walk in the rain and I remember I would get to school all wet because we didn't have raincoats. My shoes would be all wet.

When did you start taking the bus to school?
High school. It was like 5 miles to Lanier High School.

How much was it to take the bus back then?
I think it was about .20 and .10 if you had a transfer. Our mom would only give us $2.10 just enough for the bus and that's it. Sometimes when we wanted change for after school we would take food stamps from our mom and buy something small. We would keep the change from there and save it (I don't know if you want to put that in your report.)

When did you start working?
Senior year was when I had money. I worked at Kelly Air Force Base in the file room.

What would you do at Kelly?
File papers on people that were in the service at the base. I remember also doing credit card applications. They would call me to verify information on the people from the base.

Where would you go shopping?
Downtown. I would go to Kmart. I would buy my shoes from burts or bakers. Oh I remember going to Solo Serve also for my clothes. Downtown was my mall. Me and my sisters would go every Saturday on the bus.

Irma Tenorio 15 years old

How were the holidays for you and your family?
They were ok. We got a few gifts. Not as many as our other cousins because we were so many. But I remember my Tio Julio would take us every year to Garner State Park for Easter. We always went every year. We never missed a year. He would take us all in his truck and we would go. I remember he also would take us to the Mission Drive In. Back then it used to be per carload. He would always do a lot for our family. I remember that all of us that were the oldest when we started working would give our mom all our paycheck. We would help her out. I remember that for me I would give her money but I got to keep some of it compared to my older sisters. My older sisters would work downtown at the theaters and I remember they would let us in. I remember well this is later on but I remember that I went to Poteet, TX for one weekend when they were making the Selena movie. I went over there as an extra but I ended up being one of the people that would tell the crowd when to move and when to start screaming. In the movie it looks like there's a lot of people but there's not. We would tell the people ok now move this side then move to the other side so when they recorded it it would look like a big crowd. I didn't get to meet the movie stars but we were close enough to see. So somewhere there in the crowd I'm in there.

Do you remember what theater your older sisters would let you in?
It was the Majestic Theater there on Houston St. There were 3 downtown. One was there on St Marys St and then the other is where there's a store now in the corner. I can't think of the street name.

Where did you work after Kelly?
Courtesy loan downtown on Commerce. I would take payments and do office work. I would make phone calls to the people that were late on their payments. I remember after I graduated high school I still worked for Kelly and would go to San Antonio College.

Irma Tenorio 21 years old

What were you going to school for?
Business Technology. But after I met your dad I stopped going to school. And after we got married I had you.

At what age did you learn to drive?
I never learned how to drive until I was 28 or 29. I remember I could never drive your dad's truck because it was standard and I didn't know how to drive that. It was not until one day your dad couldn't find someone to drive that I finally learned to drive.

You never learned how to drive when you were younger?
No the only one who knew how to drive in our family was my sister Shirley. But my mom had bought a car but none of us knew how to drive. I remember our neighbor would take us to school sometimes in the morning but not in the afternoon. He would take my mom grocery shopping and to the stores. But then he died and Shirley had to learn. She was the only one that learned.

Where was this picture taken?
This is your first parade. We had gone with your grandma to the day parade. That's the day that a sniper shot and killed some people. Good thing for us we were not there where he shot.

Irma at parade where sniper had shot

After you stopped working for so long, when did you start working again and where?
I started working again at sears Teleservice there on cable ranch rd. I think you and your brother were in middle school and high school. I was working sears, h& r block, and QVC all at the same time. But I was part time in all of them. Finally I went full time at QVC. Now I've been there about 15 years.

Is there anything you would like to this interview?
I wouldn't have gotten married so young. I would have listened to my mom. And I would have finished school so I'm glad you went back to school. Don't stop for anyone and I'm very proud of you.

 

Jennifer Tenorio with Irma Tenorio

ANALYSIS

In doing this oral history project there were many things I learned about my mother that I had not known. Most importantly, I learned all the sacrifices she made to better the lives of my brother and me. The most important points made in this interview are those that focus on continuing education. It is something my mother was not able to do and it would make her very happy if I went further in my education than she did. I learned from my interviewee that she was present at the parade when the sniper shot into the crowd. I was actually there but I was a baby so she showed me a picture of that day. I would have never known had she not told me. That day it was my mom with me and my grandma. My view on this topic did not change due to the interview. I knew that I may or may not get a story with the topic but overall I enjoyed hearing my mom discuss her young days growing up. It gave me a sense of appreciation for what I have today. My mother expressed her feelings with complete honesty. I think when I asked her about college I could sense that she wishes she would've kept going. When it came to the topic about her family I sensed happiness. Coming from a large family I imagine the life they lived growing up was rough but during the good times you were glad you had siblings to enjoy them with. The stories on this topic taught me that despite how you grow up it is only you that can steer your future in the way you want it to go. Also, just because you think something may not happen doesn't make it true. I verified the story of the sniper on the internet and found a newspaper article that did mention that incident at the parade. The benefits of learning about the past through the oral history process are that you get a firsthand source and it is not changed in any way to sell a story. A drawback might be that it will not always make headlines yet it is a worthy history for many to know. Overall, it is in my opinion that this is an effective way about learning about the past. Reason being that you learn more this way than anything you will ever read whether it is online or in a textbook.

TIMELINE

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rhodes Middle School is a middle school that is part of the San Antonio Independent School District. This site lists information pertaining to school and its events. This is where my mother walked to her middle school.

Lanier High School is a high school in the San Antonio Independent School District. This site lists all information about schools and events. This is where my mom would ride to bus to get to her high school.

Garner State Park is a Texas State Park located in Concan, TX. This is the park my mom's uncle would take her and her siblings every summer.

San Antonio Mission Drive In is a website containing pictures of the old San Antonio Mission DriveIn. This is another place my mom's uncle would take her and her siblings.

Selena movie is a website listing the locations for the movie sets. This is where my mom spent one weekend helping film the Selena movie.

San Antonio Paradeiswebsite for article regarding the sniper shooting at the Battle of Flowers parade. This is when she had taken me to my first parade and a shooting occured.

Photographs and/or documents on this website were provided by Irma Tenorio . The first photo is my mom when she graduated in 1975. The second photo is of her around 9 or 10 years old. The third photo shows my mom with her mother and some of her siblings growing up. The fourth photo contains her family along with me in the carrier shortly after I was born. The fifth photo is me at 6 months with my mom and grandma at parade. The last photo is of my mother and grandmother with myself.

 

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