Camera Man: You want me Recording.
-: Okay.
So I was asking you about, if you could tell us what
(foreign Dialogue)
like what it was and what prompted you to join the group?
-: Well, at that point,
I was doing social work
in (foreign dialogue)
and we were located ( foreign dialogue)
I saw him working with project Robin as a social worker
but I was participating in, in the community
with a group of, with Carmen Perez
and other Chicano youth leaders.
And that's when we went to the city permit office
to try to get a permit.
And they told us that they were gonna, they were going to
you know, raise, destroy all those tenements and stuff.
And we understood it was because they wanted to
create warehouses there, because
(foreign dialogue)
just getting started.
So this was, there was already a movement by
in different movements in the same window barrier
in terms of housing in terms of youth.
So when we, and one of these youth leaders
and I found this out, then we spread the word
and people started getting together
but the city then started tearing down
(foreign language)
and we were helping, but they had gotten, for instance
the Ambrosio begin housing project was established
and we were happy to move families to that through the
through the housing project, you know,
but the Campanya begin to form
in those times because we knew they wanted to tear
down the whole
(foreign dialogue)
And that's when, the different youth leaders
Maya and other leadership.
(foreign language name)
got together and formed from where, from my perspective
(Foreign Dialogue)
And, but I, about the time I helped move some
of the families into the housing projects
and was involved in some of the first steps
but then I actually left at that point in time.
-: Were you here when the Campanya
set up the second tenth city?
Yes.
I mean, I came from San Antonio to participate.
-: Can you tell us about the 10 city?
It was in April, so sure that it was windy
and bad and the families had to stay outside.
-: Yes. I think it actually, I can't verify this
but I remember it actually snowed some
and we were all saying that, well, how come it's so late in
but it was the, you know, the families were cooking there
and the things were tense with the police.
And so, but like I say, I had left
so I wasn't involved as much as I should be.
Why, why did they decide to have a tenth city
if you remember?
-: Well, you know, the whole question was that there was
there was no housing for the people
in these vacant, lots that, we'd rather live
in these 10 city then, and to live
(foreign language)
right.
We, we were not in agreement with, you know
at about that time.
They started building instead
of building more housing projects and more housing and
and say one door at that point in time
they built all the housing projects outside
and started moving people out of the, say one of them
we were not in agreement with that
but I think if
it hadn't been for the La Campanya
I am sure that they would have torn
down most of it and established the warehouses.
That's when later on, I understand
that the Campanya then was able to, to gain,
everything East of Stanton was going to be residential.
Why did, why did the community leaders and the community
did not want to move out of, of
(Foreign language name)
to places like Porto Navo, where they were
-: No, Because there was no
there was no services out there barely
even some of the buses went out there
and all their established at that point in time
most of us went to (Foreign Language Name) ever Saturday.
We just crossed the bridge , went there to buy groceries or,
to the doctor or something like that.
So all those established patterns, cultural patterns
you know, the churches also, I know
I remember this, this little lady, they was just
she was really crying and everything
because that's all she did was she would go from
from her tenement apartment
to Sunday NASCIO church.
You know, that was her life.
And yet they tore down her tenement, you know
we had to get help for her and one of the elderly projects.
But to me, that was a really bad decision.
There were supportive, but some
of the Hispanic organizations
as a way to solve the housing problem
but that's why that Campanya wanted more.
That's why got them
(foreign Dialogue)
site housing corporation
was developed to build housing in the (foreign dialogue).
Whenever there was a vacant lot
they wanted to preserve that they didn't
they didn't want any other housing to be torn down.
-: Oh, how many people were involved in la Campanya?
Was it a very, a community group or just activists?
From your perspective?
From my perspective, there was certainly community groups
but there was a very active group of
And there was a very active group
of young leaders who were doing a lot of the work
but they had the, they had the support of the community.
That's essentially wearing their problems that
El Paso has is that you don't have that activism.
At this point,
we haven't had that kind of leadership.
That was, that was showing like, La Campanya
even though I wasn't here
I was aware of some of the things they were doing.
It was a very, very dedicated group
and they had a lot of capacity.
And if it hadn't been for them
I'm sure that that the
(foreign language name) wouldn't exist.
And if you see, if you go to see this, even now
you see there's new housing, new people there.
And its not as
a lot of the people are not choosing to leave the
(foreign language name)
because back then you stayed in the
(foreign language name)
for a little while, as soon as you were able to transition
you would leave another part of town.
But now I think it's more,
I came back and at one point in time, when we kind of tear
down some of the housing, like around central Chicano.
-: And is this like later?
Yeah, this was later after the struggle
but I think they were, they were, they were very,
a lot of pressure put on like
Carmen (foreign language name)
they were accused.
There were all kinds of things, you know?
And she actually, wasn't nowhere guilty.
They accused her of being a communist and all this stuff
but she had no ties to anything like that
yet, they froze the, I forget it was, I think
is the IRS and other, you know, they
they harass Campanya like a lot
They even froze the account sometimes
to South side housing project, you know?
And there was a lot of harassment
because when one of the times that I came back and the
they had some construction workers that were tearing
down part of central Chicano, and I know that, well
let's go, let's go, let's go stop them.
I happened to be in town and some of the other people.
So we went over there and told me, you have to stop.
We wanna see your permits, you know
to do this work.
If you don't stop, we're going to call the police.
And so one of the guy said, well, we are the police.
So that's the kind of things that were going
on to try to stop those whole movement.
-: When was this?
This is sometime later this day, because, you know
after they got an agreement as to not, you know
to preserve East of Stanton street, as residential
Campanya started working on, on, on the other tenements.
And there was an established procedure
like what they call the SRS
or something like that, that they were not
they were not to establish warehouses and things.
And I don't think the city kept to that, but I
since I wasn't here, I can't attest to that.
-: I was asking about the, especially about the
the demolishing of the sense of Chicano
because I know that in 2011
I was driving down one day and it was just gone.
And so I don't know if it was before, like 2011 or much.
-: Yeah, it was way before 2011.
-: And did you know anything about
or did you keep in contact with the leaders, La Campanya?
So in regards to their,
the few episodes where they became squatters
on the properties to prevent their
the commercialization of the buildings.
I'm not as aware of that.
I know there was going on.
There was a lot of activities, you know
like people like Lozano and (foreign language name)
And of course, Carmen and others
there were a lot of activity going on with them.
I can attest to all the things that they're involved in.
-: When did, when did you leave to San Antonio?
One time friendly,
probably 75.
I know that the,
what is that Texas newspaper?
Their magazine,
-: Monthly
Cameraman: The Observer.
-: The Observer, it takes the observer
wrote an article and said, yeah, the animal green leaves
housing tenement struggle at the wrong time.
So somewhere, somewhere in the Texas observer, they
-: I need to find this.
they write this article about the struggle and El Paso
but the housing
around 75.
-: Oh, this is great.
Yeah. He left
So you go into work
in the San Antonio Rio Grande health project.
-: Correct.
-: Can you tell us more about that in the
you mentioned that, you know, you were trying to
build some health clinics along the different friends stuff
but he tell us like what communities that affected
and what your role was working in this project?
-: Well, I was, I was a director
of what was called the Rio Grande Federation health centers.
And it was a Federation of health centers all the way
from Colorado to down to Brownsville.
And they had the clinics
like the one in Albuquerque they won.
And when they say up river from Albuquerque.
-: Santa Fe, or no
-: but in Colorado anyways.
And then there was a clinic here.
It was a clinic in crystal city
and we were trying to get a clinic in Tula, Texas.
Cause there was, you know, part of that
at a real good friend there that's passed away.
He was one of the he's a County.
He was a County judge, (foreign language name)
and also the clinics in the Valley.
So it seemed to me, we were trying to, you know
develop a program to connect
up all these clinics to have better healthcare
and like trying to recruit Chicano doctors to the
to the different areas, trying to deal
with federal government, to increase the budget, you know
and lot of that, a lot of the time we, we
we looked at the whole question of trying to find doctors
and create programs where Chicano's could participate
in the whole.
So basically I feel
I feel somewhat successful
in doing that as being kind of
like also a lobby group in Washington to increase them.
You know, we were presenting all the health needs
in all this and all this border area
and all this river and the area, which was very, you know
it's never gotten the adequate funding that it should have
to do the different kinds of programs.
So basically that's what we worry about
is trying to bring publicity and attention to them
all these clinics along the river
-: Are the clinics still open today?
-: Most of them are all , on crystal city.
And there was, we did a lot
of some work there and with louis, they were still there.
I think we, you know, we pushed to have
we're trying to get ,it actually did get started
and clinic and work with some of the
some of the local organizations
like even in some of the smaller towns, like Eagle pass
and also on-the-go Texas.
What do you have these, these nonprofit organizations?
And we were also trying to provide some kind of
financial management assistance to them.
In other words, a lot of, not necessarily clinics
but non-profit organizations who were working on Saturday
with the clinics, they had let their nonprofit status
and financial reporting and stuff, lamps.
So there was a lot of problems.
That's why, a lot of Chicano organizations also disappeared.
The ones who've tried to get non-profit status.
Cause they eventually did.
You couldn't hold on.
-: So you come back to El Paso at some point.
When do you come back?
Do you remember?
-: I don't remember the exact date.
I came back to work with them.
-: And can you tell us about what (foreign language name) is
and what your role has been within the organization?
(Chair scratching sound)
-: You want to go somewhere else
or you can go right next, right back there, right?
Yeah, we're almost done anyways so.
So.
-: Okay.