-: And there's some reference on her letterhead about
I'm not asking to be served a black person
I just want a burger or something like that.
And I remember that being on her letterhead
then we had to mark it off.
But she, they gave us
they gave us ridiculous stuff that we were able to recycle
So,
I was with the union until
70, well, 72
because then I got married in September of 72.
Interviewer: Okay.
-: And my husband and I moved
to Oregon because he was teaching
at Oregon state
and in Oregon everybody was a farm worker supporter, so
I was there like couple months.
Interviewer: Yeah, So the organizing
was just much easier?
-: The organizing the raising money was just a lot easier.
I just did that kind of half-heartedly, right
because I was just there a couple months.
And then from there we moved to East LA
because he taught at USC and
I didn't do much after that
like regular organizing,
but I would, I went
to all the events and we would go
to Coachella and do all the marches
and do all of that.
So I only met Sinta once.
Interviewer: Really?
-: Yeah.
Interviewer: What, tell me about that.
-: I remember that we walked
in this room and people were meeting him
and he was sitting down
and he had the littlest hands.
He was just like, he wasn't over.
I had gone to debate teamsters.
They were big.
They were loud.
Interviewer: Yeah.
-: They showed power, right
and aggressiveness.
And when I was with a union, I had
been at political events with Triver
and people like that who were using
the farm workers for their candidacy, right.
Interviewer: Right.
-: And I remember them
seeming big, I'm short.
So I remember walking in this room
and everybody knows we're there to meet Sinta
and
I remember walking up and he was sitting
down and I remember sitting,
I don't know I guess he was just meeting people
and chatting with him.
But I remember that he had the softest little hands
that's I don't know why I remember that.
And that he gave this aura of
just quiet.
It was really strange.
I didn't chat with him very long.
I'm sure that there was a huge line of people
this was in Coachella and things were,
it was about work
It was always about work.
Interviewer: I see.
-: And that's all I remember about her.
I had a sister that I lost
to breast cancer
and my sister actually worked
in Coachella
Interviewer: Really?
-: with the farm workers
like organizing the farm workers, not the boycott
which is the auxiliary,
but the actual organizing.
So she worked in California.
She followed me
in 70 something when she graduated
from high school
and she lived with us in LA.
And then when we came back to Texas,
she stayed behind
and she became a farm worker organizer.
So she organized farm workers and
for the farm workers struggle and
she knew C a lot better
of course, than I did.
And her worst experience was in Orange County
Interviewer: Of course
-: of course she was like
please God never send me back to Orange County,
right so,
Interviewer: Like handing out leaflets at Safeway
Orange County,
-: you know
and hoping somebody drops their diamond.
I don't know.
But
I came to Texas
my husband accepted position at the university here in 77.
So we came back to Corpus Christi
and I let the farm worker people in Austin know
that I was in Corpus Christi and they said,
well call some old farm worker supporters,
see who you can find.
I found six, I think
So Anne bright, who has since died.
She was one of them.
And she was a farm worker supporter, anti-war activist
Because of course those of us that worked
with a farm worker's union were also anti-war.
So, you know, part of what I did
in Austin is go to a lot of marches.
Anti-war marches and anti Nixon and marches and
Interviewer: Right.
-: Everything like that but
my main focus was the farm workers, always.
Interviewer: I see.
So when you got to Corpus Christi,
you found that there were very few?
-: So I phone my other people and basically what we
did is just, you know, encourage people to
continue the boycott and to support the farm workers.
Interviewer: Right.
-: I had two children by the time I came here
I had a three year old and a one year old and
in 77 we got here.
And so when I came here and you know, Anne bright
and I were not gonna be friends, she was an older person.
She had her friends, my husband was new at the university
and I had young children.
And so
I thought Corpus Christi
was
provincial
and not exciting
and stuck in the fifties.
This is what I thought,
based on my experience.
Interviewer: I know exactly what you mean
-: I had been to events where the farm workers
were set up and LULAC was set up
in Austin in like the late sixties,
69, 70, 71.
And I remember going
to one event where the LULAC table was actually
well you all are a bunch of communist.
I'm like
we're AFL CIO.
But so when I came to Corpus, I thought,
oh my God
I'm stuck with those people.
I had no clue what was happening in Corpus.
And I was very unhappy for a long time
for about a year.
And my husband was like, you've gotta find something.
Interviewer: Yeah.
-: Because clearly you'd need to be happier.
And one day I saw Dr. Cleo Garcia,
Dr. Hector's sister.
Interviewer: Yeah.
-: On the Domingo show
which the old Domingo show where it was actually Domingo.
And he, she was wearing a medallion
and Domingo goes, "oh Cleo, que es esto?" .
And he actually grabbed it off her chest
and she's appalled.
And she on the Domingo show to talk about
this new house
that is going to be open
for women who have been calling
the suicide hotline and saying,
"I'm gonna kill myself,
I can't take this anymore
because I'm in a really bad marriage
And this is happening to me and I need
I need to just be gone."
So, Dr Cleo,
Dr. Medina who is a female PhD,
her husband was professor of education
out at the university,
Catherine Chambers
who was one of the teachers that
of pilots on ground
out at the Naval air station
and two other women,
a realtor
and another woman
decided that from the hotline experience
that they were having
a house needed to be opened
for women who were experiencing domestic violence.
So Dr. Cleo's talking about this
and I'm thinking, oh
I think I found my thing to do.
So I called the next morning
and I said, I'm new in town.
And I had worked at East LA college briefly
like for nine months
as a
like a referral person for Vietnam Vets
And ex-cons coming back to East LA College.
Interviewer: Wow.
-: Did not like the ex-felons, loved the Vietnam Vets.
They were all young.
Interviewer: Yeah.
-: 18, 19, 20 coming back.
And so I called at the shelter
and I said, I'm new.
This is what my work history is.
I'd like to volunteer
because I have a three year old
and one year old.
And so my first job at the shelter
as a volunteer was to get the children that were
at the shelter,
take them to their schools in the morning
come back in the afternoon, pick up the children
and take them to the shelter
with my children in the car.
This was before car seats.
It was very crazy.
So there was no literature on domestic violence.
Interviewer: No,
-: No, nothing, nothing.
We were the second shelter in the state.
And so I learned from the children, what was going on
in their families, how they felt about it, what, you know
just because children in the backseat will chatter.
And they were
talking to each other and I was listening.
So at some point, Freddy Forwo was the CPS worker
was on the board and one of the volunteers at the shelter
she calls me and she says,
Hey I've been reading all the volunteers resumes.
And I see that your background is like
basically counseling.
Are you willing to come in and work for us?
Like a couple hours
maybe a day just to do referrals
and do a little counseling
just encouraging people to get out there
and do what they did.
And that's how I started what I now do.
Interviewer: Really. So it had started out as a,
a temporary,
-: a volunteer
Interviewer: volunteer position
-: Position from driving kids around
to, they had somebody else
on the board who was actually a therapist.
And she said, I'll supervise you
for a while until I see what you're doing.
And then let you go on your own.
So she supervised me for a few months and then
I became the first counselor at the women's shelter.
Interviewer: I see.
And at what point did that transition into this,
your current role?
-: So I was at the women's shelter
as the counselor from
77 to 84
at which point I had another baby and I told the shelter
I'm I'm going to retire or I'm gonna quit.
Because I've raised my other two children
until you know they went to Montessori
and I want to do the same with my new baby.
Well, my baby was born in July
and clearly I wasn't meant to be at home anymore.
I was not really having that much fun anymore.
Maybe because I wasn't living in East LA
and all my neighbors
weren't hanging out with me raising the children.
I live
Interviewer: Right.
-: in a neighborhood where people weren't
connecting that much.
So I told the shelter I'm quitting
and they said, are you sure?
And I said, I'm sure before I left
there was a board meeting.
And at the board meeting, they said, well
what if you had a plan?
What would your plan be for the shelter?
And I said, I would love
for us to have a transitional house.
So the next year
Mrs Dykes, Sue Dyke was the director
of the shelter by then
she and the board actually raised money
and built a transitional house
next to the original women's shelter.
And now it's no longer there when they rebuilt
they just rebuilt a big old place.
but the transitional house idea was
you're at the women's shelter, the emergency shelter.
And then you get a job and you have your kids
in daycare of school
and you move to the transitional house.
And my, my thought was,
as you're making income
the first month you pay maybe 10%
the second, third, fourth, fifth month, you paid 15%.
And at some point you're going to be
gently go be independent, right?
So they, the transitional house did that
before I left, I called agencies
like the A and M extension center to come talk
about nutrition, budgeting health.
I actually had mechanics come teach people
how to change a tire or change oil
because really when something would go wrong with the car
who do you call? Your husband
Interviewer: your husband, yeah
-: Yeah. So when I left, that kind of was all settled.
Well, I left and Maggie was born in July.
I got a call from Sue Dyke who was by the way
a Republican, 60 something year old lady
from a well-to-do family in Corpus Christi
who had been a dorm or sorority house mother.
And that's what, how she got the job of a director.
She was amazing at organizing.
And she was amazing
at letting me do the work with the women.
Interviewer: Right.
-: I just admired her a lot for that.
She did want me to give up my Dr.Schul shoes
and my jeans.
I said, no.
(laughing)
So I did that.
And when I quit, six months after Maggie was born
I get a call from Sue Dyke.
And she says to me, you know what?
It's become apparent
that we have counselors for the children.
And we have counselors
Now I had hired a counselor to replace me for the women
but we're having a difficult time
because police officers are not looking at this as a crime.
And the courts are not really responding.
I have a grant,
that grant is a year's salary
for someone to start a program at the courthouse.
Are you interested?
I was like, yeah,
I think I'm interested.
Let's give it a shot.
It's only a year.
What can happen in a year?
Right?
Interviewer: Yeah. (laughing)
-: So this was 85.
I started January one.
I paid myself for a year.
Basically she
the foundation gave the money to the commissioners
they paid me, but I didn't work for the county.
Like I didn't have retirement or anything.
It was just gonna be a one year plan.
Interviewer: I see.
-: Carlos Veldez was the county attorney then
And he was the prosecutor for the misdemeanor cases
which most domestic violence cases were there.
And for some reason he didn't feel
that I fit that
he didn't want me there.
So then what do we do?
We have a year's worth of money.
So I went Mrs Dyke
and I went to Grant Jones,
who was the district attorney
who handled the felony prosecution.
Interviewer: Right.
-: They were divided then.
And Grant Jones said, sure, why not let give her a shot?
And he gave me a little office over there
by the grand jury.
And he said, so there's a desk and there's a phone go to it.
And that was, that was how it started.
So how I got my original clients was every morning
I would come to work and I would call the shelter and say
does anybody have a court hearing?
Anybody need to fill out documents for a divorce?
You know, whatever.
And Grant said, yeah, you can do that
while you figure out what you're doing.
Eventually prosecutors started to think, okay
so it might be okay to work
with this victim lady
is what they called me.
because prosecutors
and victim assistance did not exist
in 84, 85.
Interviewer: Right? Yeah.
-: So over a year there was one woman who really used me
for all her cases.
Her name is Alene Evans, feminist from Minnesota.
Why does that not make sense?
It makes sense, right?
Interviewer: Uh huh
-: So she's originally the first person
in the DA's office to use me.
And eventually the other prosecutors started to see
that maybe there was a place for me,
Interviewer: Right.
-: A year into the job
there were rumblings about maybe there's gonna be something
like a protective order.
Some of the police officers were really responding
to let's arrest this guy rather
than let him walk around the block.
And so the more cases started coming in
a year later I thought my job was over
and the state legislature
ruled it
Or there was a law that was brand new that said
all DA's offices within this,
within Texas with this amount
of population need to have a victim assistance coordinator.
So I kind of just
Interviewer: walked right in
-: walked right in other DA's offices
took their victim assistance coordinator
from the clerical pool.
So for a very long time
everybody that did victim assistance had been
the hot check person or the
key keeper, whatever.
But they learned really fast.
Interviewer: Yeah,
-: because what happened is the TDC AA
which is the Texas district
and county attorney's association.
They started trainings for us and
shelters of course started training,
victim assistance, coordinators
county attorney's offices started doing training.
Everybody started training.
I had already had four years
of victim assistance basically at the shelter.
So, I
just stayed.
I had that tiny little office from there.
I handled homicide families going through the process.