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Political and Civic Engagement

Stories with interview subjects from our Political and Civic Engagement collection. Browse all stories to see subjects across all Voces collections.

Displaying 51 - 82 of 82

Topic

Subject	Collection	Story	Interviewed by
Antonio Martinez	Political & Civic Engagement	Antonio "Tony" Martinez was born Dec. 31, 1945, in Harlingen, Texas, a town about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. One of six children, Martinez grew up when the railroad tracks were the dividing line between Anglo-American and Mexican-American... Read More	Sandra Renee Garcia
Vilma Martinez	Political & Civic Engagement	By Carlos Devora From working as a lawyer to serving as president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to being appointed ambassador to Argentina, Vilma Martinez has been a trailblazer. Her work has helped... Read More	Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
Emily Matilda Martinez Alvarado	Political & Civic Engagement	By Jasmine Powell Emily Martinez Alvarado never served her country in the military. She served it at home, as one of the thousands involved in the Chicano movement, by way of the Crusade for Justice, and as an important civil rights... Read More	Michelle Lojewski
Alberto Torres Millan	Political & Civic Engagement	By Allison Banks Having lived the tough life of a miner, Alberto Millan didn’t want his oldest son, Robert, to follow in his footsteps. So when Robert informed him he wanted to be a miner and a union leader, Millan told him no. In... Read More	Robert Rivas
Richard Armand Moya	Korean Conflict, Political & Civic Engagement	By Alsha Khan In the late 1960s, Richard Moya, an investigator with Legal Aid, was having lunch with two of his best friends - who also worked in anti-poverty programs - at Johnny Boy's Hamburgers. The topic: how tough it was to help... Read More	Aisha Khan
Ruben Munguia	Political & Civic Engagement	By Guillermo X. Garcia Ruben Mungia, a career printer, laughs as he recalls "how smart the U.S. Army was" to let him join the service in the middle of World War II, only to assign him to Randolph Field in San Antonio, his hometown, where... Read More	Martha Treviño
Harriet Murphy	Political & Civic Engagement	Read More	Autumn Caviness
Wilfred Navarro	World War II, Political & Civic Engagement	By Brittany Wilson After getting discharged from the Navy in 1948, Wilfred Navarro, Jr. returned to his hometown of Houston. He finished high school and decided he’d like to be a police officer. But first, he and other Latino veterans would... Read More	Mr. Paul Rodriguez Zepeda
Emilio Nicolas Sr.	Political & Civic Engagement	By the Voces Staff Growing up in a northern Mexican mining town, Emilio Nicolás sat by his father's side listening to short-wave radio reports from the United States describing the advance of Allied troops across Europe during World War II... Read More	Laura Barberena
Dora Flores Olivo	Political & Civic Engagement	Dora Flores Olivo became one of the few Latinas elected to the Texas Legislature in 1997 and remains a fierce advocate of Latino voting rights and education. Olivo was born March 6, 1943, in Sinton, Texas, 129 miles southeast of San... Read More	Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
Manuela Maymie Garcia Ontiveros	Political & Civic Engagement	By Carrie Nelson Manuela Ontiveros dedicated her life to her family and community and to preserving her treasured Mexican heritage and traditions. "You instill in your children and grandchildren pride [in their heritage],"... Read More	Raul Garcia
Carlota Ayala Ortega	Political & Civic Engagement, World War II	By Angela Walker Dr. Carlota Ayala-Ortega sits proudly by as husband Guadalupe Ortega recalls his memories from World War II. Guadalupe recalls the time the owner of a museum learned of his many medals earned in combat, and told... Read More	Gloria Monita
Henry Oyama	Political & Civic Engagement, World War II	By Lauren Harrity, California State University, Fullerton After growing up in a Spanish-speaking Japanese-American family in Tucson, Arizona, Henry "Hank" Oyama went on to be a tireless supporter of bilingual education for American... Read More	Taylor Peterson
Jaime Palacios	Political & Civic Engagement	By: Voces Staff Jaime Palacios was the first of three children, born in San Juan, Texas on November 15, 1960, to Berta (Saenz) and Hector ‘Tito’ Palacios. From an early age, Palacios looked to his parents for guidance on education. After... Read More	Julie Nacibe Gomez
Elvia O. Pérez	Political & Civic Engagement	By the Voces staff Elvia Pérez’s senior year in high school was turned upside down when she joined a student walkout to protest the firing of a popular Hispanic teacher. Pérez, then 17, had been a top student. She had... Read More	Reina Olivas
Albelardo I. Perez	Political & Civic Engagement	The 1975 expansion of the federal Voting Rights Act impacted millions of Mexican Americans in the Southwest. But the idea began with just one man who wanted to help his community and make his parents proud. Abelardo Perez was born on Feb.... Read More	Luis Fraga
Bob Perkins	Political & Civic Engagement	By José Andrés Araiza Bob Perkins spent 36 years as an elected judge in Travis County. Perkins attributes his strong ties to the Mexican-American community as one facet for his worldview; this group was his main base... Read More	Jose Araiza
Sergio Porras	Political & Civic Engagement	By Chris Touma Two years before Sergio Porras received his draft notice to serve in the Vietnam War, he was marching in the streets of Uvalde, Texas, with hundreds of other Mexican-American high school students. It wasn’t war or the... Read More	Brigit Benestante
James Ramirez	Political & Civic Engagement	By Britini Shaw James Ramirez remembers a time when Mexican- American communities held dances to pay for the poll tax in Austin. He would ask himself, "Why do people have to pay to vote when it's their constitutional right?" By the... Read More	Britini Shaw
Renato R. Ramirez	Political & Civic Engagement	By: Voces Staff Renato Ramirez is a political science professor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. He has done extensive research on LULAC v. Richards and the South Texas Border Initiative. Ramirez discusses an array of topics both... Read More	Travis Burt
Rolando L. Rios	Vietnam, Political & Civic Engagement	By Jess Brown It was the summer of 1952. Leo Rios, a cab driver, was shot dead by a passenger he had just picked up on the streets of San Antonio, Texas. His wife, Teresa Hernandez, was left with a broken heart to nurse and three daughters... Read More	Jessica Brown
Francisco Robledo	Political & Civic Engagement	Interview by Anderson Boyd Former Frio County Justice of the Peace Francisco Robledo hadn't questioned why the social order in Pearsall, Texas, was as it was. But a meeting at his children's school snapped him out of complacency. Two... Read More	Anderson Boyd
Olga Muñoz Rodriguez	Political & Civic Engagement	By the Voces Staff When the Uvalde High School walkout began in April 1970, Olga Muñoz Rodriquez was a young mother working for the telephone company. While her son was not yet in school, she knew from experience the discrimination that... Read More	Alfredo Santos
Amalia Rodriguez-Mendoza	Political & Civic Engagement	By Megan Breckenridge Amalia Rodriguez-Mendoza became the first minority district clerk of Travis County in 1991 and only the second minority woman to hold that position in the whole country. She went on to serve for 24 years, championing... Read More	Megan Breckenridge
Luis Saenz	Political & Civic Engagement	Luis Vargas Saenz Jr. is a Cameron County district attorney in Brownsville, Texas. However, the path to a seat at the front of the courtroom wasn’t easy. Saenz was born Aug. 8, 1951, in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to Luis Saenz and Filomena... Read More	José Centeno-Meléndez
Alma Hernandez Salinas	Political & Civic Engagement	By Estefanía de León Alma Salinas, a lifelong Democrat, switched to the nascent Raza Unida Party in the 1970s. A native of Pearsall, Texas, Salinas used to take Mexican Americans to the polls on election... Read More	Neyda Estefania de Leon
Velia Erlinda Sanchez-Ruiz	Political & Civic Engagement	By Rachel Hill Voter participation was always a priority for former gym teacher Velia Sanchez-Ruiz, who grew up under segregation in Texas. Sanchez-Ruiz, who was 71 at the time of her interview, recalled what life was like as she grew up... Read More	Rachel Hill
Alfredo R. Santos	Political & Civic Engagement	By Brigit Benestante Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Alfredo Santos was ashamed of his ethnicity. “I didn’t like being a Mexican,” he said. “I was embarrassed, I guess, to be a Mexican.” His transformation... Read More	Anna Casey
Yolanda T Trevino	Political & Civic Engagement	By Stacie Richard When Yolanda Treviño graduated from Pearsall High School in 1959, she was determined to make her life elsewhere. The racism of the small town was too confining. "I left Pearsall... Read More	Stacie Richard
Lupe Uresti	Political & Civic Engagement	By Shelby Custer In December of 1975, Guadalupe Arredondo Uresti, a 31-year-old homemaker, spoke at a kick-off rally for the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project in the old Civic Center of Rosenberg, southwest of Houston. ... Read More	Shelby Custer
Patricia Villareal	Political & Civic Engagement	June 5, 1975, was a red-letter day for Patricia Villareal, a San Antonio native and a staff member of the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the House Judiciary Committee. That was the day the bill extending the Voting Rights Act... Read More	Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
Frederick Ted Von Ende	Political & Civic Engagement	By: Voces Staff In 1987, Frederick von Ende was a professor at Pan American University in South Texas. He was tapped by a group of University Presidents in South Texas to write a report highlighting educational disparities between North... Read More	Hwa Jin (Jina) Chung