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Garza / Death of His Father

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0:30 You know, my junior year, my family, my father and two younger sisters had gone up early and my sister and I stayed behind to [?] 0:30 And, when we were finished school and to go join them [?] my father had passed away and died in Montana with my two brother and sister over there with him. 0:30 Fortunately, we had um..an uncle that was there with them. so, uh, he arranged for my father's body to be shipped back to Floresdale and he drove 0:30 back with my brother and sister and um, that was the end of my plans to go up to work in the summer there, so we were forced it in in as orphans [?] as the oldest 0:30 was cared for by my brother and two sisters and, of course, in a small town back then, that you know, everybody knows you and we were 0:30 Very fortunate to have all of my immediate families cannot help me because they had [?] Interviewer: "About how old were you?" Mr. Garza- 0:30 At the time, I was seventeen when my father passed away. Interviewer-"You were the oldest?" Mr. Garza-I was the oldest, yes. And, so they helped us go into 0:30 welfare [?] we had a neighbor next to a grocery store. And, he was very kind, he would let us have some food and credit until we got 0:30 Our check from welfare, we kind of survived, but I stayed in school, I went ahead and finished twelth grade, of course, I made good grades, exelled in math, 0:30 Which is what was offered there and they didn't had any courses in chemistry or physics or anthing like that, but math I did real well. And, I played 0:30 Football and ran track. So, I was involved in all of those things and doing well. So, I was well thought of by my peers and my teachers and whatever 0:30 They held me as much as possible. A newspaper company there and [?] he gave me a job to work in the summer [?] I think back 0:30 I said its a good democrat [?] helped me get a job and then the church helped me raise my [?] after I finished high school, the church helped me get 0:30 scholarships for my sisters to go up to Laredo go to, work, got to school in a methodist school institute thats where my second oldest 0:30 sister finished high school and the youngest one came back and finished high school in Floresville....

Interview Interview with Trini Garza
Subjects Migration › Seasonal Migration
Work › Agricultural Work
Religion › Churches
Education › Secondary Education
Law and Public Policy › Public Assistance › Welfare
Family › Parents
Family › Siblings
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Interview date 2015-06-11
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Garza, Trini
Interviewers Bynum, Katherine
Locations Dallas, TX
Laredo, TX
Duration 00:03:31
Citation "Death of His Father," from Trini Garza oral history interview with Katherine Bynum,  June 11, 2015, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/1425/death-of-his-father, accessed September 23, 2025