CRBB logo

Garza / Quantitative Questions and Closing Remarks

sign up or sign in to add/edit transcript

Interviewer-"Tell me the first time you ever saw a white person?" Mr. Garza-A what? Interviewer-"An anglo." Mr. Garza-When I was growing up, my teachers, lol! Interviewer-"Your teachers were white?" Mr. Garza-Were white, yea, [?] they were anglos [?] Interviewer-"What about a black person?" Mr. Garza-Black person? Interviewer-"Mm" Mr. Garza-Well, in Floresville there weren't many blacks in the neighborhood that were involved in community. I think the black that I got to know best was when I was in service and, of couse, when I got in the school board Dr. [?] Conrad, they helped me get elected. Intervierwer-"And, then who do you feel is the most effective leader in your community?" Mr. Garza-Um, I don't think its any individual as much as I think of a network of Hispanic leaders if we all work together. When I was involved back in the 80s and all of course were in Hispanic involvement and what Hispanic, we have Hispanic democrats and Hispanic republicans and when [?] was running against [?] back in those days, the Hispanic republicans, and this is very interesting because it has to do with the State Fair. [?] republicans [?] and we both had an agreement whichever candidate won will bring all of those together and it present that mayor elected person which is needed in the Hispanic community so [?] what the hispanic communty were and we had a long discussion about that and during the very end, my wife raises up her hand and says Mr [?] she says, "I like to know how [?] can do at the State Fair, by that time she [?] Well, she got on the [?] list year after year after year, so she explained all that to [?] and so he listens to her and he says, "Call me on Monday, we'll make an appointment to talk about that [?] she gets an appointment two weeks later and when we met with him another person got ahead of us and expressed about some other issues about the state fair, and then after they listened to him, then he asked the state fair, [?] the director of the state fair at that time and he said, "What about the [?] do you see any chance for them to come to the state fair, he looked at me and said, "I don't see why not, lol! Well, say you went out that dialogue and what started being considered state fair and we were selected to have our first stand there. My wife was [?] she said, "I waited all this year and they put me on the back." She wanted to be upfront, lol! So, lets give it a chance and so, we went in and we introduced [?] and they already told us, don't expect to make it under the first year [?] So, at the end which, he put the grill and the onion and all that there was a lot of people at the state fair. at the end of the year, I think it took about [?] at the end of the first year, not only would they clear our expenses, we made profit and everybody was impressed with that. So, that was pretty much how we were able to [?] break into the system as hispanics. Not as democratics or republicans [?] cause we started doing the same thing that the African American have been known for a long long time [?] would be strong advocates than we have, so that answers your question directly? Interviewer-"No, thats perfect" Mr. Garza-Yea....

Interview Interview with Trini Garza
Subjects Education › Teachers and Administrators
Electoral Politics › Democratic Party
Electoral Politics › Republican Party
Military
Quantitative Questions › First Interracial Contact
Quantitative Questions › Most Effective Leader
Tags State Fair of Texas
sign up or sign in to add/edit tags
Interview date 2015-06-11
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Garza, Trini
Interviewers Bynum, Katherine
Locations Dallas, TX
Duration 00:05:30
Citation "Quantitative Questions and Closing Remarks," 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/1436/quantitative-questions-and-closing-remarks, accessed September 24, 2025