Institute for Texan Cultures

UT San Antonio has some really wonderful resources via their Institute for Texan Cultures collection. I've already found an interview with Emma Tenayuca ca. 1987-88.  Here is the interview for anyone who might be interested in watching it.

Emma Tenayuca in front of a jail cell, San Antonio, 1937.

The interview was a fascinating way to gain insight into Tenayuca as a person and hear her personal experiences, as well as get a glimpse of her no-nonsense personality. In the interview, Tenayuca emphasizes the profound poverty she witnessed during the Great Depression, telling the interviewer several times that she didn't feel he truly understood the kind of destitution she witnessed, then going back to reemphasize with another story.

She also described the work conditions, noting multiple failed strikes from the laundry workers, cement workers, and others.  Pay was terrible, and even work such as delicate embroidery saw no more than $1.25 per dozen articles of baby clothing. Pecan shelling, she noted was temporary seasonal work with dismal pay.  The strikes occurred when pay for one pound of shelled pecan halves was reduced from 7¢ to 6¢. When asked about her personal or philosophical reasons for leading the strikes, she emphatically answered "food!"

A bit of a comical side note, but I thought it worth mentioning that about 30 minutes in, the interviewer tried to lighten things up by throwing a pecan shell joke into his question. Emma Tenayuca was not remotely amused1.

Screencapture from the interview

Tenayuca's attitude, although serious, is very telling of the situation in which the grew up.  From an early age, she was exposed to politics, as her father used to take her to rallies2. She describes the position her race put her in as she grew up as an observer of racism, immigrant harassment, and the negligent "attitude of the establishment" that led her to activism3.  As she grew older, the became involved with labor organizers and activist leaders, later becoming involved herself with these groups4.  It was this involvement that led her to her famous Pecan Shellers Strike.

Near the end of her life, Tenayuca suffered from Alzheimer's disease.  Fortunately, her story is preserved through formats such as the interview above and books in which she had a personal hand.  One such book is Martha Cotera's book over the labor movement, on which she consulted Tenayuca5.

Sources:

1. Emma Tenayuca, interviewed by Louis R. Torres, José Angel Gutiérrez Papers at UTSA Digital Collections, 1988. http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15125coll9/id/3292.

2. Emma Tenayuca, "Living History: Emma Tenayuca Tells Her Story," Texas Observer, Oct. 28, 1983, 8.

3. Tenayuca, "History," 8-9.

4. Tenayuca, "History," 9.

5. David Uhler, "Labor activist called city's heroine - Tenayuca is praised at funeral for her passion and courage,"San Antonio Express, July 28, 1999, http://docs.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu.

Photo Credit:

1. "Emma Tenayuca Standing Inside Jail," Zinn Education Project, 1937, http://zinnedproject.org/materials/thats-not-fair-no-es-justo/.