Oral history interview with Virginia Múzquiz, 1996 [videorecording].

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Oral history interview with Virginia Múzquiz, 1996 [videorecording].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/434459574

Virginia Múzquiz begins with her personal and family background and that of her husband, Jesús Múzquiz. She tells about her limited basic education because she was a poor migrant farm worker, and reveals that during her long convalescence with tuberculosis beginning at age 17, she began studying English and other subjects. She discusses politics in Crystal City, Texas and her part in Juan Cornejo's election to city council (and selection as mayor) and Josés to Cornejo's affiliation with the Teamsters union and their role in organizing the United Farm Workers. She points to the work she and other Mexican American women did to register voters, pay poll taxes, and help with absentee voting, and refers to the 'Sentinela' newspaper [actually the 'Zavala County Sentinel'] in furthering their cause. She details her run for the Texas House of Representatives in 1964, notes the encouragement she received from the Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASSO) to run for city council in Crystal City in 1965, and emphasizes her husband, a business entrepreneur, bore the cost of her campaign. She talks about the women's march in Del Rio with Enriqueta Palacios and Elvirita de la Fuente and tells about the student walk out from Crystal City High School (under the Crystal City Independent School District) to protest the race discrimination in the schools in 1969. She expounds on her thorough efforts at studying election code and serving as a poll-watcher in order to eliminate oppressive practices and voter intimidation. She explains her bid for County Clerk in Zavala County as a means to further political opportunities for the Mexican American population. She describes the efforts of Mexican American women within the Raza Unida Party and the women's trip to Fidel Castro's Cuba. She notes the power of the Barrio Club, considers her greatest triumph as County Clerk, and notes other mexican American women who have pressed for city council election in Crystal City. She Josés to Ross Perot and the effects of a third political party in American politics and debates the difficulties of unifying the Hispanic people due to the pull of the Democratic Party. She comments on a number of Hispanic baseball players and such prominent Mexican American politicians as Henry Cisneros, Albert Bustamante, failed Texas gubanatorial candidate Ramsey Muñiz, and Chicano movement activist Severita Lara. She speaks highly of Chicano movement activist Martha Cotera and explores Kay Bailey Hutchison's attitudes toward Mexican Americans.

2 videocassettes (VHS) (3 hr., 12 min.) : col. ; 1/2 in.Transcript : 73 p. ; 28 cm.

spa,

eng,

University of Texas at Arlington, Central Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7523851

University of Texas at Arlington, Central Library

Related Entities

There are 24 Entities related to this resource.

University of Texas at Arlington. Center for Mexican American Studies

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63c6s61 (corporateBody)

United farm workers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zm68jg (corporateBody)

Collected by Fr. Victor Salandini. From the description of Clippings from first convention, 1973. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 462019377 The National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) was founded in 1962 by César E. Chávez and other Mexican-American community activists in Delano, California. In 1966, the NFWA merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to form the United Farm Workers of America, the first successful and largest effort ever to organize ag...

Hutchison, Kay Bailey, 1943-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tc1z92 (person)

Kay Bailey Hutchison (born Kathryn Ann Bailey; July 22, 1943) is an American attorney, television correspondent, politician, diplomat and the 22nd United States Permanent Representative to NATO from 2017 until 2021. A member of the Republican Party, she previously was a United States Senator from Texas from 1993 to 2013. Born in Galveston, Texas, Hutchison is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to entering politics, she was an attorney and legal correspondent at KPRC-TV in ...

International brotherhood of teamsters, chauffeurs, stablemen, and helpers of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66r2nhm (corporateBody)

Labor organization formed in 1903 as International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the result of a merger between members of the Team Drivers' International Union (TDIU) and the Teamsters' National Union of America (TNU). Known from 1909 to 1992 as International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers. Reverted to its pre-1909 name in October 1992. From the description of International Brotherhood of Teamsters records, 1989-1992. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 709...

Perot, Ross, 1930-2019

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hf8jxq (person)

Ross Perot was born June 27, 1930 in Texarkana, TX. He entered the United States Naval Academy in 1949 and left the Navy in 1957. After a successful position with IBM, Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, TX in 1962. EDS went public in 1968, and General Motors bought a controlling interest in EDS for $2.4 billion in 1984. The same year, Perot's Perot Foundation bought a very early copy of Magna Carta and lent it to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In 2007, the foundat...

Bustamante, Albert G. (Albert Garza), 1935-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6912sxb (person)

Albert Garza Bustamante (born April 8, 1935) is an American teacher, legislative aide, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 23rd district from 1985 to 1993. Bustamante was a one-time Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Born and raised in Asherton, Texas, he began school at the age of nine, unable to read or speak English. Hampered by this late start, Bustamante struggled academically...

Múzquiz, Virginia, 1925-2002

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68p80gh (person)

Virginia Múzquiz was born Virginia Aguirre in 1925 in the small South Texas community of Nordheim. Her mother was a migrant agricultural laborer who finally settled the family in La Pryor. Ms. Múzquiz sought work in nearby Crystal City where she met and married her husband, Jesus Múzquiz. In 1964, she was the first Mexican American woman candidate to run for the Texas House of Representative, and in 1965, she was the first Mexican American woman to run for the city council of Crystal City, Te...

Muniz, Ramsey.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n1057 (person)

Cotera, Martha.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j40stf (person)

Information specialist, writer, and political activist. Born Martha Piña in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, on 1/17/39, she moved to El Paso, Texas, as a child. Earned a B.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso and a M. Ed. from Juárez-Lincoln University in Austin, Texas. Has worked as a librarian and consultant in Crystal City, Mercedes, and Austin, Texas. Founded Information Systems Development, a consulting firm in Austin, Texas, and is publisher of the ...

Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASSO)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ps3g0w (corporateBody)

De la Fuente, Elvirita.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pg3r20 (person)

Castro, Fidel, 1926-2016

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hb9v88 (person)

Fidel Castro (b. August 13, 1926, Birán, Cuba–d. November 25, 2016, Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state, while industry and business were nationalized and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. The son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imper...

Democratic Party (Tex.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w606184c (corporateBody)

The Democratic Party in Texas has played an important role in the political history of Texas since its declaration of independence from Mexico in 1836. Settlers from the south and east brought an overwhelming allegiance to the Democratic Party, making it the only competitive political party in the state throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party’s dominance in local, state, and federal government over an ineffective Republican party, resulted in both a great influence o...

Raza Unida Party (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p88p3f (corporateBody)

Lara, Severita, 1952-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64x77v4 (person)

Born February 6, 1952, Ms. Lara was a leader of the 1969 student walkout of the Crystal City, Texas, schools. She was the first Mexican American woman to be elected County Judge in Texas in 1986, only to lose the position in an election contest. In 1992, Ms. Lara was elected to the City Council of Crystal City, and was later elected mayor by the council members. From the description of Oral history interview with Severita Lara, 1996 [videorecording]. (University of Texas at Arlington...

Crystal City Independent School District (Tex.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65n151t (corporateBody)

Múzquiz, Jesús.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68h0kfb (person)

Gutiérrez, José Angel,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62r404b (person)

José Angel Gutierrez was born Oct. 25, 1944, in Crystal City, Texas. An activist, educator, organizer, and lawyer, Gutierrez co-founded the La Raza Unida Party and played many leadership roles in the early Chicano civil rights movement. He served as President of the Crystal City Independent School District Board in the early 1970s and as a County Judge for Zavala County, Tex. (1975-1980). In the 1980s, Gutierrez pursued a teaching career and moved to Oregon where he taught at Colegio Cesar Chav...

Cornejo, Juan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rf7tn7 (person)

Cisneros, Henry, 1947-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk1kx9 (person)

Henry Gabriel Cisneros (born June 11, 1947) is an American politician and businessman. He served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 1981 to 1989, the second Latino mayor of a major American city and the city's first since 1842 (when Juan Seguín was forced out of office). A Democrat, Cisneros served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. As HUD Secretary, Cisneros was credited with initiating the revita...

Palacios, Enriqueta

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69c8wzr (person)

Múzquiz family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68b072j (family)

Aguirre family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6483c0h (family)

Barrio Club

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v7547p (corporateBody)