can we got them they were stabilized and Mhm. I think they probably don't
remember how many beds I'm gonna guess. There might have been 800 beds was
a large place Kelly field was like situated here and we were up on the
hill from Kelly Field in San Antonio And I was on shipping list two or
three times. I used to have nightmares by then. I didn't want to go. I was
a coward. I didn't want to get hurt. I've seen too much coming back and
I'd have nightmares, wake up crying, I was fearful. It really was. But I
never did get
call then. And then I got married and after that I went into civilian a
nursing. Uh what did you marry? I'm married a fellow from san Antonio leo
Guerrero and
I don't remember I think we lived there for a year and then came back to
phoenix and eventually got divorced. And then you took that casada? Oh
yeah what's my name? Had you changed your name? I changed my name before I
graduated from before I got my degree of the issue. I'm going to graduate
as a cassava.
Mhm. Anyway um yeah while I was studying at issue I worked in mesa at the
hospital there Then in 54
I went to work at the V. A hospital
in phoenix. Mhm. And
in 58 Between 54 and 58 I went back to do more graduate work and got my
teaching certification
and what started teaching public school in
1958
Actually. Mhm. And what made you switch from nursing to teaching? There
are a number of things nursing was burning me up, burning me out. Um There
were an awful lot of things that I couldn't change and there were a lot of
things that I wouldn't do. I wouldn't follow certain orders. I would not
give certain drugs. I refused to give certain drugs. The last one that I
remember like it was yesterday at the V. A. Hospital. The administrator, a
man had had gallbladder surgery and it was com blessing. And so getting
ready to go home and the doctor writ wrote an order for a certain drugs
and I looked at it and I said I to myself I'm not going to give that. So I
took it to my supervisor and we had real harsh words between us and she
challenged my opinion and I said well if you're so sure that that's a good
drug and a good dose I suggest you call the doctor and verify it with him.
Absolutely not. I was insubordinate. You know all that stuff as I said
well I'm I'm not going to give it it's not me and I said I will do one
thing though I'll take it down to the pharmacy and see what they say. So I
took the chart down to the pharmacy and I didn't show him who who's the
patient was either. I said what do you think of that? He says well if you
give that you'll kill him
and it was that sounds very harsh but it happened so then when I take that
problem back to my supervisor and my supervisor
uh
um Uh huh. They were they were worse than defensive now these are people
that were I guess all the supervisors there at the time were probably 20
years older than I was a lot more experience. I don't know maybe they've
forgotten half of what they learned. I don't know why.
I was the only mexican nurse there at the time also. And I was up for a
promotion.
And so everything came together
and I said to my supervisor what I found out and I said if you want I'm
not touching that drug. I said and I told her everything I'd learned. I
said here's the chart. So she called the doctor and over the phone he
changed the order. But it was those kinds of things. Now I'm not saying
other nurses would have done different than I did. I don't know that. All
I know is that I had too many experiences similar to that and others were
just social problems. Like one time there was a african american woman
that delivered a baby and you know I was told you and mason I was the one
that was in charge of the delivery room and all that stuff. She delivered
a baby and I uh wheeled her out you know to put her in a room. Well there
weren't any vacant beds except one. And these were two bed rooms. And the
one and I put her in there where this one was, I don't know. Within 20
minutes her doctor comes storming to get me and just read me the riot act.
Because I had put back *** one in with his white patient.
And I said, well, I said I helped deliver her and she had blood just like
your patient, she hurt, just like your patient. You know, I went through
all that and when I would do that or say things like that to him, it would
aggravate them even more. And so he demanded that I take her out of there
. I said no. So you want her out of there, You take her out when you take
her out. I'm calling the office. I said I was just a staff nurse. I didn't
have any more authority than the delivery room to the bed. That's the
authority I had. But you see the people above you, the supervisors, we're
kind of indifferent and they were afraid and for some reason I wasn't
afraid. Well the upshot of all that stuff. Within two days, everything was
settled down and he had apologized to me and he had apologized to the
patients and all that, that's fine. And on the third day he brought me a
big box of chocolate candy. Now I think he learned something. But I didn't
want that box of candy Because he was probably close to 50 and he had
shown what he was to me and he had done all this damage to that mother.
She had known about it. Oh sure. The thing everything was happening right
in front of both both women and the two women got along fine in those days.
You know, they kept new mothers in hospitals sometimes five days. They
didn't go in and out the same day like they do now. Well it was those
kinds of things that piled up on me. And When my father died in 1954
this air I did some arranging to take care of him at home because that's
what he wanted. He wanted to die at home. And so I had to get some relief
time. The job at the V. A hospital. And so I I did, I got relief time. And
when I returned two weeks later after the funeral and all esta the super
supervisor, the chief nurse. They use a lot of military terms in here are
hierarchy called me in and just chewed me out. And her main thing was not
that I had taken time to bury my father but that I had not planned with
her.
I said, how do you plan a sickness and death? And I left and I walked out
that door and I decided I'm going to get out of here. And then I started
making my plan All right. I think there's a lot of, I hope there's a lot
of real good things that have happened since then To change things, but
those kinds of things burn you up and in teaching did the same kind of
thing to me, you know. Uh, even teacher in 1958, Uh, and the first I would
say 1st 10 years, it was just a dream. It really was even the day, even
the years that I would have 40 kids. Uh, there was a lot of opportunity
for me in the school where I work with principle that I worked with and,
and the staff. She had a mixed kind of, she had races, all the races. She
had japanese. No, this isn't finished. She had japanese teacher. She had
token people, Japanese and black and mexican and whites. What was your
school? It was called? Valley view school. Just like it sounds Valley view.
There's in Roosevelt district, It was mixed ethnic thing. Your kids were
mixed and the teachers were mixed pictures were mixed and she was, the
principle is very proud of her staff and we did a lot of, I thought was a
lot of good things And the, the children's attitude was so different. The
parents attitude was so different in those, those years. And I noticed a
huge change started about 68, is when these terrible, I think destructive
things begin to happen as far as the relations between kids and teachers
and parents
school boards. So before you felt that the parents supported the teachers
, it's not that they supported, we all agreed, You know, and the kids were
happy there for that period of time. I could not teach a class of 45 kids.
There's nothing I can do for class of 45 kids with books and pencils and
papers. I don't know if anybody thinks they can, but I don't think you can
, you cannot, you can't even have time for an individual child to do much
reading or demonstrating or. So when I did, I started almost immediately I
group kids in four or five kids together and they worked together. But as
far as um, subject matter, one of the things that I would do in all the
like science and social studies, things like that. I would, we would do
what, what I would call project work. So they spend a lot of time in the
library and their textbook, but they did it together as groups. They did,
you know, you can call it research because that's a very descriptive word
, but you know, it was at their level and they would produce certain
amount of paperwork. I mean descriptive things that they would write a lot
of talking and it was a noisy room and then the end of the project for
instance, if they were studying uh, certain kinds of activities in a
civilization, they would, they would put it on paper, machete and mud
paper and cardboard, whatever they would design this story in three
dimensions, on tables and they would leave it up for several weeks before
they would start another project. So did you have 45 kids? And you're sure
you had 45 Children? Sure, my first, my first class. And you had to teach
them. So you don't know much teaching as you think of teaching. You can,
you, you supervise more like facilitating their work here, keep their
minds occupied if you can. And a reading. I I didn't have any trouble
teaching reading that, let's see, I say it wrong. I didn't teach reading,
They learned it. What I would do is I'd buy a lot of paperbacks. I just
went out of the curriculum and what grade do you teach? And um, and so A
lot of paperbacks, I must have had to 300 paperbacks in there. And a lot
of the books were bought by the kids and a lot of them were bought by me,
but they were all paperbacks for that level of learning and I just read
them. Yeah. And then every friday for a long time for years, we would have
nothing but contests, contests and math contests and spelling contests in
vocabulary building. And it was funny because there were teams, they look
forward to it that make up, they make up their own, you know, competitions
, uh, on friday would be a calling all day friday. And by that time I was
teaching all 6th grade, reading All six for the whole school and it was
still that in all 6th grade may leave you. And so it was all conscious. We
have some of our problems and this was all done on the chalkboard. Okay.
Some of our problems, I know I must have had 30 digits Divide. This did
this number by five. Well, you know, that's fun. It doesn't matter if you
make a mistake and everybody's watching you and you have teams. It was a
survival really. That's what it was. You know, the team work, I had to
survive and the kids had to survive and going back to that group work.
It's interesting. I mean like that now they're really emphasizing getting
students to work together as in groups and get more actively involved in
their own learning. So you were doing something that they're trying to do
now. Well, I, you know, I used to take a lot of classes at issue during
that period. I don't remember the names of them now, but I remember one
time I really report on this and I don't even remember who the
professional was. He thought it was unique. I didn't think it was, I
thought it was natural. Um, and like I said, it was a question of getting
through and accomplishing something they should do standardized
Metropolitan testing that, that test every year and there were some kids
and I wish I had all these figures. But I don't, there were some kids that
would start at third grade level, your sixth grade kids, third grade level.
You know, they were really disinterested kids really bored to death. And
of course most of the boys and by the end of the year they're all at level
or above in your classes. Oh, that's great. That was in reading especially.
So that was important. Especially if you, if you can do, if you can
succeed in you, the child can succeed in reading. You can succeed in math
because math then becomes a game. If you, if you, if you can get to that
point that it's a game. Uh, see the logic of it. Uh, so did you feel good
about that work then? Yeah. You loved it. Like I really liked a teaching
and it was after,
I can't remember for 67 1 68. Uh, the whole atmosphere began to change and
it began with the parents and I called him nosy. They began to complain if
their kids read a book named anne frank. They began to complain if their
kid red a Shakespeare play
we produce place
When I went to champy, I produced three Shakespearean employees at sixth
grade level. Okay, this is not broadway,
but these were places that scripts that were written for Children. Okay.
When something that I got out of thin air, kids just love that and I
intend ti I had kids that I had inherited a class that the year before had
torn down all the school equipment from the playground. You know these
metal bars and basketball? They tore it down the last day of school
and they just weren't having any part of school. But anyway those ruffians
came into my class in september and through their legs on the table. Yeah
they're cute but you want to knock them down anyway Through the link here
I am, my name is also teach now what are you gonna do about I said I'm
gonna get that leg and I'm gonna throw it on the floor and you're gonna
sit over there.
The principal said that he had asked for me to take that class because he
thought I could control I had that reputation with the previous school
where I have been and I told him I don't want to take your class, you have
too many kids in this class that come from families where their parents
teach at issue. You have too many important people and I see nothing but
trouble. And it was the parents were the ones that cause trouble. We had
drunken parties on weekends and they would bring their drunk, the Children
would bring their drunkenness to school. These sixth graders and most of
those parents were a. S. U. Parents and so some of the Children were
turning green the next morning you know and then they come to me with a
problem that tell me whatever it was. And so
I said well do you think that to the kids? Do you think this is a
classroom problem? Oh yeah because so and so was there and all these kids
were there, we all spent the weekend together. I said okay then I'll go
see the principal about it. I think I agree with you. I think it's a
classroom problem and that's what mr enraged parents when the principal
would contact them and then um it's none of my business that teachers
business. She had no business. You know none of her business. Even if it
happened it's none of her business. And my defense always was if it's in
my classroom or disrupting or disturbing or affecting it's my business.
Right? But that's what I mean by parents became just defensive I guess
they're scared. I don't know why they do that. It's not lack of knowledge
, they know what things are like. So anyway everything seemed to By the
time I retired 1980 Um you talked from 58 to 1980. uh Huh. By the time I
retired I think I have six kids that were under court, administration were
bad behavior things out in the community and still working with six
graders and still working in the Roosevelt district by that time I was in
, when did you move to Guadalupe? Well 68 and then I spent
I can't remember if I spent one or two years there and then two years in
the temple school that I just described, it was called Myrrh School then I
don't know if it even exists yet, but that's what it was called in. And
then I begged to go back to I just did you find the parents more
supportive in Guadalupe? Yes, they're supportive in the sense they're more
submissive. Mm But it was a very political, finance, very political. The
town is very politicized. The temple school district is very political as
far as the community is concerned and I knew all about it. I went there
because I wanted to I applied for it. I volunteered I wanted a job there
in 58 when I first started teaching, but the superintendent told me we
don't need you. They had about 600 teachers in the district. We don't need
you because we already have one teacher to speak Spanish for the whole
district in Guadalupe, Guadalupe, we already have one. Can you imagine? So
they need. So then when the principal contacted me in phoenix and wanted
me to come out, she said we are going to have a vacancy. And I told her a
lot of things we got along very well that principle and I I've known her
and so I said well if you're going to be there and if you can assure me of
this, you know these three things or whatever, I'll give a try. So I moved
from phoenix to,
she died that summer, right. Actually signed my contract. She died. But
anyway, the politics got very bad from then until I retired in Guadalupe.
What was the situation there? We'll see. It's not partisan politics, is
educational politics, community politics. And there's a conflict in
philosophies and there is a conflict between the community and the school
district. The school district was very racist period. I even organized a
group, one year of teachers, uh, to challenge mexican american teachers
who had the meetings at my house. Uh, and we were going to, we did, we
submitted a plan to the superintendent and all the company he keeps as a
matter of what we want demands that we wanted to change the approach to
educating mexican american kids. Who is the school board controlled by
Tempe? Well, Kyrie nor Tempe to this day. Oh, it is to this day. So they
had really negative attitudes about the kids in Guadalupe. Oh sure. And
then we made a lot of money off them. They would, they would put kids in
retarded classes. They were retarded. But see they get so much money and
then they would use that money to distribute. They bought thousands of
dollars worth of instruments. Musical instruments with federal money and a
certain, see, I've been involved with people in different parts of the
valley. So I had the information about those instruments from outside the
Tempe district And I knew where the money pick that. They were federally
funded and they could not be found in Guadalupe. They were in the rich
district temporary district schools. So I said to my principal, I have a
music teacher. I know, I know Zilch about music. I have a music teacher.
He will volunteer to come over here every whatever it is days of the week
and the kids want to blow horns and we, and this school owns whatever was
100 instruments
and we'll buy all the reads. Well, we'll just set it all up. Are you gonna
do it? I said in the cafeteria, well I have a system of teaching music on.
And uh, the principal himself was a mexican american. He was also a
musician And he was also a political enemy # 1 to me and we knew it. We
knew that. And I said
otherwise, I said, we're going to have to have an investigation because
that was federal money that was sent to the school to buy those
instruments for these Children and they're not getting them the Children
over there in such and such school and getting the instruments that belong
here. He said, okay. And then uh, he said, gave me permission that were
permission to go and talk to the assistant principal and the assistant
superintendent. He said to me, he said, well, you know, he said those are
nice kids, but they still have wood smoke in their hair. They're not going
to learn a thing. We got a concert before the year was over
and those kids were so happy and so proud and and such poor musicians. But
you know, they were blowing horns and they reported for practice after
school. They learned to put these tools were they heard. And my friend
from phoenix music musicians would come and he would do the teaching on me.
I would just arrange the meeting and he agreed to volunteer. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah. Uh So there were a number of experiences like that where they
were tracking these kids in the dummies, dummy classes and then not giving
them the funds that they had coming to them from different sources and
they're still they're still doing it all over. Arizona still doing it. And
that principle didn't stand up for me. Not unless you pushed him to that.
When, when we went to, when the mexican american teachers went to war in
that district. I'm trying to remember the year. I think it was probably
about 1975.
And we've had enough. We went to war with the superintendent was sam fees.
He had a heart attack. He couldn't stand his hair, his face would get
purple every time you'd see some of us coming. He with anger, anger just
tear blank. And so I'm gonna turn this off. And so
when mhm When we had these meetings at my house and we'd ride up all these
plans and we had it all together, the district sent my principal to those
meetings. He wanted to help. I said the hell neither. You don't want to
help. Yeah. Uh huh. The day I walked out of his office and I retired, I
said sue me go ahead soon. It was very bad. But anyway, there were about
10 Mexican American principles. By that time my speech to them was you
have betrayed everything. You have the power. You got your job on the back
of this and I named the teachers that have been punished on the back of
this one and that one and the other one, that's why you have your job.
They did all the politics for you. I said I'm still standing up but I'm
not going to be here very long
and you don't even have the decency of the courage to face your the kid's
enemies. And because you're so many you could do something for something.
Mm Nothing. They don't do a thing. And so I'm not saying that it's right
or wrong. I'm all I'm saying is that there's a lot of people like that out
there. They've got mortgages to pay, they've got obligations. They've got
other duties. They've got who knows, they have all this stuff and they
aren't the kind of people that came out of the same environment. I guess
that some some people did. I'm not saying that I have it all right and all
together. And I do things perfectly. I make plenty of mistakes. But let me
tell you, there was a time when I was nursing, things were so bad between
me and one of the doctors That every phone call that we made or that he
made or I made to him was tape recorded by the hospital. And that was in
the 50s about 1952
because I would not follow his orders. And and the rest of the staff
doctor supported me against him because they, you know, they knew and the
the final blow came when I was delivering a baby. The husband was standing
outside the door. The doctor, I had called a doctor. He wouldn't come
across the hall. They were having a cesarean section. There were four
doctors there. And so I would walk from my delivery room to their
operating room and make my reports about every three minutes. This is
happening. And it was her first baby. This is happening, this is happening
, this is happening. So anyway, I mentioned to deliver the chat and the
baby. Uh and then then when the surgery was completed that surgeon came
and checked for terrorism problems. She had an easy time. I she didn't
have complications. She had an easy time. The husband wanted to pay me
$150. That's what it costs to deliver a baby. I said, oh no. I said that
it would be very unprofessional of me to I said you get that if you want
to give that away give it to charity. And uh he was just so grateful, you
know what are you doing man? It's emotional. Uh huh. Then I think the baby
had been there about 15 minutes and in walks, my friend, the doctor that
wouldn't come and he would click his heels like Hitler every time he'd see
me, he'd meet me on the quarter is here. Well anyway, by the time that
happened they decided to have a a meeting about him and I wasn't impressed
the tapes or and these other physicians that had witnessed this last event
, they said that's it.