-
https://history.lplks.org/files/original/43bd5177d90f5d3d518fb28cefdc2240.pdf
d30907553b068631a2445be18bed7cc7
PDF Text
Text
Tape 15: Interview with Tiburcio Reyes, Sr.
Interviewer: Helen Krische
Date of Interview: 2006
Length of Interview: 37:13
Location of Interview: St. John the Evangelist Church, Lawrence, KS
Transcription Completion Date: September 13, 2020
Transcriptionist: Emily Raymond
Proofreader: Silvia Peralez
Helen Krische (Interviewer): There we go. Alright, I think we’re rolling. Alrighty. Um…these
are just some, some pictures that I’ve gotten from other people and –
Tiburcio Reyes, Sr. (Interviewee): Uh-huh.
HK: What I do is I make a copy of them and then I ask them to identify people that are in the
pictures so that we get a handle on who’s who –
TRS: Uh-huh.
HK: But, um, when you bring your pictures in that’s probably what I’ll do too is just –
TRS: Okay.
HK: I’ll make a copy like this, I’ll scan them into the computer.
TRS: Uh-huh.
HK: But I’ll also make a copy so that you can write the names of whoever the people are on
there, so…and you’re welcome to bring those in either later today, or tomorrow I’ll be here all
day long, too. So you can just bring them in whenever you’re ready. Um…so I guess that
basically what this is about is that we’re just trying to get information from people about, you
know, the first, the first, uh, Mexican-Americans that came here to Lawrence. And I know a lot
of them came in on the railroad, and –
TRS: Right.
HK: Was that – was that the situation with your parents?
TRS: Yes, my dad come to the railroad Union Pacific, work on the Union Pacific in Sackerville.
They – he was born in Ranger, Texas and they…they come up to the railroad. And he went to
school in Sackerville, which is on the other side of Emporia. And then they moved up here, Mom
and Dad. Um…and they married and I was born in Wellington, Kansas in 1942. So they came
here in 1943, say a year after I was born. They come to Lawrence and that’s where we reside
ever since.
HK: So he was born in Texas, your father.
1
�TRS: Right. Yes.
HK: And what was his name?
TRS: Tiburcio. Joe. Tiburcio L. Reyes, excuse me.
HK: And your mother?
TRS: [hard to decipher name – Felicia maybe?] Garcia was her maiden name, and she’ll, uh,
you’ll have information on my marriage, she’s a Garcia. They had – my grandfather – they had
eleven children, which my [unintelligible] mama was six girls and five boys, I believe, on my
mom’s side. And Dad, he was an only child that we knew of. He was adopted, also. So he was
adopted from his father’s…his name was…Espinoza was his last name.
HK: So that was his adoptive father?
TRS: No, yeah, no, the one that adopted. The adoptive father is [Lino?] Reyes.
HK: Ok, so his real father was…
TRS: Right, yeah. Manuel Espinoza. Adopted I guess when he was a year old.
HK: Okay. Do you know from what area of Mexico they were originally from?
TRS: No, I don’t, not on my father’s side. Now, my mother’s side, my aunt will have all of that.
They was, my grandmother and grandpa was from San Juan de Los Lagos, from what I
understand. So that’s where I know they’re from. But as far as Dad’s concerned, no I never got
into that – that – knowing where his dad come from. I knew that he was born in Texas, and they
raised him in Sackerville. And he went to school in Sackerville.
HK: So he spoke English.
TRS: Oh yes.
HK: Did he speak any Spanish growing up?
TRS: Yes, Dad spoke fluent Spanish, so did Mom. And I speak Spanish and my oldest sister and
I speak Spanish. I got a younger brother and younger sister that don’t…comprehend it hardly at
all.
HK: Do any of your children speak Spanish?
TRS: They’re starting, they’re trying to learn now, which is something of a lost art. We talked
about that. We lost our language back in, back when I was come over and was going to school
here because they didn’t use it…we had a Spanish class, but not that much, so most of it was
2
�English. So we kind of lost contact with our language. Which now it’s a good start bringing it
back and learning it, so I got a grandson’s taking Spanish in school, my daughter’s trying to learn
little by little, you know, trying to converse more in Spanish too. Yeah, we lost all that when I
was – like I said, from my younger sister and younger brother, they, I was fortunate, we lived
with my grandmother and grandfather for a year or two, me and my sister, so we was young
enough that we had to speak both languages, cause that’s what they – mostly they communicated
with us in Spanish, and that helped a lot. And I used to run errands for some older ladies here in
town when I was – on the east side. I’d go to the grocery store for them, and so I had to learn – I
learned how to speak – and if I didn’t know I called grandmother and my mom up and we’d get
it lined out for me there. I was very fortunate that way.
HK: Where does your family live here in Lawrence?
TRS: Where do we live?
HK: Mm-hmm.
TRS: We lived – we lived on, uh, that I remember was on New Jersey Street [unintelligible]. But
mostly on the east side. New Jersey Street and we lived on Pennsylvania, 745 Pennsylvania, I
remember that, that’s when I was going to junior high school, I think. Grade school we lived on
814 New Jersey, I believe, it was right in that area there. And then we moved to Rhode Island
Street just, uh, before we come to North Lawrence in the ‘50s. And then we went to North
Lawrence and then been there ever since in the 1950s Mom and Dad opened the El Matador
Café.
HK: Oh, okay.
TRS: Which has been there now, we’re going on 50 years. It’s gone on for 49, almost 50 years
now. They opened it in the ‘50s when I was in school.
HK: Okay. That’s my favorite one, yeah. [laughs]
TRS: See, Grandfather and Uncle Leon originally opened the Tropicana. And then it changed
hands. He went out, my uncle got out, and my mom operated it for my grandfather for about a
year or so, in the middle ‘50s. And that didn’t work out, so we went and bought the building
where the Matador is at now, and Mom ran the kitchen at the 1040 Cafe. Our mayor then who
was John Emick [A Google search brought up Emick’s name in the Lawrence city records], liked
Mom’s cooking, and…he got her into there and we ran the kitchen there for a year or so. And
that’s when we bought – they purchased the building.
HK: Where was that located at?
TRS: The 1040 Cafe was right across from where McDonald’s is now. It used to be a, was it the
college motel? There was a motel in there also. Right on the corner there of, uh, Michigan and
6th Street.
3
�HK: Oh, okay.
TRS: Where the old Dillons store used to be. Before the Dillons store went in there, there was a
car lot on the corner, 1040 Café and then the Jayhawk gas station on the north side of the road
before Dillons was. They operated that when I was in high school…
HK: That – that was just American food?
TRS: No, she done both. We done both. She – Mom was a very good cook, she was a fry cook,
dinner, she would bring up dinner and everything. So we had everything. On football game days
I remember we had a turkey, she cooked roast pork, roast beef, we had steaks, you know the
shrimp, I remember fried shrimp, fried oysters, T-bones, KC [Kansas City] strip. They had a
beautiful broiler there, ‘cause I been cooking since I was 12 years old with Mom. And they had a
great broiler. They had a broiler that you could bring the meat right up underneath the flame,
instead of having it on top of the flame. I always liked it when the…all the grease stuff falls
down there. Lotta people like the smoke in it, but you know, I loved that broiler. It was a great
broiler…
HK: Is that building still there, or not?
TRS: No. It tore down when Dillons put their store in there. Dillons put their grocery store in
there. And that’s when they tore it down. And we – we’d been out for a while, we’d been over to
start a restaurant in North Lawrence.
HK: Now was that, was that the same time that Michigan Street BBQ was on that street?
TRS: You know, I don’t remember it being there at that - I think it was, I don’t remember when
the year that Michigan St BBQ was there. I know what you’re talking about. Uh…I think it
was…I wanna say it was there, yeah. I don’t remember the years exactly, but I do remember
Michigan Street Barbecue being there.
HK: Okay…okay. So when did they open up El Matador?
TRS: You know, I’m not real sure about that. Once they, in about 1956, uh, ‘cause we bought it
when we went over to 1040. I can research that, find out the exact dates, but I can find out
through…I guess when we started paying taxes on it. And it’s right around 1956. I got married in
‘57, I was young and so I remember that. We was already at the restaurant. So we was already
there. And we’d been open for a while. So I’m gonna say ‘56, ‘55-‘56, somewhere in that area.
HK: So this was a whole family-operated business?
TRS: Mom and Dad started, and I been carrying on. I got a daughter works for me now. And
grandkids.
HK: So you currently –
4
�TRS: Yeah, I currently own it and operate it. Yeah, with my – with my daughter and my
grandkids.
HK: Okay, great.
TRS: So we’ll keep it going, hope for another 50 years. It’s a great meeting place for family, I
remember my mama always liked the family together, so we’d do all Thanksgivings, Christmas
dinners over there. We’d have like 35, 45 people for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner,
you know.
HK: I love the way that the menu is geared toward the people who eat there all the time, you
know.
TRS: Our oldest name on the menu was Fire Chief Miller. Do you remember him?
HK: No.
TRS: Fire Chief Miller was our fire chief back in the ‘50s. And he started being a customer at the
Tropicana when we ran it before we moved to 1040. And that’s the reason, that’s why they got
their name on the menu. Mom would say, well, Fire Chief Miller, or so-and-so, that’s what
they’ll order is this. And usually they ordered it, the same thing every time they come in. Dr.
Reed, and Dr. Branson’s up the hill, you do what they want to order…they more or less order the
same thing all the time.
HK: So the Dr. Branson Special.
TRS: Mm-hmm. We have, uh, have one man that had three names on there. Three specials. But
he was a regular customer for Mom and Dad for years and years and his name was Mr. Bradley.
Frank Bradley, who was also their bookkeeper. And through the years he would change his
special to another special, so Frank Bradley one, two, and three, which is the only one that has
three names on there. So I’ve kind of continued it, you know, I didn’t do it for a few years after I
took it over, but I starting getting a lot of people asking about getting their name on the menu. I
said, well…
HK: That’s a great piece of history.
TRS: Yeah, it is, lot of people in there…lot of good customers. Lot of regular customers came
through the doors.
HK: Well, back to when you were growing up, um…what school did you attend?
TRS: I went to New York School from the front door to the back door, first through the sixth,
and then I went to Central Junior High School. Then I went to Lawrence High.
HK: Okay. And how did you, did you experience any type of prejudice while you were going to
school, or…
5
�TRS: Yeah. It was sad, you know. I don’t think that so much in grade school…uh, it wasn’t that
much, maybe ‘cause we was young, and everybody, you know, there wasn’t a difference. It
started when I was in – went to junior high school. Course I was in the seventh grade. I was very
gymnastic, I loved gymnastics. And I was very good. And I went in – seventh grade I was put on
the gymnastic squad…but again, then I come back and then for my junior year, my next year, the
eighth grade, I came back and they wouldn’t, when I started [combing?] my hair. You know that
‘50s look, and I had to have sideburns, you know, so I was kind of…and, uh…it was really sad,
you know, because I did enjoy the gymnastics squad. So that and, uh, I had some problems with
some school kids, school…cause they was on the football team, just stuff like that. We had a
little few problems with them, you know. It was more evident in there. Then, then in high school
the coach, our coach there…I shouldn’t say his name…but we had, me and a colored friend of
mine, just a friend, we was in gym together and one of the – the gym teacher got sick and went to
the hospital. And we had a student teacher come down from KU hill. And he said, “Why are you
guys” – he’d just set everything up, bars and rings and everything – “but I’m giving you three
hours, so I can see what you guys do, ‘cause the teacher’s sick and I want to know what you guys
do.” [unintelligible] He walked over to us and pulled us off to the side, said, “I want to talk to
you two guys.” We said, “What did we do?” [laughs] He said, “[unintelligible] I want to know
what you guys are doing making Fs. You see, you guys shouldn’t be on the gymnastics team.”
Well, the school told him. And he said: “Well, first of all, unless you excel” – the effort; I don’t
know what he called it, effort or excel – “then you don’t get a better grade.” You know. But also
you can’t do anything to excel unless you have somebody to spot you and help you get past it.
That’s where you’re left in limbo. But, it’s sad that some guys couldn’t do anything, but I guess
cause they – they applied themselves more or something. I don’t know, you know. But he says:
“Well I can’t rectify what has been going on for years,” he said, “but I can give you a better
grade this semester.” And I meant to go back and find, and I had another teacher, very
prominent, known teacher was, uh…we was talking about immigration, that’s funny, this comes
up right now too [laughs]: “Should we shut our borders to immigration?” And he popped off and
said – I don’t know whether he thought it was funny or what, but he said: “No…well, you know,
I’ll accept Mexico cause we do need somebody to run our laundries.”
[prolonged pause]
TRS: Very prominent coach. Very, very well-known coach. So it kind of struck a sour note with
Joe. [laughs] And I never forgot it. I never forgot it. So there was. There was. I don’t think it was
as bad here in Lawrence as it was in other towns. I have relation in Newton, Wichita and I had
been, I worked for an outfit out of Wichita and I was up north and I heard something about it and
we weren’t treated very well up there. But we went in and worked and I hauled tile for an outfit.
We was in a town up north, there, Bellville or something like that. Anyhow, up north, and we
went in this restaurant. And, of course, I was with four other guys, five of them, and the waitress
went back to the kitchen and was asking if I could be served. And I told the guys, I said, “We
may not get served here, guys,” cause I could see her. I said, “I think she’s asking permission to
serve me,” and they looked back and said “By God, I think she is too.” Said, “Well if you don’t
get served none of us gonna get served, you know, so we’ll all leave.” I got served, we got
served, but…was about five years ago. Yes, and uh, like I say, Lawrence I don’t think was as bad
as a lot of places. Do you, I remember when there was a Santa Fe lunch down here where I
6
�remember blacks sat on one side, whites sat on the other side, right across from the Santa Fe
depot, there was two counters.
HK: Really?
TRS: I could sit on any side I want to. [Laughs]
HK: There you go. What about other businesses downtown, when you went, like, to the movies
or to any of those places downtown?
TRS: Ah…in some places sometimes…and I, you know, even sometimes in this day and age you
still get it. I’ve had it happen to me at businesses where I go to a store and shop around and
somebody will follow you around the aisles. My son has had it happen at Jayhawk Bookstore,
few years back, just recently, about two weeks back, and his brother-in-law was with him. And,
uh, my son worked for KU and he was walking around the bookstore looking at something and,
uh, my, his brother-in-law noticed this guy following them around the aisles and he asked him:
“What was that going, what was that all about back there?” He said: “What do you think?” And
he said: “You’re kidding me,” he said, “I’d never have thought that.” He said, “Well, you
wouldn’t. You wouldn’t know it. You don’t know the feeling.” [laughs] But it’s true. And it
does. And it is. And there’s something you have to know, being, you know, uh, you have to feel
it, have it happen to you to know what it feels like. Yeah, it has been. There’s still some, yeah, in
Lawrence. I like Lawrence; I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I’ve lived and went a lot of places,
I’ve been quite a few places.
HK: Going back to your father working for the railroad, did he help any of the other people that
were coming in new from Mexico working on the railroad, did he assist them at all?
TRS: You know, I think they had, yeah, they had some friends and stuff, but it was, you know,
back then, I don’t think it was near as much as it is now of the new people come in – people
come up to the railroads, things like that while working, you know, branching out.
[unintelligible] Lawrence [unintelligible] branch out. Dad got away from the railroad, went to
work construction, got in the restaurant business, things like that. But, um, they, you know, they,
Dad and Mom was always helping somebody, but I’m not gonna say it was all anybody else
coming up from Mexico. Cause, I didn’t, I don’t remember that many people coming into
Lawrence at that time. Course, you know, I was young, so I don’t know.
HK: Did they go to St. John’s Church, or did they –
TRS: No, they didn’t. They did not. My grandmother and grandfather went to St. John’s. Dad
was a Baptist. Mom was baptized Catholic but she followed Dad’s religion. We was all baptized
in the Catholic church. My grandparents baptized all my family in the Catholic church.
HK: Did your dad do any other kind of work besides work construction and work in the
restaurants?
7
�TRS: Ah, he was an instrument repairman at the Odell Music Store for quite a few years. He
picked that up, and he done some instrument repair work. So that –
HK: So he was a woodworker too?
TRS: No, an instrument repair, like the flutes and –
HK: Oh, okay.
TRS: Saxophones, trumpets and everything, they – he re-reed them and re-cushion and just, you
know he repaired them, so he knew what he was – got into that. I don’t know how he got into
that, but he did, I remember him doing that for a long time. We was kids, young kids, you know,
so…
HK: And how many were in your family?
TRS: We had four. Two brothers, two sisters.
HK: Okay. Do they still live in Lawrence?
TRS: My brother lives in California. And he went out there in the 50s and joined the Marine
Corps and he stayed out there ever since. My two sisters and I live here. One lives in, my sister
lives in Baldwin and Overbrook, my other sister lives over here off of 27th St. [Unintelligible]
District. And I live in North Lawrence.
HK: Okay. And when you were growing up, what was the healthcare like for you? Did your dad
have insurance, or…
TRS: Ah, you know, I don’t remember whether Dad had insurance…he did…we had Dr.
[Margaret? Dr. Ray Clark?], so they was very good. I don’t know, I really can’t say that he had, I
know they didn’t have health insurance in later years. I really don’t, I don’t remember any health
insurance at all. It could have been when he worked with – he worked at KU Hill for a while, the
janitor there. But no, I don’t remember health insurance.
HK: So there wasn’t any kind of dental care?
TRS: No, we just, whenever we – when I needed a tooth pulled. [laughs] But no, other than that,
no. But we had a very good doctor [Dr. Margaret? Dr. Ray Clark?] was very close to Mom and
Dad, so I never had any problem there at all.
HK: And, um, your mom when you were growing up, did she, she obviously did all the cooking
and…did she make your clothes, the girls’ dresses anyway?
TRS: No, Grandmother did make all of our clothes and stuff. Shirts and stuff like that, I
remember that. No, Mom didn’t do any much of sewing, but she would cook. She was always a
cook. She worked at, oh, God, various cafes: [Gilkerson’s Café?] downtown, the [Crown?], then
8
�she worked for Jim Star, which is Jim’s, uh, Jim’s Drive-In, I think in North Lawrence was what
it was years ago before they went into business herself. She had always cooked, had all these
cooking jobs.
HK: So did you have your grandparents living with you while you were growing up, or –
TRS: No.
HK: Did they have a separate house?
TRS: They had a separate home. They had a separate house. My – we had the opportunity to go
live with them for a while, me and my older sister. Dad and Mom, I – got sick and they was
away for a while, so we had to go, we went to stay with my grandparents. I’m gonna say a year
or two, I remember it was a couple years. We were young.
HK: Did you learn a lot while you were living with your grandparents, any of the traditional
ways?
TRS: Any what?
HK: Any of the traditional Mexican ways that you didn’t learn from your parents?
TRS: Well, no I don’t know, I guess I remembered everything just, you know, growing up with
them. I knew my grandfather made wine, I wished I’d learned the recipes! And grandmother
made, she made very, she was always an excellent cook. So we had tamales around
Christmastime she made, I’d help her grind corn and she had a very strict way she had to do it.
Other than that, everything made from scratch. Excellent cook.
HK: So what would be a typical meal?
TRS: You know, [unintelligible] beans and potatoes and fried fish and spiced pork with pepper
and course my grandmother and even aunts, they…fresh tortillas made, you know, at mealtimes
instead of going to Dillons. [laughs] I got to have ‘em brought in from Kansas City now, but
there’s no way you can. All enough to run a restaurant, yeah, fresh tortillas and fresh peppers
made in a bowl. Pepper with your eggs, something like that. There really was a, they’ve always
said the joke at home at my house was “Dad, if you had to live on fried potatoes and beans and
tortillas and pepper, you’d be happy.” [Laughs] He’d be happy all the time, so…
HK: Did your parents raise a garden?
TRS: My parents didn’t. My grandfather, he gardened a lot. Big gardener. Very big gardener. He
always gardened a lot. But Mom and Dad never did.
HK: What kinds of vegetables?
9
�TRS: Oh, he had strawberries, he had some strawberries, and he moved to North Lawrence, had
pear trees, apple trees, plum trees and everything. But he always raised peppers. He always had
peppers, tomatoes and, um, strawberries, um, onions of course, everything, you know, just a
typical garden. I don’t, uh, remember what else. Corn, corn, you know, we planted corn, you
know, sometimes had watermelons.
HK: So did you as grandkids have to go over and help with the garden, or…
TRS: We didn’t, you know, I don’t think he had us around there too much…we made more
mess…but when I got older, when Grandpa’d go off to Mexico I’d have to tend to help the
garden stuff. I was real close to my grandparents and my grandfather, yeah.
HK: So did they go back to Mexico quite frequently, or…
TRS: No, they – they went a few times earlier in the days, uh, when I was a kid. Um, but one of
my aunts married and moved, they moved her to, she moved to Mexico with her husband.
Consequently, my grandfather brought three of the older children back to the United States in the
late ‘40s, I’m gonna say, from Mexico. He went down and brought them back with him and then
later on in the year he was instrumental in bringing the – his daughter back, which was [their?]
mom, and the rest of the family in, uh, I’m gonna say, in the ‘50s. He brought her back and with
the rest of the family. I can’t name exactly how many kids they had, when he brought them all
back. [Unintelligible] My cousin and her family back in the ‘60s. Grandpa did help a lot bringing
them to the United States.
HK: And did they all settle in Lawrence?
TRS: Mm-hmm. Most of them, now probably have some in Topeka. Most of them in this area
though, most of ‘em in the area here, in Topeka and Lawrence.
HK: Where’s your wife from?
TRS: My wife? Mine’s from here, Lawrence.
HK: From Lawrence?
TRS: Yeah, I’ve been married three times.
HK: Oh, okay.
TRS: My first wife was from, um, Bazaar, round the area where my dad was raised at, from
Bazaar, and my second wife was from Arkansas. And my third wife was from here, Lawrence
area. I’ve been married three times.
HK: Well, in talking with some of the other people, they said that it was so hard to find anybody
here in Lawrence ‘cause everybody was related to each other; that they had to go to Topeka or
Kansas City or… [laughs]
10
�TRS: Yeah, you gotta tell your kids, now so-and-so, that’s your cousin. [Laughs]
HK: So you had to really be careful there.
TRS: Everybody’s more or less kinda related here in town, related to everybody.
HK: Well, what do you think of the, um, children of today? Do you think that they’re carrying on
the traditional ways, or do you think that they need to revisit the traditional ways?
TRS: Well, you know, I think that that changes with all, everybody I think, you know, the times
change and everything. I think they’re trying a lot, but I don’t think there’s as many, as much,
what do I wanna say…in all – all the families, you know, and some families carry it on to their
families. And, of course, you know, you get involved, like my family went in the restaurant
business, so you get involved in your different way of life. People have different occupations and
you know, different things they get into, so, you know, they’ll get off into doing that. I think we
lose track of a lot of traditions over the years. I think we’ve lost track of a lot of tradition over the
years. I think that’s, uh, that’s like the language, you know, we should have kept it up. Our
grandkids, my children, all of our children should have been speaking Spanish a lot more but, we
didn’t, and we did, we lost that, you know. But it’s nice that they’re trying to pick it up now.
They’re trying, you know, it’s good to try.
HK: Are you familiar with the Days of the Dead?
TRS: Not exactly familiar with it and how they honored the Dia de Los Muertos. I’m not really,
it’s like our Memorial Day, I think.
HK: Well, I think it’s All Saints Day. It’s, um, the first part of November.
TRS: Hmm, okay.
HK: When they have all the saints.
TRS: I kinda [laughs] kind of relate that to the Cinco de Mayo sometimes, with that – that was
kinda my, oh, there’s this story, it’s funny, we gotta turn that thing off. [laughs]
HK: No, let’s hear it!
TRS: Cinco de Mayo, you know, these guys, we go celebrate Cinco de Mayo. [Unintelligible] I
don’t know, I think it’s Mexican independence – no, that’s February 16th or 15th. Well, you know
I’m not real sure. I call it the Budweiser Holiday. [laughs] So, when I got on the bandwagon, I
had my girlfriend, my cousin, get on the computer and print out what the Cinco de Mayo is. You
know, what happened on that day. [Unintelligible] So I’d lay ‘em around so everybody would
know what they were celebrating.
HK: That’s funny.
11
�TRS: What are you celebrating? [laughs] Not real sure… That’s like the Dia de los Muertos. I’m
not that [unintelligible].
HK: I know that it’s sort of having a resurgence recently, I know that there’s a lot of – and it may
be because of the immigrants – the new immigrants coming up from Mexico and bringing it with
them, that tradition.
TRS: I heard, some friends I knew from Mexico, they said no, everything’s celebrated down
there. It’s kinds like that, it just a certain place I guess, you know, like around [Pueblo?] you
know, but it’s not a big holiday down there or anything like that.
HK: So going back to the immigration question [both laugh]…I’m not gonna be as bad as your
high school, but, um, do you have any thoughts on that?
TRS: Yes, I, you know, I know it’s a sad situation, but they’re looking, this country was made on
immigrants and immigration, and people looking for a better life. Freedom. And that’s where our
foundation is. And there’s nothing different with these people, they’re looking for a better life for
their families because poverty is very bad in Mexico. We know that, and it’s, I don’t know, you
just don’t know how to do it, they’re gonna come up here and work. I think that the sad thing is,
they’ve been doing it for years and years, they should have had a – and a lot of them don’t want
to live here. Lot of them like their homeland. Lot of people like their homeland. Which is like
me, I’ve lived here all my life in Lawrence, so I, maybe that’s why I like Lawrence, I wouldn’t
wanna go anywhere else. But the poverty, they came here looking for a better life. And they’d
like to work, and some of ‘em would like to work and go back home. [Unintelligible] the older I
get. But if they’d fix up a way that they could work, if they want to become citizens that’s fine,
you know. But [unintelligible] saying and we know that we have, 9/11 woke us up, that there’s a
lot of bad stuff coming across the borders that, you know, need to be in check too, but people are
willing to work, I’m sure are willing to get a picture, an ID, so they can have a right to work and
make money and take care of their families. And I think there should be a way to do it. I think
this, government, bureaucrat, all that stuff will go, you know, the amnesty things and stuff like
that I think it’d work but they need to get, uh, some kind of documentation to help these people.
And I’ve always said, if they’re here to work and to do good, they’re, they’d be willing to get the
ID with their picture, but the way it’s going now is not good. Not good at all. It makes them feel
like criminals, and if you help somebody, you’re gonna, they’re gonna criminalize that, make
you a criminal for doing that. If you’re helping illegals, they wanna put [5,000? 10,000?] after so
many times, it’s 3-10 years in prison, just cause you helped, like I say, one of my people, you
know. And there are a lot of people that are doing bad, they know that as a – being a construction
worker myself, I know there are companies that treat ‘em and work ‘em very much like dogs.
And then they don’t pay ‘em, or say: “Hey, I don’t got no money, you know, you’re out. Turn
me in, what are you gonna do?” You know? And that’s sad. That’s sad. But this is in all – there’s
stuff like that goes on all the time, and it’s not right, but it happens. And a lot of them are
working without insurance and things like that. And all they’re doing is making a – one thing I
will guarantee you one thing, these people that come up here don’t forget their families back
home. Like a lot of people that leave home here, go off somewhere else, “Bye Mom and Dad,
send me some money would you please? I’m out of money again.” But these people, every week
12
�the money goes back to their families. They don’t forget about home, you know, whether it’s
brother, sisters, mom, dad, whatever, or family, you know, wives and children.
HK: You said your brother was in the military. Were you in the military?
TRS: Yes. I was in the Army.
HK: Where did you serve?
TRS: I served in the Army.
HK: Did you stay in the United States during your –
TRS: No, I was in Vietnam. And he served in Vietnam before me. He come back the year and I
went over the year after.
HK: What years did you serve?
TRS: I was there from January 15, 1966 to January 15, 1967. He was there in, uh, ‘65 to ’66, I’m
gonna say. He come back before I went over.
HK: So you were there when it was starting to escalate?
TRS: Mm-hmm. I got a cousin served also, he was in the Navy.
HK: Well, um, is there anything you want to add to this?
TRS: I can’t think of anything, we went through quite a bit. [laughs] No, I can’t think of
anything.
HK: I think you told us all the information about your dad, and, your parents and your
grandparents, and –
TRS: Hopefully that’s everything. I’ll try to find some pictures. I got some pictures of my
grandmother and grandfather and my dad and I, the family together.
HK: Oh, that would be great.
TRS: And, some pictures of Mom and Dad.
HK: Okay. Fantastic. Alright, well let me turn this off.
END OF TAPE 15
13
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
La Yarda Oral History Project
Subject
The topic of the resource
La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.)
Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Description
An account of the resource
La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers in Lawrence, Kansas; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River, the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. In 2006, Helen Krische, archivist at the Watkins Community Museum, began an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. The project was resumed in 2019 by Nora Murphy and Emily Raymond. The interviews primarily feature the children of the railroad workers who migrated to Lawrence in the early 20th century; they describe daily life, social activities, and living conditions in the Mexican-American community in Lawrence from roughly the 1920s through the 1970s.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
La Yarda Oral History Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2006
2019
2021
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
These works are the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Krische, Helen
Raymond, Emily
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Reyes, Tiburcio, Sr.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
MP4
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:41:25 (video)
00:37:13 (audio)
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
95 kbps
3323 kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tiburcio Reyes, Sr., La Yarda Interview
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Reyes, Tiburcio, Sr.
Description
An account of the resource
Tiburcio Reyes, Sr. was interviewed by Helen Krische in 2006 as part of an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River, the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. Tiburcio grew up in East and North Lawrence; his father was one of a number of Mexican-American railroad workers who settled in Lawrence before 1950. Tiburcio describes his family's migration from Mexico to Lawrence, and their work to establish the Tropicana and El Matador restaurants in North Lawrence; at the time of the interview, Tiburcio owned and operated the El Matador Cafe with his daughter and grandchildren. He discussed his military service during the Vietnam War, and his thoughts about immigration. Tiburcio also discusses experiences of discrimination and segregation faced by the Mexican-American community in Lawrence.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Krische, Helen
Raymond, Emily
Peralez, Silvia
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Lawrence (Kan.)
1920s - 1970s
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2006
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP4 (video recording)
MP3 (audio recording)
PDF (transcription)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
15-TReyesSr-2006.mp4 (video)
15-TReyesSr-2006.mp3 (audio)
15-TReyesSr-2006.pdf (transcription)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.)
Relation
A related resource
To access the video and audio recordings of this interview, go to <a href="https://archive.org/details/15-treyes-sr-2006">https://archive.org/details/15-treyes-sr-2006</a>.
The <a href="https://www.watkinsmuseum.org/">Watkins Museum of History</a> also holds items related to this collection.
<a href="https://archives.lib.ku.edu/repositories/3/resources/5295">Additional research on the La Yarda community</a> is held at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Published with the permission of Tiburcio Reyes, Jr., on behalf of Tiburcio Reyes, Sr. This work is the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
La Yarda Oral History Project
Subject
The topic of the resource
La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.)
Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History