Brown, Olga Lucinda Villegas 2000-03-24
Olga Lucinda Villegas Brown discusses her education from elementary to obtaining a degree in education and continuing learning. She also talks about her passion for teaching and her life and struggles for being of Mexican descent.
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Olga Lucinda Villegas Brown
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: March 24, 2000
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Interviewer: Daniel Sanchez
Length: approx. 102 minutes
Abstract
Minidisc 1, Side 1:
parents and their families;
her childhood experience working on the fields;
describes her family;
parents inculcating education on her and her siblings and the importance of education;
her first year of school without knowing English; primary language was Spanish. She continues about the struggles that not speaking English brought on her;
being in a classroom with Mexicans only;
being moved to a real first grade classroom;
other experiences between first and second grade;
Reemphasizes the support from her parents in her education;
lack of confidence in what she could or could not do when growing up;
family moving to Lubbock after her dad got a full-time job;
new house;
attended Bozeman elementary school;
how much she liked learning new things;
joining the campfire girls;
During third and fourth grade she started to come out of her shell;
how important it was for her mom that she looked like the rest of the girls;
the death of her grandfather and her father inheriting a lot in Abernathy;
Started fifth grade and her continue strive for learning more;
Mrs. Davenport, a teacher that pushed her to getting better grades;
what it was like at home after getting off of school;
the stress she carried as a fifth grader;
joining the band and how she was able to own a saxophone during junior high;
the big turning point in her life, being in the A class with nothing but Anglo-Americans, during junior high;
another Mexican classmate, Delfina Valdez;
Did not have any Hispanic friends;
trying out for cheerleading in sixth grade;
the support her mother would provide her;
the importance of report cards at home;
the difficulty of not completely fitting in with Mexicans nor Anglo-Americans;
making the cheerleading squad the second year around (seventh grade);
the first phone in her home;
how her mother would tell her to not speak Spanish at school and the importance of it.
Minidisc 1, Side 2: her parents not promoting Mexican culture in her family; Mexican culture was thought by the parents to be harmful for the kids; her grandparents, who were Mexican; being part of the junior play; always looking for extracurricular activities; her work ethic at a young age; having to work over the summers; Unlike other kids, her siblings and she would get the money earned at work to pay for school supplies and personal things; learning about twelfth grade and hearing about a college; being active in church and playing the organ for the choir; working as a babysitter; the first time she thought about being a teacher; asking the principal about college and getting no information from him; taking the SAT and graduating from high school; As a graduation present, she asked for permission to go to California and working there; Works for ITT Gilfillan Company, making radars for the moon walk; watching the historical moment of the moon walk; the company offering a student program and a scholarship to the University of Berkeley; her mother not allowing her to go to Berkeley and she comes back to Texas to attend Texas Tech University; her first experiences at Texas Tech; how she was paying for college; being on probation after the first semester of college; the Tertulianos, a Hispanic organization; hearing of the bilingual program in education, not offered at Texas Tech; her experience with the tornado in 1970; moving to Lubbock, previously living with parents in Abernathy; being nominated as homecoming queen by the Tertulianos; senior year and her student teaching; graduating in December 1972 and looking for a job in the L.I.S.D.
Minidisc 2, Side 1:
Continues the story about applying for employment in the L.I.S.D.;
Mentions her engagement;
getting three different interviews and having to decide which school to go to;
Decided to go to Sanders Elementary School;
During her third of teaching, her fiancé got stationed in England;
Mentions her trip to Madrid, Spain during a spring break;
her summer trip to San Luis Potosí, Mexico;
her trip to England to visit her fiancé;
volunteering as a teaching assistant there until 1975;
working on her master’s degree in supervision in 1977;
Mentions her goal of working in the central office;
Talks about becoming a bilingual director in centra office at 29 years of age with a two-year old and a newborn;
Worked there for five years;
getting the idea of becoming a principal and applying to schools;
getting the principal’s job and having to get a certification in mid-management;
being a single parent for five years which was another reason why she did not go back to school;
being at Ramirez Elementary School for nine years;
receiving the Extra-mile Award and in 1997 the Distinguished Alumni for Tech Award;
her struggles through college and her lack of information about the whole college process.
Minidisc 2, Side 2: Continues talking about her life through college; becoming more allegiant to the Mexican culture than her parents and not having to apologize for it; getting pass the negative idea of being Mexican through education; not lecturing people but demonstrating it, especially to her own kids, to not pressure into thinking one way or another; teaching her kids right and wrong and letting them make their own decisions; Anita Carmona is mentioned, believed to be the first Hispanic to go through the entire L.I.S.D. system.
Range Dates: 1900-1930
Bulk Dates: 1920s
Access Information
Original Recording Format: mini disc and audio cassette
Recording Format Notes: digitized; CD available in Reading Room
Transcript: drafts of Spanish and English transcripts available in Reading Room
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