Barrios Oral History Project

Clara Urbano was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1936. Though she was not born in Tempe, both her mother's and father's families were pioneers in the Tempe area. Her family moved back to Tempe in 1944. They lived in the Barrio al Centro until the mid-1950s, when the neighborhood was demolished for the expansion of Arizona State College.

Ms. Urbano has taken a leading role in preserving Tempe's Hispanic heritage for more than ten years. In the early 1980s, she formed an organization that became known as Los Amigos de Tempe which collects personal memoirs and sponsors biennial reunions of the families that used to live in the Tempe barrios. She was actively involved in the planning of the Barrios exhibit and many related programs at the Tempe Historical Museum.

In this interview she talks about growing up in Tempe in the 1940s and '50s, and her involvement in the founding of Los Amigos de Tempe.

SCOTT SOLLIDAY: OK. Today we're interviewing Clara Urbano. My name is Scott Solliday and today is March 28, 1992, and, ah, well, Clara, could you tell us a little bit about when you were born, what was your earliest memories of your childhood here in Tempe?

CLARA URBANO: I wasn't born in Tempe. My father and my grandmother was born here. Uh . . . I was born in Santa Monica, on August 13, 1936, and we moved back . . . well, my dad moved back to Tempe in 1944. And then I went all through school in the Tempe school system.

SOLLIDAY: OK. And what was, ah . . . and did you live in the barrio near downtown?

URBANO: I lived in the barrio at 343 East Sixth Street, which is catty-corner . . . the opposite corner to where the, ah, National Guard used to be, which is still there.

SOLLIDAY: But the house isn't still there . . .

URBANO: No, it's all gone. It's a parking lot.

SOLLIDAY: And so you lived there, and was that area called East Tempe at that time?

URBANO: No, it wasn't even called the barrio. Um . . . a lot of barrios had names to it. Ours didn't have a name that I know of. The older people told me that it was called El Barrio de la Central, which is the central barrio. Ours was the biggest, because it went from, uh . . . it went from the buttes to Eighth Street, and then, from the canal on the east side to College Avenue. So it was one, two, three, four, about four and a half blocks . . . five.

SOLLIDAY: Which is, um . . . well, it's all ASU now, so there's not really anything . . .

URBANO: There isn't anything there.

SOLLIDAY: And at that time . . . the time that you remember it . . . was there now . . . I understand with the . . . the barrio on the other side of the canal, I've heard people refer to that as "Mickey Mouse Town" . . .

URBANO: That was Mickey Mouse Town.

SOLLIDAY: Was that something you remember at that time?

URBANO: Well, we even had names within our barrio . . . which, where the Ortegas lived, they called that El Altito, 'cause it went up a little hill. That was on Seventh Street and Canal Street. They lived there. And all those little houses were called Altito. People just named them and when you talked about it, you knew which houses they were talking about. Um . . .

SOLLIDAY: How about El Alta?

URBANO: El Altito, that's it. "High Town," they called it in English. And it was just Seventh Street went up a hill to Canal Street, and the Ortegas lived there, and, uh, Garcias, and there were some apartments right on the side . . . on the south side of the street.

SOLLIDAY: Now was this barrio very distinct from Tempe . . . was the people there very separate from, say, the downtown Tempe area?

URBANO: It was all Mexican.

SOLLIDAY: And, uh . . . so there were businesses within the barrio?

URBANO: No, we went to town. We went . . . there was a store. It was on Dewey and Central. It belonged to, uh, uh, Mr. Reyes. God, he was a friend of the family's, and Carmen was his wife's name, who was sister to the Gamboas, and, um, he had a little grocery store, and then he had a . . . a pool, where they played pool. And it later became the Solano Restaurant, that part of it. They sold it to the Solano's, which was one of the first restaurants there, also, besides Irene's Mom. Then when Irene's mother, Victoria [Gomez], decided to sell, they went and bought her place and they made a whole new restaurant there, which we frequented. And there was also a restaurant on Dewey, east of Central, which was Maria's restaurant, which belonged to Maria Soza, and that was family-owned.

SOLLIDAY: Oh. OK. She was one of the people that had been interviewed earlier, and, but she never mentioned she had a restaurant right there.

URBANO: Her daughters, Vickie, and the older daughters worked in that restaurant. Vickie was my age, that's why I mention her. There was also a barber shop, which was west of, uh, Center Street, and Galibarco was his name, and that's where most everybody went to get their haircuts. That was there since my dad was a young man. SOLLIDAY: Well, what kind of . . . were there any kind of community events?. . . any celebrations? . . .

URBANO: Oh. Lots.

SOLLIDAY: Where would they take place?

URBANO: We went for a walk. There were fifteen of us that would go for a walk into town every night. We'd all go swim. When we grew up we would use the pools . . . it was our parents that had the problem . . . or the old . . . or the kids between their ages and ours. Uh, we had CYO dances, we had picnics, we had school functions. We were always up to something. We'd go have picnics over at. . . they called it Roadside Park, which is on the other side of the bridge, where they were building that bridge.

SOLLIDAY: Oh, with the stone ramadas . . .

URBANO: Yeah, we'd have picnics there. Um . . . We were always up to something. They had . . . My fondest memory is going to these people's back yards and talking about old times. 'Cause they did a lot of that. We did that. Or they'd come to my house. My house was open to all the kids. My parents liked them to come because they knew where we were at, my Mom and my Dad. And so we had the biggest lawn and it would kinda come down into little, um . . . like a hole . . . big hole, and irrigation would all fill up with water, and all the kids would come up with boxes and just go sliding up this little embankment into the water. So whenever kids gathered, mostly in our neighborhood, it was at our house. 'Cause it was open. If we wanted to dance, we'd go into the living room, roll up the carpet into the middle, 'cause it was wood floors, or wherever. You know. But mostly it was at my house.

SOLLIDAY: Of course all of Tempe was mostly a small town at that time.

URBANO: You knew everybody. At that time you knew everybody. But, um, you knew everybody.

SOLLIDAY: And it was, uh . . . I also get the impression that, um, as you were growing up that you didn't experience nearly as much discrimination as probably a few years earlier.

URBANO: I didn't experience it, but a lot of the kids experienced it. For some reason they thought we had a lot of money and we didn't. We were just as, if not poorer than they were. We had a nice house. And, uh . . . and Joe will tell you that. They all used to come and look . . . We had the first T.V. in the neighborhood. And I'd invite the friends in . . . couldn't invite everybody . . . and the other kids were looking inside the windows, you know, to watch our T.V. We used to walk . . . that's one thing we used to do at Smith's appliance store. We'd all go walk over there because he'd put in some T.V.s and he'd show it. And there was only one program. It was the Lone Ranger. And it was a half hour show and we all walked into town and looked in the window. And pretty soon he put up some chairs. So it was like a theater to us . . . like a free show . . .

SOLLIDAY: Was that right out on Mill, or . . .

URBANO: That was on Mill, um-hum. We bought all our appliances from him. Smith's appliance stores. Then my dad went and bought the first T.V. And it was a sixteen-inch T.V. And then, the next ones that bought one were the Aguilars. And theirs was a little tiny T.V., like this. It was so cute. And the whole family used to watch T.V. on that . . . big box.

SOLLIDAY: Yeah, that must have been a . . . a real big deal at that time.

URBANO: Oh, that was a big deal. That was in fifty-one. No, it was in fifty, because my brother was born in fifty-one. That was in 1950.

SOLLIDAY: It was, you know, really when they had just come out, and it's . . . Did that really change a lot of things, I mean, before people, before television, um, people were very social, and I think that's something we think of today as the influence of television.

URBANO: It changed later on. At that time there wasn't that much on . . . Maybe a half hour or so here and a half hour or so there. Um, for the children it didn't change, because what was on was boring. The parents liked it. You know, for us it was boring. We still used to go swimming, or, you know, do our thing. The river was dry then. There was no river, you know, and, uh, but everything was acceptable. We didn't put up with much. We used to go to Upton's, next to the theater, and it was just a tiny little place, which is real nice. That was our hang out.

SOLLIDAY: Now, the downtown area was quite a bit different then. Um . . . the theater . . . now that . . . what theater was that?

URBANO: It was called the College Theater.

SOLLIDAY: And that wasn't the one that . . . is that the same one that is there now? The Valley Art? . . .

URBANO: Laird and Dines, where the Circus is, that was Laird and Dines, and then next to that was a little tiny office that they used for the theater, and then there was the theater. Next to that was Upton's, and next to that was Roberson's . . . it was a five and ten cent store. And then, uh, there was, like, an insurance place, and then there was, like, a little cafe there, too. And then at the end of that block was a building that was called Baber's, where the bank is now. But they knocked it down and built that bank. Now it's Bank of America, I believe. But behind that on the Sixth Street side of that building, there were some stairs that went up, and, uh, what do you call those people . . . those men that wore robes like in Arabia? Do you know which ones I'm talking about?

SOLLIDAY: Yes, I think I . . .

URBANO: Well, there was . . . they used to do parades and all that stuff, and their meeting place was up those stairs. And I have a girlfriend that . . .

SOLLIDAY: The Shriners?

URBANO: The Shriners. And I think the Oddfellows met up there too. It was like a meeting place . . . I think . . . for different organizations like that.

SOLLIDAY: Um. Yeah. That's something . . . there's . . . there's not too many of those around any more. I know they were still very important at that time.

URBANO: It was big. Um-Hum.

SOLLIDAY: Where did you go to school here in Tempe?

URBANO: I went first grade . . . I went to Sunset School in Venice, California. And then, when I came here I was in the second grade, and I went to grammar school. And then I went to Mt. Carmel through the fifth, and then I went back to Tempe Grammar School and graduated from there, and I went to high school.

SOLLIDAY: Now, Tempe Grammar School . . . is that the one on Eighth Street, or Tenth Street?

URBANO: Tenth Street.

SOLLIDAY: Now, was the Eighth Street School still open or there at that time?

URBANO: No. When I came into Tempe, the Tenth Street School had disbanded, and I think it was 'cause we were the first classes to get into the Catholic school. And I went because all my friends were going, you know, but I didn't care for it! [laugh] So my brother and I left and went back to the Tempe Grammar School.

SOLLIDAY: OK, and . . .

URBANO: . . . three years.

SOLLIDAY: OK. I think you mentioned . . . Now you had been in the first Tempe High School before it burned? Was that . . . or . . .

URBANO: The Tempe High School is where Stabler's Market is.

SOLLIDAY: Yeah . . . right in the . . .

URBANO: Yeah. All that was Tempe High School. And I was the last sophomore there . . . the last sophomore class. And then I was the first junior class. In the first junior class at the new high school where it is now . . . Tempe High School.

SOLLIDAY: And were they building that right at that time? . . . were they preparing . . . were they building it because . . .

URBANO: They had the three buildings of classrooms. It had the three buildings. And the cafeteria was behind the administration building. And they had built the gym by the time I graduated. The gym was built. In fact there's a head of a buffalo, and our class gave it to them.

SOLLIDAY: Oh, is that still there today?

URBANO: I haven't gone to check. It should be . . . better be . . . we paid a lot of money for it! [laugh]

SOLLIDAY: It's their Mascot. [laugh]

URBANO: Uh-huh. But it was good. I loved whatever we did. It was just that we went Christmas caroling, um . . . I didn't speak Spanish when I moved here. I was eight years old and my first friend was named Ernest Arbizu, who lived next door to us. And he became . . . uh . . . he . . . he used to fly kites and I had never seen a kite flown, because we lived in an apartment in California. We weren't allowed to go out. And, uh . . . in fact, when I moved to Tempe, I discovered dirt. Because it was all dirt roads, and the first day I came home dirty - you know - went and took a bath . . . and all this dirt came off. I couldn't believe I had never seen it before, so it was really neat. Anyway, he taught me how to fly a kite. I can make it from scratch, 'cause he taught me. I made a lot of friends. It wasn't hard to make friends there. Really, they are good people. Still are. I love these people.

SOLLIDAY: In a small town like this, which must have been very different from southern California . . .

URBANO: Well, we were so protected over there, because it was during the war that we lived there, and uh... uh ... so we weren't allowed to go out because we lived in these tall high rises. And then we lived in a house. When I first started school we moved to a house, I remember, and, uh . . . because my dad was in construction we moved - you know - here and there . . . wherever the job was . . . and then they worked for McDonalds - the Aircraft. My Mom and Dad worked for the aircraft.

SOLLIDAY: So that's the reason they came out here?

URBANO: No, my dad got arthritis - rheumatism - real bad, and they told him to get out of California, or else he was going to get crippled. So that's what brought us back.

SOLLIDAY: The dry weather here . . .

URBANO: Um-hum.

SOLLIDAY: Now at that time, this was still . . . there was certainly a lot of farmers around this area . . .

URBANO: All this was farmed. All this was farmed. Uh . . . uh . . . a lot of the kids used to come in - you know - on horses at times from uh . . . uh . . . the old high school. The new high school, the bus went out and got 'em. Um . . . all this land was all farmland.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Now the people that lived in town, were they involved with farming, or was that something that the people who were farmers lived out in the country?

URBANO: They were involved with the school. Uh . . . They were involved with ASU, mostly. Uh . . . they were involved with construction. A lot were involved with construction. Um . . . the railroad . . . uh . . . the city, a lot worked for the city.

SOLLIDAY: As . . . uh . . . well, the city maintenance workers in different areas of police, or . . .

URBANO: I don't know anybody that was a policeman. Oh yeah . . . Chuy Alvarez was a policeman . . . Joe Alvarez, he goes by, now. He's my brother's godfather.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Well, now, I think that, um . . . I think, I get the impression that there was a very different Tempe from what you remember from what we have now, and what was some of the changes? I know one of the things I noticed in the neighborhood that you lived . . . I was looking at a series of aerial photographs through different years, and all of a sudden, it disappeared all at once.

URBANO: Because ASU bought us out. That's what I was looking for in that book. Very cheaply, and we all had to scatter and leave. And it was very sad because a lot of people were very poor, and they had to go and buy houses that they couldn't afford at that time, you know, and . . . but they did good! And we discovered later on that it was the best thing that could happen, really, for these people to improve, you know. It was just sad because we had that closeness. And it wasn't like friends, it was like family. And we . . . like Irene said . . . we've kept that going all through these years. Um . . . the parents were all parents to all of us. If they saw us doing something wrong, nothing was thought -- they'd come out and scold us. But they all took care of us, so we had the freedom in that we were never afraid. Doors were never locked. Doors were never locked.

SOLLIDAY: Well now with this . . .

URBANO: They told a lot of stories on ghosts. That scared us! [laughs]

SOLLIDAY: Ghost stories. [laughs]

URBANO: Oh, like a green hand . . . [laugh] We went to California in fifty-two. My dad had to go because there was a strike. And we were there for a year and when we came back, Ruby Ortega, she tells us, "Did you know somebody saw a green hand at your . . . in your trees . . . and nobody wants to come over here?" [laugh] Get away from me! [laughs] But stories like that . . . and they were good. You know. They weren't like we were going to be scared to death or something, it was just part of the, you know, story telling and stuff.

SOLLIDAY: Now, well, with the . . . with that whole neighborhood gone, was it. . . did people really move out to completely different areas?

URBANO: Oh yeah.

SOLLIDAY: Were they in different parts of Tempe, or . . .

URBANO: We moved . . . we were one of the last ones to go, because my dad refused . . . they wanted us to leave so they could rent those homes. So they could make money, you know, to keep it going. My dad refused, because all he got was seven thousand. He had just remodeled the house. Three months later, they told us we have to move. So my dad was the last to move until he built his house in Phoenix, and that's where my brother lives now. And, uh . . . other people, they left way before that so . . . when the people from the barrio left, new people came in. That . . . um . . . no, it just wasn't the same. And then that was . . . we left in . . . we left in fifty-five. We left the week after I graduated from high school. We left in 1955.

SOLLIDAY: And that was . . . and you went to California then.

URBANO: In sixty-one.

SOLLIDAY: And now, with the . . .

URBANO: And come back every year. It's like I was away, but I wasn't, because I kept in touch with everything that was going on here.

SOLLIDAY: Now there's the, there's the . . . I certainly get the impression there's a lot of . . . there's still a lot of strong sense of community, of everybody really keeping in contact, still.

URBANO: Especially with this reunion that we have. Uh . . . people that thought they would never see each other again, you know, get these wonderful letters telling us, you know, how much they appreciate this because they have been in contact with these people. I had some people that were planning a vacation and they . . . they changed it to come to this last year.

SOLLIDAY: Now what was the . . . when did it begin . . . the reunion?

URBANO: That began . . . When I used to come here . . . I used to come to all the reunions. And then I kept telling them, "why can't we do our own?" You know, because, we wanted to see everybody . . . not just that one class, although we enjoyed it. So then, one day Irene called, or she wrote to me, that Danny said -- Danny Gamboa lives in Chino -- and he said . . . uh . . . to get Clara to get started on this. So she wrote to me and told me what Danny had told her, you know, so I started working on the list to invite people. And I did it from California. And I got, like, two hundred names.

SOLLIDAY: Now when was . . .

URBANO: That was in eighty-one. The first one was in eighty-three. So it took me two years to get all these names. And then Rachael Arroyo, her maiden name was Coral, said, "Well, I'll do it from here . . . I'll do what has to be done from here." And she was the first chairman. She formed a committee. You know, that . . . that gathered . . . that did the work that had to be done here.

SOLLIDAY: So this is the group that became known as "Amigos de Tempe."

URBANO: I named it. Los Amigos of Tempe. And I'm very proud of my parties. It's just one big party. It's like . . . it's like . . . having a party, but we need a big place because we're seeing all these old friends. And it started out just having our friends. There was, like, by the time they married and everything, there was, like, three hundred people. So we went over to the Holiday Inn in Mesa, because

Phoe--, Tempe can't hold us . . . there's too many . . . and my . . . my biggest dream is to have it here in Tempe. So we went over to Mesa at the Holiday Inn, and over seven hundred people came. And we're dancing between the tables and everywhere, because it was so full. And it was all ages, and we thought that was beautiful, because we're having the parents, us, the childrens, you know, and so we've kept it that way.

SOLLIDAY: All the different generations . . .

URBANO: All the generations . . . My Dad comes, his friends come, our friends come, the children are there . . . over . . . not the little ones. It's an adult affair. But the . . . They sneak them in sometimes, but we're trying to tell them to sneak them out! [laughs] Um . . . but it's . . . uh . . . um . . . it's a beautiful affair. And then we started with the posters. And we saw . . . It just grew. First it started with pictures. My dad took the first set of pictures, and other people started giving me pictures. So I put them on a big board. Well, everybody loved it, and I thought, well, why not put family histories on there? Irene made a big beautiful thing on her family. Um . . . I haven't had time, but I wanted to do one on my, and Elias Esquer did his on his family, like, Cecilia did, and their kids, and it's just really nice. And the exhibit is really . . . Everybody just loves the exhibits.

SOLLIDAY: And the maps also . . . Those are . . . Is that everybody writing in their own family as they remembered where they lived at?

URBANO: We have that. We've made posters of all the barrios. We have all that. The maps show where the barrios are. You know, we haven't really written on the maps, because we have no way of duplicating them, you know, so that would be a neat idea to have them write in where they, you know . . . We had, we had posters of the barrios and a lot of people wrote their names on it. We also have . . .

um . . . . There's about six posters with nicknames, because there were nicknames galore. And we put the nicknames and a lot of people wrote who they were nicknames, and they loved that, too . . . . Pictures, drawings of houses . . . . We want to get that going, too. To make people, you know, remember what their houses look like . . . draw.

SOLLIDAY: Like what Joe Soto has done . . .

URBANO: Joe is wonderful. Joe is great. He did that all from memory, and I didn't realize how much he had in his brain. And we were talking, and my brother was there, and he couldn't remember his teacher's name. And he says, "Well, your teacher was Mrs. Thew , and . . . she was not Carminati at that time, she was Krosier, Mrs. Krosier. And then you had this and you had that and it, you know, surprised me. You know, she was just . . . . He didn't know that he was, you know, a loner, but he knew everything that was going on. Then when he did this picture . . . painted this picture . . . he had where everybody lived! It really surprised me. I really love that guy! Wonderful!

SOLLIDAY: Let's see. I wanted to ask you about your family, also, and, and what you can tell me about where they had come from originally . . .

URBANO: My grandfather's family on my dad's side came from Mexico. He was born in El Plomo. And all my family that comes from Mexico comes from an area about this big on the map. They're all from Sonora, Mexico. And, um, I believe, because of my aunt saying that he is Yaqui Indian, also, although he denied it. But when he was drinking, he would go into this other language, and we didn't know what he was, you know, so I have a tendency that's true. And I'm saying I'm part Yaqui, too . . . anyway, so . . . um . . . then . . . their names . . . my grandfather's mother and father were named Francisco, and, uh . . . I can't remember her name right now. Anyway, her last name was Ochoa. And then, my . . . on my grandmother's side, they came from Spain and Portugal. The Celayas came from Spain, and the Escalantes came from, um, Portugal and Spain.

SOLLIDAY: So they came more recently . . . a couple of . . . well, those two generations ago? Was it your . . .

URBANO: They came, we figure, about between 1879 and 1881 to Tempe. And they have four kids. My grandmother was amongst one of them. And uh . . . he, uh . . . they were all born in Tempe. And my Aunt Mary was a teacher, and she was one of the first Hispanic teachers here. And she taught at the training school. 'Cause she got my dad to go there instead of the Eighth Street School. Some of the Mexican kids did go there. And he would, she would treat 'em rough, because she wanted the kids to know that just because he was a nephew, he wasn't going to get away with anything. Um . . . Then she went and taught . . . she taught at Judson, also. Then, from there she went to California, to Corona. And she taught there. And she taught Spanish there until she died. And the other ones just followed her. They never married. The other ones just followed her. And she worked in restaurants and things like that.

SOLLIDAY: Now was this the Celaya . . . Celaya . . .

URBANO: Yeah, it was Escalante -- they were half Celaya and half Escalante. Manuel Escalante married Espetacion, was her name, and then they had the four kids. They had one son and three daughters. And, uh . . . he lived on Seventh Street. And Manuel had a sister. Right now, her name escapes me, but she had a house on Seventh Street and Center, near there, and she moved away. And she left this house to Uncle Reymundo, my grandmother's older brother. And, uh, uh, and, uh, Manuel was one of the first gardeners at Normal School. He worked as a gardener.

SOLLIDAY: OK. I thought I, I think I had seen something about that. Um, Manuel Escalante, who was . . . now there were . . . I guess there were more than one Manuel Escalante, and these were different, really different Escalante families.

URBANO: They weren't related.

SOLLIDAY: And, uh . . . because then there was one Manuel G. Escalante, was, uh, the custodian at the high school.

URBANO: Yeah. That's another one. His sons were custodians with him.

SOLLIDAY: And, uh . . . OK. I don't have it written down here for some reason. But I had seen that there was one who had worked at the school from the time back when it was called Normal School.

URBANO: Um. Normal School. And then my grandfather, Tiofilo Urbano, the one I told you that we think is part Yaqui, he worked . . . well, I told you about that. He worked under the grounds in a tunnel, and he was heating . . .

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BEGIN SIDE TWO

SOLLIDAY: Let's see now. And he was the . . .

URBANO: Heating engineer for ASU. Uh-huh. And of course it wasn't as big as it is now, but, you know, that's what he did, and he did that for many, many years.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Are there . . . um . . .

URBANO: My grandmother was very well known also. I was named after her. Her name was Clara, also. And she was very . . . All the ladies were. That was the culture. You know, they're all very religious. But my dad . . . um . . . was a rebel. And there's a lot of . . . I wrote 'em here . . . There's a lot of stories on him. And the guys he ran around with. But, you know, they had to serve Mass every day, on the weekend, the Father's would come over and I got to meet one of them -- Father Jesus -- would come over and my dad used to call him Padre Patas Pestosas, because his feet smalled. And my grandmother would wash him and feed him and when I got to meet him, it was in sixty-one or sixty. We went to pick him up at the church in Phoenix. And we asked him what he wanted, and he says "I want exactly what Clarita used to make me." So my mother made him a big thing of ribs and a big tortillas with the beans and the rice. No teeth. So it was fun. It was fun meeting him.

SOLLIDAY: I found a little bit on the different, the different Urbanos that lived here a little bit earlier, and I notice that they were living over on Farmer Street, which, at that time was called the Farmer's Addition, and one of those houses, I believe, is still standing. Um . . . um . . . I think it told me once before that . . .

URBANO: The house they lived in burnt.

SOLLIDAY : OK. But right next door. Now, that was . . . um . . . also part of the family . . . I believe . . .

URBANO: Uh-huh. They had a corn field there.

SOLLIDAY: OK. 'Cause there is this other house . . . uh . . . which is still standing, and I believe that was, you know, this one, Francisco, was this the . . .

URBANO: That was his son. They called him Cano. Vickie . . . . You found all of this? Where did you get this?

SOLLIDAY: Let's see. That was in the city directories at the addresses.

URBANO: OK. Vickie. His name was . . . it's a real hard name. OK. He was a guy. He was a man. And he was head of the dumps. That was my grandfather's brother on First Street. He had all the dumps. And his brother was named, um

. . . Fernando, and he lived with him. . . . He had married, but his wife died. And Fernando married also, but I don't know what happened to his wife. He was a very quiet man. And there was Francisco, and there was also the older brother who signed all the papers. I can't think of his name right now, either. And there was, uh, six sons. And I have their names at home. And these are wrong. They used to name . . . all the men had . . . Jose, whatever their name was, Jose . . . But Reynaldo was the oldest. Marcelo, my dad, was next. Then there was Arturo and there was Valo. It was Valdo, was his name, they called him Valo. And then there was my Aunt Millie and my Aunt Rosie. They were the last two. My Aunt Millie died when she was twenty years old. And my grandmother died -- Gata died -- when she was forty. So I never got to meet her. I never got to see her. But after they, they . . . the house burned down, there's Escalante, Aunt Mary. She owned . . . my dad was born in this house. The Farmer's [Addition] house. Then, after she, ah . . . ah . . . she built a house on Tenth Street . . . uh . . . west of Mill. On Tenth Street on the corner. I went to look for it. It's not there any more. And she sold that house to Tiofilo and Clara for a thousand dollars. And that's when they started living there.

SOLLIDAY: Um. Now, was she the . . .

URBANO: She was the teacher.

SOLLIDAY: Mary Escalante was the teacher at the Tenth Street School?

URBANO: This is . . . this is . . . this is Vickie. His name was Eduvijes. Then Celestino is the oldest one. Celestino, and then Francisco, Vickie, Fernando, and then, another one that I just found that I didn't know existed. And my grandfather, Tiofilo. Tiofilo was the oldest, but he was married when . . . My grandfather, Tiofilo, was seven years old. He was brought from Mexico, and he was put to work. And all the money he earned was saved to bring this family into Tempe. And that's how they happened to come in.

SOLLIDAY: And when was that . . .

URBANO: That was in the late eighteen hundreds.

SOLLIDAY: . . . when the rest of the family came?

URBANO: Uh-huh. Because he married my grandmother in 1907, and she was fourteen. And then when she was fifteen she had my Uncle Reynaldo. And then, five years later she had my dad. And then, four years later she had my Uncle Arturo, and then, after that, they were a year apart.

SOLLIDAY: OK. So then that explains quite a bit about all . . .

URBANO: This is Inez. So, I remember that. When they dedicated the yearbook to him. Well, this is my grandfather. This is him.

SOLLIDAY: OK. I knew I had it somewhere there.

URBANO: Yeah, this is him and they did close the whole school when he died. My dad told me about that. Here it is.

SOLLIDAY: Yeah, that was . . .

URBANO: Henry isn't in that family. These two are.

SOLLIDAY: Inez and Marie?

URBANO: Myrtle and Tenth Street. That's the house they built. And Inez and Maria . . . The reason they never married is they promised each other as children, if one wasn't married, the other wouldn't get married, so they wouldn't stay alone. Well, when one would get engaged, the other wasn't married. My Aunt Mary ran around with Juan Montijo. Have you ever heard of him? Well, he's a big figure here. Everybody knows him. In fact, it's Irene's godfather.

SOLLIDAY: But these two both lived in this house on Tenth and Myrtle . . . Well then it was . . .

URBANO: They also lived in my house we moved into.

SOLLIDAY: Well, then this was right next to the school, wasn't it?

URBANO: No. The school was on the east side of Mill, and their house was on the west side.

SOLLIDAY: Oh, OK.

URBANO: You know where the Cosner Auditorium is?

SOLLIDAY: Um . . .

URBANO: You don't remember that?

SOLLIDAY: No, I . . .

URBANO: That was the school auditorium.

SOLLIDAY: Oh, is that the one that burned a couple years ago?

URBANO: It did? I don't know.

SOLLIDAY: OK. I was thinking of something else.

URBANO: But this isn't . . . this is . . . this is my grandfather, Manuel, born in 1856. Now, see, I have not seen this. But I have this date, because I have his death certificate.

SOLLIDAY: Now, all of this was from the obituary that was in the newspaper that . . .

URBANO: And I have the obituary, too. And I have hers. And I have Espetacion's also. Obituary. If you want to see it.

SOLLIDAY: Yeah. Those usually give pretty good family history.

URBANO: Hers had more. It tells where she came from, Santa Ana, I think, in Mexico. And this is Gerardo, is, um . . . Their grandchildren through Reymundo, the oldest son. Their kids all played in a band, and they were called the Moonlight something, and they were big in Tempe, too. Um . . . uh . . . They were all born in Tempe, also. And, um . . . Manuel, Jr. is still alive. Maybe I can get him. Uh . . . and uh . . . he has heart problems, but he lives here in Phoenix. But he was one of the bands.

SOLLIDAY: He would be a real good one to talk to, because I have heard of . . . There were quite a few musicians and, uh . . .

URBANO: The Chavarrias, which, they still play. Chapito Chavarria still plays. It would be great to get him! Uh . . . because his father played, and they're in their eighties. His father played . . . the Gamboas, although they're all gone now. They're not playing any more. There's two of them still alive. There's three of them still alive. But two of them are real sick. Um . . .

SOLLIDAY: Now when was this that they were playing?

URBANO: The Arribas have a band that they are doing, too, and they are a Tempe family, too. Pardon me?

SOLLIDAY: When was this that they were playing with their band?

URBANO: Oh, since they were kids, and they're older than my dad. My dad's going to be eighty in September, and they're older than my dad, and . . . He was just voted man of the year, I forget what it was for - the Senior - no it wasn't that, it was something else. And his picture was all over the papers. He is wonderful. He's fun to talk to. And um . . . uh . . .

SOLLIDAY: So that would have been about, uh, in the thirties that there were lots of these bands?

URBANO: Oh yeah. Twenties? The grandfathers . . . Rudy Arroyo is married to Rachael. His father played in a band -- Victor Arroyo. You know. He's a wonderful singer, Rudy is. Although, he doesn't believe it. And they played with Chapito Chavarria's father. He had a band. And so did this man that I want to go talk to that gave me sixteen pages. I should have brought that so you could read that. He tells exactly how Tempe was, where you have to step up and all that. But the musicians were a big factor in Tempe. Big. And my uncle tells a story, I always remember because I was trying to write everything down, and had to be in the twenties, because my uncle is the same age as . . . in fact, he and Irene's father were cowboys together and we didn't know it until, you know, later on when we come back. Anyway he told me, 'cause he used to come visit us in California, and he told me that he . . . my mother's family used to come over here and, and party with the Tempe people. They named names, Romo, and so you'd see family. They're known here, also. And they used to go dance at this place called El Canalon. OK, so I figure my dad was seven years old. He was born in twelve, 1912. Because he tells me another story about that. And he said they used to park the car all around the dance floor for light, and he said because this night was real dark, and all of a sudden they saw a big light here and they saw a big light there and a big light here . . . it was the Aurora Borealis, you know, that they saw here. And my dad says the same story that he and his brother. My dad was seven, or had snuck out of the house to go to the movies because my grandma didn't let him go - it was dark. And they saw this and they thought it was an omen because they had disobeyed her, but, you know, that all happened on the same night. So it had to have been . . . I would love to see newspaper . . . That's what I was looking for . . . stuff like that.

SOLLIDAY: That sounds familiar. I'd heard something about that before.

URBANO: A lot of people say, "No, they don't see that here," but they did. They saw it. And there's another story, but I can't remember it. Sombody else told me about that. But they were very frightened, because they didn't know what it was at that time.

SOLLIDAY: Yeah. That's the kind of thing that must have been pretty unusual to see, especially in the middle of a dark night.

URBANO: And my dad said the kids at that time . . . they drank, you know, and um . . . Do you want to hear about stuff that they did, or . . .

SOLLIDAY: Um, oh, like the things that kids do, or, um, well, we don't need to go into too much trouble, detail in that, but, ah . . . Let me think. Well, why don't we just conclude here right now.

URBANO: Alright.

END SIDE TWO