Interview with Maria Delores Cruz, May 3, 2014, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ricardo Mora: Hello, can you introduce yourself?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Yes. My name is Maria Dolores Cruz.

Ricardo Mora: Date of Birth?

Maria Dolores Cruz: I was born August 10, 1939. And my name then was Maria Dolores Perez.

Ricardo Mora: Place of Birth?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well I was born in a little, well I was born in the country side, in a little town called Humble, Kansas. I was born in a company house in a cement roadhouse, right in that house, on August 10, 1939. In those days, kids were born at home.

Ricardo Mora: What are your parents' names?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well my mother's name, Maria Ofre Rolasina Reya de Perez and my father's name is Teothoro Perez.

Ricardo Mora: And what were your parent's occupations?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well my father, all his life, was a laborer. He worked for the Menards Cement Company for this little town, Humble, Kansas. My mother was home maker, a house wife, a mother, but she did work from time to time, cleaning houses, talking care of children, during the war she worked during war world 2. She worked in a processing eggplant to be sent overseas.

Ricardo Mora: Any siblings?

Maria Dolores Cruz: No, I'm an only child! I have a lot of "primos" a lot of cousins and a large extended family.

Ricardo Mora: Going into community activism, what do you define as community activism?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well, I'll define it as the way I see it. In the way that I have done it. A community activist is an individual who sees a problem or understands a problem of situation and gets up and does something about it, takes a stand. That's really what it is, you get up and do something about it.

Ricardo Mora: Do see any Latina activist that you were influenced by?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well it would have to be my mother, because even though she was a homemaker, she was really active in her community. She was one of the first women in our barrios to speak English and read and write in both languages, to drive a car. In those days women did not drive automobiles. I came a little bit late, she was already in her 30 when I was born, the first two years of her marriage living in that cement style road house she had helped a lot of the women, especially when there were baring children and when they needed a help mate. She also, during the war, she organized the women to work for the red cross and they would go an clean bandages a the red cross and the one year I recall she organized the women because they were selling single sewing machines so she encouraged the women of the neighborhood to buy single sewer machines and she did, and they all learned how to Sew by going to classes, but the most important organizing was during the war when practically every house had 1-3 service man in the war, except for us, because I was an only child. My mother even though she was not catholic, she organized rosary settings, at our houses or at another women's homes and that's what they would do every week and say the rosary. My mother wouldn't but she would read O her bible and what I would do during those times is that I would nap, think, when is the last time when 8-9-10 women saying the rosary at the time, you get sleepy when you are a child, but I can attest to the fact that she organized those rosary settings.

Ricardo Mora: How were you molded by her characteristics?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well she was busy all the time, doing things and helping people and she was just there, she was a good listener, very good listener. She was my model on how to give up yourself and be a service to yourself and other and it's what a community activist does.

Ricardo Mora: What ways did she mold your activism?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well she wasn't the only one, I have to say that. Because my mother-died when I was really young. My mother died when she was only 46, she went to visit Jesus and so I kinda grew up real fast, but I will tell you that when I was a child there was a man in my life, that man was Santiago Gorea. My grandfather lived, as well as my siblings during the Mexican revolutionary war. So my grandfather would instill and literally teach me "poesia" poems of the revolutionary war and the war of independence. He was the one that instilled in me, the level of history and culture and he began to politicize me of the reality of you know of the Mexicano and Mexico, the Mexicano coming to the states. The one thing that I recall my grandfather telling me and told that to me that night before he died, he was going to have an operation the following day, I was bout 12 or 13. He called me over and this is what he said to me, "Mija yo creo que este va ser la ultima mano en este guego" because he used to play solitaire. He played solitary, this was the last hand, he says, this is my last hand and then he said, but I want you to remember, don't you forget, first of all don't cry if something happens. I said ok abuelito, I won't cry and remember, "la mujer educada vale mas que un hombre," the educated woman is more valuable than a man. I thought about that all these years, why did he say that, to me. I was only 12-13 maybe he knew he was going to die and was not going to be there to guide me and maybe he understood that at some point a woman needs to take care of herself, at some time in their life. And then the third person that influenced me later on in life was my first husband, Dr. Salvador Flores, because I was with him every inch of the way during the civil rights movement and he emphasized education with himself, with me, pushing me forward, literally and with his three children. He devoted his life to the education of his family and the education of hundreds of Hispanic youth.

Ricardo Mora: So now, how do you identity, as a Chicana, Latina, as a feminist?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Ohh I am Chicana. No way, no way anything else, because I grew up during that time. Chicana, really is basically, a woman or a man, a Chicano, of Mexican decent that has been politicized. Who understands the score, who knows her history. And in in my case the language as well.

Ricardo Mora: So going into your activism and your work, what drew you to LULAC?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well when I married Salamon, at that time it was Mr. Salamon Flores, later he became Dr. Salamon Flores. But at that time we lived at Kansas City, Missouri. We lived in different places; I lived all over this country. This time we were living in Kansas City Missouri, and Salamon was a veteran of Korea, so he joined two organizations, GI Forum and LULCA. I was a tag along at that time so I didn't really know what it was all about, I was just a kid from a little town in Kansas, but I came to find out that this was an excellent service organization, he joined as a veteran, he went to the meetings. When we moved again, to Chicago, those were different times because that was in 60's, that was when the marches started to take place, that's when the riots started taking place in Chicago on Roosevelt Road. We became LULACers and the LULAC people took on the board of education of Chicago and those were rough times in the 1960s, they took them on, head on. Then after that we continued our quest sort of speak, we ended up in Ohio State, he derived his PhD and I for my master and then we ended up in Washington DC. That was when we really started involved with LULAC at the national level. That's were we started to get to meet all the hot shots, and everything. When we came back to Chicago, we continued our connection with the LULACers from Chicago and but there a lot of people from Indiana and so we continued our efforts there, mostly social events. When I came to Wisconsin that's when I became active in LULAC and LULAC, it wasn't little, our chapter was 9900, and we put on Fiesta Navidiena, we put on Mexican Fiesta for several years.

Ricardo Mora: When was that?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well, Fiesta Navidenia was 1980-01 and another 4-5 years and then in 1988, that was when we picked up Mexican Fiesta.

Ricardo Mora: What other issues in Wisconsin did you take up during LULAC?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Mostly it was organizing, the fiesta navidenia and fiesta Mexicana. But it a big thing about both of those is that we felt a need to create the Hispanic scholarship fund because we thought if we were to get involved in fundraisers and big events like fiesta navidana, there should be a purpose, rather than just having a good time, I mean that's ok. You know it's nice to have a good time but why, but why are we doing this, so the Hispanic scholarship fund was formed, but in so doing we were able to recruit many people from the community and join forces to put on these events and it takes a lot of people to run an event like Mexican fiesta a lot of volunteer time and we did a lot of organizing with the local people. I do have the original people through LULAC and the 9900, which I can share with you later.

Ricardo Mora: What were some lessons that you learned when being a LULACer?

Maria Dolores Cruz: A LULACer? Wow, there are so many, I can only answer for myself. When a group of people come together and are able to work well together, if not move big mountains, they can move things, they can part the waters pretty well and that is what I learned, when you get a group of people that can work together you can accomplished much.

Ricardo Mora: We are going to transition back to LAUCR and your perspective and the lesson that you learned from being in that organization.

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well, first I have to tell you how I heard about it. I was living in Chicago at the time, good old Chicago and my husband said, we need to go to this rally, this Chicano rally. Do you know how many rallies I have gone to, hundreds, I thought surely I can miss this one rally, no, no, later on I found out why, which I'll tell you here in a minute. So I go to this rally, people are from Illinois and Michigan from Wisconsin, all over, it was a big rally, it was in a church and they would have group talking and giving out information and so I went to this one group. There were these two gentlemen talking, and they were making sense, political sense, one of them was Arsiso Aloman and the other was Ernesto Chacon. I thought wow this is an interesting group; I guess I will just sit here and listen and they are from Wisconsin, La Raza Unida Party. They are talking about intervention, and talking about community involvement and direction action and all these neat words that spark my interest. And I said, that sounds pretty good, and later what I didn't find out that these two gentleman and other Chicanos were instrumental in recruiting my husband at that time to come to UW-M as a tenured professor, I didn't know that at that time, that's how that happen, that's how I found out about LAUCR. So when I came here the first day, I ran into Oscar Servada who was a volunteer, well actually he was on the board of LAUCR. He said to me, hey about helping me out at LAUCR as a volunteer and I said, yes sure you know lead me to it. And so he said, how about Mexican Fiesta? And of course that was interesting to me because I was aware of Mexican fiestas ever since I was a little girl in Kansas and my parents, my grandfather especially had been very active in Mexican fiesta and of course I wanted to work with Mexican fiesta and so I did, and what an eye opener that was, you never seen so many people working like little ants putting on this big show. I was involved in helping Oscar putting together the program, at that point we only had two stages and you know getting into groups to play, and now you have the big names Tigeres Del Norte and all those big groups. At that time we had the little groups from Texas coming up, and then they really wanted to encourage local groups to play and sing, so we had a lot of the little groups to sing from Wisconsin and the area to play. But the most important experience that I had with LAUCR was that Chacon instant that I work, and he was right, he was absolutely right, with a group of youth, to tutor. A group of tutors, these were high school kids and what they did was work with the toddlers and the elementary schools and their daily assignments, and my job was to coordinate the activities and go to the houses because we didn't want them to go unattended. Well those were some of my pungent moments of my experience with working with LAUCR, because essentially what it was doing, it was adults in this cause, the board of LAUCR putting together a program and giving time for a program where high School youth could literally, reach out to the tiny tots and pull them out. Can you see the connection there, the connection there, we helping each other, adults helping youth, youth helping children and those were interesting times for me. I am still friends with some of the tutors, to this day.

Ricardo Mora: Continuing with your activist work can you please tell me a bit about the senate seat that you were running for?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Wow, that was that kinda fell into our laps, sort of speak. In the third senate district, there was no third senate district first of all, but because of the rearrangement of the population it was decided, we didn't decide, the state decided, that there needed to be another district, the third district, which took in, much of the south side of Milwaukee. In that, no one from our community ever run for the state senate, a group of us got together and we said we should run somebody and they all turned to me and they said, it out to be you. I had never done anything like that, the last time, I have ever done something like that was when I was president of my high school back in Humble, Kansas. What did I know about it? However, at that time at 1982, there were a lot of thing not happing in the senate and something's that were happening that were detrimental to not only hispnanos but to the overall community. For example, business and industries were starting to move out of Wisconsin at that time, and the reason why I knew that for sure was because I was holding the position of councilor and administrator at MATC and we could tell that our businesses were mobbing out and the business of MATC was to train people for jobs. So you trained people for jobs and the businesses are no there, at first the O businesses were going to Texas, and going to the south because it was less expensive. But we all know that now, businesses aren't even in the United States anymore, and even then that was happening. We looked around our community and we said, our people are not being trained and are barely getting out of high School. So training, and four year colleges were very important and all that but in the meantime, what are you going to do to earn a living, so you learn a trait you learn something so that you can support yourself so that you can go on to college and support your family. Training became very important, and there is a line there, I don't have it with me, in the broacher that says something like this, we want to create an environment, something like that, out of communication around business, schools, training institutions, and the community whom they serve. Now that is the key item there, the businesses sometimes forget that there are consumers, and that in order to have a business, you need a consumer so that was, we kind of sneaked that in you know, that's important, that dialogue continues that we serve them. If we are going to have businesses, if we are going to have schools, we need to think of the people that we serve and how best to serve them, so it was jobs, training and education.

Because I was virtually an inexperience candidate I had not run for public office. I relied heavily on the staff that surrounded me and basically it was three people. Reoberto Sanches was my campaign manager and the other one was Salvador Sanches, who was also was part of the team and Cindy Numan, the person that kept the books. And these two men were actually Tejanos that migrated through the migrant stream over here to Wisconsin and the important part about these two, and the Community, is that these were veteranos, of past political campaigns, specifically with the Raza Unida Party. Those were rough and trouble politics, and these are the people that surrounded me, and these are the people that guided me. I as a good student and I was always a good learner and I am pretty open to suggestion and what's best for you know, I was pretty reluctant to go, to run, because what did I know about that you know. Do you know who the opponent was, John Norquest, who later became the Major of Milwaukee. He was holding his seat in the assemble so that meant that he had all his ducks in order, he already had his campaign set up, he already had monies, and his father already had a legacy in the South Side and everyone knew the Northquest so who knew me. That didn't hold us back and so a group of individuals came together across the Chicano Community, let's call it what it is, it was Chicano Community, the veteranos came together, men and women, that have been in other campaigns and other areas. The thing that was interesting about coming together not just the people came together but at that time, in Milwaukee, there was not a block of voting hispanos, yes people were voting but people weren't taking it seriously as they should have there had been two other races before that, running form Donte Navaro and Narsimo Aleman and they had done really well because they had brought out the vote and Narsismo lost by a small a small amount of votes I understand, so that who idea was to coalesce the Latino vote and we believed we did that. I don't have the numbers right now but I want to say that our campaign took about a third of the vote, maybe a little under a third, that wasn't bad for a new person, a new kid on the block. But it wasn't just a new kid on the block it was a new groups of kids on the block, that was important on the south side and you know why I knew it was important on the Southside? One day we were all gathered, after were out campaigning and doing our thing and we gathered on Campino Rollal which was 26 and national. We were all there, I won't mention the name of this person, it doesn't make a difference anymore, but this individual, very influential on the south side, not a hispana, nota mexicano, or chianaca. She said to me, are you sure you really want to run? I said yeasure, well politics on the South side; get nasty, I said, ok. Well I lived in Chicago so I know how nasty politics can get, and all of a sudden, it dawn on me, she is threatening me. And I thought to myself, what's in my background that is so terrible that I should know about, what's so terrible? So she says, Northquest has a powerful you know, coalition. I said, ohh I already knew that. And then I said no, I will not be intimidated I will not, that is just that is just, a tactic to discourage. And then it dawned on me, why are they worried about a bunch of Chicanos coming together you know, in this little campaign. Well now we know why right, because we are the fastest growing population in this country, because we now already have a representative in the assembly. And we will have a person in the senate and we will have someone from the Milwaukee area going to DC and it is going to happen. It may not happen in my life time but it will, in the generations to come. So that was the most interesting story of the campaigns.

Ricardo Mora: Can you speak more on other Latinas, Chicanas during that time?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Ohh gosh there were a lot of influences. So many. Salvador and Rigoberto probably because I saw them everyday, and Ilma Guera who at that time lived in Madison. She was a camarada of mine, a migrant worker, she was very, influential in my life, one more personal level, Anita Martines who had been in the marches and had been in the other activities like LAUCR Latin American Union for Civil Rights, she and her husband were greatin supporting me personally. There were, Tatos Martinez who worked in MATC, Rodolfo Martines is his name. Oscar Serveda, who was my colleague in MATC. All of these individuals were very supportive not only on a personal level but also passing out leave lets and having fundraisers, taking me places because you know, I needed to be taken places to be introduced, because what did I know, you know. So a lot of people came up to bat and help me out.

Ricardo Mora: Did you get any push back from other Chicanos or part of the movement?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well it wasn't push back it was more, I remember one gentleman, they were upfront. They were candate. One gentleman, I can't remember his name now, came up to me, he said, Maria, I am really glad that you are running and all that but you know I am going to vote for Northquest anyway. And I said, that's ok, I said, if that is what you want to do. And then he said, which a lot of people have said before. He has a track record and yea I'm sure a lot of people did that. On the other hand other than that women who literally tried to intimidate me, most people were really open, I had support from Puerto Ricans, from the Indian community. Someone had figured out that I received from the Native American, when I say Indian I mean Native American population. Apparently something of our campaign something that we were trying to do made sense to some people.

Ricardo Mora: So we just finished talking about your platform and experience talking about running for Senate, so we wanted to move on to your writing. How has your writing tied with your experiences with being a Chicana?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well let me begin by telling you that I can't remember when I didn't write. I was always writing, even as a little kid, in 8th grade school. Half of that stuff I don't even remembered what it happen to it. In series, in keeping what I have kept and documented, it probably started when I came here, to Wisconsin. By that time my family had family decided to settle down in Wisconsin, because we moved around. And for Stability in places where I was able to store my materials and that type of thing. The thing that interested me most about my writing was, writing about women, and, for a lot of reasons. Probably because of my mother, because of my own experiences, you may not know by listing to me on and on, but I am a good listener. And I found that women found comfortable coming to talk to me. I wrote a letter to my daughter on her 16 birthday, I have wrote short stories about women that I have heard their stories, a grandmother in Texas who was meeting her grandson for the first time when he came back from Vietnam, this is a true story, I wrote a story, about Sergio Servera's mother, those few human beings that area truly a beautiful spirit filled woman. So I wrote about her, I never meet her by the way, I heard about her through my husband Juna who knew her, and other people that knew her, the beautiful soul she was, to honor the spirit of this woman that I have never meet. Then there is this story about a women in Texas this is a true story and it's a short story about the last day her and her husband spent together, here on earth, and you can image how to the so try ends. So I have written, that's the type of thing, so I have written about men and so when I married my husband Juan Cruz and he died only after seven years of being together. I wanted to honor this man because you see, in this society we don't honor men and women that are bells on their fingers, toes or something, rings on their fingers and something on their toes, well people who are out there in front. Often times we forget that man, that father, that husband who works for 30-40 years in the same plant as a laborer who all he knows is to take care of his wife for his kids and then one day he gets cancer and he dies. So wanted to honor that man, and so I wrote, I wrote a story, a story about love, and it's a story about my life with Juan Cruz and it's called Breath Interlope. I mention how I net him for the first time and yes you do fall in love in first site, at least I did. And we lived together and we have lived happily ever after, even if we don't share abode anymore on earth, we are still living happily ever after, So that story is confidential and I hope someday, I have shared it with his family and I would like to share it with other people, because we need to reinforce the positive action of men and their families. That's one story, but I have written more, shall I tell you more, the last thing, the big, big thing that I have written is called Life under the Shadow of a smoke Stack, and it's my story living as an adolescent in this cement road in Humble Kansas during the, well when Jim Crow Laws were still in effect. We forget that that was only 50 years ago. And my little town is an hour away from Topeka Kansas, where Brown VS. Education took place. There was a KKK just 40 miles away from where I lived, born and lived, I mean we lived in the Oklahoma border where sign read, whites only, Mexicans couldn't enter. Mexicans had to sit in the back of the buses and movie houses because we weren't white. And in some places in Kansas there were still segregated Schools, as early as the 50s. My first husband Salamon went to a school for Mexican kids and that wasn't that long ago, and there was a school for whites and a School for blacks. So you know, my first experience from getting run out of a restaurant was in Topeka Kansas, the first time, when I was a child, my first time that I was told to leave a theater because we didn't know where to sit, my mom and aunt had taken me to a theater in Nebraska, they told us to leave. And we left, they told us to sit somewhere else, I remember Crying, I was like what, 3-4 years old, but I remember. I remember my aunt holding me, and this is what she said in Spanish "ya no chilles, awantate" don't cry, suck it up, that's the first lesson you learn, you suck it up. Well you know what I am not going to suck it up anymore, I said, well when I got older, so my writings are about people that take stands and will not suck it up anymore. But that's not the only writing that I do, I also write, I wrote a eulogy for my first husband, Dr. Flores which was printed in the newspaper. I wrote a eulogy my uncle, second War World 2 veteran, who received a medal for his heroic act. I wrote a eulogy for a friend of mine that recently died, Arnita Martines, a teacher for the new school. I have even written little plays, and fables that that based on a joke; I can be inspired by our conversation if I so inspired. And it's just putting down on words, Something that sparks an action in you and that book Life under a showdown of a Smoke stack, I hope someday to have that published because it is, we call it a waylla, a footprint of Mexican families in this dusty little town that provided the labor force an active labor force in this little town for 72 years and out of those 12 families, there were more than 12 families. There were more than 12 houses so there were more than twelve families, but in those 72 years those Mexican families provided 50 men and women to the military and out of those 50 men and women, who went to war, we are talking about war, Herogima, DDay invasion we are talking about Vietnam. Those wars, only one died, they all came home, except Eddie, Eddie didn't come back, well he came back, he came back in a box but all the rest of them came back. Maybe that rosary setting was, paid off. That's about my writing.

Ricardo Mora: What promoted you to teach?

Maria Dolores Cruz: I can't remember not teaching. My mother would say, little junito or little Maria, or whatever little kid was there, living next door is having a difficult time reading or at School or whatever, go help her out. Nad was just a kid, just myself and maybe in 3 grade and I was already teaching someone how to read or writing or helping them. And then at my church, I was a Sunday school teacher for years and we had to do it in Spanish and later on I learned how to play the piano, and then there was always someone that wanted to learn how to play the piano, so I would teach the kids basic skills. As a grew older I realized that teaching is a good gig and I like that, so I became a Spanish-English teacher, mostly because I love language and love literature. So I taught for several years for as long as I could, I will be real frank with you, teaching kids especially high school kids. I taught, my first teaching gig was at Niles Township North when they just built it, it was bran new, bran new and I taught Spanish and English there. That was my first big job.

Ricardo Mora: When was that?

Maria Dolores Cruz: That was in 65-66-67.

Ricardo Mora: What made you teach? Did you see a need to have a teacher, to have a mentor?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Why I wanted to get into teaching? Well I did it because it needed to be done, it goes back to being an activist, you know. When there is something that needs to be done, when Someone needs some information, you know when someone needs to be taught a skill, then you do it, later on however, I began to see, yes you can teach people how to speak English and how to speak Spanish and how to play the piano, and you know things like that. At what point do you teach people how to think, how to process information, how to, how to develop their own learning skims, I began to level my way of teaching, I took up my level of teaching. But that came afterwards and I think through my writing I am teaching too.

Ricardo Mora: So we are going to transition into the current activism that you are working on, Now that you are retired are you still able to engage in community work?

Maria Dolores Cruz: We recently I have not been out there, I am pretty much reclusive as much community work. I have concentered on my writing, and I do a lot of outreach work through Facebook with my friends, and family, my Facebook family and friends and I try to post on Facebook, not long entries but short entries that have a political tinge that have a historical aspect to it and in the case of my family, information that deals with our own family background. So you see I am still teaching, and in the past few months, I didn't want to get started on this but I am just going to say it, the heads of racism. Which have always been there, really came out during this last campaign. It was so hateful it was so out there, that I became insist, and I began to read more and more, and more about history and more about American history. Right now I am reading the first volume of Sandburg's the Civil War, the four big fat volumes and the things that I am learning about the things that I am learning about how it even began.

Ricardo Mora: What campaign are you talking about?

Maria Dolores Cruz: The Obama Campaign, that was such a lethal campaign, and it was, yeah, it, it was, I just have to read more and investigate more about what was really going on in government. About what was going on the democratic and republican party, both parties all of that stuff and so I am determined that I am going to, subtle maybe not subtle ways to leave some kind of a way or footprint to say wake and See the footprint that is happening in this country. Now I just read something just today, did you know up to 1952? Legally only white people could vote, legally, 52, that wasn't that long ago. I was a teenager then, it's actually on the books. It was never intended for us to ever vote, never, never. Anyway continue.

Ricardo Mora: That can lead into some of our other questions. What was one of the most radical things that you have worked on?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Well hang on to your hats. I have always been a low and order person you know, take her by the books. I have failed to tell this to you, backing up now. The first book that has ever influenced me in-my life was the bible, every person in my family read the bible. My mother, father, grandmother and aunt and uncles would go to church and would have bible for Sunday school and bible for Service and bible evening service, that's that you did. Summer church groups, the camps, bible youth. That was the first book that I have ever read. And so I am not going to tell you bible stories, but that is a heavy duty book. You know, there are some pretty good stuff in there, some good morality stuff in there, morality plays. Shakespeare has nothing on the bible, those stories are really good. And so the influence and the way that you think, the way I think, law and order rather than just justice for all and all of that. Well in 1990 I became involved with a little church group called Bethel Church of god with non-other than Rudy Borego and most people knew him firm Milwaukee. Rudy Borego himself was a very successful restaurant owner, they had several restaurants, but he went to prison before that, so he set up a prison ministry and he would take catered food to this particular prison, it was in fox lack a little north from here. And so fine that was good, old brother, that's good what you are going and he said Maria, you should come with us. I said, to the prison? He said, yea. But I am a woman. I said, but that is a man's prison. He said so what? So I went, now I have read the statistics and that there are laws against the poor many of the inmates are Hispanic, blacks and poor people. All of that is true, I know all of that but It wasn't until I went with the pastor and don't you know that I got so involved that I had a two year prison administrative position at fox lake. That was the most radical thing that I have done. What did I learn, I learned a lot more than in those two years that in these men have families and they have children, they have extended family and once someone is in prison it affects the whole group of people. And these men were no longer just inmates behind the cell bar, they were human beings. So that was perhaps of all the things that I have done in my life, and I have done a lot of things, probably for me, the most radical. I only lasted two years, every time you go into one of those places, it's as though your energy is lifted and goes away from you and you come out empty. You reenergize and then go back, put then I know men and women who have been in prison ministry for years, years, I don't know how they do it.

Ricardo Mora: What is the most impactful activism you have worked on and why?

Maria Dolores Cruz: Never thought I would do this, after my husband died, he died January 27, 2006. I was devastated and because he was in hospice for several months and I took care of him for 10 long months, he was the love of my life. I loved him so much. I loved him so dearly, we loved each other so dearly. So I did what any other Chicana would have done, I ran away. I ran away, I sold my little house and I put my things in storage and I went to live with my daughter for a few months. I packed up my car with my belonging and I drove back to Kansas, back home. I had to go back to that hot, little town where I was born. I actually went back to Humble, Kansas and got an apartment. I said, I need to recoup. And I walked those streets again, I went to my high School, I visited an old friends and family. I took long walks on the river walk, they have a little river walk. Then I got to meet, ohh I went to the cemeteries all the Cemeteries, Several of them, where a lot of friends and families are buried. I went back to Humble, the little cement road town where I was born. It wasn't there anymore it was gone. And then I heard a story, that story, which is true, so affected me that it made me so angry and so hurt that it made me want to do something. And here is the story. Many men and women came to live in Humble, Kansas because of the railroads, the railroads were the opening of the waters sort of speak, to come up north, after the revolutionary war of 1910. And the railroads contracted, the United States railroads contracted with the Mexican government to send over these families. And you know they lived in boxcars, many of them, most of them. So by 1918 this little town in Kansas already had a little Mexican families living there. I varied when I went to talk to the priest having me check the baptismal records and the marriage certificates, I verified that that they were there. And what happen, anyone hear, the flue of 1918, yea, it killed a lot of people, a lot of people, all over the word. And it didn't miss the workers. A woman that lived in one of those box cars, Dofia Maria Ramires, was my next door neighbor I grew up knowing her and her family. Her first husband, I can't remember, I have it written down somewhere, he was one of those workers, she came down with the flu, as some of the daughters. When she came out of this frantic state, she asked for her husband. And the little girl said, two little girls, we don't know, they took him away. What do you mean they took him away? Yes they put him on a flat car, well in those days they use to have a flat car, I think they still have them, the railroad did, they put him on the flat car and took him away. I said, well what happen to him. We don't know what happen to him, years later, the two girls tried to figure out where he was buried or where he went. So when I heard that little story, I said, there must be something on it, so I went to the archives of the little library, micro fish, none of this fancy research you guys are doing. I was looking for obituaries, there were African American buried, there were Native Americans buried, there were white people buried, of all bodies and shapes, no Mexicanos were listed in the obituaries, having died, where did they go? So started asking around, and it just so happens that one of my cousins worked, taking care of the big boss of the Menarc Cement Company and at that time he had already died but she knew someone that worked for him. I don't know if it was a care taker I don't know, when you are wealthy in this little town you have a lot of people working for you. She says well, I those days, when people died, we didn't really know what to do with them, and they probably buried that man in the quire, the cement quire, and so I thought, the cement quire? Have you ever seen a cement quire, its huge, it's like a big pit, and they big it and cover it up. I don't know where that man is, but every time I go across that quire, I think, I wonder if he is here and how many more of the Mexicanos are buried in that quire. And then I said, no, no, no, no, no, something has to be done to honor the Mexicanos that lived in this little town. What to do, what to do, what to do? So talked to a lot of people took a lot of notes, I went to a lot of cemeteries, took pictures. So I said, you know what, I know what we are going to do, if there is anything that Mexicans have, its pictures, we all have pictures, we all have pictures, and I don't know how this idea, se me enclave, se me priendo el foco, the light went on. We should have a pictorial exhibition in Humble, Kansas as many of the Mexican families as we can identify and find. 30 something families responded, we rented a hall there, it was the church hall. We put up booth and tables, these people, you see Lola's memoirs there, they did a similar thing with their families. Do you think of the exception of my family, everybody had an American flag with their men and women in the service. Ohh man, what a way to honor those people. The company boss at that time was the son of the man, the boss of my mom and dad and all that worked for him. He, the son was there. I didn't tell this to many people, I said, and I have it here. I want share with you the purpose of the pictorial exhibit, at least what was on the flier. "To honor the Mexican men and women who lived in this little town and worked and worked in the plant, but what I really wanted to do was to call attention the labor the impact that the Mexican families had on the economic status of that little town. 72 years of men and women working in that cement plant. That's a long time, a so we honored them, I believe that that pictorial exhibit probably had a lot of impact, what do I mean probably, of course it had impact. The young man that died in the service, Eddie, and I have written about him, in my story, Eddie, was the only one that had died from all those men and women, his dad has been with that paten, the general, but his father came back alive. I remember going to Eddies funeral, and the family called me the day before the exhibit, one of the different sisters, she said, I was reluctant to put anything up, ever since Eddie has died, we have not mourn the passing away of my brother, my brother has died, my father never got over his death, my mother is in a nursing home. She still Cries about Eddie, sometimes I see my brothers and sisters, sometimes I don't, but I tell you what, I'll bring his picture. I said ok, we ill being a table for him, so my daughter being my daughter, most of the tables had gray or blue table clothes, she put a white one for him, well let me tell you, I had a picture of the Vietnam wall, where I was pointing at Eddies name, and that was on the table. My daughter, someone brought an American flag, his sister brought a picture of his uniform, then she brought his uniform, his gear, and they were hanging there and We put a Cross and it was right as when you walked in the door, first thing you see is that table, you can go around this way or around that way and he went around that way. All the other tables had these boards with all the pictures and the kids playing in the summer time, and then it was a beautiful board. Then there was this solitary table and because most of the people in my home town are catholic, and it was a catholic church, people would go by and they would stop in front of the table and do the sign of the cross and they would stand there, just quickly, and they would pay homage to Eddie. You know what happen, the whole town mourned Eddie, that whole town that came to see that pictorial exhibit. That evening, it went on for two days, the next day, I guess it was Saturday, we were cleaning up, and his cousin, Paul Jimenze was talking to me, and was a Vietnam vet also and came home. He said Lola, thank you so much having this, how in the world did you do it, you did it on your own, because I did, I paid for it myself. And my cousin helped, who in the world did you do it, I said it had to be done. He said thank you for honoring my cousin Eddie, and then he said, what a waste, what a waste Eddie's death was. I couldn't figure out that statement, so later on I am talking to his sister, and I said, what was Paul talking about, a waste? Ohh Lola, don't you know what happen to Eddie, I said, no all I know is that he died. He just turned 18 and got into the service when we was 18. He was in his barracks, someone got confused, friendly fire killed him. So, he was a sacrificial lamb, and so I wrote about that, that was probably, if there is anything else that I do after this, in my life, I will be 75 in a few months, that's for me the culminating Chicana activist.