Interview with Anita Herrera, December 8, 2012, Madison, Wisconsin

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WRIGHT: Can you state your name, your birthdate, and your place of birth for us?

HERRERA: I'm Anita Castañeda Cortez Herrera and I was born in San Antonio, Texas. I started coming to Wisconsin at age six as a migrant child with my family and we migrated back and forth to Wisconsin for nine years and we stayed, I believe, in 1951 because my father became ill and we believed that my father could get better health services here. We lived out in Kenosha County. Racine, 00:01:00Kenosha County. Kind of borderline but it was Kenosha County. My birthday is March 12th, 1935. I'm 77 years old.

WRIGHT: And then to follow up, what are your parents' names and where were they born?

HERRERA: My parents were both born in Texas. My grandparents were born in Mexico. My mother was an orphan so I don't know much of her background but she was born in the city of San Antonio and my father was born right in the property we still own in San Antonio, Texas. That was left to him because he took care of his mother until she died so we have the property there. I have a sister living there now. We subsequently built another house next to it so there's two houses 00:02:00and a big lot. That's still where I was born.

WRIGHT: Okay, okay. Could you tell us your parents' names and. . .?

HERRERA: My parent's name was Ligorio Castañeda and my mother's name was Sara Castañeda.

WRIGHT: Excellent. Could you share about your siblings as well, their names?

HERRERA: I was one of nine. I was seventh down. There were six girls and three boys. And it was my oldest sister was Eduarda. She is still in a nursing home in Milwaukee. My brother next to her then was Claudio, Claude in English. He's up in Michigan, living with his wife, way up north. Then there's Dominga who lives 00:03:00in the house in San Antonio. My brother Martin died. And then there's me, that is where I am, the 7th down. I have another sister in San Antonio who lives with her several children. Then I have a sister in Utah who went to California and then moved to Utah. I don't know what she's doing in Utah. [laughter] I wish she would come back to Wisconsin or go back to Texas.

WRIGHT: Okay, thank you. And then just, what would you like to share about your family and your children?

HERRERA: We were a migrant family and I can recall from very early on, I remember very distinctly that I was working on a field behind a place in 00:04:00Kenosha. I can name the company. It was Snap-On Tools. I was more interested in playing with the tools than working. I was that young, I was nine. I remember saying at that time that I will not do this to my children. I will not have them work in the fields. I am going to go to school and I am going to have a better life. I graduated from 8th grade out in the county and had to take a bus to Kenosha for 9th grade. I had to take the bus very early in the morning and be the last one coming home, too. So my brother was very afraid because I had to walk a mile or so to the bus to get picked up. She told me once, "You can quit. 00:05:00I am so afraid and I am so worried about you that if you want to you should just not go to school anymore." God, you know, when I think about that. . . [laughter] No, I was willing to do anything to go. I didn't finish that year in Kenosha. We moved in during the first storm, a snowstorm. We lived in a very poor housing for just summer housing for workers. The history of the housing was for when they had the. . . oh, what were they called? Before the migrant Americans, they would bring people from Mexico in groups of men and they were housed in the houses that we lived later. We moved after the first snowstorm. It just frightened us and we moved with another family that had been a migrant family with us to Racine. I can recall starting school in Racine. It was the 00:06:00first time that I had gone to an integrated school of different people. It was a real surprise to me that I would come home and say, "Oh my gosh, mommy, kids were putting their arms around each other and they are a different color." [laughter] Yeah, I know, I'll never forget that because from then on, I got used to it and grew up. . . We lived in an inner-city area in Racine. And then finished junior high and went on to high school. So that's my background in terms of child.

WRIGHT: Did you want to say your children's names at all, or talk about them?

HERRERA: I got married and had five children. If somebody would ask me what's the proudest thing, what's the best thing you've ever done in your life, I've said my five kids. My contribution was five kids. My oldest son is a manager 00:07:00with SC Johnson in Racine. He used to be a musician so I paid a whole lot of money for a lot music instruments and lessons and finally he went to school and got a degree and has got a nice job now. Then my second child is a lawyer and she practices out of Racine and she's got a husband lawyer and they have two children. They go to Prairie School which is one of the nicest schools in Racine. Private school. So, both of them being lawyers, they just live a different life. My 3rd child is Karen and she's here. She has been teaching. This is her 25th year in the school district in Madison. My 4th child is my son 00:08:00in there [points to another room] and he was in the Army and he's done different things. He worked for Odwalla, which is a drink company. Now he's working for another company that delivers bread. My youngest child is a deputy in Racine County, for Racine County, and is out dressed in uniform and with guns on hips. [laughter] He just had twins about two years ago which we are really happy about and hope to see soon. We've seen them often but we're gonna go because they have a birthday, three years old, on Sunday so we're gonna go there. That's the story 00:09:00of my children. Great kids. They love their mom and I love them back.

WRIGHT: Thank you for sharing. So let's move on to about you: can you tell us about how you were involved with the youth tutoring program? The Youth Tutoring Youth program.

HERRERA: The youth tutoring program was a program under the career opportunities program. We were training teachers but at the same time we were supposed to seek out students. I would go out and find kids that wanted to do something in the future, anything, and work with them. We had a group in a certain school and another group at another school and we would talk about the teacher training program as well as other careers and just have conversations with them. We would 00:10:00train them so that they could work with other kids and share what we were. . . It was a youth tutoring program and they were supposed to become the tutors. We did that for a while.

WRIGHT: What schools were able to incorporate the youth tutoring youth program? I know you said that there were a couple of schools here and there. Do you remember any of those schools specifically?

HERRERA: No, I don't remember. But they must have been in the inner city in Racine. Racine has a very defined inner-city area unlike Madison. [laughter]

WRIGHT: Okay. Can you talk about why there was a need to improve personal responsibility for students in terms of their academic success?

HERRERA: At that time, you didn't hear a lot of an achievement gap as you do 00:11:00here. You did not see any professional people of color at all. And so the career opportunities program and the tutoring program was aimed at giving some direction to that area to making people of color successful and become teachers. We did succeed with teachers, the teachers that graduated from that program became very successful teachers in the district. There has to be more than that, besides that. I think they have reached retirement at this point and I don't know if there is anyone behind them that will take their place. So you're back to where you started. Maybe not, maybe some of those kids. . . More kids are in 00:12:00college from there. That's hopeful. I saw a lot of kids are in college from that city that were not there before. [inaudible] I am happy, I think some of those teachers made a difference.

WRIGHT: Okay. I hear you talking about sustainability and being able to regenerate people that are able to fill those positions. Could you talk about the importance of your academic success in the Latino community of Wisconsin?

HERRERA: My academic success in the Latino community in Wisconsin?

WRIGHT: I remember finding an article that had you listed as receiving your Master's degree from UWM and that kind of indicated to me that there was a connection between people needing to see that there were Latinas being educated at that level.

HERRERA: I went to college one year right after high school. I did it because a 00:13:00priest that I knew thought that I had a lot of potential. He took me one day and took me to the college of Racine, which was a Catholic college, where at the time, the nuns were running the college totally and the priest just took me and said, "Enroll her. We will find the tuition for her." I went for that one year. No one constantly just stays in there. I got married after that and had a family but always thought, I'm going to go back and finish. And when my kids were all in school, I went back. I decided, I'm going to go get a job at the college because I hear when you're there and you're an employee, you get free tuition. So, I did. That's when I became a receptionist of the sort. I was counseling 00:14:00students and giving them their grants, working in the business office of the college. And so I did that and got my BA and I already had five kids. [laughter] There was always a typewriter and papers and books on my dining room table. I think you become an example for your kids. My kids automatically think they should go to college and do something with their lives and have a career. When the career opportunities [program] needed a coordinator and the students were in that college that belonged to the career opportunities program, I was kind of a perfect match. I knew the college and I could come back to the school district and counsel those participants. Because with the career opportunities program 00:15:00and the tutoring program, we had to sit down with kids and participants and sometimes you had to push for funding their courses. I remember two or three times sometimes because the participants didn't really get it and didn't get a good enough grade the first time. We funded it again and again because it was so important to teach, particularly the fundamentals for teaching. If you didn't have a person like myself who believed in them and was saying, "Yes, pay that again, that is what the money is for." And I was one of those people, you know, sometimes the school district was very afraid to call Washington. Well, I wasn't afraid to call Washington. On behalf of the students, I would call and say, "I want to use this money. I got this leftover money and I'm going to take three or four principals to Minnesota to see open classroom operate with the students." I 00:16:00did that kind of thing. Washington was just somebody that could say yes to me. What else? So I did that sort of thing.

WRIGHT: I heard about how you were inspired by your priest to go to college. Can you speak a little bit about how that helped your activities in the community? I hear that there was kind of a close connection with transitioning from your education to helping others get educated.

HERRERA: I got to know that priest because we lived in the housing that belonged to the church for a while after my dad was in the hospital and we needed housing. My brother could drive the bus for the church and we would get 00:17:00rent-free. At that time, then, I started teaching catechism. And so I was teaching kids in the church after Mass. I had a class there during the week also. I got to know the priest from another community that was a lot Latino, they call it a Latino area, what do they call it. . . There's a name that they call it. . . It was kind of a barrio of all the Latinos concentrated, south of Durand, in that area. The priest found out about my ability to teach over here and he asked me to teach over there also. That's how I met that priest who said we're going to get you to college. He took me one day in the car and dropped me off at the college. That happened that way.

WRIGHT: That's awesome. So, from there, how did you get connected with the Spanish [Hispanic] Center?

HERRERA: The center existed way before me in different places of the city of Racine. After my career opportunity experience with the district, I got selected to the national. . . what is it? There's a certificate there [points off-screen] where I went to a national training program and it was paid by George Washington University in Washington, DC. They would place you somewhere for you to learn certain things in policymaking. It was policymaking. So, I went. . . Let me tell 00:19:00you how I got selected. At some point before working for the school district in the office, I was an aide in the classroom for my job during the day. I was teaching catechism but then I became an aide in the school district. There was some integration going on at that time so they were bussing kids from the inner-city out to the outer schools. I got assigned to one of the outer schools where those kids were coming. It happened that one of the principals, a very good principal and an advocate for the community, had a child in that kindergarten class that I was in. Thought that I contributed so much to his 00:20:00child and that the teacher had ignored him, and was upset about that but credited me for helping his child. And then when I was back at the district, he was part of this policy program in Washington, DC through George Washington University and they were allowed to recommend people. He felt very proud of me for helping his kid and recommended me instead of other people that were in the office that he could have recommended that had been there longer, even. Then I went to Michigan on this project for a year. I worked directly with the state superintendent who happened to be an African American. His name was Porter who then went to the University of Michigan as President of the University of 00:21:00Michigan. Not the state university, the other. . . That is how I got to Michigan for a year and commuted to Racine every two weeks. But it was a great experience and I was directing bilingual education throughout the state. They were behind so there was a lot of interest in the Latino community for the bilingual program and the bilingual administration at the state level because they would not use their dollars to do so. So, I developed a program that when you can't get something done then ask somebody for a loan. I got seven departments in the Department of Education in Michigan to help me implement the program. They all 00:22:00helped me. They were anxious to get going on this program because the community was after them politically. I am very interested in what is going on there because I can't believe what's happened there because they're very active, the community is very active. There's twice as many Latinos in Michigan than there are in Wisconsin. They were there, you know? Anyway, long story short, it was a great year and I came back. The district then offered me a half-time job teaching. That's Racine for you. [laughter] After I had done all of that, I didn't accept that. I needed a full-time job. I ended up commuting to Sheboygan. So then I was in Sheboygan. Commuted every day to do that job there teaching 00:23:00half-time and administering and writing a program for them half-time. Then the Spanish Center continued to move around and they had some difficulties and I wanted to come back to Racine so I said I'll take the job and I'll show you how to run it. I'm only going to be around for three years at the most and I will show you how to run it. That is how the Spanish Center came about. After I've been doing my big professional job and then the district offering me very little, I ended up at the Spanish Center. It was a great experience. It was a very loving experience; I would stay there forever from the love you get from the staff and what you do in the community. Where did I go from there. . . to 00:24:00the Governor's office? I think so. Governor Dreyfus wanted. . . there was a discussion about a minority desk at the state level. The Hispanics were fighting for a Spanish desk and the Hispanic males in the state. . . maybe I shouldn't be saying this. [laughter]

WRIGHT: We can definitely edit and. . . yeah. And you will definitely get a copy of this.

HERRERA: Oh, okay. Because the Hispanic males. . . Well, when I got the job at the Spanish Center, some of the Hispanic males from my understanding was, "She shouldn't have got that job, that should go to a male." Yeah. I didn't see what 00:25:00a big deal it was, because I could do the job. They would have meetings, regional meetings, and they didn't include me. The director of agencies would have meetings and they didn't include me. I didn't know that they were boycotting this office in the governor's office. I didn't know that because this was a discussion that was going on among them that they were pushing for. The Governor taps me for the job, no, taps me to be on a committee to develop the job. I said yes, and then they got to know me and then they offered me the job. Some of the people were very angry and told me, I won't tell you what county, but I'll tell ya, some people said, "We will not let her come to our county." I thought, how little do they know, this is a state job. [laughter] Anyway, it was 00:26:00fun. So I took the job then. I went from the Spanish Center. . . I was at the Spanish Center for about three years. I could have stayed there forever, I loved it. The people were loving there to work with. There were some people that were young that really are just beautiful to me now because we worked together and I inspired them to do more and to be successful. Oscar Milez was one of them. [inaudible] . . .I think most of you know. Oscar.

WRIGHT: Can you just speak about. . . I know that you helped develop what the Spanish center was doing and how it was going to be an effective program. What was something that you remember that you got accomplished in that three years specifically as far as. . .

HERRERA: SC Johnson somehow. . . You know, one time SC Johnson [inaudible] and 00:27:00there were three companies that kind of ran Racine in terms of policy. I learned that by being on the United Way board. They had just given us the building. That was a training building that they had established to do some training and the building was available so they had given the building to the Spanish center. And then they helped me. . . SC Johnson helped me, "This is how you run a fundraiser," they said. They took me to the office and loaned me somebody in the office to go get money to renovate it, to fix it up a little bit. They were helpful that way. I'm thankful for them because they consider me their friend in 00:28:00terms of being right in the neighborhood establishing the center. My feeling at the beginning of being the director of the Spanish Center was that it had gotten some bad reviews in the community in terms of public information. So I went in with the staff and made everybody be a promoter of goodwill for the center. I can have staff meetings where I told them. . . There were several staff people that would go out to meetings in the community and I didn't want them just to sit at a community meeting; I wanted them to speak out and be positive. Everybody has to have a positive message about what we are doing and what this is and we are going to stick to it and make it successful because we have bad publicity right now. Everybody followed my lead in terms of that. I made some 00:29:00cards, business cards, and everybody wanted their business cards, even the custodian wanted one. We made one for him too because any public that he met would be positive for that Center. We had a lot of fun and we were very close and very successful and then I left. [laughter]

WRIGHT: In that transition of leaving, how was the appointment process of getting somebody into the position that you had left?

HERRERA: There was a board that existed then that was representative of the community. It was a three center place, it was Racine, Kenosha and Walworth so I would travel to Walworth and to Kenosha all the time to run those centers. It was 00:30:00up to the board to decide who would fit. It became very political too for some reason; a lot of people had their own ideas on the board of how to run a center. So it was up to the board, I didn't have a role in that after I resigned.

WRIGHT: Okay.

PART 2

WRIGHT: Can you please share with us the beginnings of how you got involved with politics?

HERRERA: How I got involved with politics? Racine is a really [inaudible] town. You know, you gotta have [inaudible]. I was always involved in what was going on. I am a great reader, I read everything, especially news-type information. 00:31:00Those were my beginnings, the fact that I was in a labor town, and labor paper and instant education and so that was the base for my beginnings in terms of everything is related to politics. There is a political entity in whatever we do. I really believe that politics enters in. Racine is a very interesting place because my daughter ran for judge twice. She couldn't win even though she got lots of support. She is a lawyer but she often acts as a commissioner and a commissioner is like a judge. She would be a good judge, she had the experience, 00:32:00she has been a lawyer for a long time. She worked hard, had a lot of support, she just could not win. There are some places I think that are just so hard and Racine is one of them. The pity of it is that you do not see the leadership in the people that are in charge either. You saw leadership and I mean county supervisors, county director, mayor, and businesses that are prominent. They get together and try to keep the jobs in Racine and try to make it be more successful. Lots of closings like anywhere else and so there is no leadership there in terms of doing something that makes a difference in the community for everybody.

WRIGHT: Did you feel like you were able to make a big fill-in or step towards having leadership for voices that were not being heard when you got involved in positions in politics?

HERRERA: In Racine? Or statewide?

WRIGHT: Either.

HERRERA: You make some difference because there's young people that are listening and they go on to do good jobs. I think when I worked at the Spanish Center, all of those young people that worked around me were watching me and then modeling the things that I said and did and they become successful people. So that way you make a difference. And at the state level, you know how to get 00:34:00around quickly. At the state level, the government did not understand the Indian community. Right away I saw those who knew about it because I didn't either. I went to a couple of lawyers here in town who worked with the Indian community and they told me right away, the Indian community was like France right in the middle of Wisconsin. It's got its own laws, so you have to respect those laws as if it was France in the middle of Wisconsin because they were fighting about cigarette sales. There is some conflict right now going on up North, I was reading about it too, and so I had to go back and then advise the government 00:35:00that this is what it's like. We are totally infringing our laws on them and they got their laws by the federal government and this is their right. So that is our conflict. The Indian community understands that I made a big contribution that way to make the governor understand and the rest of the state. Understanding it because I went to the authorities that knew what it was about.

WRIGHT: So, I read about you being a part of the human rights commission. Was that a role that helped you be an advocate for multiple communities?

HERRERA: No, that was a commission that existed in Racine. A human rights commission. It existed, but they were supposed to do more hiring more Latinos 00:36:00and African Americans and they just didn't. They had one Latino employee and I was the Spanish Center Director. I saw it as my job to create jobs for Latinos and African Americans so that the operations, components of the city would be more integrated and there would be more leadership in that direction for young people. I set up meetings with the mayor to discuss the hiring of African Americans and Latinos. I didn't have a very good experience because he started 00:37:00talking to me badly about the one employee they had. [laughter] I remember telling him, "We didn't come here to discuss the one person. You have a bunch of," I forgot what I call them, "flunkies in the white community that are working with you too but we are not talking about them. Why do you want to talk about the one Latino person who hasn't worked out for you well, I mean, you got a lot of flunkies too, so don't talk to me like that, I know better." So then we went on to have a discussion of how to hire. They did not do any better but at least I told them how I felt.

WRIGHT: Thank you. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you were able to collaborate between communities, specifically the Latino and the Black community in your area?

HERRERA: I learned very early on from my first time moving to Racine and going 00:38:00to the first school that it was a mixed world that we were living in now, my family and myself. I accepted that and when I was in any job like the Spanish Center, I worked with Urban League and the director and I were very close, I was on their board briefly, I don't remember. To this day we are best friends. He is no longer the director. My world was an integrated world.

WRIGHT: When you were working with the Mayor and going in front of Caucasians or 00:39:00Anglos and making yourself seen as an asset to the community, how much was having bilingual abilities part of that and did they see that as an asset as well?

HERRERA: No, not at that time at all. It is beginning now to be more of an asset for everyone to be bilingual because of the population growth. No, at that time they saw me as a person of color, I know that. Beyond that I do not think they valued it in terms of having people that spoke two languages and have better services in the city.

WRIGHT: Okay. So, just as far as how you were advocating for more jobs for 00:40:00certain populations, what types of things did you do to make that known and who were you talking to, what conversations were you having around job opportunities?

HERRERA: The agencies in Racine were coordinated and we were part of the coordinated effort. In other words, all other agencies that service people came together monthly, the directors of those, and I was part of that. They were together in terms of what we wanted the goal to be, whatever it was. That model was later, I read about it later where the students tried to duplicate that model that Racine had in terms of the agencies. The Urban League, The Spanish 00:41:00Center, human services, social services, everyone would come together once a month and talk about an issue or talk about whatever we were doing so they would know what we were doing and we had a referral service to each other all the time. They would refer people to us and we would refer people to them.

WRIGHT: I want to get to how you were able to run for the Racine school board and can you tell us a little bit about how did the campaign go?

HERRERA: It was a lot of hard work because you go before. . . You run into races, I remember that outside of Racine, Franksville, they were having a 00:42:00candidates forum and some would call me and told me it had been canceled and it wasn't canceled, they didn't want me there. I found out about that. The union was all behind me and they had a truck and my name was on it, all over the city, huge, it was from here to the wall. It was fun, I would have liked to been on the board and make a difference because my primary interest has always been education and kids.

WRIGHT: Could you tell us who else, I read that the NAACP was a big supporter in getting you onto the school board?

HERRERA: I was friends with the head of NAACP and I was a member. I remember his 00:43:00name was Julian Thomas. We were friends from working together through our agencies and I was a member of NAACP at the time and so they knew me. They got to know me and they supported me.

WRIGHT: That's great. Afterwards I read a little bit about how you transitioned onto the public defender board, can you tell us about how you were appointed to that position?

HERRERA: I don't know what connections I had to the state at the time. It was 00:44:00the first board. I had to get off of it when I became appointed to Dreyfus' governorship because he supported public defender, public money going to defend people and so I had to get off there. I got offered a couple of things working for the governor that I really enjoyed. It was the first board and they were looking for a mix of people. My name was pretty prominent, I guess. [inaudible] That's how I feel.

WRIGHT: Yeah, yeah.

PART 3

WRIGHT: Could you tell us about your involvement with Governor Dreyfus and how 00:45:00you began with him?

HERRERA: I was invited to be a part of the committee to develop the job because of the discussion throughout the state about a minority initiatives desk or a Hispanic desk. Hispanic desk didn't get any discussion; it was a minority desk at that point. I was on the committee, so they got to know me from meetings with the committee and then they asked me to come in and interview for the position. Dreyfus and I hit it off. We were both academic-oriented and pretty frank and chancy at the time and he took a risk type of thing and so he offered me a job.

WRIGHT: Could you tell us about some of the things that you worked on and what things you felt were successful while you were on board with Governor Dreyfus?

HERRERA: It was the first time that committees were appointed from throughout the state to advise the advisor from different parts. I had a Hispanic group of ten, African American ten, Indian and Asian and pretty soon I needed an assistant, so I hired an assistant and I had a secretary. The Indian thing was a major thing in terms of helping Dreyfus. Beyond that, I think the biggest thing that happened was a lot of people found out about state government and because we had workshops with each agency with the advisory councils involved. The heads 00:47:00of those agencies would talk about what kinds of jobs were available at the state level and what kind of work was done out of that agency. People from Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and throughout Madison and that found out more about the state government and what it does, and so that was major also. Beyond that, I did a lot of work representing Dreyfus in the different communities when he couldn't make it, I was assigned to go and meet and greet people on his behalf and thanked them for being there and apologized for Dreyfus not making it there. It was a great experience for me and it was fun. There were about 34 people in 00:48:00the office and when he decided not to run, jobs were very hard to find at that time, it was 1982. I was 1 of 4 people who had a job right away before his term ended. I went and did weatherization. I was director of weatherization, it was a job in my hometown in Racine so I was back home and had a job. Then I got recruited from there. I have always been grabbed for this or that from where I am and offered a chance to look at something different. It was nice to have a 00:49:00job. Because of my Spanish Center experience, they were 8 million dollars behind spending their money and they were so afraid because they did not know how in the world they were going to spend 8 million dollars, I spent that money so fast, I knew everybody. [laughter] I knew everybody in Racine, their service area was Racine and Kenosha and I knew all the Spanish people and everybody in the world in the agencies and everything. I quickly made some forms up to get people to apply and visited basements to see where we could put new furnaces and windows and doors. We spent that 8 million dollars in no time at all and I hired contractors.

WRIGHT: Okay, so was that part of your weatherization position and so that relates with upgrading housing or facilities?

HERRERA: It was energy savings and it was issued by the commission at the state level to make efforts for the unity entities to do conservation so they had money through those agencies to the companies. It was great fun. I enjoyed it, I learned a lot. I hired contractors, it was administrative. I developed all kinds of forms to get things done. Once in a while, I had to go to a real awful basement to decide we can't service you because we can't get in here because the space between the door and the furnace is that big [shows with hands]. I had my windows and doors done with a contractor that I used to have a lot of 00:51:00contractors, you find out how a business works. I said to the contractor who put my windows and doors, "Give me a bill, how much do I owe you for my windows and doors?" "For what?" they said. "For my windows and doors." "What windows and doors?" As far as they were concerned, they didn't exist. I was the director, I gave him a lot of jobs and he wasn't going to charge me. [laughter]

WRIGHT: So that was definitely a part of you having relationships was being able to give opportunities?

HERRERA: Yes, to a lot of people who knew me and I could tap people to identify people who to that service. Just amazing how that works well in Kenosha and Racine.

WRIGHT: Can you just speak a little bit about the differences of your education in the community versus your academic education because I am hearing that they definitely connected a bit but your learning on the ground as you are going 00:52:00about working in different positions, but the value doing of doing work in the community, could you speak a little bit about that?

HERRERA: My schooling was pretty easy for me for some reason and I was able to be in school and do a job when I was working through my BA and my master's. It was like a nightmare because at the time I had five kids and I would have to travel to Milwaukee to work on my master's and come back after my work. That way it was a challenge in terms of time but my dining room table was always full of 00:53:00books and my typewriter was on it. My kids would watch TV while I would do my homework. I think it was an example for my kids too, for them to be successful, to go to school and do what Mom did. The studying part, the content of courses was not difficult for me. It helped to get it done. [inaudible] [laughter]

WRIGHT: Just speaking about your outside education through working with people, 00:54:00what were some of the training that you look back on and say that this is something that was very important to me getting familiar with doing a better job?

HERRERA: Yeah, I had relationships with a lot of the agency heads throughout the city from our coordinated meetings. When I go back now and I was at some reception not too long ago where one lady that worked with me at the time said, "You are the biggest loudmouth." We were talking about being advocates and trying to get things done in Racine and she said, "I remember I was like you, being a big loudmouth, but you always beat me, your name was always in the paper or you were always getting a headline or something." I thought that was 00:55:00interesting because I didn't see myself as that, I just thought I was doing my job.

WRIGHT: Did you want to speak a little bit about your passion for doing the work in more than just your job and how it was something that you did more from a place of feeling that it was a need versus something that was connected to your career?

HERRERA: I was always being asked to go speak to classes at the college or at the high school. I was always glad to do that for young people because I love young people, I guess, and I loved kids. I substitute [teach] now. I've been known to substitute in some schools for a long time, sometimes lengthy assignments. My kids are always quiet and they always walk through the halls 00:56:00quietly when I ask them to and I talk to them. They are in line ready to go and we're not going until everybody is quiet, so they are all quiet. I said we are not going to touch things in the hallways when we walk and were are not going to talk, we are not going to run and we are going to walk real straight and just get there, okay? "Everybody ready?" "Yeah." "Listos?" You know, sometimes its bilingual classes. "Listos? Listos." And so we go. Everybody marvels about Anita's class, "How do you do it?" I talk to them. I talk to them. I have always been able to identify with the young people. I am doing this project because of the young people. I didn't want to give it time because its Christmas and I do a lot of service. And I told them. But I'm going to do it because of the young 00:57:00people that are involved.

WRIGHT: Can you please share with us your involvement with Nuestro Mundo?

HERRERA: I was involved in the initial planning stages, I believe. It was thought out and then presented to the school district administrators. I was with a group in the planning process and to that point, and then I think I started substituting at that time and did some substituting for a while. It is hard work.

WRIGHT: What subject or can you speak about what is your area of teaching?

HERRERA: I am totally bilingual in English and Spanish. There were doing. . . I 00:58:00can't recall what they were doing initially, I don't recall but there's a method that they use. Like at some schools they speak English in the afternoon and Spanish all morning, stuff like that or sometimes. The idea with the Nuestro Mundo is that they were going to involve non-Spanish speaking students, English-speaking students, so they would become bilingual also. They were very, very strict about how to start out. I remember having some sort of bell that I had to ring when I had to change what I was going to do and follow that completely. They were behind but it was very successful. They had great parent involvement, unlike any other school. Parents are totally involved and very 00:59:00supportive. We had a waiting list I understand also. It has been shown that kids succeed like none of the other schools that were very integrated.

WRIGHT: I would like to move into more about into how you grew up and identified, when race became something that you needed to address and whether or not gender was something that was a challenge for you in moving around and becoming affiliated with different organizations?

HERRERA: If you know Racine and [inaudible] Street, it is totally integrated and almost I think considered the inner-city. Initially, I had been in 9th grade 01:00:00when we moved into Racine from Kenosha County. I went to the four inner-city schools that were targeted for extra assistance because of the achievement of the students at those schools. There was supposed to be some movement, I don't know how it happened. I remember identifying with the fact that I had gone to one school and then I moved to the other school but they were all one of the four that had the most movement and had the lower achievement level. I was so integrated into the community where I lived, as a kid, that I don't remember seeing a difference between people. To me, people were people and I embraced everyone that was around me. I don't remember having difficulty with anybody. 01:01:00The comment about "Anita wants to hang out us because she thinks she's black", it was one of those times when I went, "What?" You know? [laughter] But otherwise from kindergarten through 12th grade I was involved in integrated classes and integrated groups.

WRIGHT: Okay. How did you feel about the Chicano movement as it was happening? Was it something that affected you in being able to have more of an identification with certain groups, especially with Latinos and Chicanos?

HERRERA: I didn't identify with it. I think that was a kind of a male thing in Wisconsin. I wasn't involved in what you would call the "Chicano Movement." I 01:02:00was always aware that the numbers were increasing over time in terms of the Latino students in the schools. The integration was there in terms of the Racine schools very early on and I was in the classrooms where those kids were, pretty much. I didn't see any differences. To me, kids were kids. There are differences, I know, and we have to accept that, so I don't want to say that totally. For me, in terms of acceptance and getting along, but the Chicano Movement was something that was out there, for me I really I cannot speak to it and say I was part of it.

WRIGHT: Is there anything that you would like to comment about as far as groups 01:03:00like La Raza Unida Party or the Brown Berets that are kind of connected with the Chicano Movement and just being on the outside looking at how they may have been a part of the community?

HERRERA: No, the only group that was in town was the more national group that were Latino, but I wasn't a part of that, it was the same people that were together all the time. But I wasn't a part of that.

WRIGHT: Could you tell us just a little bit of some challenges you might have faced as a woman and creating relationships or maybe being kept out of certain arenas? Could you speak to any stories that you may remember and how you 01:04:00overcame them?

HERRERA: The one experience with the governor thing was there between the male and female, you know, myself being a female. If we wanted to get something done when I was with the school district, I would pair myself with the aggressive black woman and we would get something done. One time the principals met, there is an example, we were going to do a day of learning, one of those staff development days where you are not in the classroom and the principals would meet and meet and meet and they couldn't come up with what to do. This African American woman who was a head of the Head Start and I was in her office right 01:05:00next door where the career opportunities program, we just got together and said, "Okay, this is what we're doing." Between the two of us, I said, "We are dividing the schools this way and we are getting a speaker, we are getting a Latino speaker, we are getting an African American speaker, and we are getting other two speakers whoever they are, we are dividing the schools this way and we are getting a main speaker, they are meeting to hear the speaker and then they are going into their classrooms to discuss what they heard and discuss among each other and come out with some things that might be helpful for us to integrate better." It was solved. It was like teaming up and I have to say she was a strong one. You know, the African American friend of mine who worked with me to do that.

WRIGHT: Can you speak about on what it is you are most proud of in terms of your 01:06:00work in the community and what things that you may want other people to know are still needing to have work done in those fields?

HERRERA: I am most proud of if I make an example or a model or something for young people who were going to become leaders later. I am most proud of that because I have seen some of them. When they see me they welcome me with open arms and it's nice to hear that I modeled for them at some point. The other thing that I am proud of is that I have always been able to work with a lot of different people, handicapped, any race. When you get a child who is handicapped 01:07:00in the school and you work with me, they are calm and accepting of me as a teacher, they don't fight me. I have been able to walk into a class sometimes when there is four or five handicapped kids and they quiet down and the other teachers are amazed at the fact that they behave so well for me. There is something about identifying with you, I think as a person of color and my demeanor, I am not there demanding anything, and I am going to work with them and they're going to work with me.

WRIGHT: Would that have anything to do with your expectations of what their abilities were, because you are speaking a little bit about how there was a 01:08:00different demeanor between how they responded to somebody else and the way they were treated from that person versus how you were relating to where they are, who they are and what they are there for?

HERRERA: Yeah, it has a lot to do with your expectation and your respect for them and expecting that they are going to do, that they are going to work with you, my expectation is positive, not giving them orders before I even sit down or raise my voice. Kids sometimes walk and I am assigned to kids who are handicapped and we work together real well. I feel sorry because the kids want me to come back. "When are you coming back?" I have been there for other classes 01:09:00and they see me walk by and they holler at me, "You are supposed to work with us, why aren't you working with us?" Yeah, I feel bad, I am assigned where I have to go. It's the expectation, your demeanor and what you expect from them. You have to meet them where they are.

WRIGHT: Is there anything else you would like to tell anyone else about the importance of your work?

HERRERA: You have to work hard and you have to treat everybody with respect and you have to deal with people with being people and you have to have fun. I enjoy what I do and I laugh, have fun and tell stories to some of my coworkers and so 01:10:00I have fun doing what I do. And so that's part of it.

INTERVIEWER: When you said the Chicano Movement was a male thing, what did you mean by that?

HERRERA: Well, the examples that I had in Wisconsin were that there was a male thing because of being left out from meeting with the group of agency heads at the time. The agency heads that were Latino men, all of them, would have meetings to compare and to talk or whatever you do as agency heads and I was never invited and I was an agency head in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth, for god's sake, it was three counties. I was never invited. I didn't know that they were boycotting the Governor's office about them wanting the Hispanic desk and 01:11:00the governor wanting a minority desk. Not knowing that, I went in and helped them develop the job, no one told me, and then in the end they got to know me and offered me to come in and interview and in my interview with Dreyfus, he hired me. I identified with the Chicano Movement nationally when there is Chicano stories about the Chicano Movement and I would read all that, I believed in it but I wasn't invited to be a part of it in my state or in my community. To make that clear I am positive about it in terms of information and some of the good stuff that might come out of it. I would read it.

WRIGHT: Thank you for spending time with us and we definitely appreciate all 01:12:00that you have done and we look forward to being able to continue moving on a legacy that you have set an excellent example for.