Scope and Contents From the Collection: When UH’s Center for Public History and the University Libraries collaborated to create the Houston History Archives (UH-HHA), part of their mission included a repository for oral histories that tell stories of the growth and development of the Gulf Coast region from multiple points of view. To that end, the Houston Oral History Project in the Center for Public History trains history graduate students to research and interview Houstonians with recollections of the city’s civil rights,...

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Judge Azios is a native of Laredo, Texas. This interview traces his life from Laredo, to the University of Texas, and to his unusual military experience who was sent to language school by the army and was later a Pow after the Battle of Bulge. He eventually escaped but futher related crossing paths with others men from Laredo while a prisoner.

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This interview traces the life of Judge A. D. Azios which includes his efforts at getting through college and eventually a law degree. He practiced law in Houston during a time when there were few Mexican American attorneys in Harris County. It also covers his experiences during World War II just after D-Day, his capture by German soldiers and his escape towards U.S. Army lines.

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Since the 1960’s Yolanda Navarro Black has been a long time social and political activist in the Mexican American community while maintaining a family restaurant business, Los Arcos. She has also continued a drive to provide shoes for school children. As a result she has served on several governmental boards as well as non-profit corporations that serve the community.

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Carlos Calbillo was part of the radical movement during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His represents the mobility of the era that sent him from Pasadena, Texas to California to work with Cesar Chavez in the United Farm Worker strikes and to participate in the Chicano Manifesto pronouncement in Denver.

His insights into the radical perspective and its accommodation with the moderate Chicano leaders is historically significant.

Scope and Contents From the Collection: When UH’s Center for Public History and the University Libraries collaborated to create the Houston History Archives (UH-HHA), part of their mission included a repository for oral histories that tell stories of the growth and development of the Gulf Coast region from multiple points of view. To that end, the Houston Oral History Project in the Center for Public History trains history graduate students to research and interview Houstonians with recollections of the city’s civil rights,...

Scope and Contents Felix Fraga was born in the Second Ward of Houston. This interview reveals his life in the barrio and the daily living patterns he experienced growing up there. He is one of Houston's most respected and well-liked leaders who sheds light on the stratification in Houston nieghbourhoods. Of particular note is the social relationship between Angols and Mexica Americans. Mr. Fraga was appointed to the Houston Independent School District Board and then served as a member of the Houston City...

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Mr. Jose Guerra is a local business man, a graduate of Texas A&M University. He is active in the Hispanic American Genealogy Society and as a result was able to trace his Mexican American roots into the early 18th century and establishing familial relationships with some of the earliest Tejano citizens including those who fought for Texas independence from Mexico.

Scope and Contents From the Collection: When UH’s Center for Public History and the University Libraries collaborated to create the Houston History Archives (UH-HHA), part of their mission included a repository for oral histories that tell stories of the growth and development of the Gulf Coast region from multiple points of view. To that end, the Houston Oral History Project in the Center for Public History trains history graduate students to research and interview Houstonians with recollections of the city’s civil rights,...

Scope and Contents

Bob Nicholas is a native of Beaumont, TX. He is currently practicing maritime law in Houston, TX. He worked for Exxon Shipping Company in the 1970s and 1980s and was a "first responder" to the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Tanker accident in Alaska. Nicholas is also an expert on the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the oil spill legislation that resulted from the Exxon Valdez incident, one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.

Scope and Contents Tom began working at Gulf Oil in the early 1970s on international, mainly West African oil. He later worked as a financial manager for Gulf Oil headquarters in Houston in the late 1970s and finally moved to Lagos, Nigeria in 1982 at the height the “oil crisis.” He headed up the finance department for Gulf in Nigeria until the Chevron/Gulf merger in 1985. At which time, he moved to California to work for Chevron. Tom is now a financial consultant for the oil industry in West Africa and has...