San antonio was the pecan capital of the world and the pecan shelling capital of the world. The guys who owned the Big Companies had machines. They turned them off because they could get these mexicanamericans for nothing to shell the pecans in their homes. One of the things that really sort of illustrated who was where in that community at the time, a rabbi of Temple Bethel know, the rabbi before that, he was a cantankerous, radical supporter of the underdogs, and he stood up to the Mexican American economy workers. And not only did he talk to his congregation but he wrote a letter to the editor and talked about these rich ladies out in the suburbs and the fact that a member of his congregation was the largest pecan shell in the united states. With that one story, ignacio, you can sort of see all these different strands of people, hispanic, jewish, and so forth, in the play. And my family and their children, for that time they were pioneers in relations. My aunt frances, an extraordinary woman, was one of the first, when they finally had organized the Kennedy Center on the west side, she within their and what was the sisters name . Another famous woman, and the organized the First Community center in the westside. You kind of see how groups from the very, very different cultures had to Work Together if the city was going to overcome the kind of problems spent you mentioned rabbi frisch. I think interesting part of the story that you tell is when your family came to san antonio rather than become part of an orthodox congregation, they went in the direction of reform congregation and this was Temple Bethel. This was in the early days, right . Thats right. Temple bethel was organized in i think it was 1874. There were 18 families, almost everyone of the organizers of the temple were german, jewish immigrants from prussia, and so forth. So nathan and and hood lived in the ghetto in chicago came to san antonio. They didnt they came to san antonio. They wanted to be americans, and the way for jews at the point to assimilate, become americans was to go to this reform temple which had a couple of dozen members. And anna marched them all over. Temple bethel was across from Saint Anthony hotel on the park there. She marched them over, we want to join your congregation. And the ties of the people at that point, not only these jewish bankers and store owners, but the christian germanamericans were so important in the business development, and anna knew thats what she wanted to make her friends. Along those lines, i think a practical factor that went into this was that the orthodox, if they remained orthodox there wouldve been prohibition conducting business on the sabbath, is that right . Was that an issue . That was a very interesting issue. [laughter] because the storeowners, the peddlers who became the storeowners, saturday was a big day for business. And theres another character in this story with very distinguished descendents by the name of hurwitz. He wrote a book and alexander or woods book with great disdain talks about these Orthodox Jews who want to act like the uppity people in the temple. And he couldnt organize, he couldnt organize the group on saturday, because of the people that he wanted to study hebrew were busy doing business. But when Temple Bethel was organized, and again this is the story i think of what makes this community such a great community, i found the newspaper clippings from the 1870s, and the lead to the newspaper story, if this was the most remarkable gathering of jews, of episcopalians, catholics who all came together in the 1870s for the dedication of this jewish reform temple. And again, it says something about what was going on in the community. You know, and i thought about this this morning, and i read porter and im a reporter so im guilty, we are describing this country and describing its people as red states and blue states. In texas is a red state that may be starting to get purple and starting to get blue, but that misses i think what are the most important stories, and that is the story of families and what they did and have it figured out to get a long, which is far more important than whether they are right wing republicans or their democrats. I mean, thats one part of our lives that i think the most important part of our history, and certainly san antonio history. Its not these political allegiances, if theyre going to do something in life, if theyre going to earn a living, they had to Work Together. You follow the stories of those families. They come to america. They dont speak english. Now, my story, the story i follow with the trendy family, you look at what was the most kallison family, you can what was the most massive migration in this country, and its significant. I knew nothing about it and im reporter. Between 18801920, almost 25 Million Immigrants came to the united states. From russia, from eastern europe, from western europe. The Industrial Revolution was just getting underway. We are debating immigration today. Think what this country would have been if those 20 some odd Million People did not come to this country at a very critical moment. 2 million of them were jews. And it stopped in 1920. Very conservative people in congress decided weve got to me people in this country. They cut off the immigration. I dont know whether this sound similar to whats been going on today. [laughter] and the story of those immigrants i think is the story of this nation of immigrants in 20th century america. [applause] looking back at what you write about, and since i got was they were dealing, because people may be another parts of the city and other places where they were used the idea of shorter kids on the westside doing so well, there was some hostility that they dealt with and sometimes it was subtle and sometimes it was overt. I think the most dramatic story in the book takes place in 1939 with a racer and takes this enchanting she. This is against breckinridge. They were playing at breckinridge, correct . Why dont you describe what happened to . The schools had played two games before during the season, and they had each one at the other soma. And so at each others home. So the third game was really for the city chaffinch. Breckenridge had gone into linear. Enormity of new into linear and waking because lay near with very good at protecting their own core. But they did. It was a rather surprising the gymnasium was completely built. Linear me if i wanted taking it was over. Of course, they lost it and so the rubber match came up for the city championship. What was really interesting was that one of the things the players will talk about was that when they confronted the schools are outside of the west side of antenna, and effect is only one school, that was linear. They found that the sort of what they called the upper middle class schoolscompetitive described jefferson as. They pretty much, it was a lot of hardfought battles but there was a lot of hostility. But when they went to the schools like breckinridge and addison and highland later come was there was a lot of hostility. And i think part of it as the way i describe in my book is that the two communities come basically workingclass communities. So in essence they were competing for whatever resources are left over from those who are doing much better. And that seems to be in terms of the history of her country and that is different classes, summer classes often battle each other. So there was already some sort of i think when he went into game they were tied in terms of points scored and points given. Thats how close the game was. And so they went in and breckinridge had lost one of its top players. He got sick before the game. So at first breckinridge was a written in they said linear with david. Brackenridge came out and destroy. Are able to hold off linear for most of the game until is tied at the end. At that time he did a tradition of open. The first person who scores wins but you can imagine in a basketball game where whoever scores so you get the ball brackenridge got the ball, but they miss. They shot. They missed. The humongous mexicanamerican, and get a look at him, he was really well belt. He goes up, by one of the better players come best recognize because he would go on to be the leader of a team that does not win the city. And then he throws it to tony. Tonys daughter easy. Would you like to raise your hand . Well, tony was very small. He grabbed the ball and everybody must have just tony was the best player in the city, best player in the state. He went up. He drove, and is able to score the two points and immediately the game is over. And, of course, once that jumps up, screaming and yelling. The other side is stunned because they thought they had, lanier, theyre going to win. And brackenridge had always down the way to be lanier. When i was going to high school we could never beat brackenridge. So they were stunned. And at the moment of the celebration somebody, and we dont know it was, we dont even know the reason for. They couldve been a parent, somebody that was truly upset, wind and just hit tony in the back. And, of course, the players reacted, the fans reacted. So pretty soon you have an all out fight in the middle of the court. Well, one of the coaches grabbed tony, he scored. They might be going after them, so theres no record they went after them. But he sort of grabbed tony, puts them in a car and says lower your head, dont talk to anybody. And he said, he could hear people running and say, where is tony . Wheres tony . [laughter] they were probably teammates and others were not, and so he kept his head down. And so i would have to tell them the rest of the story because he didnt know what happened. But that riot, you know, and started in the fans in the middle of the court and went outside. And in some ways it is simply reflected attention in a city that was trying to work itself out. In 39 theres always a sense there was going to be war. It was a lot of things going on in san antonio. And i think reflected in that was the anchor and, of course, police cars had come in and be able to escort the lanier team and the players out of the gymnasium. The interesting thing about how it was reported, and i say this in my book, i think that had it occurred in lanier, the would probably have been covered more broadly. I think it was embarrassing for the city fathers to see the city chaffinch occurring in brackenridge and then having this riot. But i kind of wonder at a dont ever, you know, i dont know other than to imagine that it may have been seen as worse. Because there was this idea that you did go to the west side of santan west side of san antonio. Even when i graduated, some of those courteous, nice if kids. Maybe because i say the size ago you couldnt get away with misbehaving of weather was the gymnasium or at the school dance. So we were pretty good kids, but if that happened in the west side, it mightve been perceived as being sort of a more dangerous, more malicious. Ignacio, im a little bit older than you are, and i was one of those kids from the middle class, middle class in school playing football, basketball against the kids from the south side. And the westside, the kids from holland taylor, burbank, and i was in junior high school. And i got a great big lesson. We went over to play harlan dale in football, our team. I was a defensive back. We had cleats. We had uniforms. The harlan dale, this is late 30s, early 40s. The harlan dale kids were playing barefooted. They didnt have cleats on. And i spent however many minutes they allowed little kids to play a Football Game talking about these little, fast kids are your talking about. I was chasing them all over the field. [laughter] and i think the final score of the game was Something Like 426. They were athletes. Spent imagine if they had shoes. [laughter] spent one of the things that is interesting about the football, and lanier plate and they did very welcome was that lanier was the big teen. Which is really interesting as i looked at the articles. Because there were some very tough kids. And i talk in my book that its probably, a lot of these kids were working quite early as most kids were back then, working the fields. And so the lanier Football Team, not the Basketball Team but the Football Team was considered heavy kids, and they were very good, very dominant. They had several all cd players, running backs. And all cd players. I think they were considered really good players. Spent on that know we are going to take some questions from the audience, and i would just after we have a microphone to be going around but it got a question and youre called on, just wait for a second so we can get a microphone over to you. Back here. Wait one second and we will get a microphone. I actually have a question for both speakers. Could you tell us about the infamous iconic statue thats on the cover of your book and on the building still . And for dr. Garcia, how did the senate and newspapers cover lanier . With a fair or do they ignore them . The cover of the harness makers dream, i dont know how many people had seen this. [inaudible] okay. 100 block of south florida street. The building is better. My grandfather built it in the early 1920s. It was considered a real innovation. He called it a trend to block building, and it got praised kallison block building but it got praised the architectural magazines because they picked up the motive of the Old Spanish Missions but dont have done that. He put that on this building. Today, it is pretty well built. A day its a National Historic register, and there are people who want to restore the building, which would be wonderful because again thats part of our tradition in our culture. And its a wonderful building. I remember as, again, im a little boy, and they moved the dnc operations from the main store is now an annex to the san antonio public, san antonio courthouse, or county court as. That building is still there. Again, as children, and it was this kallison work ethic which went through at least three generations. When we were 11, our member being 11, 12 years old and we were sent over to that building to the feed and seed store to put feed and seed into little bags and to take care of these baby chicks that were running all over, and they didnt smell very good. [laughter] you know, they were actually quite fair and one of the reasons is lanier, before the other teams began to what they had some very competitive teams. You would find some of the sports writers, they wouldnt be politically correct today in terms, they would say they run around the players like little mosquitoes, or they know their basketball that are then tortillas. And they called the jim the chicken coup. But in a short time after nemo, nemo has the ability to communicate the style to his players how this post act winner of the. Once they started winning then they become the favorites, and every year for at least six years they are looked at as a favorite. So theyre seen as winners. Winter shoes we get better coverage. So at least the san antonio papers, and even the other papers, back when i was growing up he wouldnt imagine that there was anything nice. But one of the things that was very interesting they said, these guys know how to play basketball. And they invite the fans to go out and to if you want to get a clinic on how basketball is played, go see lanier. So i think the winning and their demeanor on the court made them quite popular, but there was one thing that i remember, one of the editors saying about this. So it showed how at times it was, it was just tenuous, and he said these are good kids, a great school when they act right. And so you never know what would have happened if they hadnt been as classy in their court. But over all you have to say in the style of sports journalism back then, they were treated very well. Up here. We will get a microphone over to you. My question is for dr. Garcia. Lets fastforward to the recent past. Lanier is quite successful in basketball and i recall thinking that lanier played i believe in the austin area against cedar park, perhaps, three years ago exactly. Theres a grandfather from cedar park. The crowd is chanting u. S. A. , u. S. A. And given that this is the recent past, we have a black president. How do you react to that . Very interesting because i was in the process of finishing off the book, and to realize come for me it was very interesting the reaction of both schools. Of course, the Austin School was very embarrassed to have a good school and they teach the kids how to be a. And i thought for the administrators of the people in lanier it was an uneasy reminder that there were still things that could bring out a certain sense of hostility because theyre also saying this is not soccer come and they were chanting arizona, arizona, which just passed senate bill 1070. And i think this is a very and comfortable situation that says theres still some tension. It sort of gets carried away because you are playing in the playoffs and its competitive, and sometimes when you react you grab onto whatever things you cant to throw at the other team. But i think its a reminder that even the sports brings it together and there can be a lot of camaraderie and good, that it also brings out the worst of us. Anybody gone to a Little League game will know what it can do. But i think it was a reminder that san antonio, and texas navigates a very difficult, and while we can praise a lot of aspects to it, we are always having to be vigilant that we dont cross the line and get angry. And you are seeing the lanier gets paid their hair blonde and, of course, only kids of course only kids in the school said oh, they are mocking us. So theres this sort of cultural misunderstanding. I dont how the reaction was when the mayor colored his hair blond because he didnt go to lanier. [laughter] good mayor buddy didnt go to lanier. So it does talk about certain tensions that are still there. I apologize will not go to get everybody. We will do our best. My father went to lanier in the early 30s. My sister taught there her whole career, but one thing i noticed in that group of 1930s graduates, so many of them went to war, stepped up. And san antonio doesnt realize how many actual heroes came out of the san antonio school. Its just unbelievable. The education they received, like the judge told him we were a very proud group of people, and they took that pride with you all throughout their life. And i miss kallisons. Spent. [laughter] the five pessimistic, the last state title team before the semester was over, all of them were serving, except one who went in a little bit later but they all served. And one of the players of the previous state title was killed during the war. So all of these kids, and nemo, the coach we take them come sometimes he would drive them over to the depot where they had to go out. So there was a lot of loyalty, and the book talks a lot about the war effort within lanier. So these kids were very committed to going and serving. Thank you for the. I think it is so important, talked about how people learn to get along. But its really important that we remember some of the history that involved not getting along. Those heroes came back from world war ii. They were jews, hispanic, and there was just one point that tells you a lot about where we were and where we worked werent. Hispanic, mexicanamerican hero killed in world war ii comes back to a little town outside of san antonio, and they refused to bury him in cemetery. He finally did get buried because, i think he was then a member of congress, lyndon johnson, lbj that into the act. And we shouldnt you know, you talk about, you know, we have our first black president. We have these two terrific young castro brothers who are representing us in congress and in the city hall. We have come a long way but we should not forget the discrimination. [applause] thank you. Unfortunately weve run out of time, adages wanted to ask you all to please help me thank Ignacio Garcia and nicholas costs for a great discussion nick kotz. Take you very much for coming. We appreciate it. [applause] [inaudible conversations] visit booktv. Org to watch any of the programs you see here online. Type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. You can share anything you see on the booktv. Org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. Booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. Booktv. Org. Booktv continues now with an interview from our college series. Professor Jacqueline Maria hagan sat down with booktv to discuss her book migration miracle. In the book she looks at the role that religion and the church fully in helping migrants survive the difficult journeys to the north. This is about 30 minutes. Unc professor Jacqueline Maria hagan, whats this picture on the cover of her newest book migration miracle . Its a cross. And its a cross on top of the mountain, and the amount is situated along the u. S. Mexico border and its symbolic of the many migrants who have died in their attempts to cross the border into the united states. Doing so without papers, without authorization. And as we know from come as you may know and the media has told us, the numbers of fatalities, migrant fatalities, are increasing. And i think this year there were 400 deaths incurred to Central Americans and mexicans crossg
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