Eighty-four years ago this week, this Mexican American labor organizer led one of the largest strikes in Texas history and was arrested and blacklisted for her trouble.
Published: June 30, 2021
Artist and fashion designer Agosto Cuellar recalls growing up on San Antonio’s West Side in a home that was often packed with family eating and playing together, noise and vibrant conversation a constant. Out-side, the vivid sights and sounds of the historic neighborhood shaped his view of the world and have continued to influence his work, including his latest collection, Barrio Folk Baroque, which showed in New York and Paris.
“I lived in the projects and remember it as my formative years,” Agosto says. “As a kid, I was enthralled by the vatos with their tattoos and wife beaters and the girls, all chola, with their heavy makeup, sitting on the hoods of cars playing `70s music. It was a village of all people of color. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of gang violence and families fighting with each other, but it was a much simpler time… Sometimes it’s very subtle, but (the West Side) is always present in the work I create.”
In 1938, Emma Tenayuca helped bring Texas businesses to bargaining table
Patrick Danner, Staff writer
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Emma Tenayuca led the pecan sheller’ strikeFROM LAS TEJANAS: 300 YEARS OF HShow MoreShow Less
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Emma Tenayuca led the Pecan-Shellers Strike of 1938 against wage cuts.Courtesy UTSA Special Collection / Courtesy UTSA Special CollectionShow MoreShow Less
San Antonio has never been known as a strong union town, but it was the site of a major uprising by laborers in 1938. The 37-day pecan shellers strike involved as many as 6,000 workers, largely Hispanic, and is regarded as the first labor victory for Tejanos and Mexicans in U.S. history.