"Chapter 09: Inspired by Family Members" by Louise Villejo and Tacey A. Rosolowski PhD
 
Chapter 09: Inspired by Family Members

Chapter 09: Inspired by Family Members

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Description

In this Chapter, Ms. Villejo describes why her grandparents and parents served as inspirations and role models for her work ethic and personal values. She explains how these generations provided models of strong women and people who worked together and provided services to their communities. She recalls her father’s inspiring reaction to white flight from their neighborhood in the Third Ward of Houston when African American families began moving in. He refused to be part of that and decided to keep the family in the community.

Ms. Villejo recalls reactions to her gender and ethnicity and comments on her parents’ support for her ambitions. She tells a story about her father giving her a briefcase to take to grade school.

Identifier

VillejoL_02_20150521_C09

Publication Date

5-21-2015

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Personal Background; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Experiences Related to Gender, Race, Ethnicity; Funny Stories; Women and Diverse Populations; On Texas and Texans

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I’m Tacey Ann Rosolowski. And today is May 21st, 2015. The time is about twenty-four minutes after 1:00. And today I am in the Historical Resources Center Reading Room interviewing Louise Villejo for our second interview session together. So I wanted to thank you for coming in.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Thank you.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And we strategized a little bit before the recorder was turned on because you sent me some thoughts about some things you wanted to cover from your personal background that you felt were relevant, with particular relevance to your focus on diversity and some of your commitments in that area. So I wanted to make sure that we had a chance for you to talk about that. You wanted to talk about your family. So please tell me about those important influences in your life.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Well, I’ve talked about my parents and how obviously they had an impact on my life and things that they were involved with and the way that they raised us. And also we were very close to my grandparents, and was very lucky that my grandparents lived a good long time. My father’s father was from the Philippines and he grew up in a very tiny island, and somehow joined the service and traveled around the world and ended up in San Antonio.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What’s his name?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

His name is Mario Villejo. And my dad is Mario Villejo, Jr. And I mean family lore is that he changed his name from something else, but I haven’t really tracked that back to verify what it might have been before. But all his brothers that also came over, they were all Villejo. So I guess they all changed their name, if that was the case. So he came to San Antonio, and that’s where he met my grandmother, and she was from Port Isabel, Texas, which is a very small town, used to be much smaller, right before you go across South Padre Island. And we have a very large family there. And they’ve been there for several generations.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

That’s right, you mentioned you were fourth or fifth generation Texan.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

On both of my grandmothers’ sides.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And your grandmother’s name?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Her name was Flora Barrientes.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And would you spell the last name for me?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

B-A-R-R-I-E-N-T-E-S.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Barrientes.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

And so they had five children. But my grandmother had a son before she was married to my grandfather. And he was killed in World War II in a submarine. So I didn’t really ever know him. I just saw pictures of him. But anyway both my grandmother—my father’s mother and father were a very very powerful influence in my life. And my grandfather because I was or at least I felt I was his favorite, and he would always single me out and tell me all kind of stories, and he would always be giving me books, about a lot of different things. He was very—I guess it’s strange now when you look back at it. But he was very much into meditation, Transcendental Meditation. And he would go to a retreat every year, I remember, in California.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Did you think that was odd at the time?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

No, because that’s all I—I mean that’s what you knew, right? And so if you got up at night or as a teenager when I would come in late, he would be meditating. So you had to be careful not to bump into him. (laughter) Because he would be cross-legged in the room. So he did give me a number of books about that kind of thing. And so I was thinking maybe that’s part of my interest in health and mental health, because of that influence. And he was a very very peaceful soul. I never saw him—of course I knew him in his later life. But I never saw him get angry. Never. I mean he would just laugh at things when people would start getting riled up. So he was a really great influence. And then my grandmother was the matriarch of the family. And she had as I mentioned six children. But she raised many more than that because the family would send her people that were getting crosswise and she would straighten them up. And then—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So she was a strong disciplinarian too.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

She was a strong disciplinarian. My grandfather was definitely not. [ ]. I think with my dad’s generation she was that person. But I mean you could go to her house and there would just be people coming and going all day long because that was the center of the universe for her family and a lot of people. And she would always be cooking. And it just amazed me because it didn’t seem like she was cooking much, but it fed everybody. And there was stuff left over. So it was like how does this work, I don’t know. But again that is an influence as far as having a big family and caring for people and just being supportive I guess. She was very supportive of a large extended family.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Was there anything there about—she seems like a very strong woman. I mean was that a kind of role model for you?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. She was a role model. And she always had a little fun glint in her eye. So it wasn’t like she was stern or taciturn or anything like that. She was—you knew that you didn’t get out of line, but she was a lot of fun. And she was the oldest of four sisters. And she moved from Port Isabel to San Antonio, so that again is a really big thing back in that time, to move by yourself, and I think she had a child at that time, to a different city. That probably was a really big thing back then.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Brave woman.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Mm-hmm. She was great. And my grandfather was ninety-five when he passed away and she was eighty-seven. And so I was very lucky to have them for a long time in my life. And my other grandfather, my mother’s father, was Basque. So he was from Spain. And he came over when he was sixteen through Ellis Island and his father had come before and had—I would really love to know the detail about how they came across the country. But my great-grandfather went to Elko, Nevada. And then my grandfather met him there when he came over. And I don’t know how much longer it was. I guess I could look it up because if you go to the Ellis Island archives you can see the boat and you can see their name on the list. And so I could probably find out how much before his father came over.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What was your maternal grandfather’s name?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

His name—well, they called him Pete, but his name was Primitivo. Like primitive with an O. And Aramendia. A-R-A-M-E-N-D-I-A. And I was about six when he passed away. So I do remember him. He played dominoes a lot, I remember. Of course you know your grandparents in their older age. And then my grandmother. After I grew up I felt sorry for her, because she was very much an introvert, and she had seven rowdy children. (laughter) And I just can’t even imagine having seven kids, number one, but you just rose to the occasion back then.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And her name?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Her name was Aurora.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Oh, extrovert. Top the charts on that from the tests that I’ve taken. (laughter) I’ve seen that. So she actually—let me see, 2006, she was ninety-eight when she passed away. And she lived alone up until the last year she had a stroke. But she was probably very very happy. (laughter)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, being on her own.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yeah, being on her own. And of course she had her kids come visit her and family and so forth.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

How did she influence you, and your grandfather Pete?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Well, she was very sweet and very giving person. And when it came to it she would stand up for herself. She lived in a small house. And so on holidays of course everybody would descend on her. And she’s used to being alone, and then she has seven kids and all their kids. And everybody’s in this little house. And my mom’s oldest sister was—they called her Sarge. So I’ll let that speak for herself. And she was telling my grandmother something about how to make beans. My grandma always had—we called it the magic pot, that she always had a pot of beans. And my aunt was trying to tell her something about how to make beans. And my grandmother just turned around and she goes, “I think I’ve made a couple of pots of beans in my lifetime.” (laughter) So she was quiet but she would get her point across. Just a really dear lady. And like I said my grandfather, I was about six when he passed away, but I remember him being very kind. And he would always give us dimes, which was great big deal back then. And played dominoes a lot with us and the family.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, it sounds like you have a very large extended family and made a community within a community. We were talking about community last time.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yes. I think that definitely made an impact as far as—and especially back then there weren’t a lot of services for people. And so like my grandmother took in—one of her cousins died and she had nine kids. And the kids just went to different family members. My grandmother was about fifty at the time and she took in two young girls to raise. And that’s just the way that it was done. I mentioned I had family members with health problems and you just took care of them. It wasn’t like let’s go to the clinic here, there, and everywhere, or get services for them. So that definitely had an impact as far as collaboration and just being supportive of people, because she was very. And opening your house or being ready to work with different people in different ways.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

You mentioned also an instance when you were in grade school of your dad. Your family was living in the Third Ward.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Oh, right.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that experience.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

So we lived actually just right down the street from here. If you go down—well, it was La Salette and—gosh, now I’m going to blank. Go straight down Yellowstone. If you go down Yellowstone right down 288, you’ll come right two blocks from where I used to live. And so we moved there. I think I was in kindergarten. And so it was mainly Anglo neighborhood, sprinkling of different people. But at one point—and actually there’s a TV movie about this. It was more in Riverside with the big houses over there off of MacGregor, it happened there too. But in our neighborhood I think it just came from the south and went north or maybe it happened all at the same time. I’m not sure but—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

This was in the early ’60s?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yes. It was in the early ’60s and all of a sudden every house on our block went up for sale. And it was because blacks had moved into—I don’t know where, not on our block. But moving into the neighborhood. So it was just ridiculous. And at that time I think my sister was probably about three or so. And so we had been—because I would go with my mom. We would look at houses because we were going to move into a little bit bigger house. And I just remember my dad said, “No, we’re not moving now,” because he didn’t want to be part of that. And so that was a very strong message to us. Even though he didn’t like sit down and talk to us about it. But we knew that he was not going to be and did not want to be seen as a racist. And I mean I remember people would come up to me at church. And so that gives you two minds, because here you’re taught love one another, everybody’s equal, blah blah blah, but then when it comes down to it, it was very powerful. And at that time there was unrest and I don’t remember exactly what was happening. I know through when I was a teenager there was unrest also. But I remember police cars like going slowly through the neighborhood. And I was going a couple blocks away to visit a friend and they stopped me and said, “What are you doing here? Where are you going?” And I was like well, I’m going to visit a friend. But I remember like—I don’t know if it was a rifle or what. A gun sticking like up. So understanding why my dad didn’t want to move at that time but also knowing that my mom is a stay-at-home mom. It was probably a little scary for her too. I didn’t know all the dynamics. I was very young. But I think that was a powerful lesson and I’m glad that he did that.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Sounds like it really stayed with you.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

We got to be friends with the people that moved into the neighborhood. I mean it was not a big deal. But back then people were just crazy. And the same thing happened in that area off of MacGregor with the bigger homes. And there’s a documentary about that.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Really. Wow. So I’m seeing—last time when you talked about your college years you talked about the diversity, minority organizations that you became part of briefly. The Hispanic ones. And I can see how that very early, you had an awareness of race-related issues and seeing someone take a stand on that in a very profound way. So that’s a very interesting piece of your own background.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yeah. And I know when you watch it now on TV that was just in the ’60s. I mean really I guess it was that long ago, but then it wasn’t that long ago. And it wasn’t that we were not touched by racism. I mean I knew that the expectations from certain people of me were very small. I heard—I mean probably into my fifties they would—little Mexican girl. That was what I would hear.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Really.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yeah. And—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I mean from family members or outside family?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

No no no. It was like a racial profiling kind of thing. In high school when I first went to the high school that I went to, the classes that I was put in, I was like this is like way too easy. And I went to talk to the principal about it. And so she did move me. But it was like junior high school I remember somebody said, “You should be a beautician, that would be something really good for you.” And I was like I have no interest in being a beautician. What is that all about? And so you get that feeling early on what the expectations are or what they’re not. But my parents always supported me to do anything I wanted to. And I told you my grandfather gave me books. My dad, in first grade I was carrying a briefcase. (laughter)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Dad gave you a briefcase?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yes. I mean grade school, I carried a briefcase. It was hilarious. Now that I look back on it. But I mean I have pictures.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Do you still have it?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

No. I probably don’t. But I have pictures like your first day. You got your little briefcase. And then backpacks didn’t come in until after I was out of college. And on my bike I don’t know how I did that. But I remember no guys wanted to carry my briefcase. (laughter) It was too heavy. Of course I had to fill it with books.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

That really conjures quite the picture.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

I know. Well, so I knew what my dad’s expectations were. And I mean I think that’s another reason that I really got into the sciences and liked that more. Because it was the expectations that you took the hardest thing. And I really liked the art and the social studies and that kind of thing. But it was nonverbal expectations. (laughter)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Absolutely. And there’s an intertwining thing. On the one hand there’s your ethnic heritage. But then there’s also the fact that you were a girl. And girls at that time, I mean I remember saying, “Oh, being a teacher, an elementary school teacher is a nice thing for a girl to do.” There’s no sense that you look beyond and aspire. It was just the air you breathed, the water you drank.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Exactly. Well, and I think that it’s really funny that I didn’t want to go into a traditional teacher, nurse, or whatever. And what do I do? It’s a combination of the two. (laughter)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. But you made your own path to it too, which is cool.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

Yeah.

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Chapter 09: Inspired by Family Members

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