Carrillo, Eloise

Part 1 of 2 was recorded at Eloise Carrillo’s house in Tucson, AZ on March 5th, 2018 and covers the following themes:

  • Carrillo family history.

  • Carrillo’s childhood in Barrio Viejo during the mid/late 1940s. Neighborhood, community, entertainment, safety. Class and wealth of neighbors. Food.

  • School at Safford Elementary.

  • Moving into a newly built house near 5th and Campbell; division of rooms and live-in relatives.

  • Cultural differences between living in an upper-middle class Anglo neighborhood and the barrio. Sam Hughes Elementary, the role of testing at school, and lack of structured after school activities.

  • Attending St. Peter and Paul for middle school and Salpointe for high school.

  • Role of Catholicism in family life.

  • Family involvement in Knights of Columbus, Club Latino, and El Rio golf course.

  • Experience at Salpointe.

  • Family ties to Mexico.

  • High school social life: drive-in theaters, diners, slumber parties.

  • College at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles and the University of Arizona. Social life and diversity at UA.

  • Career options and parental expectations. Journey towards being a teacher.

  • Student teaching at Sunnyside in the mid-1960s.

  • Changing perceptions of teachers by parents.


Part 2 of 2 was recorded at Eloise Carrillo’s house in Tucson, AZ on March 19th, 2018 and covers the following themes:

  • Driving from Tucson to Los Angeles as a child in the late 1940s. Cooling water bags on the car.

  • Father’s interest in Tucson sports.

  • Carrillo’s stint in California and return to Tucson. Teaching certification in Arizona and employment at Tucson Unified School District.

  • Working mothers in Carrilo’s generation versus her parents' generation. Challenges of finding childcare while being a working single mother in the 1970s.

  • Carrillo Elementary School and family connection to TUSD.

  • Teaching at Keen Elementary and developing interest in becoming a principle. Agency of teachers to shape classroom activities in the 1970s. Division between Phonics and whole language pedagogies. Challenges of working with parents.

  • UA graduate degree in education.

  • First job as principal at Pueblo Gardens School. Changes in public education since Carrillo’s youth.

  • Work at Keen Elementary and Sam Hughes as principal.

  • Reflections upon public school education.

  • Becoming president of the Tucson/Mexico sister cities program and volunteering at University Medical Center. Carrillo’s intentional ignorance about the state of public education in Arizona after her retirement.

  • Reflections upon Tucson, community, and what it means to be from an early Tucson family today.

PeopleAengus Anderson