Otero, Lydia
Lydia Otero (b. 1955) has been, at different points in her career, an author, historian, commercial electrician, and professor of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. She is a Tucson native and her family received the first Spanish land grand in Southern Arizona—that was in the late 1780s. Lydia is also the author of La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City. This interview is a little different from most of the oral histories we have recorded because it was taped in the field, as Lydia walked through the area of Urban Renewal in downtown Tucson. As you might expect, most of the interview focuses on downtown: Lydia’s memories of it as a child and her interest in writing about Urban Renewal as an adult.
This interview was recorded at the Tucson Convention Center on February 13th, 2017.
Part 2 was recorded at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on January 16th, 2020. It covers the following themes:
Growing up in Barrio Kroeger Lane in the late 1950s and 1960s: community, lack of city water, gardens. Construction of family house. Falling water table affecting neighborhood wells. Job opportunities neighborhood residents. Walking and neighborhood cohesion. Issues people did not talk about: sexuality, domestic violence, alcoholism. Heteronormative expectations.
Interstate-10 development and the isolation of Barrio Kroeger Lane from shopping and education. Depopulation of Barrio Kroeger Lane. City use of eminent domain to transfer residential land into the hands of private buyers.
Termination of school bus service to Kroeger Lane, walking to school, siblings and neighbors dropping out.
Otero’s interest in researching and writing about her own childhood. Discovering a newspaper advertisement in which Kroeger Lane residents—Otero's parents included—asked voters to oppose the freeway. Opposition of Stone Avenue businesses to freeway.
Fatalities on the freeway when it was at ground-level. Trauma of freeway in Otero’s family.
Importance of writing personal narratives when primary sources are scarce or destroyed. Otero’s experience in 1C, the Americanization program of Tucson Unified School District, despite being a citizen and native English speaker.
Being queer in Tucson in the 1960s and early 1970s. A passing acquaintance with a trans relative. Concern for mother’s reputation and the smallness of Tucson’s community.
Mother’s hopes for Otero’s future. Typing program at Pueblo High School.