Campos, Armando

Part 1 of 2 was recorded at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on August 14th, 2019. It covers the following themes: 

b. 1950 

  • Family history. Raised by paternal grandparents. Growing up in Barrio El Hoyo before Urban Renewal. Family houses. 

  • Grandparents’ childhoods in the late 19th century. 

  • Campos’ childhood in the barrio.  Description of businesses, community, neighbors, and visitors.  Games: hide the belt, kick the can, tops, marbles. 

  • Working at the Elysian Grove Market in 6th grade.  Carrillo swimming pool.  Demographics of neighborhood.  Playing on El Tiradito. 

  • Growing up in a Baptist family. 

  • Taking Laos buses. 

  • Education.  Language at home and in the classroom.  Getting tracked into vocational classes at Tucson High.  Demographics of teachers and students. 

  • Range of where kids could walk on their own.  Backyard trees.  Building skateboards and going to Snob Hollow.  El Hoyo neighborhood identity.  Listening to Jacinto Orozco on the radio.  Television options in the 1950s and 1960s.  Local Spanish-language theater on TV.  Theater options. 

  • Lack of drugs until later 1960s, no gang activity.   

  • Shopping at La Calle.  Arcades. 

  • Family reaction to Urban Renewal. Condition of Barrio Libre and downtown Tucson on the verge of Renewal.  Reaction to being labeled “blight” by city. 

  • Family's displacement by eminent domain.  Experience driving through El Hoyo today. 

Part 2 of 2 was recorded at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on October 7th, 2019.  It covers the following themes:

  • High school in the late 1960s.  Being a conservative kid in a time of cultural change. Tucson High youth protests. Race/ethnic dynamics at Tucson High. 

  • Perceptions of the Vietnam War, patriotism, protest, and a generational divide. 

  • Enlisting in the Marines in 1970. Training in California. Traveling around the world. 

  • Return to Tucson in 1973.  Looking for a place that felt like home within Tucson, discomfort in Anglo suburbs. 

  • Experience returning from military. 

  • Neighborhood and community. 

  • Work at San Manuel mine for several months in 1973/4. 

  • Taking job at Fry’s Supermarket. 

  • Changes in supermarkets from the mid-1970s to early 2010s. Sourcing meats and produce, industry consolidation, employee retention, big box stores. Tucson’s high per-capita number of grocery stores. Declining pay of employees, compensated for inflation. 

  • Reflections upon retail and cultural changes over career. 

  • Living in the Campbell and Irvington area from 1977 to the 1990s. 

 

PeopleAengus Anderson