Leon, Mary Olga

This interview was recorded on April 24th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:  

b. 1930 

  • Father’s work at El Tucsonense newspaper. Growing up on south Stone Avenue across from the Temple of Labor. Neighborhood description, games, nearby Elías and Carrillo families. Description of Meyer Avenue. 

  • Attending St. Augustine Cathedral school for elementary. Description of the church in the 1930s/40s. Attending Safford for middle school.  

  • Family’s experience during Great Depression. Welfare. 

  • Stepfather’s work as butcher, local meat. Food. Description of mother’s day-to-day life at home. Walking culture. Dancing at Santa Cruz Church. 

  • More observations on life during Great Depression. Outbreak of World War II. 

  • Music. DJ Jacinto Orozco. 

[Oscar Leon joins the interview at this point.] 

  • Working at El Minuto Café in 1945 

  • Dancing. 

  • Santa Cruz River in 1940s and 1950s. Description of Cottonwood Lane. 

  • Tucson High experience in late 1940s. 

  • Olga and Oscar’s courtship and marriage. Getting a house. Marriage. Oscar’s family ranch in Vail. City expansion and traffic. 

  • Changes in clothing, shopping downtown in the 1940s. 

Aengus Anderson