Martinez, Fred

Part 1 was recorded in Tucson, Arizona on October 20th, 2022.  It covers the following themes: 

b. 1956 

A brief history of Martinez’s family in Tucson. Parents experiences downtown. The Blue Moon Ballroom. Family ownership of La Cabana, a bar on Meyer Avenue from the 1930s to late 1950s or early 1960. The Latin American Social Club and Urban Renewal. 

Childhood in South Tucson and sense of community in the 1960s. Walking downtown to see movies. 

School at Mission View Elementary in the early 1960s. School sports and funding. Teachers.

High school social life. Musical shows at the Tucson Community Center. Parties in the desert. Urban Renewal. 

El Casino Ballroom history, starting in 1947s. Musical performers in the 1950s. Early memories of El Casino, early work experience, dancing, bartending. KXCI concerts at El Casino during the 1980s.

Part 2 was recorded in Tucson, Arizona on November 17th, 2022. It contains the following themes:

  • Work as a pipefitter at Magma Copper’s Tiger Mine in San Manuel from 1975 to 1982. Experience underground, wages, strikes. 

  • Studying electronics at Pima Community College and taking a job at IBM. 

  • Description of the towns of San Manuel and Mammoth during the late 1970s. Mining shift schedules. 

  • Working at IBM from 1983-1985. Testing and fixing printed circuit boards. Cultural differences between mining and electronics manufacturing. Closure of IBM’s Tucson facility. 

  • Coaching daughters’ softball teams. 

  • A brief job at National Semiconductor. 

  • Work at the University of Arizona from the late 1980s to early 2020s. 

  • El Casino Ballroom ownership history. 

  • Destruction of El Casino roof during a storm in 1991. El Casino’s finances and board membership during the crisis. Repaying the organization’s debts and a nine-year effort to rebuild the facility. 

  • El Casino reopening in 2000. 

  • Impact of COVID closure upon El Casino. 

  • El Casino’s role in the Tucson community.

Aengus Anderson