Vindiola, Cecilia

Part 1 of this interview was recorded at the Richard Elias Library in Tucson, Arizona on April 7th, 2022 and it covers the following themes: 

b. 1946 

  • Family history. Father Angel Vindiola’s experience in World War II. Mother Anita Amarillas’ life in the mining community of Rosemont. Grandmother Luz Amarillas’ loss of family lands to mining companies. Grandmother’s experience with the Gadsden Purchase. 

  • Childhood. Education. Language. Mexican identity. Mentorship from Adalberto Guerrero and Hank Oyama at Pueblo High School. Parents’ attitudes towards Vindiola’s college ambitions. The economics of college. Work study. 

  • University of Arizona experience in the mid-1960s, academic and social. Getting tracked. Studying in College of Education. 

  • Family celebrations, social life, chores, gender expectations. 

  • Description of South Park neighborhood in the 1960s. Cultural crossover between Mexican and Black communities. Mother’s volunteer and social work. 

Part 2 was recorded on May 11th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Taking a job at Pima College Institute in 1970. Relationship to teaching and 1960s youth culture. Changing academic culture at Pima. 

  • Participation in a class action sex discrimination lawsuit against Pima College. Termination and loss of lawsuit. 

  • Academic tracking of nonwhite students into careers. 

  • Work for the Pima County Attorney’s Office in the fledgling Victim Witness Program during the 1970s. 

  • Work for the State of Arizona Attorney General’s Office in the late 1970s and early 1980s investigating employment and housing discrimination. 

  • Work with the City of Tucson to write a grant to launch a curbside recycling program. Environmental awareness in 1980s. Connection between social justice and environmental justice.  

  • Graduate school at Baruch College in New York City in the early 1990s. Studying public administration. 

  • Starting at Pima County on the wastewater system in 2005. 

  • Involvement in the Mutual UFO Network in the 1990s, UFO investigation work, and managing husband’s speaking career. 

  • Wastewater in Pima County, continued. Water challenges of the mid-2000s and 2010s.

  • TCE contamination in Tucson’s water supply and effects upon family. Neighborhood opposition to commercial development near TCE treatment plant. 

Aengus Anderson