Briones, Jesus
Part 1 was recorded on November 18th, 2021 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:
b. 1940
Family history in Obregon, Sonora. Leaving home at 12 and traveling to Nogales, Sonora.
Description of Nogales. Selling costume jewelry and becoming a door-to-door salesman of religious paintings.
Immigration to the United States in 1957 and path to Tucson. Other family experiences with U.S.-Mexico immigration.
A brief stint as a cotton picker. Contrast with working in Nogales and being unable to save money from day-to-day labor. Lack of Spanish speakers in commercial settings in the US. The physical work of picking cotton.
Starting a job in home construction. Meeting local friends and hearing negative things about school in the United States. Digging trenches for plumbers at a general contractor. Decision to avoid joining a union because of lack of future advancement. Learning plumbing by observation. An unexpected opportunity to work as a plumbing supervisor.
An aside about hustling for work in Mexico.
Differences in construction materials and styles between the U.S. and Mexico in the 1960s.
Part 2 was recorded on November 22nd, 2021 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:
Private well water for subdivisions in the early 1960s.
Proliferation of subcontractors in the 1960s. Changes as plumbers and electricians ceased to work for general contractors. Influence of California on building codes and construction styles.
Leaving a general contractor and taking a job with plumbing subcontractor Leo Rice in the mid-1960s. Union versus non-union advantages and disadvantages. Ethics. Becoming the general supervisor for Leo Rice. Increase in Spanish on job sites.
A survey of home construction in Tucson during the 1960s and 1970s. Building spec houses with fellow plumbers during slow periods of construction.
Aesthetic changes to houses in the 1970s. Suburban sprawl. Redlining and the difficulty in getting a loan for a new home in the barrios.
Becoming a general contractor in 1972 while continuing to work for Leo Rice Plumbing.
Living in Barrio Hollywood during the El Rio Golf Course protests.
Learning technical drafting. New permitting requirements for plumbing system diagrams in the late 1960s.
Part 3 was recorded on December 1st, 2021 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:
Barrio Hollywood from the 1960s to 1990s. Home construction, City of Tucson neighborhood redevelopment, sense of community.
Experience building first home in 1972. Building permits and code.
Buying Leo Rice Plumbing in 1978 and selling it in 1988. Operating plumbing and construction businesses simultaneously. Financing homes.
Pitching an apartment project to the Industrial Development Authority in the early 1980s. Obtaining financing through Great American Savings. Over-leveraged buyers, changing tax laws, and the collapse of a housing bubble in the mid-late 1980s. Narrowly avoiding bankruptcy.
This interview was recorded on May 26th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:
Recovering from the Savings and Loan Crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Submitting projects for low-income housing tax credits.
The challenge of working with tax credits as a small builder. Getting approved to build three low-income projects. The difficulty of breaking even when constructing low-income housing.
Transition from building apartments and entry-level houses in Tucson to building custom homes in Green Valley. Differences between building homes in Tucson, Green Valley, and Sahuarita.
The housing bubble of the 2000s and market collapse of 2008. Company structures, construction loans, devaluing properties. Long-term debt from the 2008 collapse.