DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Emma Tenayuca — and friends, this one deserves every word. December 21, 1916. A girl is born in San Antonio, Texas.
Her name is Emma Tenayuca, and the city she's born into will one day feel the full force of what she becomes. Now, when Emma was still a child, she used to wander over to a place called the Plaza Del Zacate — what folks today know as Milam Park. In those days before Spanish radio programming, that plaza was where the community gathered to talk.
Politics, civil issues, the weight of the world and what to do about it. A child sitting at the edge of those conversations, listening. Taking it all in.
And something in those visits lit a fire in her that never went out. She became aware of injustice — and awareness, for Emma Tenayuca, was never a passive thing. She joined the Workers Alliance of America and other activist political organizations, drawn to their philosophy in favor of workers' rights.
And she turned out to be something rare: a gifted and compassionate orator. She organized demonstrations. She participated in them.
She put her name and her voice on the line for San Antonio's working poor, standing against deplorable working conditions, discrimination, and wages that were frankly an insult to the people earning them. Then came 1938. And if you only know one thing about Emma Tenayuca, let it be this.
San Antonio was the center of the entire United States pecan shelling industry at the time. The work was hard, the conditions were rough, and the pay — the pay was somewhere between two and three dollars a week. That's the range.
That's what these workers were bringing home. Most of them were Hispanic women. And then came word of proposed pay cuts.
Pay cuts. On two to three dollars a week. Emma Tenayuca led thousands of those pecan shellers off the job in protest.
Thousands. The strike that followed became one of the first successful actions in the Mexican-American struggle for political and social justice. Sit with that for a moment.
One of the first. And she was leading it at twenty-one years old. But courage has a price in this world, and Emma Tenayuca paid it.
In part because of her political activities, she found herself unable to find work in Texas. In 1945, she relocated to California. She earned an undergraduate degree out there.
And then, quietly, in the late 1960s, she came back to San Antonio. No fanfare. No parade.
She earned a master's degree, took a job as a reading teacher at Harlandale I.S.D. in South Bexar County, and worked there until she retired in 1982. Emma Tenayuca died on July 23, 1999. The marker says she left behind a legacy of courage and compassion.
And standing here in Bexar County, thinking about a girl at the Plaza Del Zacate with her ears wide open and her heart already restless — I'd say that about covers it.
What the marker says
(December 21, 1916 – July 23, 1999) During the 1930s, San Antonio native Emma Tenayuca was a prominent leader of a movement that fought deplorable working conditions, discrimination and unfair wages on behalf of the city's working poor. As a child, Tenayuca had often visited the Plaza Del Zacate (now Milam Park), where residents gathered to discuss politics and civil issues in the days before Spanish radio programming. These visits awakened in her awareness of injustice, and she converted her concern into action. Tenayuca joined the Workers Alliance of America and other activist political organizations because of their philosophy in favor of workers' rights. As a gifted and compassionate orator, she organized and participated in many demonstrations in support of San Antonio workers. In 1938, Tenayuca led thousands of pecan shellers, most of whom were Hispanic women, to walk off the job in protest of proposed pay cuts. San Antonio served as the center of the U.S. shelling industry, and typical salaries ranged from only two to three dollars per week. The strike was one of the first successful actions in the Mexican-American struggle for political and social justice. Unable to find work in Texas in part because of her political activities, Tenayuca relocated to California in 1945, where she earned an undergraduate degree. She returned quietly to San Antonio in the late 1960s, and earned a master's degree and worked as a reading teacher at Harlandale I.S.D. in South Bexar County until her retirement in 1982. Tenayuca died in 1999, leaving behind a legacy of courage and compassion.