University of Texas at El Paso ScholarWorks@UTEP Combined Interviews Institute of Oral History 7-20-1976 Interview no. 312 Pete Leyva Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utep.edu/interviews Part of the Oral History Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Interview with Pete Leyva by Oscar J. Martinez, 1976, "Interview no. 312," Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute of Oral History at ScholarWorks@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Combined Interviews by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UI.IIVERSITYOF TEXAS AT TL PASC INSTITUTEOF ORAL HISTORY I I,ITERVIEI.IEE : Leyva (1894-1982 I['ITERVIE'^IER: OscarJ. Martinez PROJECT: Oi\TE0F II'ITERVIEII: July 22, 1976 TERI.ISOF USE: Unrestricted TAPENO.: 312 TilAitSCRIPTi'i0.: 312 TRAIISCRISER: DATETRANSCRIBED: BIOGRAPHICALSYIiOPSIS OF II'ITERVIEI{EE: Born'in Presjdio,Texas jn lB94; spenthis early yelr:-jn Marfaand El publicity man paso;held severit iont, jncludingplaying semi-pro baseball; for southwestarea racetracks. suli'lAnY0F Ii'lTFRlfIEl'f: data; education;early job experiences;travel'ling.on fre'ight Biographi:ca1 expeniences trains; experi.n..i AJiingWorlO wur I;-the MexicanRevolution and his experienceswork- as an interpreier-tor panihoViifi; piiying semi-probaseball; ing in gamb]inghouse in Tiiuana;discrjminat'ion' 2 hours; 53 Pages. / ffris is an oral h'istoryinterview with l4r. PeteLeyva of 3Bl60xford St- , El Paso,Texas. Interv'iewingis Oscanlolartfnez-, July 22, 1976:/ M: Mr. Leyva,would you tell mewhen and where you wereborn? L: Presidio,Texas. That's downin the Big Bendcountry. M: Whatyear? L: I've got ft right herehandy. I alwayskeep it handy'causea lot of peo- ple ask me, "Howold are you?" t4: Yourcertificate here says January25, 1894. L: Right. That's whenI wasborn. ltl : Did you growup in Presidio? L: I wasabout five years old whenwe left there, went to trlarfa,,Texas.Ily father usedto drive the stagefr"om l4arfa to Presidio--Shafter,rea11y. Thestage usedto go from Marfato Shafter and Presidio. l4yfather used to pick up the gold bansabout that big, andquicksilver jn bottles of steel that high, at Presidio. Sometimeswhen he didn't haveany passen- gers he hadto havesomebody to openthe gates for the stage, so he used to take meto openthe gates. Andwe'd havea Rangeron top, two Rangers in the front , andtwo Rangersjn the back, 'causewe was loaded with gold or quicksilverwhen we didn't haveany passengers.And my father usedto break'in horsesat the samet'ime on the stage,w'ild horsesand mules. It wouldrun fromShafter to a ljttle placethere they call Ruidoso,eat din- ner therer ahdthen comeinto Marfa. Weused to leavePresidio about 7 o'clock in the morningand get in Marfain time to put the gold on the trucks for the train to pick it up in l"larfa,Texas. It wouldtake at least six hoursfrom Shafter to Marfa. Wherewas the gold comingfrom? LEYVA 2 L: Shafter; andqui cks'il ver, 1ots of i t. M: Minesaround that area? L: hlell, there wasthen. A lot of peopleused to go ther"eand pick up a lit- tle at the time. Yeah,we'd pick it up night there. Andthey comein steel bottles aboutthat big. I wastoo small, but I couldtake both hands andpick 'emup. I couldn't p'ickup the gold bars 'causethey weretoo heavy;a little biggerthan a brick, gold bars. Somy father donethat for severalyears andafter that they fixed the highwayfor peop'leto go backand forth and they took the stage off. Themen that ownedthe stage wasbig store menin l4arfa, Texas,named f'lurphy and l,.lalker. In other words, my father workedfor them,for Murphyand l,lalker. He took passengersto Presidioback to Marfaand sometimes to Ft. Davis,Texas. M: Andyou wouldgo alongfor the ride? L: Sometimes.If my father hadpeop'le that could get off and openthe gates for him, I couldn't go, becauseI wentto schoolthen. I hadto go to school. t4: But you still rememberriding on that stagecoach. L: 0h, yesj I knewa lot of banditsand all that stuff downthere. M: Doyou rememberany interest'ingexperiences? Youmentjoned bandits. L: We11,at that time, betweenTenl'ingua and l4arfa, the only time that i know. 0f course' I didn't see them,but myfather said that there weresome fel- 1as, cowboys,tnjed to hijack the stage; but he hadtwo guardson top of the stage and two jn front of the stage--cowboys,Vou know,marshals--and two in back. so they wouldn'tdare attack. so myfather" was pretty"lucky. He neverwas hijacked. M: Hewas never attacked. LEYVA L: No. M: lllhatwas the mostinteresting experiencethat you hadgoing with him on the stagecoach? L: Let's see. in Terlinguathey claimedthat there wereIndiansr which there were Indiansthere, see? So every time we went throughthere, I always wantedto seethe Ind'ians,'cause I wasa kid, Youknow. But we neverdid see any. But there weresome there in the hills, in the mountainsthere. So i didn't get to seeany of'em. I alwayswanted to, becauseI wasgo- ing to schooland I wasgoing to give my teachera story on that, and I couldn't'causeI didn't see'em. M: Yousay you wentto schoolin Presidio? L: hjell, I wastoo small to go there. I only wentthere oneyear, and then the rest of the time in ft'larfa. M: Whatstands out in your mindof thoseearly schoolexperiences, elementa- ry school? Youmean from the school,or in mycomings and goings? Well, your schoolyears; first in schooland then growingup in your neigh- borhood. I can't rememberour teacher'sname, but (her family) wasvery well known peoplejn lr4arfa,Gillettes. Theywere cattle people,they hada lot of cattle; Gillettes. Shewas our teacherwhen I first started to go to School--inother words,Ild be absent--thenI'd comeback and tell her aboutme going with myfather, so I wasexcused. Yougot a b'ig break. Yeahl Yousee, that wayI djdn't haveto go to school. Didn' t you I i ke school? LEYVA 4 L: Yeah,because, see, ever since I wasa little boy I alwayswanted to be an athlete of somek'ind. At that time we only hadbaseball and footbal1, handba'|1,tennis, andstuff like that. But I alwayswanted to be a boy, a man,you know;so I took up baseba11.I playeda little footba1lntoo, evenhere at the school. Meand Chris Foxmade the first touchdowns in the old t'ime'sgame. I'l: Werethere a lot of MexjcanAmericans in the schoolthat you went to? L: Yes,we was about half andhalf; I'm talk'ingabout l.4arfa now. M: Howd i d you get a'longw'i th Anglos ? L: lr/ell, we managedbecause I waskind of a favorite amongthe kids and some of the gir'ls, becauseI waskind of a half-athlete, you know,and I used to wearfancy pants up to here. tlell, I wasjust a big boy, thatrs all; I usedto get around. M: Howdid you get alongwith the teachers? L: Very nice, becauseI wasalways obedient with myteachers, I wasa'lways willjng to do something.Like say on Christmas,I'd go out andget ho11y, mistletoeor something.I'd climb the tree. I usedto be goodat that, too. Werethe teachersgood to ltlexicanAmericans? Well, in a way. Just like now,they hadtheir favorites; and I wasone of their favorites . Whatabout other Mex'icankids? Did they get alongokay? l,'le11,i'd say they did. But at first they werea little backwardabout things, the lnlexjcankids, you know. Theydidn't give themmuch attention, i guess. But for somereason I wasone of the guysthat could get along pretty goodwith everbody,so I got alongpretty goodwith all of them. LEYVA M: Whatabout high school? jn L: I didn't go to high schoolthere. I just started year here high school. M: Herein El Paso? L: Yeah,but I (a.lso)went to (elementary)schoolshere. At that time, AoY .|905 Schoolwas L6pez's School when I went. I started there; that wasin or '06. Thenit changedto Aoy. ThenI changedfrom Aoy to Alamo,then to SanJacinto, andthen to high school. Thehigh schoolwas right there on Arizona Street fhEn,wh-eiethe (Schoolof Nursing)is now. i PlaYedfoot- balI there, and basebalI . M: At whatage did you leave Presjdjo? L: I wasabout six, sevenyears old; betweens'ix andseven. M: So then you cameto El Paso. l'lhydid your family cometo El Paso? L: Becauseafter they took the stage away... Myfather wasa manthat could handlehorses. Heused to rajse horsesof all kinds, andmules. At that time, whenthe Armyhad mules for the ammunition,the ljttle mules,my father usedto raise themand sell themto the government.See, we hada ranch downthere. And then we comehere. So my father got word from a friend of his to come,because they werehiring goodteamsters to cometo workfor the city at that time. Whenmy father first got with the city, they usedto havethose wagonsthat openedon the bottom; they usedto go to the mountainto get the rock whenthey started pavingthe streets in .|905, El Paso,in '06, somewherein there. Myfather donethat. Whenyou camehere, wheredid you live? 0n the El PasoStreet, SouthEl Paso,"ina little dingy hotel, till we got stra'ightenedout. LEYVA 6 M: Doyou rememberyour first impressionsof El Paso? L: We1l,yes, becauseit wassomething new. Then,on the othenhand, they hadfire engines;and every time they hada fine, their fire engines wouldgo downthe street and makea lot of noise, smoke. And I usedto run out there andsee what was going on; I liked that. Thenthey had parades,carnivals; anddown in Marfa,we didn,t havethem. In other words,more entertainments, 'cause Marfa is only a small place.