- Collection:
- Civil Rights in Black and Brown
- Title:
- Oral History Interview with Eva Benevides, July 20, 2016
- Creator:
- Benavides, Eva
Enriquez, Sandra
Rodriguez, Samantha - Date of Original:
- 2016-07-20
- Subject:
- Persons
Ethnic groups
Civil rights - People:
- Benavides, Eva
- Location:
- United States, Texas, Harris County, Baytown, 29.7355, -94.97743
- Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
biographies (literary works)
interviews - Type:
- MovingImage
- Format:
- video/mp4
- Description:
- Eva Benavides was born in 1952 in Baytown. She attended Lorenzo De Zavala Elementary, the Baytown Mexican School, and witnessed segregation in her youth. She experienced a culture shock when she attended the integrated Baytown Junior High. Inspired by her mother's and father's dedication to helping others, Benavides served as a Baytown City Councilwoman and became involved in the West Baytown Civic Association. The Luis Alfonso Torres police brutality case galvanized her and others to forge a cross-racial coalition (United Concerned Citizens of Baytown) to hold the police department accountable. Benavides talks about how Mexican Americans were situated in a segregated Baytown, the importance of Fiesta Patrias, her involvement in the PTO, her determination to become a city councilwoman and her experiences as an Mexican American female representative for a single member district, how she bodly held the Baytown Police Department accountable for the Luis Alfonso Torres case when other Mexican American representative refused to speak out, and cross-racial efforts to address police brutality. She also discusses gentrification and how her community lacks businesses and grocery stores, how she taught citizenship classes for many years, the role of Exxon in Baytown, and how city council representatives have to address race as well as other sensitive issues.
- Metadata URL:
- https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth987540/
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- 7 video recordings (1 hr., 45 min., 52 sec.) : sd., col.
- Original Collection:
- https://crbb.tcu.edu/interviews/interview-with-eva-benavides
- Contributing Institution:
- University of North Texas. Libraries
- Rights:
-
