Interview with Claudia Tiedt, History 150 Spring 2020, Conducted by Sophia Tiedt, April 5, 2020

Biography: My mother, Claudia Espinoza Tiedt, was born in the year 1969 to a loving family of three in the city of San Antonio, Texas. Both of her parents were of Mexican descent and spoke Spanish. She is a third-generation immigrant. Growing up, she found joy in her books and loved to go outside and play in the backyard with her three brothers. In school she made mostly As and participated on her school’s volleyball team. Claudia has always valued education, so she decided to study to become a teacher at UTSA and Old Dominion University and began teaching middle and high school English following college graduation. Now she works at Potomac High School in Woodbridge, Virginia and lives with her husband and her two kids. Claudia has always had a positive look on life and is genuinely one of the most energetic and intelligent individuals you will ever meet. Life has not always been easy for her, but through it all she has remained an incredibly strong-willed individual who will do anything to further the greater good.

Research: In the late 1960’s, around the time my mom was born, San Antonio, Texas had a population of 776,000 people and almost half, if not more, of those individuals were Hispanic. Even today with it’s now whopping 1.5 million inhabitants, 64.2% of these people identify as Hispanic. Yet, despite these numbers, there was still heavy unspoken segregation and discrimination against people of Latin descent during the 1970s and 80s. Even though Hispanics made up a majority of the population, they were still largely seen as inferior to their white counterparts. Speaking Spanish was even looked down upon, which seems like such a foreign concept since so many companies today are itching to hire employees who can speak more than one language. Times have changed since then, however, but effects of segregation can still be felt.

With the introduction of the Women’s Suffrage movement at the beginning of the 20^th century, we finally began to see a massive change when it comes to achieving equal rights for women. After the 19^th amendment was passed, women were starting to become more independent and build lives of their own that didn’t necessarily revolve around men. However, when it comes to fight for women’s rights there has always been one major flaw. According to an excerpt below, when it comes to fighting for equality, a lot of the women’s rights campaigns only tend to focus on middle-class white women. This then makes it more difficult for women from different demographics to obtain equal rights, including Hispanic women like my mom and I. We are beginning to see a shift in this narrow mindedness, but we still have a long way to go.

Citations:

“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: San Antonio City, Texas.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/sanantoniocitytexas/POP060210.

Jargowsky, Paul A. “Segregation, Neighborhoods, and Schools.” Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools, edited by Annette Lareau and Kimberly Goyette, Russell Sage Foundation, 2014, pp. 97–136. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610448208.9. Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.

Lieberwitz, Risa L. “Gender Roles: Roadblocks to Equality?” Telling Stories Out of Court: Narratives about Women and Workplace Discrimination, edited by Ruth O’Brien, by Liza Featherstone, Cornell University Press, Ithaca; London, 2008, pp. 40–50. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv5rf52w.9. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Transcript:

Sophia Tiedt: Good afternoon, thank you for meeting with me today!

 

Claudia Tiedt: Hi, good afternoon how’s it going?

 

ST: It’s going well. How about you?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Really good. Thanks.

 

ST: So first off, can you just describe yourself, introduce yourself, where you’re from, what you do, some hobbies, maybe?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, I’m single and ready to mingle. Just kidding. I’m a teacher. I teach English 12 advanced composition literature at a public high school. I love to read. I love to watch movies. I like going walking, love biking. I absolutely love traveling.

 

ST: Cool. And where are you from?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Originally from San Antonio, Texas all my family’s still down there. But I been living in Virginia, Northern Virginia, for the last about eight years.

 

ST: Cool beans! So, can you describe what it was like to live in a close knit Mexican American family growing up?

 

Claudia Tiedt: You know at the time you don’t think of it as being close knit Mexican American. You really don’t. You know you just, it’s all you know. It’s family, you know. Seeing my grandma’s or you know my grandparents all the time, I always took it for granted, I just assumed everybody lived like that. It wasn’t until I got older and got married and moved away that I realized, okay not all families actually do that. So at the time you don’t necessarily appreciate what it is that you had, you know, growing up and stuff like that. But I was very blessed I was really lucky you know my parents certainly weren’t perfect, but we had a, I had a really good childhood, I was I was loved.

 

ST: I heard that you’re a third-generation immigrant, right?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Absolutely.

 

ST: Are there any stories, anything you can tell us about?

 

Claudia Tiedt: I know that my grandparents, all four of my grandparents. Their parents came here in the early 1900s from Mexico. And I know that they used to be landowners and during the revolution, were forced to flee their land, and then they came up here and then they had their children and my own grandparents were migrant workers because that’s all they could get. That’s the only kind of employment they could get. And I know that when the war came around World War II. My grandpa as well as his brothers, there were 11 of them, except for the youngest two, they all joined the military because for them that was a way out of, you know, the back breaking labor that was migrant work so when my grandfather who was a sailor came back from the war, he was able to get a job at Kelly Air Force Base, and he was a painter and a carpenter. Same thing with my other grandfather. He was able to get a job doing carpentry work building houses. And that was, they were able in that way to get out of the drudgery of being migrant workers.

 

ST: And the difficulty obviously coming to America, was there any, like obviously racism that may have been involved with that?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, there was and it’s kind of one of those things that were they ended up in San Antonio, Texas. There was like little pockets of like my grandmother talks about, used to talk about, how there weren’t any black people where she lived all of them, she said were Hispanics, all of them. The only time they saw white people were when they would go to school. And that was, and that’s because the only people that were teachers were white people. But as far as African Americans or black people, my grandmother said there wasn’t a single one in the neighborhood, so they experienced racism my grandfather more so than my grandmother because she was a stay at home. Mother both my grandmothers were, but my grandfather’s you know would talk about how you know they couldn’t eat lunch at the same time as their white coworkers or they would have to sit out you know there was always a part where they could sit in the shade, but they weren’t allowed to, that was reserved for the white people

 

ST: That kind of underlying racism where it’s not said but you can like…

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh yeah. Oh absolutely. It was you know everyone knew it’s how my grandparents, my grandfathers would explain it, everyone knew, and even my own dad, he was a union delegate. He was a mailman, but he was also part of the Union National Association of letter carriers and we’re talking like in the 80s, and they would drive down to the south to go to like the national conventions and him and his, his friend. What was his friend’s name? Roger, I think, Roger was a black guy and my dad obviously was Hispanic and then the other three men that they traveled with were white. Well, Roger and my dad used to have to stay in the car when they would stop to go to get something to eat the white men that they were with would bring the food out to them because Roger and my dad weren’t allowed in certain restaurants and we’re talking the 80’s, so we’re not talking like 1960s or 50s or, you know, way back then…

 

ST: Was that allowed like restaurants could just…?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Absolutely that was allowed, yeah. And it was really like in deep south. If I’m not mistaken, I think it was in Alabama or Georgia that my dad told us that story and he said that’s something that, you know, I hope my children never have to experience that kind of thing because here’s his grown man who’s supporting his family who’s a hard worker. Plus, you know believed in advocating for the rights of workers and he’s having to sit in the car, simply because of the color of his skin. But there was no signs on the restaurant that said oh you can’t come in, it was just something that everybody understood.

 

ST: And I remember one time I think grandma said that, like when it came to speaking Spanish she never taught you guys? Why so?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, your grandma and your grandpa, when he was alive told us about how they would get in trouble for speaking Spanish in class at school. Your grandma specifically was kicked out of the National Honor Society. She was one of the few Hispanics that were actually in the honor society, but she got kicked out because she had spoken Spanish to a classmate. And the teacher overheard her.

 

ST: And this was in San Antonio where there’s a large population of Hispanics?

Claudia Tiedt: This was in San Antonio, Texas. Yup! And she said the thing is, she had asked me something she goes and I didn’t even, it wasn’t about, it had nothing to do with schoolwork. And I just responded to her in Spanish. And I remember asking grandma one time, why did you respond in Spanish because, it was just, because I felt comfortable with Spanish and I knew that the girl that, I don’t even remember, Lydia I think was her name if I remember the story correct. Lydia’s English wasn’t as good as her’s, so she wanted to respond to her.

 

ST: And it was that simple little…?

 

Claudia Tiedt: That’s it. And the teacher called her out, Rosario, and it was a big old deal, her dad, my grandpa actually went up to the school to try to get them to not kick her out but you know there was, he wasn’t going to change their minds and it’s one of those lessons that always stuck with, you know, with grandma and even my dad. Your grandpa. And that’s why they never spoke Spanish just, you know, and now you’re like, Oh, I wish I had, you know, grown up speaking Spanish here it would have saved me a lot of money and you know, learning to speak Spanish later on in college.

 

ST: And you learned “street Spanish” right?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, very learned enough Spanish in college to pass the class but my Spanish is definitely not formal and your grandma and grandpa, you know your grandma, to this day still regret that they never taught us Spanish, and we just didn’t know any better. Back then, we, their thing was always we just wanted things to be easier for you guys than it was for us.

 

ST: And speaking of schools and teaching and all that. What made you decide to become a teacher and pursue higher education?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yes. I’ve always loved literature. Yeah. I’ve always loved literature, and I never thought I would enjoy teaching, so I didn’t necessarily look to be a teacher. And then I got married and we moved to Italy and one of the only jobs I could find was working at a school. And then I realized, oh I really actually do enjoy being in the classroom and, best decision I ever made.

 

ST: What are your thoughts on higher education and how have they changed from when you were younger? Was higher education college something you thought you would be able pursue?

 

Claudia Tiedt: It was never, it was never necessarily. It was always encouraged in my family, but it wasn’t something that was serious. We were pretty much expected to get a job and to be able to take care of ourselves, to live on our own and support ourselves and if we were able to go to college, that’s great, but we were pretty much on our own when it came to higher education. So right away from high school, I went to college didn’t do so hot so I just started working full time. And then as I decided, you know I needed to go back to school and because working the jobs I was working wasn’t going to kind of get me where I wanted to be. So, and then my parents were able to help me that way with higher education I think higher education is really important, but actually teaching students. Not everybody is cut out. And when I say cut out, I don’t mean that they’re not smart enough. They just, the idea of spending another four years in an academic setting that’s not for them so I always encourage the kids that you know really don’t want to be in college that they, you know, to take out some kind of trade or to go to, you know, cosmetology school or HVAC or something I tell them. You have to learn a trade if college isn’t for you, that’s fine but you got to do something to be able to support yourself.

 

ST: And going to college, obviously there’s usually a larger amount of white people who go to college, did you ever feel like your opportunities were like limited as women of color or…? You know what I mean?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, I do know what you mean. I don’t know if I thought…

 

ST: Or you thought like you had that determination, so it didn’t matter?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, as it relates to white people. Because when I grew up, it was a very diverse group we were, unlike my parents and my grandparents before them. I grew up in a neighborhood that was very diverse a lot of black people a lot of white people Hispanics. So, I don’t remember necessarily thinking that higher education was just solely you know reserved for white people.

 

ST: Like the wealthy, yeah.

 

Claudia Tiedt: I don’t think, yeah, I did think though that college was really just for people that had money. At the time I didn’t think it was just wealthy white people. I thought it was just people that were wealthy of whatever background.

 

ST: And the tuition, even nowadays is still going up.

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh, it’s ridiculous. Yeah.

 

ST: Yeah. And speaking of like growing up in your neighborhood you spent a lot of time outside with your brothers.

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh constantly.

 

ST: I remember you describing yourself as a tomboy.

Claudia Tiedt: Oh, huge tomboy.

 

ST: How was that in terms of like being a woman?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Hmm. It’s funny because… the only time… You don’t know any different when you’re growing up in that environment I had, you know, three brothers and most of the boys in the neighborhood, most of the kids in the neighborhood were boys. So you didn’t think of it necessarily, I was a huge tomboy and I remember that when I first got my period I thought my, my life had ended because that, you know, finally set me apart from the boys not only that but hitting puberty and, you know, if I got tackled you know my chest started to hurt when it didn’t hurt before and I remember just bawling and sobbing to my mom about not wanting to be a girl because that you know for me in my mind that meant that there were limits now to what I could do physically do. And I don’t remember thinking of it like that at the time but now looking back and even saying it out loud, you know, I’m like yeah I really thought that you know being a girl, limited me physically there weren’t as many sports that girls could play back then we didn’t have in high school and this is 1987, we didn’t have a soccer team we didn’t have softball team. We didn’t have, I think we just had volleyball, basketball and track and now you know you’ve got all these sports for girls but there really wasn’t that many back then.

 

ST: And were there any outside influences that kind of like played into that oh yeah I am limited, like your parents, teachers, friends?

 

Claudia Tiedt: I honestly, I think I’m one of the few that didn’t have a father that was real machismo or kind of, you know, expected women to, you know, to be a certain way, and my mom wasn’t like that either. There were certain things that you know I was expected to do. Oh, the thing that would drive me crazy was having to serve my brothers, when we would go to my grandma’s house.

 

ST: Why?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Because they were boys. And that’s what my grandmother expected. Now at home, it didn’t work that way. The only one I would ever like set a meal down for get something for would be obviously my dad, my mother never asked me Claudia get up and go get your brother this and I have friends whose parents were like that but not mine. Except when I went to my grandma’s house because you know at grandma’s house you go by the rules that your grandmother has. And it used to… oh my gosh, it used to drive me crazy like I didn’t mind, you know, getting something for my uncle’s or my grandpa or my dad but for my brothers, no. And not only that, my brothers were so jerky jerk faces about it because they’d haha you have to, you know, just typical brothers and that used to bother me a lot, but I didn’t have a choice because that was my grandma’s house.

 

ST: And are you close with your brothers?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Super close and I think, you know, growing up like I said it wasn’t you know what you would think of as stereotypical machismo, you know, Mexican American family. As we all got older, we all kind of understood that that was not okay because I know that they’re not like that with their wives. And I know that they’re not like that with their daughters. And the thing is it really was only at my grandma’s house that I had to follow these very strict gender notions of what it meant to be a woman and, you know, being subservient to man, you know, simply because he’s a male, not because they’re my elders, but because they’re simply because of their gender.

 

ST: And how many years… How old were you before you like left San Antonio and got out of that area?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh 30!

 

ST: And what was that drastic… was there like a drastic change and where did you move after?

 

Claudia Tiedt: I went to Italy, I got married. Yeah, I got married I left one form of bondage for another I’m just kidding. Um, yeah I got married and we moved to Italy I was 30 when I got married, which was kind of old by my grandparents standards everyone thought I should have been married a lot younger because all my cousins were, which was kind of funny at the time. But yeah, that’s why how I got out of San Antonio, but I’ve missed it every day since I’ve left.

 

ST: And one last question. So, obviously the past couple years with a certain someone in the White House, there has been more hate towards Mexicans and just all minority groups and what are your thoughts on that and do you think we’re moving backwards?

 

Claudia Tiedt: We’re absolutely moving backwards and I’m gonna keep it as PG as I can. I think his rhetoric and his words against certain populations I think is reprehensible, I find it disgusting, not worthy of the office that he currently holds. But I have to say what’s been really a heartbreaker for me, are people within my own group. And I don’t mean just, you know, Mexican Americans or, I mean like family members that should know better, that know where our grandparents came from where our ancestors came from and then if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here, but to allow this man to show such utter disregard and disrespect for people simply because of the color of their skin. I think it’s disgusting. And it’s something I definitely, you know struggle with trying to understand that family members that I love and respect and all other regards seem to find his words and his actions, okay and acceptable.

 

ST: And we’re descendants of immigrants from Mexico…

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah and so is he. I mean he’s not from Mexico, but his family are immigrants. I don’t. I think a conversation can be had, I mean in political discourse, I don’t expect everybody to agree with everybody that’s just not how we are. But I think whenever you start a political discourse with, you know these people are rapists and murderers and they’re not their best and they’re not worthy of our time are calling African countries “shithole” countries I think it’s not it’s not helpful to the discourse. Not only that, I think I find it incredibly dangerous, because it makes it gives people a license to demonize people of different colors in even religions to different colors, religions, faiths, gender, the way he addresses women.

 

ST: And have you experienced any of that kind of like… have you felt the shift? Like in your own personal life?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, I don’t think so and I think I’m kind of insulated because of where I live in Northern Virginia and because of the job that I have and I have a very… I work at a public high school with a very diverse group of staff members and students and stuff. So me personally, you know, living up here in Northern Virginia I don’t think so. Or not that I’ve been like acutely aware of.

 

ST: Well, great. Thank you for speaking with me today.

 

Claudia Tiedt: You’re welcome. Is that it?

 

ST: Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?

 

Claudia Tiedt: No, would you like to hear me sing a song?

 

ST: Maybe next time…

 

Claudia Tiedt: Are you sure? I can get my recorder out! Original poetry I can recite!

 

ST: What’s that one song? *sings tune*

 

Claudia Tiedt: *singing*
Ay, ay, ay, ay
Canta y no llores
Porque cantando se alegran
Cielito lindo, los corazones…

Oh, my grandma used… my grandma Rosa on my dad’s side. That’s your namesake Sophia. That’s where you get your middle name. She used to sing that song at weddings or just for barbecues, we would go over.

 

ST: Did you guys have a lot of little like get togethers?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh, all the time there was always barbecues, everyone we always celebrated birthdays, Easter, Christmas, both sides of the family like I said at the time you don’t. You can’t sustain it until it’s until it’s gone. You know, you just assumed everyone’s family was that close knit and tight and you know. So yeah, I was lucky kid.

 

ST: And also grandma was a nurse right?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Grandma was a nurse, and your grandpa was a mailman union delegate he always used… but grandpa was also for the last 15 years that he worked he was also a station manager there he moved up.

 

ST: And was money ever concern for you guys?

 

Claudia Tiedt: If money was a concern, they never showed it, because everybody in our neighborhood we were all in the same boat. Again, it’s not until you leave that neighborhood or that area you get older that you realize not everybody, you know, was like that.

 

ST: And like with the neighborhood I remember you saying like you’d be able to go out late at night, and not have to worry about criminals…

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah, I mean it’s not like we were able to wander the streets, but we could go down our block and nobody worried about it I mean my mom would, you know, especially during the summers there really wasn’t a lot of indoor activities to do.

 

ST: And why do you think it’s so much different nowadays, like when did that happen?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Honestly, I don’t think people look out for each other like they used to. And I, and I also think that you know the kids don’t go outside as much as they used to. There’s so many diversions inside the house. Because when we were young, the only thing we really had was to go outside we didn’t have internet. We didn’t have I think it was a big deal when we got a VCR but I was already a teenager when that happened so the only diversion entertainment you had was reading, which is what I did was reading, maybe playing with dolls and going outside and that was I mean like that was it, and puzzles, coloring, that was it.

 

ST: How did you like keep up with friends because you know like nowadays, we have like phones and such.

 

Claudia Tiedt: We would go out we’re hardly ever on the phone, we would just go knock like during the summer. If my friends didn’t live in my neighborhood then I didn’t see them into or talk to them until school started. Yeah. And then we would pick up right where we left again because they didn’t live in the neighborhood, my parents, you know, there’s no such thing as playdates.

 

ST: So, do you think it’s better nowadays to like be able to like keep in touch or worse because it is so much easier?

 

Claudia Tiedt: Oh, I think it’s so much easier, yeah. If someone doesn’t keep in touch with you or you don’t keep in touch with someone. That’s because you don’t want to, because there’s no good excuse not to keep in touch with someone, you’ve got so you’ve got email you got you know you don’t even have to talk on the phone, which is something I absolutely hate to do. I prefer texting but yeah.

 

ST: Well thank you, again.

 

Claudia Tiedt: You’re welcome. Am I allowed to say I love you?

 

ST: I mean, I guess.

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah and you’re the culmination of generations of strong men and women that have worked very hard to be here and they would be so proud of you.

 

ST: I’m proud to be a Latina.

 

Claudia Tiedt: Yeah you should be. It’s a lot to be proud of.

 

ST: Thank you. Adios.

 

Claudia Tiedt: Adios.

 

Process: I decided to conduct this interview at the dinner table of my home. My mom was coloring in her color book, so as to make things more comfortable for me. You may hear the faint clacking of color pencils in the background. I also brought us both a glass of water in case our throats got dry. Once I thought we had created a sufficient and safe space to talk, I then used an app titled Otter on my phone and politely asked my brother and dad to clear the space for an hour or so. I then pressed the record button and we got started!

Conclusion: If I could do things differently, I would go back in time and tell myself to calm down. I feel as though I over prepared and was very anxious once I hit the record button, so I didn’t listen as much as I would have liked to. I was so concerned on getting the perfect interview I was just constantly thinking ahead about the next question I was going to ask, instead of truly listening. In terms of where the interview went, I love the topics we covered, although I would have loved to dive a bit deeper on my great-great grandparents immigration here to the United States.