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Oral History Interview with Steve Flores and Jesse Fuentes, June 28, 2016

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@ TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library

Enriquez, Sandra Rodriguez, Samantha Flores, Steve Fuentes, Jesse

Description

Steven "Steve" Flores was born in 1954 in Houston, TX. Growing up in a segregated environment, he witnessed red lining and HISD's false pairing plan to integrate the schools. Due to an NAACP lawsuit that forced the phone company to hire minorities, Flores was hired at Southwestern Bell and would eventually become a shop steward. He discusses his involvement in the Latino Labor Leadership Council, how unions have provided a space for cross-racial collaboration, and what collective bargaining means. Flores also talks about how the immigrant rights movement and the labor movement intersect and his role as the vice president of the Communications Workers of America. Jesse Fuentes was born in San Antonio in 1956. He would migrate to Houston when he was fifteen years old. He discusses how the push for minority hires paved the way for his to get hired at AT&T. After becoming a shop steward and rising in the ranks of the Communications Workers of America union, he would become involved in the Latino Council for Latin American Advocacy where he remains very active in the area of voter registration. Fuentes talks about how union organizing paves the way for cross-racial collaboration. Later in his adult years, he participated in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride and talks about the intersection of union organizing and immigrant rights.3 video recordings (1 hr., 11 min., 34 sec.) : sd., col. ; digital
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Video
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Video
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TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library

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