Christine Herrera and Anthony Herrera

00:05 My name is Anthony Aaron Herrera. My age is 38 years old. Today's date is February 15th, 2016 and we're here in San Antonio, Texas and I'm here to interview my mother.

00:25 My name is Christine Herrera. I'm 67. Today's date is February 15th 2016 and we are in San Antonio, Texas and I am here with my son Anthony.

00:40 Okay mom, so I guess I will start from the beginning when and where were you born? I was born in 1948 in New York City.

00:51 And who are your parents and Tessie Peters?

00:57 Do you know how they met ya back in the days when the immigrants were all coming from different countries? The Greek church is around the country is to have big dances people will come from all over to these dances in hopes of meeting other people from their Islands their Villages because they all left at different times and there was a dance in New York and my father brought his mother from Connecticut and my mother was there with her parents and my father said he looked across the room and saw my mother and he said I'm going to marry that woman someday and it turned out that they were both from the exact same tiny little island in Greece, but just different villages.

01:50 So your parents your I guess your grandparents.

01:54 They came from Greece. Yes, my mother and father were first born in America and I generation what town or city? Were they born in Greece different Villages? My father was from vatos, but I'm not sure of the village. My mother was from my mother's family.

02:15 So you grew up in New York City. And what is some of your I guess we're in your favorite childhood memories. Can you remember anything and that was stood out? I like my birthday cuz my birthday was right before Christmas and so sometimes it's the weather was good we go to Rockefeller Center cuz they always put up the Christmas tree right before my birthday. So we go when we see the tree and see the skaters at Rockefeller Center and then we go into Macy's and of course wait in line to see Santa the real Santa the real Santa's at Macy's and then we walk around the store and I point out all the different things that I wanted Santa to bring me.

03:03 And it was a lot of fun.

03:06 And so also growing up as a kid. What school did you go to for elementary school?

03:13 Well, we lived in Brooklyn and I was Kindergarten age then and you didn't have to go to kindergarten back then. So when we moved to Queens, I went to first and second grade and I think part of third grade at PS 111 the local public school and then next to the Greek Church. They built the parochial school greek-american school and so my father registered me there and I stayed there till 8th grade.

03:47 What's it close to where you lived? Not really I had car service pick me up. They had like a station wagon that will come and pick up kids. And then when I was about and maybe since the 6th grade I started taking the city bus was it may be about a 30-minute ride on the city bus to get there.

04:10 Did what did?

04:14 Your parents do for a living. My dad worked as a taxi dispatcher in Manhattan for cab company and my mom used to be a Draper and fitter for bridal gowns in those days. You really didn't buy dresses off the rack you had them special made for you and she did that until she got sick with multiple sclerosis.

04:41 When did she get diagnosed with multiple sclerosis? I guess I was about 5 when she started getting sick and back in those days. They really didn't know what it was. So it was it was quite a while after that before they finally diagnosed her as having type multiple sclerosis.

05:04 And he had an older brother Peter's while his real name is Angelo. But what are the corner of us? None of us ever knew our real names until we went to school because I was always called Tina and he was always call Dan but seeing Greek van is a bungalow. So they got the van from his Angela and an English is Angelo. So his birth certificate name is actually Angelo.

05:45 And he never use that name until he went into the service all through high school. He went as van and me it was Christina angry. And so they got to Tina and when I was in first grade, they called attendance and they asked if we call everybody's name and I raise my hands and said no and they said what your name and I told him Tina Peters and they said we called you Christine Peters and I go no, my name is Tina. I went when I told my mother this is ma they kept calling me Christine.

06:25 And so I found out my real name was Christine.

06:29 So Uncle van is

06:32 5 years older is it going growing up with an older brother was that he pick on you is was he active the same time older brother's job pick on their little sisters, but it was like being an only child though, cuz he had his friends and in New York, you kind of mature faster. So she when you live in the city and so he had his friends kind of outside the neighborhood and I was still a little so I kind of hung out in the neighborhood.

07:08 So it was kind of like being an only child most of the time.

07:13 And then

07:15 Can you get older middle school high school touch briefly on Middle School and High School. What was it like relationships?

07:29 What was pure pressure like back then maybe like I ate it Saint Demetrios the Greek American school till 8th grade and I was a really good student and decided to go to school in Manhattan to an all-girls school cuz I figured if I went to my neighborhood school, I just hang out with my friends and go so often so I decided to go to the school in Manhattan so I can keep my grades up cuz back then there was only three different kinds of diplomas and academic diploma commercial or general academic course, you are able to get in college General you were going to you know, it was just a general diploma commercial was more. He wanted to be secretary took bookkeeping you took typing shorthand stuff like that. So I stayed with my academic courses.

08:29 The commute really got to me and I stayed there until I was I think it's almost a junior. I think it was a junior in high school, and then I transfer to my neighborhood high school and stay there until I move to Connecticut and finish out my senior year in Connecticut senior year you he moved to Connecticut and it was just the one that you lives with over there a family member. My grandmother had come from Greece to settle some tax things for a building that she owned and so I live with her until I graduated and Uncle van. If you live in New York still he was already married. He's already married with an illegal on Military to write but he was already back from Germany.

09:25 And so he say then you were there by yourself as you have any friends at school. I still till this day. My best friends. Are we still in contact with each other? I really didn't like it when I went there cuz it was so different from New York. Everybody was just so playing and it wasn't, you know, kind of fast and exciting like New York, but I met up with a couple of friends that we had a lot in common and

10:01 We like I said, we still stayed in touch and it did you work yet. I work from the time. I was 16 on my 16th birthday. I went and got my working papers at the local middle school and next door to my grandmother's restaurant was the deli and the people that grew up with my father since they were kids and I got a job there working in the deli while I was in high school.

10:32 Did you like working there? Oh, yeah, it was a lot of fun. And what else is you are just tells your first Avenue other places I work there until I graduated high school and then so then after high school, I was seeing most people decide on it for going to go to college or join the military or trying to make a living. Did you want to go to college or did you go to college? Well, I never wanted to go to college. My grandmother wants me to go to college because you went to college as a woman in my grandmother's eyes to meet a man who was going to become something some day and I had no interest but I won a four-year scholarship to UConn.

11:19 So the Greek church and I went and spoke with the priest and told him to give the scholarship to the next person in line because they really be wasting it on me. All I ever wanted to do was to go to cosmetology school and my big idea was to go back to New York and become a hairdresser and make-up artist. That was what I really wanted to do.

11:52 I had no interest in really going to college at that time and it kind of is a regret because now that I'm older I think there might have been some other things I might have wanted to explore do you think if you would have went to college? What do you think you would have pursued as a career? Is there anything else you likes will back then? No, but As I Grew Older I really got interested in law corporate law.

12:20 So did you ever go to cosmetology school and had a job before I even have my license shop owner had called me and offered me a job and I told her I haven't I don't even know if I passed my state boards or not, and she's so I know you'll do it. We've heard a lot about you from people that have gone up to the school.

12:47 And when you get your license, give us a call. So I did and I started working right away and it was in Connecticut was in town Town. Nice beauty shop across the street from a hotel. That was a good location. So you're you're done with school. You're working. Any boyfriends. Did you go out any Adventures With Friends made? A lot of fun? I really enjoyed myself a kind of reminds me of you a little bit where you're more the fun-loving type like to go out and just have fun be with your friends and have some laughs and

13:28 Go to clubs stuff like that when?

13:32 You at that age. How old were you at this time? Maybe 1819. I graduated when I was 17, so probably about 18 19 years old.

13:43 Did you get to travel anywhere?

13:46 No troubles bar. You know when you live in Connecticut, New York, everything's just a couple hours away. So on Sunday nights, we will go up to Rhode Island, you know dancing cuz I was a place up there. We like to go to on Sunday. So going to the different states. We're really kind of close but far away. No.

14:13 At this point in your life, you had just pretty much traveled with in a neighboring stace's of New York and Connecticut.

14:23 Okay, so then went in when did you I guess meet Dad.

14:29 Year was that how old were you it was 1969 and there was this club I used to go to call the old days and me and my friends went out that night and we got there late and got seated in a booth towards the back and forth. I wanted to get up and dance by friends can see I was there and your dad came over and asked me to dance and I got up and dance with them and found out that he had been asking people to dance and everybody was turning him down. So he said it was just going to ask one more person to dance and they told him know he was going to leave and so we stayed dancing and he was kind of funny made me laugh and

15:20 That's how we met.

15:22 And what was he doing? There? Was he with France or what was his purpose for himself worker? He had just gotten out of the Navy 5 days prior or was going to get out in 5 days and he was going to stay there to go to school in Connecticut. And how old was well he was about 21, I guess cuz he's a couple years older than me.

15:59 Until y'all young men in Connecticut. He was in the Navy in or getting out of the Navy and he was going to go to school in Connecticut came back from Vietnam Craig Wright.

16:12 So I'm sure you probably had plenty of stories to tell you about that. Well, we really didn't talk much about it. Vietnam was such a touchy subject back then and we were young and just wanted to talk about fun things.

16:27 And so how did he ask you to marry you?

16:31 Well, we dated and school was going to be really expensive for it on the East Coast. Yeah, so he was going to come back to Texas and go to school here and

16:49 He had a job his friend. I got him a job at a civil engineering company.

16:55 So we got engaged before he left to come back. He was going to start school in the semester after Christmas. So we got engaged in November and he came back to Texas and started school and wanted me to come up for Christmas. But as a hairdresser, I just couldn't leave my my employer, you know during the holidays. That's the busiest time and he was a bit disappointed. I was supposed to come in April for Fiesta just for a visit to see if I liked it here and then we were planning on an October wedding, but he kept pushing and wanting me to come sooner and instead of just coming to visit in April stay.

17:46 So that's what we went ahead and decided to do I came in April and it took us about a month to make the wedding arrangements.

17:57 And I was only supposed to be here two years and still here. So the plan was after Dad finish school. Y'all are going to come back to Connecticut. We both like Connecticut. Okay, so we were only supposed to stay here two years.

18:18 Tina can you tell me your husband's name full name Raul Herrera?

18:35 See you you move to Texas A Course in your my thing is temporary. So that's probably why you may or may have not been gone. A lot of grief from family members in the east coast saying don't why was she moved to Texas so they didn't want me to come early enough. So the only one that really was okay with it was my mother.

18:59 Who I would have thought would have been devastated being you know in a nursing home and having multiple sclerosis, but she said if you love them go I'll be okay. Were you scared?

19:15 I was kind of excited first.

19:18 What did you think of the city San Antonio when he first got here? I didn't like it.

19:27 It was just too playing.

19:32 Just I just didn't like it.

19:36 The only thing that made it nice is the week we got married was Fiesta week. So it was like a whole week of honeymoon cuz everything was new to me, but it was just too hard to get used to.

19:52 How did you like his parents know they were great. They were really nice to me.

19:58 Very welcoming

20:01 Did you miss your family? Yes.

20:05 Very much. So when did y'all I guess find out that you weren't going to move back to Connecticut? Why didn't y'all move back? It was hard for your dad going to work and going to school and trying to keep up homework and

20:22 I got pregnant with your oldest sister Odessa, so we have one kid and then we bought a house.

20:32 Got pregnant with Angela and

20:36 He still wasn't finished with school. And so I told him that the only way I was going to stay here is if we can bring my mother here.

20:46 And so that's when we started working with a social worker in New York to try to get her transferred here and your dad wrote a lot of letters to Henry B. Gonzalez is office.

21:01 To help facilitate the transfer

21:06 And it took us about a year to get her transferred here, but that was the only way I was going to stay.

21:12 So how many years was it between

21:17 Yaya moving here and

21:22 Yep, you moving to Texas. I think Angela was too so probably 3 years.

21:38 What did you think of Texas Oshie was so happy to be here. She was just so happy to see her grandchildren and

21:47 Be a part of our lives and

21:50 She was really happy.

21:52 How old was she when she moved to, Texas?

22:01 I really don't wish you here for the wedding. No.

22:06 No, cuz we got married right after I came here in April.

22:15 I guess kind of sort of backing up maybe a little bit the other some key moments in history that I wanted to bring up that.

22:25 Maybe you just gather your thoughts on certain things that I think would have been pretty neat to her.

22:33 The apart of her things that happen was landing on the moon was one of the coolest things that I think I'm over in history as a positive thing. Of course, there's other sad moments in history, like Vietnam and Kennedy being assassinated any thoughts on any of those topics or is there anything else in history that you can think of at this point? I'm never sad moments are great moments in history that you remember when they landed on the moon. We all stayed up to watch it on TV, and I was at my brother's house at the time and my sister-in-law runs upstairs and wakes up the kids. They're all sleepy and come down the stairs and it was like it must have been like I remember it to be maybe like 2 in the morning or something like that really really late and she just kept saying you watch this you watch this because

23:33 This is a moment since yesterday and they were just little kids but we got them up out of bed so they could see it and it was it was just unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable to see.

23:48 Someone walking on the moon. It was incredible and then going to a very sad moment was when Kennedy got shot. I was going to high school in Manhattan and school was going to be letting out for the day and people were coming into the building and just hollering Kennedy got shot Kennedy got shot and we were all just what you know couldn't believe it and that's all people talked about on the Subways going home and

24:22 That's we only had three TV stations. And so of course they were all carrying the story and I don't know if it was.

24:32 The next day they got Oswald but the following day. I was sitting on the floor watching TV and my mother was sitting in a chair and they're taking Oswald and moving him somewhere and out of nowhere. This man comes out who is Jack Ruby week find out later and just shoot them and we're just sitting there watching the TV and absolute shock. I didn't know what to do. I just jumped up and I looked at my mother and I said did that really happen and I ran out into the hallway cuz I lived in an apartment building and my friends came out they lived across the hall and we were all saying did you see that did that happen? It was it was just shocking.

25:26 So you start having babies a lots of them five of us. What was it like being a mother?

25:37 Well when I had odesza my first child, I was really excited.

25:45 And a few days after she was born and we were home. I remember sitting in the rocking chair and just looking at her and all of a sudden this terrible fear came over me like, oh my God, I'm responsible for this child. So the rest of its life and it was really kind of scary considering I had never even babysat before an infant. I wasn't at home where any of my family could help me and so I was pretty much on my own Grandma helped a little bit, you know, but of course her ideas were very old-fashioned from her time and things I had read with very different. So it was kind of scary it was it was scary becoming mother for the first time.

26:37 What about ups and downs about being a mother?

26:43 Well

26:45 Did you like being a stay-at-home mom? I like being a stay-at-home mom because I like being a part of the day. I like reading to you kids. I like watching you play. I like being able to take you outside and let use play on your big wheel bikes. And when you were in school, I was able to be a part of the activities are at school get involved in Girl Scouts and

27:15 Things like that that if I was working full-time.

27:19 I wouldn't have been able to be a part of and in those days to the majority of the neighbors women stayed home. They didn't work really until later on then a lot of women started going back to work. And when the Twins were born. That's when I really want to go back to work because my life was such a routine and we figured it out and it was going to cost more money for me to go back to work with leaving five kids with daycare and all that then it would be

27:57 You know saying it home.

28:01 So one of those twins you're talking about is Michael and teasing to be a parent for the first time a couple of months.

28:15 Course, you know, what advice do you think that you can give him as becoming a parent and a course us kids the rest of us that Harry have kids with advice. Can you give us as you being a mother?

28:26 Just

28:28 I think the most important thing is to always let them know that you love them.

28:34 That sometimes you might not like them you might not agree with them. You might be angry with them but always let them know that you love them. I think that's the most important thing and then the other thing is to just watch him things happened so quickly with children, they grab things and put them in their mouths and they can have accidents so easily just watch them and love them.

29:05 That's good advice so shortly after.

29:10 No, not shortly after but later on down the road in your life. Unfortunately, you and Dad got divorced and I don't want to talk about it too much cuz you know, some of the details could be sort of ugly butt.

29:28 I wasn't adjusting. You know, how many to take care of us. I know you had to get back to work, you know small paycheck Transportation getting us to games and practices cooking cleaning. How how was that for you to make that big adjustment in your life. It was hard, you know.

29:52 I was there for every one of your activities whether it was you or your brother or your sister the three the three younger ones you three were very very active in sports Trac and basketball and cross-country and

30:11 I was there for everything we never had fast food. I cooked every night and it was hard. I remember it being midnight and all of you were asleep and I was slept doing laundry and it was very tiring. Very very tiring, but

30:34 That's what I had to do. Those were the cards. I was dealt and you just pick yourself up by your bootstraps and you keep going.

30:45 Did you worry about how his kids were coping with it? Yes a lot. I spoke quite a bit with the counselor at school. You would meet with the counselor.

30:58 Want a weekly basis I think and then she would meet with me privately and let me know if there were things that were bothering you kids or of concern so that I could address it before it got to be a problem. And so we work together with the counselor. I wanted to make sure that you kids were going to be happy and feel safe and comfortable and

31:26 Not worried

31:28 Skip a little bit further down now.

31:32 Another subject. I want to bring up there. I think that you wanted to discuss is you know, the World Trade Center. I know that's a kind of a

31:45 Heartbreaking subject for you possibly because of you growing up in New York. And also your Aunt Francis living working in the Trade Center.

31:56 Do you want to talk about that? And what do you think that wasn't really was just such a hard hard day. I couldn't believe it. I

32:10 Read my purse and just left work. I had to find out where my family was. We didn't know where your cousin Lisa was. We didn't know where Aunt Francis was and when Eileen called me and she told me that the plane had gone into the building and I thought it was just one of those though.

32:31 Things, you know those tourist things and she has no mot was an airline.

32:38 So then we called. She called my cousin because I couldn't dial long distance from my phone in the office and she says no and Francis is okay. It was the other building and then the next thing I lean calls me back and she says Mama it went into her building. Now another plane went in and I said no, it's probably just you know, a rerun says mom gets her television gets with television so I ran to the library and when I saw it was going on.

33:12 Oh my God, I just couldn't believe it. I just called the office and said I've got to leave and try to get ahold of my family and because of the tower cell phones weren't working phones weren't working. I couldn't reach anybody except my cousin in New Jersey and we didn't know anybody was finally I got a hold of Gus and Gus said that Lisa was walking over the 59th Street Bridge and that he was going to meet around the queen side that she was. Okay, but we still didn't know anything about being Francis. We were you able to somehow communicate. So Maria or Nick her children, he worked in the Trade Center on the hundred and 2nd floor, and he was actually in Baltimore in the airport waiting to take the plane to go to work.

34:12 Cuz he was in Baltimore on business and saw it on the TV in the airport ran and got a rent car and picked up about four other guys that were also looking to go and so they drove and there was no way they can get into the city. All the bridges were closed. You can get out of the city, but you couldn't get in so they went out to New Jersey and my cousin hosted The Strangers cuz they couldn't get home either and

34:48 By the next week, we had no sign of Aunt Francis and the Red Cross Wilmington New York and they weren't letting anybody down to Ground Zero then and I went over to the fire chief and I told him I need to go down there. I have to go down there. I've come from Texas and she's down there. I need to say goodbye and he got me a police escort and took me down there and it was the most horrific scene I've ever seen in my life. It look like a scene out of an old TV show ways to watch Mash.

35:28 It was just horrible and me and Nikki when we stood in front of where the buildings were. We both looked and we saw this piece of metal that had fallen to the ground that look like a cross.

35:44 And it just brought us such a sense of peace that it was a sign from God that they were all okay.

35:52 And then the very next day on the news. The priest was they were there they were raising a piece of metal.

36:03 And putting it up as a as a sign.

36:08 So it was it was it was horrible and when I came back to Texas after a few weeks, I really started having some emotional problems because everybody was just going about their business like nothing had ever happens and I was devastated and I went and I talked to the counselor and she says well, you know, they alive go on because it didn't happen here in San Antonio. This was your hometown. This is where you grew up the part of who you are + you lost a family member and that's why it's hitting you so hard and

36:48 Till this day. I still can't watch anything without breaking into tears is just such a horrible thing that happened to our city. But what I'm so proud of is how New Yorkers came together my niece when she was trying to get to the bridge people from shoe stores with coming out, you know, cuz these girls were in business clothes and giving them shoes and here take this here hear some, you know Flats to wear sneakers or

37:25 Everybody was just so helpful. And you know, you hear so much negative about New York, but when tragedy like that hits New Yorkers are really strong people and they come together.

37:40 It's kind of follow-up at the end here, you know, is there anything else that you want to talk about or anything that?

37:51 Now they want to share any special touching stories or anything funny funny moments anything that you can

37:59 Any think of just raising you kids was fun.

38:05 Seeing you grow up into great adults makes me proud knowing that you are all respectful.

38:15 Two adults that you have

38:20 Ambition

38:23 I'm just very proud of the family that I raised and I just hope that my grandchildren will learn from you.

38:33 How to also be respectful good adults

38:37 Do you have any regrets of some things that you wish you would have done?

38:44 I wish I would have traveled more before I got married.

38:49 That's why I'm glad that you kids travel a lot and see a lot. I really wish I could have traveled more I do.

39:00 The alert that something that

39:03 Is lacking in my memories I have.

39:07 A lot of great memories of when I was single. I had a lot of fun. I was happy when I was married was happy with my children. I was happy raising you but I do wish I could have traveled more.

39:28 I can't what I don't think I have anything much more to say.

39:32 Thank you for the interview. Mom was fun spending time with you.