Tiburcio Reyes, Sr., La Yarda Interview

Tiburcio Reyes, Sr., La Yarda Interview

La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.)

Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence

Tiburcio Reyes, Sr. was interviewed by Helen Krische in 2006 as part of an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River, the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. Tiburcio grew up in East and North Lawrence; his father was one of a number of Mexican-American railroad workers who settled in Lawrence before 1950. Tiburcio describes his family's migration from Mexico to Lawrence, and their work to establish the Tropicana and El Matador restaurants in North Lawrence; at the time of the interview, Tiburcio owned and operated the El Matador Cafe with his daughter and grandchildren. He discussed his military service during the Vietnam War, and his thoughts about immigration. Tiburcio also discusses experiences of discrimination and segregation faced by the Mexican-American community in Lawrence.

Reyes, Tiburcio, Sr.

La Yarda Oral History Project

Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.)

2006

Krische, Helen

Raymond, Emily

Peralez, Silvia

Published with the permission of Tiburcio Reyes, Jr., on behalf of Tiburcio Reyes, Sr. This work is the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

To access the video and audio recordings of this interview, go to https://archive.org/details/15-treyes-sr-2006.

The Watkins Museum of History also holds items related to this collection.

Additional research on the La Yarda community is held at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.

MP4 (video recording)

MP3 (audio recording)

PDF (transcription)

Oral History

15-TReyesSr-2006.mp4 (video)

15-TReyesSr-2006.mp3 (audio)

15-TReyesSr-2006.pdf (transcription)

Lawrence (Kan.)

1920s - 1970s

Krische, Helen

Raymond, Emily

Reyes, Tiburcio, Sr.

MP4

00:41:25 (video)

00:37:13 (audio)

95 kbps

3323 kbps