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Transcript of interview with Eva Garcia Mendoza by Elsa Lopez and Barbara Tabach, September 25, 2018
Date
2018-09-25
Archival Collection
Description
On the corner of 7th street and Clark, and beside the tennis courts of Las Vegas Academy, stands the law office of attorney Eva Garcia Mendoza. Eva has worked in her office since 1982, and in this time she has helped the Las Vegas community work through civil and immigration cases besides aiding in a myriad of other ways. Eva Garcia Mendoza was born in 1950, in the town of McAllen, TX-an environment that perpetuated hatred of Mexican Americans. Eva recalls the racism she endured; for instance, being spanked if she spoke Spanish in school, and her family facing job discrimination because of her skin color or her last name. Being an ethnic and financial minority was difficult, and Eva remembers nights as a child when she would cry herself to sleep. Eva showed resilience in the face of adversity as she states, “you rise to the level of your teachers’ expectations.” With the encouragement of her band professor, Dr. L.M Snavely, she began higher education at Pan American College. She moved to Las Vegas in 1971 and began to work before being accepted at UNLV to study Spanish literature. She graduated in the class of 1973. In 1975, Eva applied to become a court interpreter, a decision that would drastically change the trajectory of her career. She earned the coveted position and began to work beside Judge John Mendoza who was the first Latino elected to public office in the state of Nevada. Several years later John and Eva would wed. Judge Mendoza passed away in 2011. Eva talks about how extraordinary his legacy is-from his professional achievements to a story about his v football days and the 1944 Dream Team, this true story even piqued the interest of Hollywood writers. Through her work, Eva began to notice how she was more than qualified to become a lawyer herself, so she applied and gained a full ride scholarship to the Law School of San Diego University. Eva describes the struggles of attending school in San Diego while her spouse and children were home in Las Vegas. Despite the financial difficulties, being one of few minority students, and becoming pregnant her second year, Eva was able to finish her remaining university credits by returning to Las Vegas and working with Judge Mendoza. Together, they started the Latin Bar Association. Eva began her own practice in 1981 and would later partner with Luther Snavely, who was the son of her band teacher that helped her to attend college so many years back. Today, Eva has a new partner at her office and hired her son to work as a secretary. Eva also tells of the office’s mysterious history, of which includes a ghostly figure many clients claimed to have seen in the reception room. Eva recounts many of her professional achievements, such as petitioning to start the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Nevada Chapter, representing celebrities, winning the unwinnable cases such as against the Nevada Test Site. Eva talks about current events, such as today’s immigration laws, the discriminatory practices of revoking birth certificates from those born in Brownsville, TX., and about the importance of the #MeToo movement. Eva and her family have a great fondness for Las Vegas. The support for the Latinx community in Las Vegas greatly contrasts that which she experienced as a child in southern Texas. She describes wanting to take her children and grandchildren to visit her old home in McAllen, TX where her family grew up on the “wrong side of the tracks.”
Text
Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate University of Nevada, Las Vegas, August 07, 1995
Date
1995-08-07
Archival Collection
Description
Includes meeting agenda and minutes. CSUN Session 25 Meeting Minutes and Agendas.
Text
Jackson, Jerry
Born January 14, 1936 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jerry Reese Jackson has worked as a show producer, director, costume designer, choreographer, lyricist, and composer. In Las Vegas, Nevada, Jackson is best known for his work on the Folies-Bergère at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino where he served as artistic director, choreographer, and later as costume designer for nearly thirty-five years, beginning in 1975 and ending with the show's closure in 2009.
Person
Film strip of individuals or Hoover Dam construction, image 003: photographic print
Date
1930 (year approximate) to 1939 (year approximate)
Archival Collection
Description
This photograph has three images. The first one, (0272_0020) reads, "Personal pictures taken by Tommy Teas (my brother-in-law) of his work mates on #8 line. Bucket swinging, hard to spot. It hanging about 500 ft. Bell boy talking to operator who is out of sight on top of mountain," as a handwritten inscription. The second one (0272_0021) reads "Men building key, about 10 in. high and two ft. wide. (1) Bell boy getting a good sight to spot the bucket in the right place," as a handwritten inscription. The third one (0272_0022) is an upside down picture of the Dam. Its handmade inscription reads, "Still below river bed. Good look at a pouring crew (x) shows bell boy giving orders to operator. Nice shot showing how bucket works. After the bucket leaves, the men will walk all through the fresh mud to walk out any air pockets."
Image
Film strip of individuals or Hoover Dam construction, image 005: photographic print
Date
1930 (year approximate) to 1939 (year approximate)
Archival Collection
Description
This photograph has two images. The first one (0272_0038) reads, "No.7 hi-line 'My first job'. Showing all the old crew. I am seasoned by now. But Colette the boss (bottom right), on my first night, began to eat me out because I didn't know to follow the crew to next pour. Here stood a man as large as a bull, with a black eye and a hare-lip & bull-dog face, didn't fear me at all - all my fear was on that stuff going back and forth overhead." The second one (0272_0039) has an inscription that reads, "Good view of men working on No.8 hi-line - not up to the intake towers yet, but have dumped a lot of mud in this hole - good picture for night shift. A good action picture. Know all the men well - First there is Slim, Blackie, the man whose back we see is Whitie, the foreman then Tommie. My brother-in-law. There are four lines like this."
Image
Film strip of individuals or Hoover Dam construction, image 008: photographic print
Date
1935-03
Archival Collection
Description
This photograph has three images. The first one (0272_0069) says, "'Nevada spillway' during overflow from a record snowfall in the mountains. Reeves fell from the entrance, shown behind the head caption reads: 'Tourists photographing spillway at Hoover Dam; tunnel behind man's head carries runoff almost half a mile to the Colorado River below.'" The second image (0272_0070) shows a young dam worker, R.B. Reaves (friend of John Kizziar), with the information that Reaves fell to his death in the Colorado River. "He lost his balance while working in the Nevada spillway raise. He was only 17 years old. He was a form stripper for Six Companies, March 1935." The third image (0272_0071) shows a view looking upstream through the channel of the Arizona spillway, Boulder Dam. It reads," Spillway with gates up. Weight of water will open gates. Working platform is being moved out of tunnel."
Image