Moody Amphitheater
Learning From History About Holly
RECEIVED Fri., Jan. 21, 2011
Dear Editor,
I want to address the specific subject of “history” in the article "One More Detour on Holly Street" [News, Jan. 21]. From Holly south to the Colorado River was the site of the beginnings of the Mexican-American community. In 1919 my mother, then only 1 year old, and her parents lived on Riverview – just three blocks from the present power plant. At that time there was already a nearby city sewer lift station in operation, which is only now being demolished.
In the 1950s, as whites moved to the suburbs, Hispanics migrated north from below Holly to First/Cesar Chavez. My parents bought a home on Canterbury Street in 1951, just two blocks from what would later become the Holly Power Plant. My sister, her daughter, and myself still live in the same house.
I'm not fearful of history, time, or change. Coming from four generations in the neighborhood, I can remember not only when the “old guard” was new but before there even was a guard. Also, perhaps it is the sense and view of our own, sometimes inflated, self-importance taken together with the reminder of individual mortality, which we don't control, that others find so troubling. This is a lesson that history teaches, one of many, and we all would do well to learn.
I want to address the specific subject of “history” in the article "One More Detour on Holly Street" [News, Jan. 21]. From Holly south to the Colorado River was the site of the beginnings of the Mexican-American community. In 1919 my mother, then only 1 year old, and her parents lived on Riverview – just three blocks from the present power plant. At that time there was already a nearby city sewer lift station in operation, which is only now being demolished.
In the 1950s, as whites moved to the suburbs, Hispanics migrated north from below Holly to First/Cesar Chavez. My parents bought a home on Canterbury Street in 1951, just two blocks from what would later become the Holly Power Plant. My sister, her daughter, and myself still live in the same house.
I'm not fearful of history, time, or change. Coming from four generations in the neighborhood, I can remember not only when the “old guard” was new but before there even was a guard. Also, perhaps it is the sense and view of our own, sometimes inflated, self-importance taken together with the reminder of individual mortality, which we don't control, that others find so troubling. This is a lesson that history teaches, one of many, and we all would do well to learn.
Danny Camacho