Barrio Anita resident Sarah Garcia can no longer hear the happy noise of children splashing in the now-closed Oury Park pool across the street from her home. But the memories of growing up in the neighborhood still ring loud for her.
"Our life was at the park," said Garcia, whose 80 years are made younger by her zeal and smiles.
In this venerable Tucson barrio, on the eastern edge of Interstate 10 tucked between West Sixth Street, North Main Avenue and West Speedway, Garcia is one of its many matriarchs.
Garcia, known as Martha to her family, lives on the site where her paternal grandparents built a small adobe-brick home. Her grandparents came to Tucson at the turn of the last century.
In the barrio's history, the Garcia names stands out. In 1935 her father, Alberto Garcia, became a hero.
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Families had gathered at the park on May 4 that year to prepare for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. A homemade firework was lit near a some children and adults. Garcia's father grabbed it.
"The explosion partially blinded both eyes and required the amputation of most of both his hands," reported a newspaper article at the time.
The incident changed the Garcias' lives, but not their spirit.
"We were poor," said Garcia, who was 4 years old at the time of the accident. But her dad, known as "Shorty," and her mother, Sarah, did everything they could to provide for Garcia and her two younger siblings, Sam and Sylvia.
"My mother made sure we lived the right way," said Sylvia Garcia Gourley, who was visiting her sister last week. Gourley left Tucson for Georgia in 1963.
But the Garcias were not alone in the barrio. They were surrounded by relatives and friends who, while struggling themselves during the Great Depression, helped the Garcia family.
Her tío Julian Garcia brought them baked goods from the bakery where he worked. Another uncle provided food. And their tío Aurelio Garcia brought them fish and game from his hunting trips.
And after the explosion, the Spanish-American Democratic Club raised $600 for the family during the summer of 1935, the newspaper article said.
"The whole barrio was involved," Garcia said.
Her father was not the only hero in the barrio.
Her uncle Aurelio helped stave off a potential disaster at the Tucson Gas, Electric Light and Power Co., says a July 19, 1931, newspaper article.
An explosion in the compressor room at the plant on Main Avenue set off a fire, which was fed by spewing gas. Aurelio Garcia, who worked for the power company, climbed a 50-foot ladder to the tank "under a barrage of water from the firemen's hose" to shut off the valve, the newspaper reported.
Garcia said her uncle suffered multiple-degree burns on his hands and arms, and a corrido, or ballad, was written about him.
Life in the pre-World War II barrio was difficult because jobs were scarce, said Garcia. But despite the challenges her neighbors and family faced, she said, they did it together.
After her father lost his sight and hands, he opened a carpentry shop behind their North Contzen home. He had been a carpenter, taught carpentry at Tucson High and was a railroad machinist, said Garcia.
Shorty Garcia taught his children to use the machines and barrio friends to build things in his cabinet shop.
But the effects of the explosion eventually took an emotional toll on Garcia's father. At age 60 he was found lying in the kitchen by an open gas valve, with a blanket covering his head.
Like many Barrio Anita residents, Sarah Garcia left her neighborhood, and Tucson. She worked as a long-distance operator for Mountain Bell and worked in several states.
But she always longed to see the families play at the park where she grew up. In 1997 she moved into her new home, built by her son, Paul Gastelum, across from the park.
"It means everything."
Ernesto Portillo Jr. is editor of La Estrella de Tucsón. He can be reached at netopjr@azstarnet.com or at 520-573-4187.
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