Emma Tenayuca Quotes

I have expected my country, your country, to become the scientific Athens, but I don’t think that will be the case.

I just have a feeling, a very strong feeling, that if ever this world is civilized, that it would be more the work of women.

It’s only recently that I have been able to talk about some of the things that I saw here. I mean as far as poverty – because it was just too difficult.

If I had to give any credit to myself, I would say that I was a darn good organizer, and if I did it was because I read the works of the...I read quite a bit about the anarchists’ organization.

It wasn’t until the ‘30s that Spanish began to be taught in the schools – in the high schools. And there was a woman by the name of Esther Caravajal who wrote one of the first text books for the teaching of Spanish in the schools here.

I would say that the times are absolutely different. Unfortunately, American history books, especially at the high school level...and I examined about three of them here in 1968, I haven’t examined any since then. But they were not analytical. They were not critical. You will find history books that will tell you we still don’t know why the Depression occurred – a world-wide Depression. England went on the bill. Certainly, World War I had a lot to do with it. Why did we have a World War II? The unbearable, actually, the unbearable load or money that Germany had to pay us, which actually stripped their economy. Germany never had what you would call a true democratic society.

I once read that people from...among those graduates at West Point you wouldn’t find any liars and cowards: you get Poindexter; you got North. I mean, these guys filled their minds that covert actions, terrorism – the same type that we’re trying to fight

The Klan was very, very strong here, particularly on this side of town.

The Workers’ Alliance was an organization for the unemployed. And I think it did a tremendous job, because all of the housing projects that are here are due to the Workers’ Alliance...they were organized by the Communists and Socialists.

Theodore Roosevelt...he was an imperialist, but he had a liberal approach.

What really kept us (our neighborhood) together was the church – St. Agnes.

The question was always one of land, and it wasn’t tackled in Mexico until the time of Cardenas. And it wasn’t tackled in Cuba until Castro.

Remember, at that time here, ’24, the Palmer raids, the Ku Klux Klan

1938 was the hardest year because by that time the Depression had really struck every city, every place.

I read quite a bit. I would say I read, well, I didn’t read all of Das Kapital, but I read that and Price and Profit, Wage, Labor & Capital, so I had an idea of how capital was made; how it was used, and so forth and so on.