La Pilita Museum (Amanda Portillo/NYTI)
While sitting at a picnic table near the entrance of La Pilita Museum in the Barrio Viejo neighborhood of Tucson, Fred Leyva, a museum volunteer, reminisced about a nearby house.
“That belonged to my mother’s godmother,” he said. The house is now a law office. Other homes in this neighborhood have also been turned into businesses. Part of Barrio Viejo is now the location of the Tucson Convention Center.
If people ask where he was born, Leyva replies “the TCC,” he said, chortling.
Leyva’s family has deep roots in Tucson, dating to the 1880s, when his family migrated from Sonora, Mexico. The house he pointed out across from the museum was built in the same era. A retired state worker, he has been volunteering as an oral historian for the museum’s “Barrio Memories” exhibition, one of nine elders from Barrio Viejo who volunteered to share their memories.
La Pilita Museum sits in an old adobe building just southwest of downtown Tucson. The museum’s program director, Joan Daniels, said the “Barrio Memories” exhibition was typical of the museum’s programming. The museum’s greater mission is to celebrate and maintain the history of both Barrio Viejo and the city of Tucson, she said.
In addition to oral histories, La Pilita offers historical photographs, showcases artwork and has a self-guided walking tour.
Fred Leyva inside La Pilita Museum (Amanda Portillo/NYTI)
The tour takes visitors through local landmarks, like the Carrillo Gardens and Elysian Grove park. A shrine, EL Tiradito, on the north side of the museum, is a National Historic Landmark. It honors a folk hero who died bearing the stigma of a sinner, and it is said that those who light a candle in his memory are granted a wish.
After urban renewal planning and development started in the 1960s and 1970s, much of the area Leyva once called home was demolished to make room for places like the Convention Center. Other structures, like La Pilita, now serve as a reminder of the past.
“Even though it was a very poor neighborhood, the people were very, very close, and we looked after each other,” Leyva said.
He recalled a period when landlords came by and told his mother they were raising the rent from $25 to $35, something she could not afford. His family tried to convince the landlords that they couldn’t pay the increase, to no avail. The family eventually had to leave.
Moving day still resonates with him.
“December 23, 1956, just before Christmas,” he said, nearly rising from his seat, and jabbing the air with a pointed finger as he emphasized each word.
Leyva was less angry than nostalgic. His family had lived in the house for over 50 years. He believes the rent increase came because the landlords knew urban renewal plans were in the works for the area.
“They really thought they were going to get big bucks for the property, which of course didn’t happen,” he said. “Most of the homes in the neighborhood were condemned. I don’t think they made that much money.”
La Pilita is situated where the entrance to Carrillo Gardens was before the 1900s. In the last century, Barrio Viejo and other nearby neighborhoods, Barrio El Hoyo and El Jardin, were tight-knit Mexican-American communities.
When people stop by La Pilita, Leyva answers questions and shares his opinions about how the neighborhood’s history has unfolded.
Perhaps the most common question is “What is a barrio?” Leyva said. He describes it as the most familiar areas of one’s neighborhood. He also explains when various homes and buildings were built, based on their styles of architecture.
And what does he think of how the neighborhood has changed?
Leyva said he wished the city had restored older buildings and made the area more of an old town. To him, the Tucson Convention Center is “just one big block of cement.”
“It’s lost a lot of intimacy,” he said.
Leyva does like how some parts of the neighborhood have been gentrified, with offices and upscale homes. He laments that people no long know each other the way they used to but says he is grateful to take part in La Pilita’s exhibition.
“From time to time I just love to just walk through the neighborhoods and just try to remember things,” he said. “Families and friends.”
“Barrio Memories” runs through Jan. 29.
Leyva points out a house in the neighborhood with strong family ties- Audio
Leyva, on he likes to remember his days in the barrio- Audio