#TBT: See the Fuentes family's 1920s home movies in this South Texas archive collection
In the early 1990s, Mercedes Fuentes Peck made the decision to donate her parents’ collection of papers, photos and home films to the Special Collections and Archives at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Bell Library. The donation now gives the community a rare glimpse into the everyday life of a Mexican American family living in Corpus Christi in the early 1900s.
Antonio Rodríguez Fuentes was born near Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico in 1895. He grew up on his family’s ranch and attended school there, and as a young man moved to Laredo, Texas, finally settling in Corpus Christi in 1917. There he met 19-year-old Josefina Barrera, the daughter of José María Barrera and Roque Martínez Barrera. The Barrera family was well-connected in the local Mexican American community, and after Antonio and Josefina married in 1918, they became involved with a number of organizations and eventually had five children, Ruben, Ophelia, Mercedes, Antonio, and Carmen.
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Antonio was an avid photographer and videographer, using a Kodak still camera and the French-made Pathex 9.5mm handcranked camera. The home films are especially unique for the time, as not many films are available in public collections for this time period, especially featuring a Hispanic family.
Though the reels contain minimal identifying information, they give fascinating glimpses into family life in the late 1920s through ‘30s. There are shots of the children outside the family home and ranch, young kids walking around their schoolyard, Christmas Day antics, a parade featuring Mexican American organizations, and even the family goat and rabbits.
Antonio was a member of several Mexican American fraternal organizations including Alianza Hispano-Americana and Obreros y Obreras. He was also a member of Woodmen of the World Lodge #2126, and sold insurance for the organization for 50 years and Josefina was involved with the women’s’ auxiliaries of the organizations. Many of the artifacts in the Fuentes collection pertain to the groups.
Antonio died in 1988 at 92, and Josefina in 1993 at 95. Their daughter Mercedes Fuentes Peck, arranged to donate the family’s materials to the Special Collections and Archives in the early ‘90s. Three separate donations made in 1992 and 1995, resulted in a collection that measures 36.5 linear feet.
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The archives include the family films – including the reels, camera and projector – along with family papers and correspondence, ledgers for a variety of fraternal organizations, and photographs and postcards. Most of the material is in Spanish, as many of the fraternal organizations were specifically for Mexican Americans. In 2017, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image added several of the Fuentes films to its collection. Between the two archives, the glimpse into a Mexican American family life in the early 1900s is now available to wider audience.
Allison Ehrlich writes about things to do in South Texas and has a weekly Throwback Thursday column on local history.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: See the Fuentes family's 1920s home movies in this South Texas archive
