Interview no. 1721

Wilhelmina Apodaca

Summary of Interview

Ms. Apodaca brought to the interview a dress she wore when she was little for a photoshoot she had at the Casasola Studio that was later on featured in the newspaper. Ms. Apodaca remembers the blue dress very well because it was hand-made by her mother and her aunt especially for her. Like most of the clothing back then was made at home.

Ms. Apodaca was raised in a farm in New Mexico along her other five siblings. She loved living in the farm, but used to come to El Paso every weekend to visit her grandmother and do some shopping in town.

Her grandfather came from Germany and married her grandmother in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico. After a couple of years there they had four children and then moved to the US for her grandfather to work at a smelter town here in El Paso. When they arrived to El Paso they had other four children who went to school near the smelter town. They then acquired a farm which is were Ms. Apodaca and her siblings grew up in, after her grandfather passed away and left the farm to Ms. Apodaca father.

When Ms. Apodaca and her other sister got to high school they attended Loretto Academy where they graduated from. After graduating they started college at New Mexico State University. A couple of years later she got married and left college to raise a family.