San Antonio, Texas, August 25, 1939 ― On this night 150 people were inside the San Antonio’s Municipal Auditorium to hear, “the devil incarnate” as the Archbishop of San Antonio Arthur Drossaerts had called labor and civil rights activist Emma Tenayuca.
Emma Tenayuca intended to speak to 150 other Communist labor activists about building organizations and how to use organized power to stand up collectively for their rights as workers and citizens. Tenayuca was a young woman of Mexican descent who had spent the previous 8 years making powerful men, especially White men very uncomfortable.
Tenayuca was born in 1916 to a large family in San Antonio. Her family was a blue-collar, devoutly Catholic family. It was the Depression so when she turned 13, she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in San Antonio’s impoverished west side barrio. It was from here with her grandfather that the devil incarnate was spawned.
Her grandfather Francisco Zepeda was a carpenter, but he was also a follower of both American and Mexican politics. He instilled in Tenayuca a strong interest in the hardships that her fellow Mexicans faced in San Antonio and in the organized political activity that sought to address those conditions.
Tenayuca showed great aptitude for debate and languages, and she read enthusiastically about the works of Thomas Paine, Charles A. Beard, Karl Marx, and the Industrial Workers of the World. she joined a group of women striking against the H.W. Finck Cigar Company in 1933. This was her first arrest, and she saw the harsh and abusive behavior of the police. She first drew the attention of Archbishop Drossaerts because she had the audacity to speak out about the church’s complacency in supporting industry over the workers.
After graduating high school Tenayuca worked as an elevator operator but continued her activism and took a prominent role in the formation of two local chapters for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. Tenayuca called for new minimum wage guidelines and petitioned WPA officials in Washington, D.C., to investigate the discriminatory practices of the Texas Relief Commission at 17 she was a leader to be reckoned with. The pecan-shellers’ strike that began spontaneously in January 1938, however, catapulted Tenayuca to even greater heights of local, regional, and national renown.
The pecan-shellers’ strike, one of the largest in the country, lasted for three months. Strikers were subjected to mass arrests and tear gas, and Tenayuca’s Communist Party membership was criticized by the national press. Yes, she had joined the Communist Party when she married Homer Brooks, a local party leader. With hindsight it is easy to see why she joined. She had experienced the poverty and racism in the underbelly of America. Communism gave an outline and way to provide for justice and basic living conditions. However, this was a tactical mistake for Tenayuca as it gave the people who already hated her a propaganda weapon and it made some people who might have shown support for her labor actions become distrustful.
This was the situation when San Antonio’s mayor Maury Maverick agreed to allow her to speak at the San Antonio’s Municipal Auditorium. Maverick was a natural ally as he had been in congress when FDR got elected and was an ardent supporter. Maverick’s political career was built on support of minorities, and he tried to give back; Maverick was the sole Texas Democrat to vote for the Anti-Lynching Bill of 1937
The combination of Tenayuca and Maverick was one that made every right wing hot and people who really had no reason to connect like the Knights of Columbus and the KKK on this night. Red Hate and Racism make odd bedfellows. but combined with the ugly propaganda of the San Antionio newspapers it would become violent.
By the time Tenayuca prepared to speak there were more than 5,000 protesters outside the auditorium. These “Red-Haters” had been hyped up by the editorial position of the San Antonio Express-News and others. With the police trying to provide security the mob grew restless, and they stormed the building, threatening to lynch Tenayuca. Hearing the threats two sheriff’s deputies snuck her, and her husband out of the building through a maintenance tunnel. Her family and supporters then helped her to get out of the city and snuck her out to Houston.
The mob outside then turned on each other and the largest riot in city history broke out. The Knights of Columbus started throwing bricks to smash out the windows; and the KKK attacking anyone who looked Communist or Mexican with anything they could swing. Still most rioters were driven by a desire to stop the change in Hispanic equality, labor equality and women’s rights.
Firemen used hoses attached to the city line and blasted at the rioters with firehoses. Maverick had ordered every police officer in the city, and they used batons to try and stop the mob. While this did slow some people there were just too many rioters and they did get inside, where they found only themselves as the activists had all snuck out, So, led by former Republican candidate for Governor Alexander Boynton the mob started an “Americanism” rally. Remarkably only 17 people suffered severe enough injuries to be hospitalized.
Following the riot both the Catholic Church led by Father Marcus Valenta, one of Drossaerts’ underlings, and American Legion post commander Clem Smith called for Maverick to resign for his ridiculous decision to allow Communists to speak at was really a war memorial and not a public auditorium. Maverick refused to step down insisting he wouldn’t block anyone’s free speech. While Maverick didn’t step down the riot still clung to him, and he lost reelection in 1941 because he had aided the Communists.
Tenayuca escaped to Houston where Brooks was from and had family. Unfortunately, the riot also hurt her reputation. Prior to the riot she could focus on her labor activities and the tag of Communist hadn’t impacted her but in Houston she struggled to find work. Now that she had been outed as a Communist though she was placed under limited surveillance by the FBI. In Houston she was blacklisted and struggled to find work. There were death threats as well that went back to the pecan shellers strike. She started going by an assumed name, Beatrice Giraud. This name didn’t help much as her employment was often fleeting and short. She then went to California for a time, and she and her husband divorced. While she continued to write and attempted to do some organizing, she no longer had the home base she had in San Antonio and wasn’t able to do it as forcefully.
In 1946 she left the Communist party, she has said since that she became disillusioned with the party. In California she had a son and got her teaching degree. In 1962 she moved back to San Antonio and became a bilingual public-school teacher. She died in 1999 after developing Alzheimer's disease.
In the last few years of her life Emma Tenayuca found great respect in the city that had exiled her years before. She was inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2023 part of Cevallos Street near where the pecan warehouses had been located was dedicated to her.
Sources:
Emma Tenayuca, Homer Brooks, and Elizabeth Benson begin singing the ''Star Spangled Banner'' during attempt to open Communist rally in Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio, Texas, 1939
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