Oral History Program Angela Urrea Interviewed by Destiny Deherrera 21 May 2019 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Angela Urrea Interviewed by Destiny Deherrera 21 May 2019 Copyright © 2022 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Beyond Suffrage Project was initiated to examine the impact women have had on northern Utah. Weber State University explored and documented women past and present who have influenced the history of the community, the development of education, and are bringing the area forward for the next generation. The project looked at how the 19th Amendment gave women a voice and representation, and was the catalyst for the way women became involved in the progress of the local area. The project examines the 50 years (1870-1920) before the amendment, the decades to follow and how women are making history today. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Urrea, Angela, an oral history by Destiny Deherrera, 21 May 2019, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Angela Urrea 21 May 2019 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Angela Urrea, conducted on May 21, 2019, by Destinee Deherrera. Angela discusses her life, her memories, and the impact of the 19th Amendment. Sarah Storey, the video technician, is also present during this interview. SS: Today is May 21, 2019 and it is 10:45 a.m. and Destinee Deherrera is here interviewing Angela Urrea for our women’s oral history project. This is all being recorded by Sarah Storey. DH: When and where were you born? AU: I was born in Wellingborough, England in 1956. DH: When you were a young girl, who were some of the women you looked up to? AU: My aunts and my mother. My mother was British and she married a Mexican American. So she left her cozy—she was older, they were both older when they married. So she left her comfort zone and moved into a minority community. She learned how to cook Mexican food, she learned how to be an American, and she was very proud when she became a citizen. She used to tell me stories about how she was trying to be polite about fried chicken, you know, with a knife and fork. And my aunt turned to her and said, “Just use your fingers.” So I admire her a lot, you know, to be older and leave your comfort zone and go into a totally new ethnic community. DH: How do you think the role of mothers has changed? 2 AU: I’m not a mother myself, but I see it in my younger friends. I’m 63 so I was just on the cusp of when women’s rights came to be and things were changing. I remember when they first opened the first day-care center here at Weber State for students. Before that, it wasn’t even available until, I think it was 1976. Mothers now are a part of the fabric of our workforce, of our academic life, of our political life, and I think it’s all for the good. DH: Were you encouraged to pursue an education? AU: My parents were both products of the Depression and class bias. My mother was a factory worker and my dad had been a farm laborer. Things changed for them during World War II. They encouraged me, they didn’t have the chance to get an education, so they encouraged us to get our education. They were really good about taking us to museums and to cultural events. And you know all of the little historical markers that you see across the nation? My dad would stop, “Let’s go learn about what that marker is about.” And so yes, I was encouraged to get an education. DH: Where did you get your education? AU: Weber State, Weber State, great! Great! Great! DH: What were your career options once you had your degree? AU: I actually… I was going to be a history teacher and I was going to school on a music scholarship. One of my bandmates was in ROTC and he was a scrawny little guy, you know, I think at that time I was scrawny too. I think I could have picked him up with one hand and he goes, “I’m going to be an army officer.” And 3 I thought, “Oh boy, please.” And so he talked me into going into ROTC. So the day I graduated, which was June 1, 1979. I was also commissioned into the U.S. Army. So I spent six years in active duty and went to Washington State and to Georgia and then eventually to Virginia. And I came back for my ten year high school reunion and I thought, “I miss the mountains.” And I moved back, after my Army commitment. DH: What were some of the challenges you faced while obtaining your degree? AU: I had it good. I had a scholarship and that was when we were on the quarter system and it was $289 a quarter. So all I had to pay for was books and fees and parking. And the biggest challenge I faced was I didn’t pick a major, until my third year. Because I could afford to play around and see what I wanted to do. So like I said, I determined to be a history teacher and I got into ROTC and I thought, “I’ve got it made, I’ve got a career.” DH: So what was your first job? AU: First… I’ve been working since I was 14. Out of college, my first job was the military. I was an officer in the military. I had obtained the rank of captain. Actually, a head of my, what they call your commission date, I happened to join a bunch of West Point graduates in my classes and they were all engineers and you know I was a history major and the Army units wisdom said, “You’re going to be a communications specialist.” And they took us in our first day of class and it was this electronics test, you know, diagrams? I just looked at it and thought, “What the heck is this?” I just put my name on it and turned it in. The instructor 4 said, “Where are you going?” And I said, “I don’t know any of this stuff.” So we learned , we learned all of this electronic stuff. And when I took the test, I actually beat the engineers because they were reading too much into the questions. They tried to make it too complicated. So… what was the question? I got off track. DH: It was, “What was your first job?” AU: Okay, that was it. DH: Yeah. AU: And then I didn’t like being out, what they called, “being in the field.” I was attached to a field Artillery Unit at Fort Lewis for a few months and I hated it. I’m kind of a girly girl, and not super feminine, but you know there are certain things that I think that I should have. Which is a hot shower every day and makeup and… being out in the desert training welfare center, at that time was in Yakima Washington, I didn’t get a shower for two weeks. DH: Oh wow. AU: And I thought, “This? No, this is not for me.” So they sent me to Fort Lewis, or… Fort Gordon in Georgia, which is in Augusta. To get my electronics training and I brown nosed my way into two desk jobs. I still had to do every year, we still had to go out in the field, but it wasn’t a permanent thing. DH: That’s awesome, you already touched on this, but what was your motivation to go into your chosen field? 5 AU: Again, it was just a dare. And I liked it, I really enjoyed it and at the time, I think there were only two of us in the ROTC—two women in the ROTC program in my year. And I learned that I could do anything that the men could do, but with a better attitude. You know, I didn’t think that I could… you know I wasn’t like trying to prove my masculinity. I just wanted to do the task. DH: As time went on, did you start to notice more women in your field or your area? AU: In the military, yes. I was commissioned in 1979. In 1978, they had just opened non-traditional fields to women. So example, the communications—combat communications, which is where they stuck me. I was the only women in my entire training battalion. After I graduated from the electronics portion, it’s called, “Officer’s Basic”, I went into what’s called, “Allied Support”. So I was in charge of all of the foreign officers and men that came to train on our equipment. And I’m sorry, again, I’m losing track of my thoughts. DH: Women… AU: So I was the only training officer in that training battalion and then I moved into what’s called Battalion Adjutant and that’s a person that pays you, punishes you, and get’s you your mail. And that was really really really interesting and I got interested in the law from that. And then I went to Richmond Virginia and I was the only woman. I was supposed to be in charge of the communications. It was the only Army installation that owned it’s own phone lines. From Richmond to Newport News and the theory was, if there was war, the supply people needed to be able to contact the ships and schedule the shipments of goods and stuff. So 6 that was cool because once a month I got to go and check the phone lines and just hangout in Williamsburg. It was just a blast. But yes, being—when I left the army in 1985, I was not alone. There were new women coming in, the first west point class had graduated at that point. I believe it was in 1980—of women. And I began to see more and more women and then when Desert Storm came in the—you probably don’t remember. I think it was 1990, Desert Storm. My brother went, he got called up, his reserve unit. I got put on activation but was never called up. And he said, “There were women in…” And things that he never thought women would ever be doing. You know, setting up the missiles and that type of thing. And now, all branches are open to women. Women can be in the rangers and the Seals and if they want to do that stuff. It’s not for me, but you know. DH: When was there a time that you would say that you were brave at work? AU: I think women have to be brave at work all of the time believe it or not. There’s still, unfortunately—I didn’t see it so much in the south, believe it or not. But when I came back to Utah, I noticed that women are not respected in positions of authority. And you have to assert that you know what you are talking about because I went into financial services and worked my way up to being an underwriter. That’s the person that approves mortgage loans and people would question me, and they wouldn’t question my male colleagues. And I would have to justify, “Why are you doing this?” “Well because…” And I think women have to be brave and assertive, even today. DH: Great. As a woman, how do you define courage? 7 AU: Courage? DH: Yes. AU: Gosh, there are so many ways to be courageous. Like I said, at work, confronting prejudice or bigotry at a store. I see it here, it’s kind of bad. I do citizen lobbying at the capital and I see women confronting legislatures and calling them out, I’ve done it. They do it. Just single mothers, putting food on the table, my gosh, you know paying rent. Rent here in Ogden, to me, is ridiculous and I consider that courageous. DH: Awesome. How did you balance your responsibilities between the workplace and home? AU: Well I’m single so I was able to put in 60-70 hour weeks and it really didn’t effect anything. But I was earning good money, you know, I’d go to a Jazz game if I felt like it. I’d go to the… I don’t like Opera, but I’d go to the ballet or to the Symphony or to a play. I traveled a lot. DH: That’s great. How do you think women receiving the right to vote, shaped or influenced history, your community, and you personally? AU: I’m involved with a group called Voterise. It’s an offshoot of Rock the Vote. There’s a couple here that moved to Park City and were appalled that women and minorities weren’t voting or young people. So I got involved with that and we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the right of women to vote next year. So our project is to register as many women as we can. Currently, there are 529,000 women in Utah that are not registered to vote that are eligible. So we 8 are trying to change that. I think what happened when women got the right to vote is… the nation kind of got more moderate to left. I’m not saying all women are moderates or lefties like me, but I think women see social issues and financial issues differently than men. And so I do believe that women have impacted what’s going on in the nation. There is a woman and her name was Francis… I can never remember her name. She was a Secretary of Labor under FDR and she was one of the first people to really go to bat for women. She would’ve never had that position if women hadn’t got the right to vote. Gosh, I wish I had remembered her name. Francis something… anyway, unfortunately, we are still one of the leading nations that hasn’t elected a female leader. I’m sorry… can you stop? So yes, women have impacted what’s going on, we do need more women. We have the largest amount of women in congress right now and unfortunately, not enough in the senate. In our own legislature, we have got a long long way to go. There are few women in our legislature. But the women that I know, and I don’t know how far I’m supposed to talk about politics… but most of the women are Democrats and they are amazing at some of the legislation they have put through for women. And so I’d like to see more women on the local level. We had a woman commissioner, she was a moderate republican and because she was a woman she got treated like a third class citizen and was basically forced out of power. So you know, it’s sad that it’s the 21st century. 2019, coming up on 100 years of the right to vote and women still are not empowered enough. 9 DH: What are some ways that you think we can empower women and empower the women’s right? AU: Again, one of the things that as I said, the Vote to Rise. My goal is to register as many women as I can in the next year to impact what’s going to go on in 2020. It’s a very—every election is important, but it’s very important in 2020 of the anti-abortion movement. It’s run by a friend group, 78% of Americans support Roe vs. Wade. But what is it? 28 state legislatures are ignoring the majority even in their own states. Alabama, I believe it’s like 51% support the Roe Vs. Wade. So they’re ignoring the majority. So Roe Vs. Wade is important to me. I’ve seen the difference it makes in people’s lives. I’m not an advocate of abortion, I’m an advocate of choice. Women need to have the choice, what to do with their own family. I did research and the average woman getting an abortion is in her 30’s and already has two children and is married. All of this stuff about punishing sluts is bologna. You know, it’s slut shaming it’s shaming women and it’s totally false information. DH: Thank you, that’s all I have. AU: Oh okay. SS: If you wouldn’t mind if I… AU: No, go ahead. SS: Would you discuss a little bit about when you ran for office? DH: I totally forgot about that. 10 AU: I was a national delegate in 2012 for President Obama and I worked on the 2012 campaign. Prior to that I had been in a position where I couldn’t really give full attention to politics. But when the economy crashed in 2008, I lost my good paying job and I was working temporary jobs and I had time. So in 2010, the rise of the tea party movement, the awful, hateful, things people were saying about our President Obama—racist, just hate filled stuff. I got involved in 2010 and in 2012 I became a national delegate and I met people, you know from Utah that I hadn’t known and laid a foundation to get involved statewide. And I became the secretary of the Weber County Democrats. Then I was approached to run for office as what was called a Placeholder. They knew no Democrat was going to win the seat but I was asked to run. Due to my physical limitations, I hurt my back and it’s hard for me walk. I did as many door-to-door’s and I did as cheaply as I could. Did you know that yard signs, two sided are $10 a piece? Yeah. So the district that I am in, runs from Western Weber County from Marriott-Slaterville on 12th street at 1800 where the IRS center is. It goes west to the lake, goes up to Box Elder County, makes a swing at the exit there, the main Brigham City exit and then goes to the east side of Brigham City. It’s really stupid. Brigham City does not have it’s own representative. It’s divided between two legislatures. So I’m talking to business people on main street, I said, “What do you do if you need something?” You know, “What if you want a liquor license or you know you want to discuss sales tax on food or the expenses of property taxes for business?” “Well we have to make two separate appointments.” Yeah, gerrymandering. So, I didn’t do very well, I went to as many community events as I could. I decided I 11 was going to raise $1,000 and that was it because there was no chance I was going to win. I raised the $1,000 I still have $681 in the bank because I’ve been approached about running for the Board of Education for Weber. What I learned was, yes, I’m very far left, but I’m pragmatic. I’m very strict on taxes, I don’t like wasting tax money, and some of the stuff that our male colleagues in the legislature do, waste tax money. And usually it’s to their benefit. And it’s not every legislature, most legislatures are there to do a good job. They just want to you know, represent their constituents. Unfortunately, a lot of their constituents are opposite of what I think, but that’s what they’re doing. But there are a handful of people in the legislature, that to me, that use the legislature as their own personal atm. So, I learned a lot running for office. I met a lot of wonderful people in Box Elder County. I’m involved in both Weber and Box Elder County Democratic party politics and I enjoy the heck out of it. I really did and the biggest push back that I got, believe it or not, was because I wasn’t married. SS: Weird. AU: Matter of fact, one gentleman says, “Well are you a lesbian?” And I said, “No, I just have never been married.” And, “No children?” “No.” He goes, “I think I would have liked it better if you were a lesbian with children and married to a woman than unmarried. You just don’t know what society is all about.” It’s like, “Okay.” That’s the biggest push back that I ever got and the fact that I’m Pro- Choice and gun—I’m for gun legislation comments on gun legislation doesn’t play out well where I’m at. But it was fun and I encourage everybody to run. Every woman should run for office, it’s just a learning experience and it’s 12 empowering. One of the things that I have been involved in is called, “Real Women Run.” It started at the YMCA in Salt Lake City and they noticed that, you know they take care of women that are battered that don’t have job training and when they approach female legislatures, they got an ear. The male legislatures are like, “We don’t have the money, bla bla bla, they should just go back to their husbands.” And so they were determined, “Well we’ve got to change the nature of our legislature and the county and the cities.” So they started this program, Real Women Run, and they teach people how to run for office. One of the things that they stress is that women don’t think they know enough. Men don’t care. They are just going to run for office and do the things that they want to do. And women need to get that attitude. “I’m going to run for office and just do the things that I want to do.” And it’s important and I found myself like, researching every little thing in case somebody asked me about, “Well, what about the 89 expansion… the legacy expansion into Western Weber County.” Nobody asked me about that. You know, and I learned from like my hero is Rebecca Chavice Hoke. She says, “Well what you need to do is just… if you don’t know the answer, tell them, ‘I don’t know the answer. I’ll get back with you. Give me a number.’” Don’t try to be an expert on every little thing, hoping that somebody is going to ask you a question. One thing that I learned about was the Bear River Dam Project. I had never even heard of it, but it’s very important in Box Elder County to the farm community. It was going to silt up Willard Bay. It was going to kill the Bird Refuge and the guy I was running against, Lee Parry, actually— first he was going to sponsor it and then he learned enough from his constituents 13 that this is a bad thing. And he’s now opposed to it and that’s the only thing we basically fought about and guns. He’s a gun nut. But… so the important thing is I think every woman should have—you know we talked about courage? Put your toes in. If you get defeated like I was, I was… I had the worst ever accumulation of votes for that job. I got 18%. It was embarrassing. And the gentleman that… because I ran in 2016, the gentleman that ran in 2018 got 37%. And I remember going to a political meeting, “Oh, this candidate did so much better than our last candidate.” And I went, “That was me.” But, I learned a lot. So every woman should consider it and you don’t have to be rich. I am far from rich, you know, I live on my retirement. I’m on a fixed income. But I learned that I can talk to people and I can listen and I can learn. I can learn about the Bear River Dam Project, I can learn about the incinerator that they’re trying to build out in Brigham City and the trash that’s being brought in from other states and burned. And you know, that… arsenic and everything is probably going to get into the Willard Bay ecosystem or the Bird Refuge ecosystem and I learned about that from talking to people up in Brigham City. So yes, I believe that women should get involved and I wish people would vote in local elections. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the president is important and we won’t talk about that. It’s not the president that sets your property rates, it is not the president that determines how much garbage that you are going to pay, or water. Or how much money is going to the schools. That’s a legislative and a local school board issues. I have a problem with charter schools, they are not overseen, they just get money and they are let loose and do their… they are not performing as well as the traditional schools are. And we 14 have too many for profit charter schools here in Weber County that are not accountable and people don’t know that. They think, “Oh Charter School, cool. I’m going to get my kid in and they are going to do great.” Another problem that I have, is a member of minority… I’m self-identified minority Latina. To me, there is segregation academies. There is one out by me, Venture Academy and it’s all white. There’s no minorities and yet, my tax dollar is going to that. And if we are going to have charter schools, they should be required to have the same demographic makeup as the rest of the county. Weber County I think is 19% minorities and yet Venture is 100% Caucasian. And I don’t like that. So I wish people would get involved in school board elections, in you know, this thing where we voted for at the library, the tax, remember that? We voted to, a bond for the libraries to build and upgrade our library system, which is really amazing. They’ve done some great things, but then they took some of that money and bought a shooting range. You know, to me, that money should have gone to buy books. Not some shooting range, that some county commissioners friend owned that was going down and under and now there’s this shooting range out at the Ogden Industrial Park. As a person of color, I’m not welcome there. I get treated very poorly and I’m an expert marksman from my army days. Of course, they see my bumper stickers, Bernie and Gun Control. But you know, it’s very frustrating that people don’t pay attention to our local politics. SS: You are amazing. So you said that you’ve been approached to run for school board, is that something that you are considering? 15 AU: I’m considering it but I’m at a disadvantage. I don’t have children, and I think that would go against me. I student taught, and I have substitute taught as a way to earn extra money, and I see what’s going on in our schools. My grandnieces go to school, I see what’s going on in their schools. But it is a disadvantage when you don’t have children. SS: On a side note, if you decide to run, I will campaign for you. I have children and I would love to have someone on the school board, because my kids actually go to Weber School District. I think you are phenomenal. AU: Well I have friends that want me to move to Ogden because they want the Ogden School Board really shaken. Ogden School Board is, I think they said, 42% minority student population and yet the Ogden School Board totally ignores that fact. And it’s been proved since that… what was his name, Smith? There’s a guy that headed up, that was a lawyer from Logan that they hired to be school board chair. Didn’t know anything about education system and he ran the school district into the ground. He fired most of the principals, he did away with a lot of the studies that were important. Minority studies, and he just… and he got appointed… he got run out of Ogden and he was appointed as a state school commissioner and he got ran out of that because he was even worse on the state level. SS: You have been so wonderful we just appreciate you so much. Thank you so much for being a part of this project and we just can’t thank you enough. AU: Oh it’s been fun, thank you. I love to talk. I’m a politician at heart. 16 SS: Is there anything else that you would like to add that you would like to have known? AU: I just… As a history… You know, I got a degree in history. As a historian, I wish—there are people walking the streets that if you just asked them their story, they’re amazing. It’s like Brenda Kidman says, “Oh, I don’t want to be interviewed, I have nothing to say.” And I said, “Well how ridiculous. You’ve got plenty to say.” She goes, “No, I’m going to recommend you. You’ve got something to say.” But I think every woman has something to say. You know, even if it’s about the price of booze at the liquor store, you know. Or you know, they can’t afford diapers because you know this happened, or that happened. And I just hope you can find some women off the street that didn’t get an education or didn’t have the chance to travel the world or see the nation and get their experiences too. SS: Absolutely. Well we think you are wonderful and I guess we are going to conclude our interview. It is 11:15—that was really quick actually. And thank you again.