The Prospect Hill Yellow Jackets Athletic Club: Neighborhood Demographics
In post-World War II San Antonio, federal employment at the city’s five military bases anchored the growth of the Mexican American middle class and by the 1950’s many of these Mexican Americans had moved to supervisory and technical positions.
Historian Richard A. Garcia observed about this community, “Many Mexicans, however, never experienced any overt discrimination because they never left the West Side. They had no need to leave; shopping, church, fiestas, schools, work, merchants, cantinas, and even red light districts were there. It was indeed a town within a city” (R. A. Garcia 43-44). The Hispanic community living in the West Side of San Antonio was developing a Mexican American mentality through education, political principles, and racial/cultural pride, while demanding the promise of a "more adventurous, more exciting, more significant future” (R. A. Garcia 298). The Mexicans who moved to the Prospect Hill enclave or who already lived there were middle-class businesspeople, teachers, and clerks. These Mexicans were leaders of Prospect Hill (R. A. Garcia 52-53).
Jerry Guevara is son of the late Joe M. Guevara who served as president of the PHY baseball league in the 1960’s. He recalled how his former coach worked at Kelly Air Force Base (Guevara, Jerry. Interview. By Adam Nerio. 31 March 2020.). The military base employed some 20,000 workers in decent paying jobs with health benefits and a pension (Miller 120). In addition, most of the parents whose children participated with the PHY worked civil service jobs “either at Kelly or Randolph,” including Joe Guevara. (Guevara, Jerry. Interview.)
In addition to many of the stable, two-parent families working at Kelly Air Force Base, local parents’ occupations also included small business owners, mail carriers, auto/airplane mechanics, welders, and shipping clerks. One parent worked at El Popo tortilla factory and donated tostada chips to be sold at the baseball field concession stand. (Nerio, Mark. Interview.) It is clear during the 1960’s, families entered the middle class as they had steady, full time jobs and able to afford homes with a backyard and a car for transportation.
Most families who participated lived in a fairly defined neighborhood or two around the PHY field. They were not from the older, traditional parts of the West Side near Lanier High School or the Guadalupe Theater. Therefore, most of the players walked to practice and to games. My father attended elementary school with many of the same boys who played on the teams. Most players attended school together, Ogden Elementary (SAISD) and what was then Cenizo Park Elementary (Edgewood ISD) which was around the corner from the PHY field.
One will note on the cover page photo, a teammate who is African American. A nearby neighborhood encapsulated and surrounded the then segregated Lincoln Heights Courts, a San Antonio Housing Authority property. “The San Antonio Housing Authority was established in 1937 with plans for the construction of five major housing projects. These were the “Alazan and Apache Courts for Mexican Americans, Lincoln Heights and Wheatley Courts for blacks, and Victoria Courts for whites” (Texas State Historical Association 2014 quoted in Tapia 28). Only African Americans lived in this housing project comprised of 343 apartment units and 1,330 residents (San Antonio Light, 26 Feb. 1962, pp. 20). Located at Poplar Street and Hamilton, the property is still in use, although now predominately Latino, that is 6.6% African American and 89% Hispanic (source: US Census). In the mid-60’s, the public schools were segregated. The African-American children that lived in this neighborhood and the housing project attended nearby segregated schools. There were two schools located on one large square city block with a large football field between them: Grant Elementary, named after Bishop Abraham Grant, AME Church, 1848-1911, and Dunbar Junior High. In the huge open field that was between the two schools was where several of the PHY baseball teams practiced. It was at this setting that African American kids would have come out to join the team (Nerio, Mark. Interview.).
Sports were not only fun for the participants but provided a sense of community and entertainment that connected the Mexican lower middle class. The Mexican community was the largest ethnic group, most of them living in the West Side of San Antonio. By the end of the Depression, the Mexican laboring class was “simply surviving” while the lower middle class was “finding and building its sense of Mexican American community” (R. A. Garcia 67). During this time, sports provided an outlet for dealing with the struggles and frustrations of life while experiencing joy and a sense of accomplishment through competition, teamwork, and success in winning.
My father and uncle played together on the Cardinals team throughout Minor League and Little League. The Minor League was for players aged eight through eleven, while the Little League was for those aged twelve through fourteen. Currently on display in both of their homes is a framed photograph of the team. This photo illustrates the sense of community and joy, discipline, respect, and pride the players and coaches felt during this time. The photo appears on the cover page of this report.
With the success of the Little League, the PHY athletic club wanted to have a winter program. Therefore, the athletic club started a soccer program in 1961. Rudy Rivera served as president of the soccer program from 1961 – 1962 and was helped by several men who were instrumental in organizing the league including, Charlie Chacon.
Willie Chacon, Charlie’s son, had fond memories of his father serving as a soccer coach and helping with the field/maintenance work. In addition, Willie recalled meeting congressman Henry B. Gonzalez and the positive experience it had on him saying, “he’d come to the games and we got to talk to him…a nice man” (Chacon, Willie. Interview. By Adam Nerio. 09 July 2020).
During the first few years, the soccer league was comprised of four teams with boys in the 12 to 15 years age bracket. In the following years, men such as John Zepeda helped keep the program going and expanded the league from one division and four teams to five divisions and 25 teams. John Zepeda’s son, Johnny, recalled “his kids and his love of the community” as the main reason his father devoted so much time to the PHY (Zepeda, Johnny. Interview.). John Zepeda would go on to serve as president of the soccer program from 1970 – 1972, receiving numerous awards for his contributions to the PHY athletic club.