The UTPA Library began making plans in late 2008 to work with Kika de la Garza to record his oral history interviews. The project was partially funded through a generous gift from University of Texas-Pan American Foundation Board Member Edward Muñoz. The University of Texas-Pan American Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Texas under 26 USC §501(c)(3). Since 1982, the Foundation has raised, managed and invested funds for charitable, educational and scientific purposes to benefit Pan American University and, after its merger with the University of Texas System in 1989, the University of Texas-Pan American.

In 2009, the first interview with Kika was scheduled in July. UTPA Archivist Diane Tyink, Joe Reyna (LAN administrator) and Adela Cadena (Special Collections Library Assistant) made numerous trips to Kika's home in McAllen, Texas to film the interviews. Working in conjunction with Kika's wife, Lucille de la Garza, some of these interviews are now ready for viewing.

The interviews are still ongoing and more will be available online shortly. If you have any questions about any of the interviews, please contact Diane Tyink at tyinkds@utpa.edu or 956-665-2766.

• Aug 26, 2009 

  Richard Nixon's Presidency; the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970; Watergate in 1972; Nixon's resignation; 1974 'Watergate babies' (new reform minded members of Congress); President Ford's pardon of Nixon; and more. Length of Interview: 1:03:36.

• Oct 8, 2009 

  Kika's general committee work and Rio Grande Valley issues; Agriculture Committee work and agriculture in the Valley (Ruby Red Grapefruit); Falcon Dam; international agricultural work; Subcommittee Environment and Oceanography and Subcommittee Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation; 1970s gas rationing in the Valley; Daylight Savings Time; 1972 Rural Development Act; President Jimmy Carter; and more. Length of Interview: 56:43.

• Oct 14, 2009 

  The 1980s; President Reagan; agriculture funding problems; President Jimmy Carter's loss to Reagan; the election of Reagan and the 'rise of the right'; the Farm Bill of 1985; the Fall of the Berlin Wall; Agriculture trips abroad (Russia, Czechoslovakia, etc.); relationship with John Block (Reagan's Secretary of Agriculture); 1986 earthquake in Mexico and U.S. role in aid; Contra aid in Nicaraugua; VA Hospital in the Valley; and more. Length of Interview: 55:19.

• Oct 22, 2009 

  Presidencies of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; NAFTA and GATT; Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin; 1994 Rio Grande Valley designated as 'Empowerment Zone'; development of Valley infrastructure and NAFTA; relationship with Mike Espy (Secretary of Agriculture); 1994 mid-term elections, partisanship and decision to retire; and more. Length of Interview: 42:44