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UA research associate Rosi Andrade is wrapping up a project to document the lives of women business owners in downtown Tucson.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
August 15, 2008

Capturing the oral histories of women business owners in downtown Tucson has taken years for University of Arizona researcher Rosi A. Andrade and her peers.

Hard work, yes, but quite necessary, said Andrade, a research associate with the UA’s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, or SIROW.

Andrade and former UA colleague Nancy Mahaney set out on the project in 2005 and, along the way, Andrade began working with artists and photographer to create an even more permanent display of what contributions women have made downtown.

The two wanted to respond to discussions and efforts to revitalize the downtown area and, Andrade said, felt it was important to preserve a critical piece of downtown history.

Plans for the revitalization project involve building housing and commercial developments while also introducing new restaurants and other features that will lure people to the downtown area.

Another important component of the downtown project has been to preserve the long history of the area, as evidenced by the Mission complex and El Presidio San Agustín del Tucson.

“We wanted to try and make sure this was not lost, as some of the history had been in the past,” Andrade, adding that the work she and Mahaney began and Andrade has completed was funded by the Southwest Foundation. Mahaney is currently director of the Gila River (Huhugam) Indian Community Heritage Center.

It was also important to determine “how they have weathered the changes in patterns of commerce in downtown or in the community,” Andrade added.

“These women have such discipline. They are very dedicated to their business but also their families and the community. They also work very long days,” Andrade said. “In some ways they integrate families and, in some ways, they don’t have other support.”

The project, “Women, Commerce and Community in the Old Pueblo,” has resulted in reams of paper detailing the lives of women entrepreneurs and business owners dating back 20 years or more. Transcripts, which are now being finalized, will become part of the UA Special Collections, an archival body of rare and historic works, including books, photographs, artwork, manuscripts and other pieces.

The interviews are of a number of community members, activists and either the women who were pushing commerce downtown or who owned the businesses themselves. The women include:

• María García, owner of La Indita Restaurant.
• Myung Kim was interviewed with her daughter, Suzie Kim, owner of Wig-O-Rama.
• Shana Oseran, co-owner of Hotel Congress.
• Cele Peterson, owner of Cele Peterson Fashions.
• Patricia Preciado Martin, a community member and writer.
• Alva B. Torres, a community member and activist.
• Rosalva Shaar and Teresa Shaar, owners of El Minuto. Café
• Suzana Dávila of Café Poca Cosa.

Kim's business, Andrade learned, helps people who are going to costume parties, who are looking for a new look, are undergoing chemotherapy or who are cancer survivors. “That’s a very importance service to the community,” she said.

“This is a project that, with very little money but great potential, took off on different twists and turns," she added.

The artistic component of the project involved getting images of the women and building them into a sculpture. The sculpture is being considered for an exhibit planned for October. Andrade worked with Blair Lange and photographer Sarah Way to create photographs of the women in tile and also to produce photographs and metal works.

Lange, a 2005 UA studio art graduate, came up with the concept for the artwork.

“The flower is something like a cactus flower – a southwestern flower and I think it represents growth and change,” said Lange, who has worked with Andrade on the project for about two years.

“It has an organic feel to it," she said.

The 8-foot-tall sculpture Lange worked on with Harold Hilborn – a local blacksmith and metal worker with Holy Hammer Iron Works – will be infused with the tile work she created by making more than 50 silk screen images of the women and surrounding those images with mosaic tile work.

“Out of this work, I found that many of the women were highly dedicated to the maintenance and success of their venture,” Andrade said.

But the women were also concerned about "a social justice aspect," and were involved in helping the homesless, collecting funds for organizaitons and causes and also working in movements to support indigenous populations.

“People made their lives in downtown Tucson. People knew one another,” she said. “Their stories speak a great deal about family life and I think that’s very, very powerful for anyone who is interested in the history of a community and knowing that downtown Tucson is much more than the structures that stand there day and night.”