Pete Bega Interview: Part One

Interviewed by Karen Bernstein

     Mr. Bega is the son of migrant workers and grew up in Elgin. He describes his family in the interview, the baseball league in the community, his educational experiences, and his career with Sears Department Store. Mr. Bega serves on the Elgin Independent School District Board of Trustees since 2004 and is an active volunteer for civic and church events in the community. The interview concludes with Mr. Bega's opinions about the importance of historic preservation. He states: "There's so much history here in Elgin, on the Hispanic side, that it's unbelievable. It should be in books, and the books could be written about this, but it's not."

      The interview was conducted by Karen Bernstein who moved to Elgin in 2018 and is a recognized documentary professional. Her work has aired on public radio and received numerous awards. Ms. Bernstein is engaged actively in the community.

Interviewer – What is your name, and where we are today?

Pete – Okay. I'm Pete Bega. My legal name is Pedro Bega. Of course, we're here in Elgin. Looking forward to this interview.

Interviewer – Do you give permission for the interview to be part of the Elgin Oral History Project?

Pete – I give permission for the project, yes.

Interviewer – Maybe you can tell me how old you are, or what year you were born?

Pete – I avoid my age at this age. But we'll talk about. What was the next question?

Interviewer – Oh, just, your earliest memories of Elgin.

Pete – Oh, they go way back. Probably in the '50s. Very, very young. I remember me being a small child, maybe three, four years old. My mom and my older brother and sisters were migrant workers. That means that, mostly during the cotton picking time of the year, we would pick cotton here in Elgin, during that period of time, which was probably late August, September. But after that, the people would go to West Texas, and go pick cotton there for the month of October into November. My mom, and my older brother and sisters, would be some of the people that would go. I always stayed here in Elgin, because my dad wanted me to be here. My dad worked at Sears, and so he had a full time job, he stayed behind.

We would go on weekends, and we would go visit wherever they were, usually around the Abilene, Texas area. I have a lot to say about migrant workers. But that's part of the history that I grew up in. Those are my earlier recollections. Like I said, I have so many memories. They're scattered, but I do have memories of going to a school, when they were working in West Texas.

I remember going into the first grade. For some reason, it seemed like it got colder back then. Maybe it was how we lived back then. But I remember, my first wardrobe consisted of my jeans and tee shirts. One year, that's all I had when I started school--the tee shirts and the jeans. When my mom came home from working in the fields, the first thing she did was buy me a jacket because I didn't even have a jacket for the wintertime. So those are some of my earlier recollections. You think about being young and not having a whole lot of material things. A lot of my friends that went to school, they had their own bikes. They had this, they had that; gadgets that they played with. We didn't have that. We were always very sports minded--my younger brother and I. We made our own toys. We played a lot with sticks, ax handles, and that type of thing. They were made into baseball bats. We lived near the railroad tracks, and our enjoyment was to go out to the tracks and hit rocks. We hit so many rocks on the railroad. We would hit rocks almost all day long. So we became very good baseball players, because we had a lot of hand-eye coordination. But that's how we did that. If we did have a ball, it was normally a tennis ball, or something like that. We would play with it. We'd play home run derby, which was very popular at that time. Just different things.

It was toys that we could make ourselves. We made bow and arrows. We made slingshots, and so forth. That's how we did. But thinking back and asking yourself, "What did we miss as kids? What is it that we didn't have, that we missed?" I can honestly tell you that we didn't miss anything. Some of the memories, we wouldn't trade for anything in the world. We never felt like we didn't have this, or we didn't have that. My parents were able to always put food on our table. We were able to enjoy one another. We lived a simple life, but it was a life that was very entertaining, and very fulfilling. Those were the things that I have memories of, when we were kids.

Interviewer – Can you tell me the dynamic of your family? So your mother and father, how many brothers and sisters? Or where are you in that scheme?

Pete – I had three brothers and three sisters. The oldest one was my sister. Then followed by my older brother. Both of them are deceased. That's the only two deceased brothers and sisters that I have. Then my other sister is older than I. I was the fourth one. Then I have a younger brother and a younger sister. We were the same family, but different thoughts. Not different values. Our values have always been very similar. But different ways of us looking at our lives, and what we wanted to accomplish, and how we set out to do those things.

My dad was a businessman here in Elgin. Both my parents were born and raised here in Elgin. They were probably born around Manor, or closer to Manor than Elgin. But they grew up here in Elgin. My dad not only worked for Sears full-time, but he was a baseball manager. In early years, he would have a team that would play all over Texas and into Mexico. They'd bring in a lot of teams from the outside. He had some very good ball players, but he didn't limit himself to the players just in Elgin. He had some Elgin players, he had some Austin players, he had some San Antonio players. All over Central Texas. They were very good at playing baseball. My brother and I, being kids, we always had a baseball uniform on, because we were the bat boys. That was our first recollection of being in love with that game, that we grew up to really enjoy, really play, and still follow baseball. It was a lot to do with my dad.

My mom was a simple person. She didn't have any formal education. But she was good enough and smart enough to know how to raise a family. Particularly after my dad died, when we were very young. Left six of us. The oldest one, being my sister, who was 16 at the time. I myself was about six or seven years old. My youngest sister was about three or four years old. She was able to raise all six of us. She had never worked before in her life. But she got to working.

Her mission in life was to raise us to be good kids, good Catholics, and to be able to do something for ourselves. Which, she did a very good job. She never remarried, until she was 65 years old. That was something that should have happened a lot earlier, but it didn't. Because when my dad died, she was only 32 years old. You stop and think about a 32 year old today, in today's world? You say, "Gosh, that was young." It truly was. But she had, her goal in life was to take care of us, and she did. I think we're the product of our mom raising us, and also the help that she got from my grandparents, who were really our everyday parents, because she was always working for us. Those are things that we cherish. We look back, and we feel very fortunate that we had the family, the family support that we've had over the years.

Interviewer – Can you put some names to this, just so that we have record of that? What was your father's name, your brother's names?

Pete – My dad's name was Pedro, just like me. Which, they called him Pete. My mom's name was Josepha, which is Josephine. My mom's parents were here in Elgin. Their last name was Flores, Philomeno and Macedonia Flores. Currently living, she's got a brother that's Manuel Flores, and a sister, which is Ramona Raquel, and another sister which is Maria Camilla Zelda. They're the survivors of that family. She had other sisters that have passed away, a brother has passed away. But that was my mom. That was her family. Those were my grandparents.

On my dad's side, Pantaleon and Cornelia Bega. My grandfather still used the last name of Vega, with a V, since we use it with a B. But he used his last name with a V, Pantaleon Vega. My dad had some sisters and brothers too. Or, one brother and two sisters. They've all passed away already. But my dad was very active in Elgin. To tell you, like I said, he worked at Sears. But he also, during World War II, owned a taxi service. He would taxi the soldiers from Camp Swift, up to Austin, to Elgin, and all around Central Texas. So he had that.

He also had a restaurant here on Central Avenue, which is next to South Side Market. That one burned down, many, many years ago. There's a hole there. That used to be his restaurant.

Interviewer – The one that's between McShan and the old Southside Market?

Pete – Yes. Then he had a bar, that you see right here in the corner. Up here was a gentleman that was a notary public here in Elgin. I've forgotten his name. But the bottom part was the bar, and he (my Dad) owned that one. Throughout his life, he owned several bars, and he owned several restaurants, and like I said, the taxi. He was always into different business ventures.

He also managed baseball for many, many years. As a youth, he was very good in sports. But as he got older, that's what he did. That was his passion, baseball. Even the year that he passed away, he passed away in, was it April or June? One of the two months. Early in the season, the players would come see him, when he was already sick. They would come ask him if he was going to have a baseball season that year. They were all looking forward to it.

Interviewer – Was there a whole league?

Pete – No, it was an independent league. Back then, if you had a baseball team, it was a semi-pro league. You played just different teams from, a lot of Austin teams, a lot of San Antonio teams, central Texas teams. We actually played a lot against teams from Mexico and so forth. It was not a league itself. Now later on, when I got older, I used to play baseball here in a semi-pro league with Mingo Lopez, who's the older brother of the Lopez family, that many of you know as being very good in sports. Particularly softball and baseball.

But we had some leagues that we played in. The Austin leagues. He was probably, after my dad had his baseball leagues and so forth, he probably was one of the ones that kept it alive for many years. Because we really enjoyed it. There was a gentleman also, before Mingo Lopez, that had another baseball team here, that was mostly Hispanic people. That was Raymond Ramirez. They lived here in Elgin too. He was a catcher at one time for the University of Texas. He was not the starter, but he was on the team. He had some team here in Elgin. A lot of good memories, a lot of players. You hear about the teams that we've had here in Elgin. But they were mostly the Anglo teams. But there were many, many, many Hispanic Americans that were very good ball players, that all resided, they didn't really reside all in Elgin, but they all made Elgin their home team. We played many, many years. Myself, and going further back than myself, we had that history, of that being part of our culture here in Elgin.

Interviewer – Did your parents go to the Mexican school that was here in Elgin?

Pete – I don't know that they actually went to school because the opportunity was not there. The only person that I know of that went to the Mexican school, as they called it--it was probably a one building school--was my older sister, Clara. She became Jonse. Her husband's last name was Jonse. If you know anything about the history of Elgin, in our high school sports, you know that her two sons, one of them was an all-state ball player here in Elgin. They both had a very great high school career in baseball here in Elgin and contributed to the success that we've had.

But she's the only one that I know of that went to the Mexican school. Because after her, my older brother, my other sister, myself went to the high school. Or the schools that are here now. They're currently part of our Elgin Independent School District.

Interviewer – After you graduated high school, and then what happened?

Pete – Well, when I went to high school, it's kind of funny. But we had no role models, as to going beyond high school. High school was the end of our education career. As a matter of fact, more kids than not would not graduate from Elgin High School, because they would drop out. The reason they dropped out was because most of them were migrant workers. When they'd get back to school in late November, and go back to school and try to catch up, it's very difficult. So we had a lot of older Hispanic students that went to our schools, simply because they were always trying to catch up.

A lot of them just didn't go past middle school, because the opportunity was not there for them. I myself always thought about my opportunities, or lack of opportunities. I had a different set of mind. I looked at things a little bit differently than most of my friends. My friends, they wanted to, of course, have a good time. We all did. But to have a good time, go to work, help their parents. Most of that time, when they started working, they never finished school. So that was a cycle. A circle that just goes around and around and around, and you fulfill what your parents did, and what you did, and what your kids were probably going to do.

The more I thought about that, it became a little bit depressing. That, "Is this what my life is going to be? Is it going to be to where I get into that circle, and cannot get out?" I thought about it a lot. Back then, we had one high school counselor. But they didn't ever have enough time to really talk to us, the Hispanic kids, even though we were doing very well academically. I always took pride in my school work. I managed to be in the top 10. I graduated number four in my class.

I had envisioned beyond just fulfilling that circle. So I thought about, "How do I do it?" Because we didn't even know how to start even thinking about going to college. I had a friend that's been a friend of mine since we were little kids. We went to school together. That was Juan Gonzales. Which, I'm sure a lot of you know about Juan, because he's been very active here in the community, in Elgin, as well as I have. We started talking to this young man. His name was Richard Banya. Richard was coming out of the navy, and he was going to enroll himself at Southwest Texas. We would go see him at night, and we would get the information from him. We'd get the process, and how to do it and so forth, and we did. We managed to get ourselves enrolled into Southwest Texas at that time. Which, none of us could foresee that we would ever take that step. Because nobody would help you. Your parents couldn't help you, because they didn't have the education. Your brother and sister could not help you, because they didn't do it themselves. We worked on it, and he got us through that challenge.

I remember the first day that, I'll call Juan Johnny, because that was the name that we called him. Johnny Joe was his name when we were kids. When Johnny and I got to Southwest Texas, we were in front of the student center, and we looked at each other and said, "What are we doing here?" That homesickness came across our minds. But we wanted it so badly, that nothing was going to keep us from succeeding. Which we did. That's why we went forward with our dreams, our goals, what we wanted to do, and we knew we had to do. There was a reason more so than just us, and wanting to succeed.

Interviewer – Were you the first of your family to go to college?

Pete – Yes. If I get a little bit emotional, I apologize for that.

A lot of memories. A lot of reasons why you do what you do. Yes, I was the first one to finish high school. I was the first one to go to college. But most of all, I wanted to break that circle. It was that circle that kept a lot of the Mexican American kids from doing what they wanted to do, and have an impact in their lives, as well as other lives. It was there in everything we did, without really thinking about it. It was in everything we did, because we knew we had to do it. Somebody had to break that circle.

That, I attribute to my whole family. I married my wife, who has been one of my greatest supporters, and has helped me be who I am. Together, we talked about our kids. When they started being born, "What do we want for them?" I wanted for them what I didn't have. I wanted an education, because I saw that education was a way of overcoming some of the obstacles that we had in our lives.

We wanted college to be an extension of their education, not high school being the end of their education. We talked about it in terms of, "Okay, where are you going? What are we going to do? What are you going to study? What do you want to be?" Those thoughts into my kids' minds, and my kids' hearts, so that they could understand that it wasn't anything other than what was going to be natural to them, and just follow what they had to do.

I've been blessed, that they were able to do that. They were able to achieve things that put them in a good place, so that they could succeed in their lives. That had to do with the values and the things that we realized. Over the years that I've had a chance to talk to some of the other parents, or some of the other young people, I tell them everything about their dreams. Because it may seem impossible, or it may seem like they cannot do it, or they cannot find ways of taking care of that. But there are ways. There are things they can do, and they can help their kids achieve the things that we have to do.

I am proud to say that here in Elgin, if you look over the history of Elgin, you look at all the Hispanic people, all the kids that come to my mind that have been so successful, from our city of Elgin, you would be amazed and surprised as to some of their lives. Some of their achievements. Some of the things that they have done. All of it has come, because they have had parents that have supported them, families that have supported them. Not that they have been the role models that they need, because we had few in the beginning. But I think today's world, it's encouraging. Making sure that path is there, and that it will be, for our kids. For our families. That they want to be part of what's successful in our city, in our state, in our nation, and be the role models that they need to be. I'm very proud of that.

I could mention many, many names here in Elgin, that have grown up to be successful. As a school board member, sometimes I get a little bit annoyed, because the perception outside of Elgin is that, "You're from where?" You're from Elgin, Texas. Because we have a very diverse mix of people here in Elgin. Academically, sometimes we struggle somewhat, in some of the testing that we do here in Elgin. That the perception is, "Well, they must not have a very good school system." Or, "They may not have very good teachers." But contrary to that, the reason I mentioned all the successful people in Elgin, is because they are the product of our Elgin Independent School District, which I have to say has served us well. If people really look deep into our system, our schools, the hearts that are out there teaching our kids, they would realize that it's a good community. That it's a town that gives all it has, especially to our younger people in Elgin, and that we must continue to do, because that's what it's all about.

Interviewer – Can you tell me what the cycle is to you?

Pete – The circle that I talk about, that cycle, circle that we were continuous about. What I alluded to was that growing up in Elgin, not having any role models. Not having a whole lot of education background, or our parents having the education that we needed to have. It seemed to me like most kids would grow up, they'd follow the direction of their parents. To go to work, help the family, and then their kids were born. It was the same thing that happened to them. That is the circle that I'm talking about.

That is why I said we had to break that circle. We had to have different reasons for existence. Different reasons for wanting to accomplish different things. I'll give you an example. When I was going to school, particularly in high school, teachers would ask, "What are you going to do when you finish high school? What's your career plan?" Some of my Anglo friends would say, "Well, I'm going to Texas Tech. I'm going to the University of Arkansas. I'm going to University of Texas. I'm going to A&M," and so forth. It was pretty consistent, as far as what their dreams and goals were. They would ask the Hispanic kids, "What are you going to do?" The standard answer was, "Well, I guess I'm going to go to work, so I can help my parents." The more I would listen to that, the more I would get discouraged about that circle. But at the same time, it would give me a stronger will to say, "I am going to be the one to break that circle." I was going to say, that circle represented years of being held back, because of the color of your skin. Because you were Mexican American. Because maybe you didn't have the dreams, or the means, or the ability to get out of that circle. So when you talk about that circle, you've got to understand that it's something very big, very powerful. It dominates your life. So you have to understand, that somehow you've got to recognize that circle. But somehow, you've got to do something about it. The way that we could do that was through different things, and be able to show the way to some of our younger generations. Which, here in Elgin, I'm very proud to say that education for these kids has become a way of life. It's not something they have to think about. I know that the schools nowadays are very good about creating those career paths for our kids.

Do we have a ways to go? Yes, we have a lot of way to go, because still, relationships, ethnic backgrounds, there are still a lot of issues in our country that we must overcome. But it is being recognized, and we do have some good people who work for the common good. I wish I was a lot younger, that I could actively pursue some of these paths. But I can only show the way and be the example that we need to be. That's what that circle means to me. Like I said, it's very overwhelming. Unless you faced it, you don't know what impact it has on your life.

It was the job opportunities. When we were in high school, we never worked anywhere outside the fields, because there was none. If somebody worked at the clothing store, it was because, one, their parents owned the store. Or whoever they may be. We had a lot of workers that would work at the brickyard. At that time, we were too young to be able to work there. So we naturally gravitated to field work.

I admire the people who do field work because they work hard. They're honest people. Honest money that they make. But that work didn't have a future for any one of us. We recognized that, but we were stuck in that circle. It wasn't until my junior and senior year, that we started working at the brickyard. It was hard work. It was manual work. Hauling brick, or being on the conveyor belts, and busting your back all day, eight hours a day, to keep up with it. But that was work, and it was not field work. From there, my entire youth was always working in some kind of labor job. I remember, even after my first year of college, that I got a job at the Austin State Hospital, going through the Employment Commission. It was labor work. It was painting the wards. It was doing that kind of work, that we had to do. It was not until after I graduated from Southwest Texas, that I was able to start working in an environment, that was going to be professional type work for me. That I learned about the values and about leadership skills.

Learning how to be a leader for a company that gave you the opportunities. At that time, I started with Sears, you would go into a store like ours, and you wouldn't see any Hispanics in prominent roles. You would see the Hispanics working at the warehouse, or they were working at the auto center, busting tires and installing batteries. You would see them doing stock work or custodial work. So there were no role models.

I remember when I first started with Sears, there was an appliance salesman, and he was the only Hispanic. There was an Hispanic lady that used to work in our auditing department. That was the extent of it. But I was fortunate that I got in on the ground level of the affirmative action paradigm in our country. We got a store manager that was an ex-Marine person. Very hard to work for, because he had very high expectations. But he helped me a lot. I got on the management team with him, as a very young person. He, being the leader of the store, would send me out, in Austin, to go recruit Hispanic people for our company, so he could get a bigger pool of applicants. He would send me to places like the Catholic churches, to set up meetings. He would send me to the Pan American Center to set up meetings. He would take me to his meetings with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He would take me to meet bank people. He got me exposed to a lot of people in Austin; that helped me in my career down the road. But it was he that saw the value of not just hiring just any Hispanic person to work for Sears, but hiring from a bigger applicant pool, so he could have options. Instead of hiring just somebody to say we filled a quota.

Learning those type of things, and learning those values, helped me in my career. Because I understood what diversity meant in the workforce, and what diversity meant in creating and building. Because back then, Sears was known as a highly white company. That we were aspiring to go up in the company would say, "Well, if you have blue eyes and blonde hair, you've got it made." That was the way that we looked at it. Because everybody at corporate office, it was like that. But over the years, and the career that I spent with them, I spent 32 years, it changed so much, so dramatically. It gave us so many opportunities that we would never have had before. It became our life. It became what we needed to do. It not only became my life, but it was the one that raised my family. For that, I'll never forget that company. Because professionally, it made me who I was. The skills that I learned, the schools that they sent me to, the enormous amount of education that they provided for me, helped me in many other things that I did. It continues to help me in the things that I do for my community. For my church. Because it gives me a sense of direction. It gives me a sense of knowing what to do, and how to do it. Being able to organize and lead, and hopefully inspire other people to do things. That's what I thrive on. But it became the basis of my business education. Having had a degree helped me a lot, because the company pushed for people who had those things. Because they knew that somehow we're going to succeed. I have so many great memories of everywhere that I've been with this company, and all of the opportunities that I had. All the travels that I've made with them. My wife is just as appreciative as I have been with that. I think, all my kids except one, they all worked part-time for Sears, because the company was very good to hire them, while they were going to school.

Interviewer – How long did work you for Sears?

Pete – I worked 32 years with Sears. I worked 32 years, and started, actually I worked more than that because I worked part-time when I was going to school at Southwest Texas. The work that I did was mostly working stock areas. I would unload the trucks that would come in from the distribution center, from the warehouse. I became, they made me the head stockman, because I was good at what I did. I wanted the responsibility, although it was a very meager and small assignment. But that taught me some values that I needed.

I would be going up the freight elevator, and I would go to the second floor, take merchandise out there. I would see these guys that were the merchandise managers, or the operations manager, or the store manager. I would see them in their suit and tie, because back then everybody wore suits and ties. I would look at them, and I would think to myself, "One of these days, I want to be able to do that. I want to be him." Those were my hidden goals that I had, and made me work harder, and made me pay attention. Made me learn what I learned.

God was good enough to me, that he allowed me to be able to do that and have a lot of people that were able to look at me and see me as their leader in the different parts of the country that I went to represent our company. Those goals, what I wanted to do, started in those stock rooms, looking at successful people that I wanted to emulate. I had the opportunity, and the company gave me the opportunity. Those are the things that I remember most vividly.

Interviewer – Tell me about meeting your wife. Repeat her name again for me?

Pete – My wife is Ester. I think most everybody in Elgin knows her. She probably knows more people than I do here in Elgin. That's saying a lot, because I was born and raised here in Elgin. Went through school here in Elgin. She didn't. She went to our neighboring school in Taylor, which back then was a big rivalry of ours.   

But regardless, I didn't meet my wife until I was going to college. Because in high school, I didn't know her, and she didn't know me, although I ran track, played baseball, and so forth.

I know that she probably went to some of the sporting events in Taylor, because we played Taylor all year. But we didn't know each other. She was very close to her church. They had little fiestas every Sunday, in the afternoons there in Taylor in the church grounds. Sometimes we and some of my friends would go there, because it was just a little bit of a fun evening. I remember seeing her, although we never spoke or anything like that. I just remember seeing her at the grounds.

Back then, the dances with the Hispanic groups, the bands that we followed, the bands that we went to the dances with and so forth, I met her at the Austin Coliseum, which would host dances almost every weekend. She would be there with some of her friends. Back then, although she had graduated, she was already working for the State, her dad would never allow her to go by herself or take the car or what have you. It was either him, or another one of the parents, that would take them to Austin to the dances. They would take them, and then they would wait for them to get out, and then they'd take them home.

In one of the dances, I met her. I asked her to dance, and we did. We seemed to have a good time, and our relationship just followed after that. We started seeing each other. We started going to her house. Just kind of surprised, because her parents were strict. They were never strict with me, as far as being, they were always very good. Very hospitable with me. So I enjoyed them the rest of their lives. But Ester and I started dating, and we got married about a year later, and had our kids. That's the history of our meeting each other.

With my dad dying when I was pretty young, I've told her all this time, "You made our family. Because your values, what you saw, how you helped me make decisions with our kids, it was very instrumental in how they grew up." I give her all the credit. She was able to guide me and the kids along, to where I feel like we have had a special relationship all these years. Not only she and I, but with our kids. We're one family that truly feels like, our motto here in Elgin, "One school, one town, one team." That's the way we were in our family. It's not a motto that I take lightly, because that represents us as a family. I give that credit to my wife, because she made us who we are.

Continued in Part Two