La Molina (Corpus Christi)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 27 ° 45 ′  N , 97 ° 27 ′  W

La Molina has been a 140 acre neighborhood on the western outskirts of Corpus Christi , Texas since 1954 . In its early days it consisted almost exclusively of families with Mexican and Afro-American backgrounds. In 1970, around a quarter of its 8,000 inhabitants were Afro-American and the vast majority were ethnic Mexicans. La Molina, which was already considered a problem district in its early days and has maintained this reputation to this day, is colloquially also known as Mo-Town and unofficially forms something like a separate city within Corpus Christi.

history

La Molina development began in the 1940s after Susano Molina sold the land to the Paul Cox Land Company . The formerly independent community was named after the previous landowner, as was the first road, Molina Drive . Running parallel to Molina Drive, the streets (drives) Barrera, Angela, Elvira, Jose, Ramona, Valdez and Yolanda were laid out in an easterly direction. They were named after former employees of the Paul Cox Land Company, as were the streets Lolita, Mendoza and Teresa in the northeast of the district and Villarreal Drive, which runs parallel to Bloomington Street in an east-west direction. The buildings erected on this area by the Paul Cox Land Company were mainly given to Afro-American and ethnic Mexicans, whose traditional quarters in the north and west of Corpus Christi were overpopulated after the Second World War .

After La Molina was incorporated into Corpus Christi in 1954, two elementary schools were built, of which the WE Hall Elementary was attended by ethnic Mexicans and the West Oso Negro School by African-Americans in the first few years . In the 1960s, the ethnic boundaries of the two schools were lifted, so that the two ethnic groups came closer together in the period that followed.

Known residents

The most famous resident of La Molina was the singer Selena Quintanilla , who lived in house number 705 at the end of Bloomington Street (corner of Archdale Drive). In her honor, in the year she was murdered (1995), a mural was erected on a wall in La Molina (corner of Bloomington Street and Elvira Drive) by students from West Oso High School under the direction of art teacher Dicky Valdez .

Other famous residents of La Molina was the football player Riley Odoms, the baseball player Richard Sandate and brothers Richard, Tito and Gilbert Guillen, as in the late 1950s and early 1960s boxer bandaged.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 . University of North Texas, 2015 , p. 42
  2. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 2
  3. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 3
  4. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 91
  5. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 78
  6. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 1
  7. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 3
  8. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 61
  9. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , p. 64
  10. ↑ Selena's house on YouTube
  11. ↑ Meagan Falcon: This mural in Selena Quintanilla's neighborhood is getting a makeover (article from August 7, 2018)
  12. ^ Riley Odoms in the NFL.com database
  13. ↑ Richard Sandate in the database of Baseball-Reference.com
  14. ^ Richard Guillen in the boxrec.com database
  15. ↑ Tito Guillen in the boxrec.com database
  16. ^ Gilbert Guillen in the boxrec.com database
  17. ^ Moisés A. Gurrola: Creating Community in Isolation: the History of Corpus Christi's Molina Addition, 1954-1970 , pp. 94f