Mario Alberto Salazar
Oral History Transcription
Oral History Audio
Name of Interviewer: Xóchitl Bada
Date of Interview: March 31, 2016
Location: Chicago, IL
Interview Language: Spanish
Mario Alberto Salazar was born in 1963 in Yuriria, Guanajuato, Mexico. In Yurira, Mario Alberto studied until secondary education. When he was 16 years-old he emigrated to Cuautla, Morelos, where he studied a technical career in Security and Industrial hygiene. After that, he went to Guanajuato city to work at the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of the State. There he was the health, security and hygienic supervisor at the Machines Department. Recently married, Mario Alberto and his wife lived for a month in Mexico City and then traveled to the U.S. with the purpose of having better labor opportunities and access to essential social services for his family. While Mario Alberto's wife had legal permanent residency status in the U.S., he traveled to the U.S. only with a tourist visa. In 1986, Mario Alberto and his wife arrived in Los Angeles, California, where he lived for a year. In 1987, both moved to Chicago for family reasons and had their first child. Once he arrived to the U.S., Mario Alberto studied English as a Second Language in a High School in Los Angeles and later at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago. While in California, Mario Alberto worked at a factory that produced military parachutes. In Chicago, he started to work as a machinist in a company dedicated to the manufacture of agricultural machines. He also has experience working in the Shipping Department of a Chemical laboratory. At the time of the interview, Mario Alberto was a supervisor in the Department of Shipping and Receiving at a factory dedicated to the manufacture of cardboard boxes. Mario Alberto Salazar has been the president of the organization “Casa Club Yuriria,” which was established in 2000 as a result of get-togethers among family and friends from Yuriria, Guanajuato living in Chicago. The club’s main purpose is to collect funds to support several needs of people from Yuriria, Guanajuato. The “Club Casa Yuriria” mainly focuses on informing and organizing people from Yuriria in Chicago so they can know how to have access to services offered by the Mexican Consulate, the Mexican government, and the state of Guanajuato. The club has 10 volunteer staff members and 200 families affiliated.
