Catalog ID:
ORH-006-0004
Creator:
Batalla, Sara
Archives Field 21:
VIDEO Click to Play
Scope & Content:
Sara Batalla Oral History: Parts 1 and 2
Date of interview:
-Part 1: November 7, 2023
-Part 2: November 29, 2023
Location: online via Zoom (both parts)
Duration:
-Part 1: 54 minutes, 39 seconds
-Part 2: 1 hour, 7 minutes, 47 seconds
Part 1: November 7, 2023 (Zoom)
Sara Batalla was born in 1976 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the second of two daughters born to the late community activist Cesar Batalla and his wife Alma. Batalla is a Special Education teacher in Cesar Batalla Elementary School in the East Side neighborhood.
Batalla discusses her own upbringing in Bridgeport. While she recalls having been present for some of her father's community events, she recalls spending more time with her mother at home, who effectively "held it down." She attended a variety of Catholic schools before enrolling in Marist College, where she graduated with a degree in Psychology. She describes a simultaneous pride and pressure with her father's legacy. On the one hand, she's deeply proud of the work her father did. On the other hand, she's felt pressure to live up to his name, and wonders if her job as an educator isn't political enough (made particularly pressing as she works in a school literally named after her father). She also strives to maintain a better work and home divide, expressing that her gratitude for her father's sacrifices does not outweigh her overall desire not to miss out on what's right in front of her.
Batalla also discussed her father's complicated upbringing. Evidently, Cesar's mother became sick shortly after giving birth to him, and as such, Batalla and his biological siblings were dispersed across multiple relatives and caregivers as his mother healed. Cesar was raised by his aunt and uncle for the first eleven years of his life, believing them to be his parents and his cousins to be his siblings. Cesar didn't learn the truth until his biological father found work in Bridgeport and moved the family to the Park City in 1959. Cesar's biological mother eventually died in Bridgeport 1968, after he'd been drafted to the Vietnam War. The loss was a moment of confusion and contemplation - confusion over the loss of someone who he respected but didn't know as well, and contemplation over the kind of life he was going to live moving forward.*
Part 2: November 29, 2023 (Zoom)
In the second session of this two-part oral history interview with Sara Batalla, she touches on a range of topics. She begins with the impact of Cesar's passion for activism and insistence on the interconnectedness of this activism. She touches on her father's engagement with other communities of Color in Bridgeport, as well as his deep friendship with fellow activists Willie Matos and Alma Maya. Sara then talks about Cesar's passion for ASPIRA, a program geared towards bolstering educational outcomes of inner-city Puerto Ricans (and later, Latinxs and non-Latinxs alike). As one of the original "Aspirantes" of Bridgeport's burgeoning chapter in the early 1990s, Sara reflects on her experiences, receiving access to such resources as Sacred Heart University's on-campus library for completing homework and research, as well as Saturday courses taught by local professors. She lamented the destruction of the Bridgeport ASPIRA chapter's center in 2019, the unveiling of which Cesar attended just two weeks before his death in July 1996. Sara reflects on her experiences in college, navigating her father's illness and eventual passing, and her decision to ultimately complete her studies at Marist College while grieving. Sara concludes with her decision behind generating the Cesar Batalla archival collection hosted at the Bridgeport Public Library's downtown location, birthed from a desire to have his legacy honored, and to make sense of it herself.
Date of interview:
-Part 1: November 7, 2023
-Part 2: November 29, 2023
Location: online via Zoom (both parts)
Duration:
-Part 1: 54 minutes, 39 seconds
-Part 2: 1 hour, 7 minutes, 47 seconds
Part 1: November 7, 2023 (Zoom)
Sara Batalla was born in 1976 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the second of two daughters born to the late community activist Cesar Batalla and his wife Alma. Batalla is a Special Education teacher in Cesar Batalla Elementary School in the East Side neighborhood.
Batalla discusses her own upbringing in Bridgeport. While she recalls having been present for some of her father's community events, she recalls spending more time with her mother at home, who effectively "held it down." She attended a variety of Catholic schools before enrolling in Marist College, where she graduated with a degree in Psychology. She describes a simultaneous pride and pressure with her father's legacy. On the one hand, she's deeply proud of the work her father did. On the other hand, she's felt pressure to live up to his name, and wonders if her job as an educator isn't political enough (made particularly pressing as she works in a school literally named after her father). She also strives to maintain a better work and home divide, expressing that her gratitude for her father's sacrifices does not outweigh her overall desire not to miss out on what's right in front of her.
Batalla also discussed her father's complicated upbringing. Evidently, Cesar's mother became sick shortly after giving birth to him, and as such, Batalla and his biological siblings were dispersed across multiple relatives and caregivers as his mother healed. Cesar was raised by his aunt and uncle for the first eleven years of his life, believing them to be his parents and his cousins to be his siblings. Cesar didn't learn the truth until his biological father found work in Bridgeport and moved the family to the Park City in 1959. Cesar's biological mother eventually died in Bridgeport 1968, after he'd been drafted to the Vietnam War. The loss was a moment of confusion and contemplation - confusion over the loss of someone who he respected but didn't know as well, and contemplation over the kind of life he was going to live moving forward.*
Part 2: November 29, 2023 (Zoom)
In the second session of this two-part oral history interview with Sara Batalla, she touches on a range of topics. She begins with the impact of Cesar's passion for activism and insistence on the interconnectedness of this activism. She touches on her father's engagement with other communities of Color in Bridgeport, as well as his deep friendship with fellow activists Willie Matos and Alma Maya. Sara then talks about Cesar's passion for ASPIRA, a program geared towards bolstering educational outcomes of inner-city Puerto Ricans (and later, Latinxs and non-Latinxs alike). As one of the original "Aspirantes" of Bridgeport's burgeoning chapter in the early 1990s, Sara reflects on her experiences, receiving access to such resources as Sacred Heart University's on-campus library for completing homework and research, as well as Saturday courses taught by local professors. She lamented the destruction of the Bridgeport ASPIRA chapter's center in 2019, the unveiling of which Cesar attended just two weeks before his death in July 1996. Sara reflects on her experiences in college, navigating her father's illness and eventual passing, and her decision to ultimately complete her studies at Marist College while grieving. Sara concludes with her decision behind generating the Cesar Batalla archival collection hosted at the Bridgeport Public Library's downtown location, birthed from a desire to have his legacy honored, and to make sense of it herself.
Interviewer:
Interviewed by Amanda Rivera
Dates of Creation:
2023-03-09
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