Surveillance of a Worker’s Rights Icon: Emma Tenayuca’s FBI File

Today's post was written byDaniel Dancis, Special Access and FOIA Program Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, MD

The National Archives' Special Access and FOIA Program recently made available online the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case file on Emma Tenayuca (1916-1999) (NAID 16843150 and NAID 16843151). Tenayuca was a labor leader known for her role organizing workers in the pecan shelling industry in San Antonio, Texas in the 1930's. At the time, the pecan shelling workforce was composed primarily of Mexican American women. In 1938, at the age of 21, Tenayuca famously led thousands of workers to strike for better wages and working conditions. The strikers and their advocates complained of police brutality, civil rights abuses, and mass arrests that were used against them. Tenayuca herself was arrested on several occasions.^[1]

In addition to working on behalf of pecan shellers, Tenayuca was an active member and leader in the Communist Party (CP) of Texas, as was her husband at the time, Homer Brooks. As a result, they came under investigation by the FBI.

The FBI file on her consists of 181 pages and was compiled as part of a domestic security investigation conducted between 1939 and 1968, but effectively ending in 1953. The catalyst for the FBI's interest was a rally organized by Tenayuca that turned into a riot when it was overrun by anti-communist protesters. On the evening of August 25, 1939, an estimated 100 people attended a CP meeting at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium which Tenayuca had a permit to use. However, the event was opposed by organizations that had complained to the city's mayor, Maury Maverick, who had signed off on it.^[2] In opposition to the small communist gathering, an estimated 5,000 people came to protest at the auditorium. As the communists attempted to begin their meeting inside, the mob outside overran police, infiltrated the building, and caused considerable damage to the structure. Tenayuca and Brooks were forced to flee under police protection. The event made national news^[3] and was captured in images by local newspapers, including the San Antonio Light.

Following the riot, the FBI opened a file on Tenayuca and collected information about her from informants, through mail covers, stake outs, pretext phone calls, and direct interviews with her. The investigation took place in various cities where she lived including San Antonio and Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. The file documents that she worked various odd jobs, attended college, participated in Communist party meetings, and moved often. Nonetheless, the file does not paint a full picture of Tenayuca's life. Some further explanation is useful in order to fill in the gaps:

• In the immediate years after the riot she went by the name Beatrice Giraud. This fact is noted by the FBI but not explained. According to other biographical sketches, she used this alias to conceal her identity due to death threats she received after the events at the municipal auditorium.^[4]
• She was blacklisted due to her prominence as a labor organizer and communist. As a result, she struggled to find work and moved to California for better job opportunities in the 1940's. The reasons for her move are not explained in the FBI file, but Tenayuca discussed them in an oral history interview in 1987.^[5]
• While some FBI files go into great detail about the lives of their subjects, there is scant personal information in Tenayuca's file. We learn that she was married to Homer Brooks and that they divorced in 1941 but without any elaboration. She also gave birth to her son in 1952 but this is not mentioned in the file either.^[6]
• Throughout the file she is usually described as "Mexican" or "American born Mexican," but once as "unknown," one time as "white," and another time as "half-Japanese." In fact, if they would have asked, she may have told them that she was born in San Antonio with deep local roots; her mother's family was descended from Spanish colonists who settled the presidio in the 1600s, and her father was Native American.^[7]

As time passed, Tenayuca's political activism diminished and this is mirrored in the file, which gradually documented less surveillance of her and ultimately culminated in 1953, when FBI agents paid a visit at her home in San Francisco, California. During questioning, she told them that she had cut her ties with the Communist party in 1946 after having become disillusioned with the party.^[8] Once the FBI satisfactorily determined that she no longer identified as a communist and that she had disassociated from the party, the investigation into her quickly came to an end.

She returned to San Antonio in the 1960's and taught bilingual education until retirement in 1982. She passed away in 1999. Much of the rest of her life was lived out of the spotlight, however, in her later years she began to receive renewed public attention. Historians took an interest in her early activities and she was inducted into the city of San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2023, the city designated "Emma Tenayuca Memorial Way" in her honor on the site where the pecan shelling factories once stood.^[9] Today, she is recognized as an iconic Mexican American civil rights activist responsible for leading the famous Pecan Shellers Strike of 1938.

The FBI file on Tenayuca is in two parts, 100-385829-v.1 (NAID 16843150) and 100-385829-v.2 (NAID 16843151), which are available for viewing in the National Archives Catalog.

Related records at the National Archives:

Conciliation - Pecan Shellers (NAID 26877428), Subject Files of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, 1933 - 1944, General Records of the Department of Labor, Record Group 174.

Photo Story Series - Pecan Shellers - Texas (NAID: 271809737) WPA Information Division Photographic Index. Record Group 69.

The Pecan Shellers of San Antonio (NAID 1425380), State Project Reports and Research Publications, 1933 - 1943, Records of the Work Projects Administration, Record Group 69.

Mexican lunch wagon serving tortillas and fried beans to workers in pecan shelling plant (NAID: 148742223)

^[1] Abigail, R. Matt and León, Jazmin, "Tenayuca, Emma Beatrice," Handbook of Texas Online, and Croxdale, Richard, "Pecan-Shellers' Strike," Handbook of Texas Online. " Both accessed July 26, 2024.

^[2] "MAVERICK DEFIES PROTESTS ON REDS: Mayor Insists on Allowing Communist Rally in San Antonio Auditorium," New York Times, August 20, 1939. pg. 29.

^[3] "COMMUNISTS FLEE FROM 5,000 TEXANS: Crowd Fights Police in San Antonio" New York Times, August 26, 1939. pg. 15.

^[4] Abigail, R. Matt and León, Jazmin, "Tenayuca, Emma Beatrice," Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed July 26, 2024.

^[5] Poyo, Jerry. "Interview with Emma Tenayuca, 1987." Institute of Texan Cultures Oral History Collection. University of Texas at San Antonio. Accessed July 26, 2024.

^[6] González, Gabriela. "Carolina Munguía and Emma Tenayuca: The Politics of Benevolence and Radical Reform," Frontiers, Vol. 24, issue 2/3, p.200-229, 2003. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

^[7] Poyo, Jerry. "Interview with Emma Tenayuca, 1987."

^[8] Office Memorandum from SAC, San Francisco to Director, 4/20/1953. FBI file 100-HQ-385829, Vol. 2, p. 46. Not mentioned in her file is that her disillusionment began after the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was signed in 1939 - see González, Gabriela. "Carolina Munguía and Emma Tenayuca: The Politics of Benevolence and Radical Reform."

^[9] Torres, Raquel. "San Antonio will name a street after Mexican American labor hero Emma Tenayuca," San Antonio Report, January 26, 2023. Accessed 07/26/2024.

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