Dublin Core
Title
Sydney Schulman on Elba Cruz Schulman
Subject
Elba Cruz Schulman
Description
Sydney Schulman speaking about his wife, Elba Cruz Schulman. Elba Cruz Schulman was an advocate for many as she lived her life dedicated to servicing others in the community. She worked as a drug counselor and led therapy for families and youth, she was the coordinator for the Northern Connecticut for the Cuban Refugee Entrants Program, and she was a community educator and medical social worker for the city of Hartford, specifically supervising the Maternity Infant Outreach Program. Her other accomplishments include the Hartford Mayor’s Passport to Success Program and the Festival of Lights program where she advocated for all youth to have the opportunity to succeed. For this line reference Syd Schulman’s, her husband, interview recounting Elba’s legacy.
Creator
Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team
Source
Interview
Publisher
Trinity College Liberal Arts Action Lab
Date
December 2, 2021
Contributor
Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team
Format
M4A, JPG
Language
English
Type
Interview
Identifier
Frog Hollow, Heroes of Frog Hollow, Elba Cruz Schulman
Coverage
Heroes of Frog Hollow Project
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sophie Sczurko
Interviewee
Sydney Schulman
Location
10 Grand St, Hartford, CT 06106
Transcription
Syd Schulman.m4a
Speaker 1 [00:00:01] All right, we're here today at Sydney, Shulman's law firm says the law firm is 12:37 on Tuesday, November 30th. All right. Oh, and if you can start by telling me a little bit about yourself,
Speaker 2 [00:00:23] OK, what would you like to know? And I got a long, long number of years to go through, and I know you don't want me to do that.
Speaker 1 [00:00:32] What do you do and how are you connected to Frank Harlow?
Speaker 2 [00:00:36] All right. Well, I'm a lawyer. I've got over 50 years in practice. I'll pull this down just in case that I've got over 50 years of practice. I originally, when I got back from the Air Force in 1966, I went to work for neighborhood legal services, which was the legal services for the poor, funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Federal Government. I became the executive director a year. Well, long story. But bottom line is within a year or two, I was the executive director. We had an office in the South Green Area, which is a frog fragile with close to Krakow and a quarter where the drug stores now. We were upstairs. We also had a North End office where I was and 1974 I went into my own practice, private practice. But I did that on May 1st, 1974. I moved it to. I moved to Grand Street, but it was a block or so over. I was there for, I think if I remember the number, but I was there for three years and then I moved to once one 17 Oak Street, which is practically right across the street. And in 1986, they partner and I bought this building and renovated it and actually wound up tearing it down and putting up a new building. And I moved in here. So be May 1986. And I've been here ever since. So that's how I wound up in this area. As far as what do we do? We do a tremendous amount of personal injury and worker's comp worker's compensation. We do real estate closings and sales. We do family work and the family courts. I do a fair amount of litigation. So it is never the clinical trial lawyers. And so that's why I wanted to be near the courts. And the courts, of course, are right around the corner. And so that's part of the reason for my being in this particular location. And then I do a lot of management consulting with small businesses, helping them grow, helping them get started, dealing with their leases, dealing with their contracts, with their merchandizers people who sell them products to sell. So that's essentially what this office does. But I've had a greater involvement in the Frog Hollow area because, for instance, where the new library is now, I think may I may have mentioned when I was opening that the Lyric Social Hall used to be there was a movie theater, but it was social hall upstairs. Elbow? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went over who used to go there dancing. Obviously, I have a lot of friends here in this area. I know a lot of people who are or were in this area. There's various organizations behind the rocks and and other organizations that have been here. The La Casa and Puerto Rico had a not an office, but a presence in front of and so on and so on. There've been a million organizations, so
Speaker 1 [00:04:24] there's a little bit about how Alba impacted you. Personally, I have been preaching that. For instance, how did you meet her
Speaker 2 [00:04:33] once you put that down somehow typical hearing?
Speaker 1 [00:04:36] Can you talk about how Alba impacted you personally? I know it's a silly question.
Speaker 2 [00:04:41] And you said we have a half an hour. I didn't say we have all night.
Speaker 1 [00:04:44] I know. How did you meet her? How has her legacy transformed your life? Briefly, I know this could take days.
Speaker 2 [00:04:54] Upon days, weeks, years. Yeah, years. I mean, we were meant. Married for 42 and a third years and one day we were together a couple of years before that. So really my thing, but I was 45 years and now did you do you want me just to say something about impact or do you want me to go according to this thing about how we met and so forth?
Speaker 1 [00:05:23] Up to you, huh? That's lifelong. Want to
Speaker 2 [00:05:25] learn about? That's an enduring, interesting story about how we met. That's why I mentioned it. Yeah. Back in 1970, I want to say January 72 might be off a little bit. I was working at legal services. I was the director of the program, an office. My office was on Palmer Street in Hartford. We had an office in Albany Avenue and then we had a third office. As I sat down here and I represented a group from Hartford that were delegates to a New England group called Necessary New England Spanish-American Regional Institute, and I didn't know or think about necessary, except we had delegates from Hartford and they came to me and they said they were looking for a lawyer to draft the certificate of Incorporation. The bylaws get tax exemption that was always been a specialty of mine as nonprofits. So I said, Yeah, all right. So I sat down and did it, and actually I brought in it was a guy named bill. I forget his last name, but anyway, he's a Puerto Rican lawyer. Lawyer Connecticut from Puerto Rico, volunteered for his Connecticut and I said, You know, I'm really very busy with a lot of things I'll train you to to do this kind of work, which I did. And he suddenly moved to New York because he was in broadcasting also. And they gave him a job at a Spanish news place in New York. So in January of 72, I got a call. There was a regional meeting in and Rhode Island in in it when the what's the main city in Rhode Island, the Providence Providence. So they were in Providence, Rhode Island, and I got a call on a Friday night and said to me, Can you come to Providence like right away? Because we have all these problems with the bylaws and this and that and we need somebody here. And Bill went to New York. So I was married at the time and I called my wife. I said, I'm off to Providence. So I took off and I went to Providence and they said, We'll put you up for the night and so forth. The whole night was in Spanish. And we did it. So the next day, then they said, Well, you got to stay overnight. Oh, man. You know, I got to get back now because they said, OK, so Saturday we started working again and we worked till around noontime and they say, OK, now we're going to go have lunch. I said, OK. And to get on the elevator, writing down in the elevator. And I looked at this lady in front of me. This lady just blew my mind. I didn't see her face, but the lady in front of me had hair going down to her ankles. And I love long hair. And I had never seen anybody with hair going down to her ankles. And I couldn't take my eyes off her until she got off the elevator and I caught a glimpse of the side of her face. So we went on working. We had lunch, but I'm working. And now it's nighttime Saturday night. We need you to stay over to Sunday so I can put up an argument. No, we need you to stay over Sunday to call home and said, I'm not coming home. So then I got a migraine and not a migraine, but a sinus headache. So we want to go party because after the day hard work, one thing we do in the Latino community is we party. So I said, No, no, I'm going to bed. I got this splitting. I took seven and I went to bed and the knock on the door got to come down to us. We're party. I said, No, I can't. Another knock on the door. Do you have any extra, et cetera? We've got headaches now. So I said, yeah, and I gave them. I say, by the way, I'm starting to feel a little better, so maybe I'll go down and party. So I go down and we sit down and I happened to sit next to this lady with blond hair. And she seemed a little bit familiar, but I couldn't tell from where we. We got I was struck up a conversation and everybody at our table is from Hartford, but she was from Massachusetts. So we let everybody dance and everything. And all of a sudden, near the end of the day, the end of the evening, I said, You know, your face looks a little familiar to me, but I can't figure out where I've seen you before. She said, Well, I don't know. She said it, you know, I came in today and all of a sudden it struck me. I said, Wait a minute, did you come up on the elevator about 12:30? She's here. You had hair down your ankles. She's all this is a wig and elbow was wearing wigs all the time because it was a pain in the neck, too to do this. Oh, very nice meeting you. The next day, I said, I very enjoyed meeting you. You see each other some time and we laughed. I never thought I'd see her again. Two weeks later, I get a telephone call. She said, I've got somebody up here who was arrested and has to appear in Hartford, and she was doing volunteer social work for the community agency in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where she lived. And also, she did the same thing with the community agency in Springfield, but she was always volunteering. And I found out she had four kids and we talked and her and her husband, I guess, were going to be separated. And so I said, Well, you know, I'd be happy to represent this guy because taking a sample of you across state lines for sexual purposes is obviously a very serious crime. And he was charged in Hartford, decided to come down and bring them down, which he did while she did that. She was wearing a oh, a different color with brown brown. I forget my orange anyway. We're standing out in front of the store. Maria Sanchez. My office was right around the corner. We're right next to it, actually, because I used to be there as well as a Barbie Street. And a friend of mine said to me, I introduce you to a friend of mine. I had also introduced her to him. Another time she'd been down. And finally, he comes over me another time and says, You know, you know, some gorgeous women. I couldn't have the heart to tell. It's the same person just wearing different wigs. So anyway, it took much too long, but I told you.
Speaker 1 [00:12:38] So you kind of touched on how she impacted you personally and how you met. Well, about how she impacted the fragile community. I know she did a lot of like Christmas things like rounding up clothes and toys,
Speaker 2 [00:12:54] and we were, as you say, joined at the hip. And over the years that followed before in Hartford, I wound up on and she could be living with her. We then got married and got a house in Bluefield. She worked for the Holyoke for the Boys Club in Holyoke, working with youth in the schools, and she was like she used to come into the classrooms in Holyoke and work at it. Not as a paralegal. I mean, paraprofessional. But they used to call upon her for everything, every youth who had a problem. And, you know, they call elbow. And when she moved here, she started work for the Low-Income Planning Agency and Lippa, and she worked for them for several years. And and then she that's where she got acquainted with the Cuban refugee project where I think I may mention that. And I got a million stories about that. And you know, she impacted me because she did nothing without leaving evolve. And I did nothing without Irving Navarro. She represented tons of my clients. She always every time, you know, obviously I'm a lawyer. I get clients with problems that they wouldn't need a lawyer. And invariably it involves something to do with the family. Or maybe there was a family problem that was not connected with the legal problem. And Albert was always there, and I've always thought that he or she did family counseling, individual counseling. She would figure out ways to have their problem resolved by other sources. You know, if she couldn't solve, for instance, if it was a family that the kids were not going to school, she would advocate for them at the school. Sure, if they got arrested, she would advocate for them in the courts, which is also, by the way, which she did in Massachusetts. In fact, I was a judge up there. I fell in love with her and we give her anything. There was another charge that was widely hated in Massachusetts and by everybody, by lawyers, by clients. He was he was a despot in his courtroom, which they could be there. They can't do it here. And she went to him one time and wanted a contribution for issues, always collecting for something he said, Come into my chambers. So it goes into my chain. I heard him threaten. I was personally hurt him, threatened a lawyer up there with throwing them in jail for insulting, the lawyers said, which was not so. It was nothing. And that's the kind of man this judge was, as I used to practice. There have always this and that. So when you went into the courtroom, the chambers, he said, I'm going to give you a check on one condition. What's that? You never, ever tell anybody that I gave money to this? Ha ha ha ha. You wanted to be known. You wanted to be a hard. But he didn't want to be anybody. Know that he had a she could crack him. She cracked. Yeah. She's the only one that I know of that ever did. So anyway, she wound up back in Hartford and Low Income Planning Agency, and they she worked for someone else. But it was when you were involved in Hartford, you're never involved, just in front, Hollywood, just in North End. She was all over Hartford. And as you pointed out in in some of the stuff. Read she collected. She created actually the mayor's Christmas lights program, we're collecting toys for the kids. Albert created that. I mean, there were others who were collecting toys, also analyzes them. And every year. You know, and and she's done it every year for years. All of our, you know, and we all became good friends. Maria Sanchez is like my sister, literally. We were that close and and hadn't grown. I've kept track of all these years when she lived in North Carolina with the South Carolina Hilton Head, wherever that is. And then she moved back of Perrigo, and so I knew her and her daughter and her ex-husband. And so we were all part of the same family. And when Alvin and I went out, it was again, it was part of us, was part of the same family. And she said her advocacy in the courts, and they initially didn't want to let her be she, not lawyer. So in Connecticut, they're a little bit circumspect about, you know, whom they talk to on behalf of the defendant, that kind of thing as opposed to Massachusetts, where anybody could talk about anything. And she was used to getting away. She wound up getting a way out here, too, because the prosecutors would talk to her. The victim's advocates would talk to her and try to resolve whatever problems this individual had. And I'm trying to think about it with respect. So there wasn't anything individually with respect to Frank Hollywood, except she was here all the time. She was in the parades here at home because she involved herself with the passport program at the city of Hartford again. You know, that was her creation. Other mayor Mike and others, they just she said she wanted do some. They said, go ahead and do it because 99 percent of the time she didn't. There were nobody else to do it. And I've never heard anybody successfully say no to her.
Speaker 1 [00:19:19] That's awesome. Yeah. How would you describe her leadership style, persistent? Definitely.
Speaker 2 [00:19:29] She never said to anybody, You have to do this or I'm directing you. I've never heard a direct anybody do anything. Her passion. Her overall excitement. Her compassion always seemed to make people want to do what she would like them. I think they respected that in her. I've seen her get mad. I don't think anybody else has ever seen her get mad. But we use that tells her to tease her that when she got mad, smoke started curling out of her ears. You don't want to get over mad. I want, like I say, as far as outside in the community, I've only seen a married couple times and that was mostly when she could not get help for somebody that she was trying to help. When somebody refused to give her the help that she sought for somebody else.
Speaker 1 [00:20:46] How do you think the community can honor Albert's legacy?
Speaker 2 [00:20:55] If ever we're here, you're looking for Noah, she would not look for an anyone. She would not want to be. This should be overwhelmed by the merely parafilm. They've also selected her among the board of Ebony Horsewoman. I don't know if you're familiar with that organization, Ebony Horsewoman on its own. They're having a fence put around their property. They have a long term contract with lease with the city Hartford and Find St.. And on that fence, they're going to put they have female heroes of Hartford and they select selected out. So a mural is being done over there and there's going to be a plaque next to it with all kinds of stuff in it. But Alva herself would say, I'm not interested. I think she would. She kept looking around over the years, and she was always looking for somebody who would follow in her footsteps. And if she could hurt her best, whatever you call it, would be to find two or three people who would do what she did. And she had thought she found them two or three times and for one reason or another didn't work out. But it wasn't because the people didn't want to. It was because they didn't have the intensity or the willingness to spend 24-7. And you have to remember, I think most people know that my first wife passed away. Let's see. I think it was a couple of years ago, actually about five or six years after we got married and my kids, my three were still young. They were younger than her four. So I usually tell her she robbed the cradle and she married me. And so we took my three thrown together and raised all seven together. Oh, and so in addition to doing all this, she was cleaning house. She was cooking for everybody. She was mothering all seven.
Speaker 1 [00:23:45] So there was none in your household?
Speaker 2 [00:23:48] Yeah. Well, there were. Yeah, when they were young. And as a matter of fact, the ironic thing before my first wife died once in a while, she'd have a problem with one of the kids she would call Albert and find out what to do. That's a little bit unusual. I don't run into that a lot in my practice. And and not only that, but our sister moved in about 35 years ago, and she sells ice cream in the summer and doesn't have much in the way of money. So would invite her to come in for two weeks or four weeks. That was about 35 years ago. She never left. You know, if you ever see the movie, the man who came together? Mm hmm. Monte Wally, well, this is the is along came to dinner and she still lives there. It still makes my lunch. Everything. And. So in addition to everything that she did in the community, in addition to on the fundraising and she was the key to kept her Lions club going. And I'll tell you the way she was lying to the family of the International Association of Lions clubs. Well, it's the largest charitable organization in the world. They have 48000 clubs, approximately in two hundred and I think geographical areas. Alvin, I used to go to almost every year to the international convention and one year a couple of years was in Hong Kong. We went to Hong Kong. We were fortunate to meet the two presidents, the the the mainland Chinese communist Chinese would not let any clubs or any of that stuff into China. The Lions went in and performed a million cataract operations. There are 20 million people in China. They knew that they didn't turn. They trained people on the fields in the army and walked out. It was so impressed they invited lions to clubs, and we were fortunate enough to meet the two presidents of the first two clubs in Mainland China. So Albert would not only go, but he or she would form. She would carry out lions programs with the Lions club. She was past president. She was treasurer when she passed away. In addition, another sister had a stroke and was in assisted living in Springfield, Longmeadow. So Alva would go up there every week and bring her stuff, visit her sister and do that in addition to the community activities. And it's an invitation to our family in addition to the Lions club, in addition to all the other stuff. And since then, we've had to divide her job with her sister into three parts. You know, I handle the finances. One of my sons goes up there every week and brings her whatever she needs, takes her up lunch and another sister calls her every the one listens. He calls her every night on the phone and deals with the family's son will take the three of us to do that,
Speaker 1 [00:27:23] and Alma did it all herself.
Speaker 2 [00:27:26] It was south then. So there was the different facets to her life, and she did it all. And. The the other programs in Hartford you think been familiar with the Lions for Lions club has said that they they have a fund that they've been collecting that's going to give out this fund in Elba's name and scholarships and everything, and you get a reaction. Look, I don't care. Let's just get the money figured out. She was in federal fundraiser. Nobody said no to all our fundraising. And least of all me. She would come home and say, I need to check for this, OK? I ain't going to argue with you. And she will give out her own money. What is not known really about Albert is that, yeah, you know, she earned an income when she was working for the city of Hartford for thirty two years and she bought. What is not known is how she gave out a lot of her own money. And of course, I could never permit me to question it. But I can't count the number of times people didn't have food and she would just go out and buy food. People who have something else, clothing, she go out and buy clothing. And she was just do it. It was a matter of fact, and it was nothing to account for. It is nothing to do. She had her own money. She earned her money. She spent it the way she pleased. The one thing she didn't want to do is you see all these people with signs on street corners and stuff about them wouldn't give them money. But what she do is she had happen to go to McDonald's. Gave me $5 breakfast certificates and she carry him around in her purse. So when she saw somebody, she give him a five dollar breakfast. I said, Albert, don't you know that they're going to they're going to take that and sell it off for three dollars or two dollars for cash to someone else is. I don't care because I am giving them food. Is fear the ones that choose it? They make that choice. I'm giving you free food and there are some of them. They might actually use it for food. And I said, Well, yeah, probably. Yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:30:13] What else you thought about that? That was awesome, hmm. That was great. Well, any questions for me?
Speaker 2 [00:30:22] No. Let me see if I. I think the location of the mural, I think, is absolutely fabulous. No one is closer to my office than than I am to the library, actually. Yeah. And number two, I think it's more visible her Maria, and they're more visible than some of the other murals. Yeah, because of the parking lot across the street. And I've had a lot of friends of ours from different parts of the state who have especially come to Hartford to go see it. In fact, my sister came down from she lives in Wellesley, Mass. And she and my niece came down to see it. And and of course, our seven children are now all grown up and have their own families as well. Well, the one who's been single all his life and they continually remember their legacy because if I continue to hear from them, is that's all seven four stepchildren, as well as any children want to live their lives like her mother. So they are all in one way shape or form, get back to me. Not as much as like she did. Yeah. I don't think there's anybody really care. And do you have any other questions? I don't. I'll see you being one of the other stories of about her. How are you?
Speaker 1 [00:00:01] All right, we're here today at Sydney, Shulman's law firm says the law firm is 12:37 on Tuesday, November 30th. All right. Oh, and if you can start by telling me a little bit about yourself,
Speaker 2 [00:00:23] OK, what would you like to know? And I got a long, long number of years to go through, and I know you don't want me to do that.
Speaker 1 [00:00:32] What do you do and how are you connected to Frank Harlow?
Speaker 2 [00:00:36] All right. Well, I'm a lawyer. I've got over 50 years in practice. I'll pull this down just in case that I've got over 50 years of practice. I originally, when I got back from the Air Force in 1966, I went to work for neighborhood legal services, which was the legal services for the poor, funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Federal Government. I became the executive director a year. Well, long story. But bottom line is within a year or two, I was the executive director. We had an office in the South Green Area, which is a frog fragile with close to Krakow and a quarter where the drug stores now. We were upstairs. We also had a North End office where I was and 1974 I went into my own practice, private practice. But I did that on May 1st, 1974. I moved it to. I moved to Grand Street, but it was a block or so over. I was there for, I think if I remember the number, but I was there for three years and then I moved to once one 17 Oak Street, which is practically right across the street. And in 1986, they partner and I bought this building and renovated it and actually wound up tearing it down and putting up a new building. And I moved in here. So be May 1986. And I've been here ever since. So that's how I wound up in this area. As far as what do we do? We do a tremendous amount of personal injury and worker's comp worker's compensation. We do real estate closings and sales. We do family work and the family courts. I do a fair amount of litigation. So it is never the clinical trial lawyers. And so that's why I wanted to be near the courts. And the courts, of course, are right around the corner. And so that's part of the reason for my being in this particular location. And then I do a lot of management consulting with small businesses, helping them grow, helping them get started, dealing with their leases, dealing with their contracts, with their merchandizers people who sell them products to sell. So that's essentially what this office does. But I've had a greater involvement in the Frog Hollow area because, for instance, where the new library is now, I think may I may have mentioned when I was opening that the Lyric Social Hall used to be there was a movie theater, but it was social hall upstairs. Elbow? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went over who used to go there dancing. Obviously, I have a lot of friends here in this area. I know a lot of people who are or were in this area. There's various organizations behind the rocks and and other organizations that have been here. The La Casa and Puerto Rico had a not an office, but a presence in front of and so on and so on. There've been a million organizations, so
Speaker 1 [00:04:24] there's a little bit about how Alba impacted you. Personally, I have been preaching that. For instance, how did you meet her
Speaker 2 [00:04:33] once you put that down somehow typical hearing?
Speaker 1 [00:04:36] Can you talk about how Alba impacted you personally? I know it's a silly question.
Speaker 2 [00:04:41] And you said we have a half an hour. I didn't say we have all night.
Speaker 1 [00:04:44] I know. How did you meet her? How has her legacy transformed your life? Briefly, I know this could take days.
Speaker 2 [00:04:54] Upon days, weeks, years. Yeah, years. I mean, we were meant. Married for 42 and a third years and one day we were together a couple of years before that. So really my thing, but I was 45 years and now did you do you want me just to say something about impact or do you want me to go according to this thing about how we met and so forth?
Speaker 1 [00:05:23] Up to you, huh? That's lifelong. Want to
Speaker 2 [00:05:25] learn about? That's an enduring, interesting story about how we met. That's why I mentioned it. Yeah. Back in 1970, I want to say January 72 might be off a little bit. I was working at legal services. I was the director of the program, an office. My office was on Palmer Street in Hartford. We had an office in Albany Avenue and then we had a third office. As I sat down here and I represented a group from Hartford that were delegates to a New England group called Necessary New England Spanish-American Regional Institute, and I didn't know or think about necessary, except we had delegates from Hartford and they came to me and they said they were looking for a lawyer to draft the certificate of Incorporation. The bylaws get tax exemption that was always been a specialty of mine as nonprofits. So I said, Yeah, all right. So I sat down and did it, and actually I brought in it was a guy named bill. I forget his last name, but anyway, he's a Puerto Rican lawyer. Lawyer Connecticut from Puerto Rico, volunteered for his Connecticut and I said, You know, I'm really very busy with a lot of things I'll train you to to do this kind of work, which I did. And he suddenly moved to New York because he was in broadcasting also. And they gave him a job at a Spanish news place in New York. So in January of 72, I got a call. There was a regional meeting in and Rhode Island in in it when the what's the main city in Rhode Island, the Providence Providence. So they were in Providence, Rhode Island, and I got a call on a Friday night and said to me, Can you come to Providence like right away? Because we have all these problems with the bylaws and this and that and we need somebody here. And Bill went to New York. So I was married at the time and I called my wife. I said, I'm off to Providence. So I took off and I went to Providence and they said, We'll put you up for the night and so forth. The whole night was in Spanish. And we did it. So the next day, then they said, Well, you got to stay overnight. Oh, man. You know, I got to get back now because they said, OK, so Saturday we started working again and we worked till around noontime and they say, OK, now we're going to go have lunch. I said, OK. And to get on the elevator, writing down in the elevator. And I looked at this lady in front of me. This lady just blew my mind. I didn't see her face, but the lady in front of me had hair going down to her ankles. And I love long hair. And I had never seen anybody with hair going down to her ankles. And I couldn't take my eyes off her until she got off the elevator and I caught a glimpse of the side of her face. So we went on working. We had lunch, but I'm working. And now it's nighttime Saturday night. We need you to stay over to Sunday so I can put up an argument. No, we need you to stay over Sunday to call home and said, I'm not coming home. So then I got a migraine and not a migraine, but a sinus headache. So we want to go party because after the day hard work, one thing we do in the Latino community is we party. So I said, No, no, I'm going to bed. I got this splitting. I took seven and I went to bed and the knock on the door got to come down to us. We're party. I said, No, I can't. Another knock on the door. Do you have any extra, et cetera? We've got headaches now. So I said, yeah, and I gave them. I say, by the way, I'm starting to feel a little better, so maybe I'll go down and party. So I go down and we sit down and I happened to sit next to this lady with blond hair. And she seemed a little bit familiar, but I couldn't tell from where we. We got I was struck up a conversation and everybody at our table is from Hartford, but she was from Massachusetts. So we let everybody dance and everything. And all of a sudden, near the end of the day, the end of the evening, I said, You know, your face looks a little familiar to me, but I can't figure out where I've seen you before. She said, Well, I don't know. She said it, you know, I came in today and all of a sudden it struck me. I said, Wait a minute, did you come up on the elevator about 12:30? She's here. You had hair down your ankles. She's all this is a wig and elbow was wearing wigs all the time because it was a pain in the neck, too to do this. Oh, very nice meeting you. The next day, I said, I very enjoyed meeting you. You see each other some time and we laughed. I never thought I'd see her again. Two weeks later, I get a telephone call. She said, I've got somebody up here who was arrested and has to appear in Hartford, and she was doing volunteer social work for the community agency in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where she lived. And also, she did the same thing with the community agency in Springfield, but she was always volunteering. And I found out she had four kids and we talked and her and her husband, I guess, were going to be separated. And so I said, Well, you know, I'd be happy to represent this guy because taking a sample of you across state lines for sexual purposes is obviously a very serious crime. And he was charged in Hartford, decided to come down and bring them down, which he did while she did that. She was wearing a oh, a different color with brown brown. I forget my orange anyway. We're standing out in front of the store. Maria Sanchez. My office was right around the corner. We're right next to it, actually, because I used to be there as well as a Barbie Street. And a friend of mine said to me, I introduce you to a friend of mine. I had also introduced her to him. Another time she'd been down. And finally, he comes over me another time and says, You know, you know, some gorgeous women. I couldn't have the heart to tell. It's the same person just wearing different wigs. So anyway, it took much too long, but I told you.
Speaker 1 [00:12:38] So you kind of touched on how she impacted you personally and how you met. Well, about how she impacted the fragile community. I know she did a lot of like Christmas things like rounding up clothes and toys,
Speaker 2 [00:12:54] and we were, as you say, joined at the hip. And over the years that followed before in Hartford, I wound up on and she could be living with her. We then got married and got a house in Bluefield. She worked for the Holyoke for the Boys Club in Holyoke, working with youth in the schools, and she was like she used to come into the classrooms in Holyoke and work at it. Not as a paralegal. I mean, paraprofessional. But they used to call upon her for everything, every youth who had a problem. And, you know, they call elbow. And when she moved here, she started work for the Low-Income Planning Agency and Lippa, and she worked for them for several years. And and then she that's where she got acquainted with the Cuban refugee project where I think I may mention that. And I got a million stories about that. And you know, she impacted me because she did nothing without leaving evolve. And I did nothing without Irving Navarro. She represented tons of my clients. She always every time, you know, obviously I'm a lawyer. I get clients with problems that they wouldn't need a lawyer. And invariably it involves something to do with the family. Or maybe there was a family problem that was not connected with the legal problem. And Albert was always there, and I've always thought that he or she did family counseling, individual counseling. She would figure out ways to have their problem resolved by other sources. You know, if she couldn't solve, for instance, if it was a family that the kids were not going to school, she would advocate for them at the school. Sure, if they got arrested, she would advocate for them in the courts, which is also, by the way, which she did in Massachusetts. In fact, I was a judge up there. I fell in love with her and we give her anything. There was another charge that was widely hated in Massachusetts and by everybody, by lawyers, by clients. He was he was a despot in his courtroom, which they could be there. They can't do it here. And she went to him one time and wanted a contribution for issues, always collecting for something he said, Come into my chambers. So it goes into my chain. I heard him threaten. I was personally hurt him, threatened a lawyer up there with throwing them in jail for insulting, the lawyers said, which was not so. It was nothing. And that's the kind of man this judge was, as I used to practice. There have always this and that. So when you went into the courtroom, the chambers, he said, I'm going to give you a check on one condition. What's that? You never, ever tell anybody that I gave money to this? Ha ha ha ha. You wanted to be known. You wanted to be a hard. But he didn't want to be anybody. Know that he had a she could crack him. She cracked. Yeah. She's the only one that I know of that ever did. So anyway, she wound up back in Hartford and Low Income Planning Agency, and they she worked for someone else. But it was when you were involved in Hartford, you're never involved, just in front, Hollywood, just in North End. She was all over Hartford. And as you pointed out in in some of the stuff. Read she collected. She created actually the mayor's Christmas lights program, we're collecting toys for the kids. Albert created that. I mean, there were others who were collecting toys, also analyzes them. And every year. You know, and and she's done it every year for years. All of our, you know, and we all became good friends. Maria Sanchez is like my sister, literally. We were that close and and hadn't grown. I've kept track of all these years when she lived in North Carolina with the South Carolina Hilton Head, wherever that is. And then she moved back of Perrigo, and so I knew her and her daughter and her ex-husband. And so we were all part of the same family. And when Alvin and I went out, it was again, it was part of us, was part of the same family. And she said her advocacy in the courts, and they initially didn't want to let her be she, not lawyer. So in Connecticut, they're a little bit circumspect about, you know, whom they talk to on behalf of the defendant, that kind of thing as opposed to Massachusetts, where anybody could talk about anything. And she was used to getting away. She wound up getting a way out here, too, because the prosecutors would talk to her. The victim's advocates would talk to her and try to resolve whatever problems this individual had. And I'm trying to think about it with respect. So there wasn't anything individually with respect to Frank Hollywood, except she was here all the time. She was in the parades here at home because she involved herself with the passport program at the city of Hartford again. You know, that was her creation. Other mayor Mike and others, they just she said she wanted do some. They said, go ahead and do it because 99 percent of the time she didn't. There were nobody else to do it. And I've never heard anybody successfully say no to her.
Speaker 1 [00:19:19] That's awesome. Yeah. How would you describe her leadership style, persistent? Definitely.
Speaker 2 [00:19:29] She never said to anybody, You have to do this or I'm directing you. I've never heard a direct anybody do anything. Her passion. Her overall excitement. Her compassion always seemed to make people want to do what she would like them. I think they respected that in her. I've seen her get mad. I don't think anybody else has ever seen her get mad. But we use that tells her to tease her that when she got mad, smoke started curling out of her ears. You don't want to get over mad. I want, like I say, as far as outside in the community, I've only seen a married couple times and that was mostly when she could not get help for somebody that she was trying to help. When somebody refused to give her the help that she sought for somebody else.
Speaker 1 [00:20:46] How do you think the community can honor Albert's legacy?
Speaker 2 [00:20:55] If ever we're here, you're looking for Noah, she would not look for an anyone. She would not want to be. This should be overwhelmed by the merely parafilm. They've also selected her among the board of Ebony Horsewoman. I don't know if you're familiar with that organization, Ebony Horsewoman on its own. They're having a fence put around their property. They have a long term contract with lease with the city Hartford and Find St.. And on that fence, they're going to put they have female heroes of Hartford and they select selected out. So a mural is being done over there and there's going to be a plaque next to it with all kinds of stuff in it. But Alva herself would say, I'm not interested. I think she would. She kept looking around over the years, and she was always looking for somebody who would follow in her footsteps. And if she could hurt her best, whatever you call it, would be to find two or three people who would do what she did. And she had thought she found them two or three times and for one reason or another didn't work out. But it wasn't because the people didn't want to. It was because they didn't have the intensity or the willingness to spend 24-7. And you have to remember, I think most people know that my first wife passed away. Let's see. I think it was a couple of years ago, actually about five or six years after we got married and my kids, my three were still young. They were younger than her four. So I usually tell her she robbed the cradle and she married me. And so we took my three thrown together and raised all seven together. Oh, and so in addition to doing all this, she was cleaning house. She was cooking for everybody. She was mothering all seven.
Speaker 1 [00:23:45] So there was none in your household?
Speaker 2 [00:23:48] Yeah. Well, there were. Yeah, when they were young. And as a matter of fact, the ironic thing before my first wife died once in a while, she'd have a problem with one of the kids she would call Albert and find out what to do. That's a little bit unusual. I don't run into that a lot in my practice. And and not only that, but our sister moved in about 35 years ago, and she sells ice cream in the summer and doesn't have much in the way of money. So would invite her to come in for two weeks or four weeks. That was about 35 years ago. She never left. You know, if you ever see the movie, the man who came together? Mm hmm. Monte Wally, well, this is the is along came to dinner and she still lives there. It still makes my lunch. Everything. And. So in addition to everything that she did in the community, in addition to on the fundraising and she was the key to kept her Lions club going. And I'll tell you the way she was lying to the family of the International Association of Lions clubs. Well, it's the largest charitable organization in the world. They have 48000 clubs, approximately in two hundred and I think geographical areas. Alvin, I used to go to almost every year to the international convention and one year a couple of years was in Hong Kong. We went to Hong Kong. We were fortunate to meet the two presidents, the the the mainland Chinese communist Chinese would not let any clubs or any of that stuff into China. The Lions went in and performed a million cataract operations. There are 20 million people in China. They knew that they didn't turn. They trained people on the fields in the army and walked out. It was so impressed they invited lions to clubs, and we were fortunate enough to meet the two presidents of the first two clubs in Mainland China. So Albert would not only go, but he or she would form. She would carry out lions programs with the Lions club. She was past president. She was treasurer when she passed away. In addition, another sister had a stroke and was in assisted living in Springfield, Longmeadow. So Alva would go up there every week and bring her stuff, visit her sister and do that in addition to the community activities. And it's an invitation to our family in addition to the Lions club, in addition to all the other stuff. And since then, we've had to divide her job with her sister into three parts. You know, I handle the finances. One of my sons goes up there every week and brings her whatever she needs, takes her up lunch and another sister calls her every the one listens. He calls her every night on the phone and deals with the family's son will take the three of us to do that,
Speaker 1 [00:27:23] and Alma did it all herself.
Speaker 2 [00:27:26] It was south then. So there was the different facets to her life, and she did it all. And. The the other programs in Hartford you think been familiar with the Lions for Lions club has said that they they have a fund that they've been collecting that's going to give out this fund in Elba's name and scholarships and everything, and you get a reaction. Look, I don't care. Let's just get the money figured out. She was in federal fundraiser. Nobody said no to all our fundraising. And least of all me. She would come home and say, I need to check for this, OK? I ain't going to argue with you. And she will give out her own money. What is not known really about Albert is that, yeah, you know, she earned an income when she was working for the city of Hartford for thirty two years and she bought. What is not known is how she gave out a lot of her own money. And of course, I could never permit me to question it. But I can't count the number of times people didn't have food and she would just go out and buy food. People who have something else, clothing, she go out and buy clothing. And she was just do it. It was a matter of fact, and it was nothing to account for. It is nothing to do. She had her own money. She earned her money. She spent it the way she pleased. The one thing she didn't want to do is you see all these people with signs on street corners and stuff about them wouldn't give them money. But what she do is she had happen to go to McDonald's. Gave me $5 breakfast certificates and she carry him around in her purse. So when she saw somebody, she give him a five dollar breakfast. I said, Albert, don't you know that they're going to they're going to take that and sell it off for three dollars or two dollars for cash to someone else is. I don't care because I am giving them food. Is fear the ones that choose it? They make that choice. I'm giving you free food and there are some of them. They might actually use it for food. And I said, Well, yeah, probably. Yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:30:13] What else you thought about that? That was awesome, hmm. That was great. Well, any questions for me?
Speaker 2 [00:30:22] No. Let me see if I. I think the location of the mural, I think, is absolutely fabulous. No one is closer to my office than than I am to the library, actually. Yeah. And number two, I think it's more visible her Maria, and they're more visible than some of the other murals. Yeah, because of the parking lot across the street. And I've had a lot of friends of ours from different parts of the state who have especially come to Hartford to go see it. In fact, my sister came down from she lives in Wellesley, Mass. And she and my niece came down to see it. And and of course, our seven children are now all grown up and have their own families as well. Well, the one who's been single all his life and they continually remember their legacy because if I continue to hear from them, is that's all seven four stepchildren, as well as any children want to live their lives like her mother. So they are all in one way shape or form, get back to me. Not as much as like she did. Yeah. I don't think there's anybody really care. And do you have any other questions? I don't. I'll see you being one of the other stories of about her. How are you?
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Duration
32 minutes