About Tardeada
A tardeada is a social dance that is traditionally held on Sunday afternoons.  This event is the culmination of Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrates the historical significance of Hispanics within our community.

Tempe's Tardeada festival usually offers traditional and modern Hispanic dancing and music, tortilla-making demonstrations, a look at Tempe's historic Hispanic roots, food trucks, activities for the children and more. It's a chance for families from throughout Tempe to gather and spend time with each other. 

2024 Tardeada Festival
Click here to visit the City of Tempe's official Tardeada page and get all the details about the 2024 festival on Sunday, Oct. 6 from noon-8 p.m.

Hispanic Family Albums
The Tempe History Museum usually hosts an in-person display during the Tardeada festival of all 22 albums created and maintained by each participating family. This year, we've digitized a large selection of the albums so they can be viewed virtually from the comfort of your home.
Visit the Hispanic Family Albums page.




Hispanic History in Tempe
The Hispanic community has played an integral role in helping to create and shape Tempe from the very beginning. Visit the Hispanic History page. 

Oral Histories
In 1970, members of the Tempe Historical Society began taping interviews with some of the oldest long-time residents of Tempe. This effort to preserve the community's remembered history continues today. Volunteers and interns at the Tempe history Museum have conducted over 300 recorded interviews to date, and most of these have been fully transcribed. The originals are kept in the Tempe History Museum research library, but below are links to a selection of transcripts from interviewees of Hispanic heritage.

Ray Chavarria
Excerpt: "My dad was not a man who listened to music and just played it by ear.  My dad was a musician that did everything by note.  And that was what he taught.  He taught note first before he taught the instrument.  Some of your famous Hispanic musicians here in the Valley that have grown old have been students of my father." 
Read the oral history transcript for Ray Chavarria

Cecelia Esquer
Excerpt: "...when I went to school in Superior, I went to a segregated elementary school—Mexicans were not allowed at Roosevelt Elementary School.  And we would be punished if we spoke Spanish at school.  So our parents were convinced by the teachers there that it would be better for them to speak English to us.  And I almost lost my language, but my grandmother always refused to speak English.  We always lived near her until we moved to Phoenix, and so we kept our Spanish, ‘cause we liked to talk to her.  She was in our lives a lot, my dad’s mother was."
Read the oral history transcript for Cecelia Esquer

Amanda Soza Galaz
Excerpt:  "There was cattle, there was sheep, and then the Coles had the date farm.  There was a big date farm south of Tempe, too.  And then the Dobson family, you know, they had their cattle pens right here where the Dobson Ranch is now..."
Read the oral history transcript for Amanda Soza Galaz

Irene Gomez Hormell
Excerpt: "When we got older, our pastime in Tempe was walking back and forth, Mill Avenue from the beach.  We had friends, and we gathered a little group as we went by, and we'd just walk back and forth and had some ice cream, went down to Laird and Dines for a cherry coke or something like that.  We had movies on Saturday for ten cents, and no, we just did our own little thing in the neighborhood."
Read the oral history transcript 1 for Irene Gomez Hormell
Read the oral history transcript 2 for Irene Gomez Hormell
Read the oral history transcript 3 for Irene Gomez Hormell

Jimmy Molina
Excerpt: "When I started school I had no knowledge of the English language, I’d sit in the class and all the kids were in the same boat. We didn’t know what the teacher was talking about because we didn’t know English. The only thing I knew was my name in English and that was about it. And I will think back and think that bilingual education would have been a blessing from heaven at the time. Unfortunately, bilingual probably didn’t exist at the time."
Read the oral history transcript for Jimmy Molina

John Molina
Excerpt: "What I told Dr. Westman, “You know, what this community needs is a doctor.  A doctor that really understands the community, who could have a clinic here in the community and people could come and feel comfortable, speak their language, not worry about payments or insurances.”   
 
It was very idealistic thinking.  Then Dr. Westman says, “Why don’t you become that doctor.  Why don’t you become a doctor and come back to the community.”  And that was the first time in my life that anyone even mentioned anything about going to medical school.  I had my parents growing up poor, working in the fields.  I had no idea or even envisioned my self in that type of career.  I though of myself as minister maybe, a social worker; that kind of work because I like the people.  But not to take the leap of going to medical school.  But Dr. Westman challenged me.  He says, “John, you know, it’s a step you could take to help your people.” 
Read the oral history transcript for John Molina

Gilbert Duran Orrantia
Excerpt: "I remember my first check, which was a lousy $38.00 or $40.00 for two weeks of work.  I took the check to Dad and said, “This is yours, and I owe you a lot more.”  He looked me in the eye and said, “You don’t owe me anything.  Your Mom and I owe you.”  My oldest brother had already graduated from what was then Northern Arizona State Teachers College, and he taught me in high school and was my junior high basketball and track coach.  I think our family did pretty well in education simply because our dad’s forward-thinking attitude." 
Read the oral history transcript for Gilbert Duran Orrantia

Josie Ortega Sanchez