Felix Fraga

Age 82

Felix was born in Houston's 2nd ward on October 30, 1929, 1 day after the big stock market crash. His parents were from San Luis Potosi in central Mexico and came to Houston soon after the 1910 revolution. His father worked on the railroad for many years, then at the Shamrock Hotel kitchen. Felix has two older brothers, both deceased, and three younger brothers. Although his older brothers did not finish high school, Felix and his younger brothers all graduated from college. Felix still lives in the 2nd ward today.

The boys spoke Spanish at home, only learning English when they went to school. Up until about 1942 the Mexican-American kids were segregated in elementary school. Felix made a little money shining shoes and selling newspapers. In 1946 Felix was planning to drop out of high school to help support his family. However, the Rusk Settlement House in his neighborhood encouraged him to continue by offering him a job after school and summers. Rusk was the first Settlement Association facility, now part of Neighborhood Centers. Ripley House opened in 1940 and became the central office of Neighborhood Centers. Felix still works there after 66 years of continuous employment!

When Felix was a senior in high school, the Rusk Settlement House arranged for a group called the Pan American Roundtable to offer Felix a scholarship to the University of Houston. This was the first in a long series of scholarships offered by this group to Mexican Americans. But the Rusk people had to convince his parents that it was OK for him to go. They finally agreed, making him the first in his family to attend college. Felix made the baseball team as a freshman and then had baseball scholarships for the remainder of his college years. He had an option to try out for major league baseball, but declined. Instead he went to Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio to earn a Masters degree in Social Work. After college Felix played semi-pro baseball as a recreation for many years and went to baseball games regularly. He says, "I used to think, what is there to life if you can't play baseball, and yet it's funny how I don't miss it."

In 1967 Felix met his wife, Nelly, while working at Ripley House. She was a social worker from Ecuador and stayed at Ripley House for 2 months on a program organized by Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Felix was 40 and says he was so focused on work in those days that he wasn't thinking about marriage until Nelly arrived. She had to go back home to Guayaquil, Ecuador for 2 years, but then they got married.

Felix became the director of Ripley House in 1970 and moved into a house on the grounds, where his family lived for the next 25 years. Nelly worked at Ripley House before the children were born. She started a folk dancing group that is still active after 35 years. Nelly and Felix had 3 boys. The first one died at age 4. The other two grew up at Ripley House. They both went to the Air Force Academy. The older one is now a Ph.D. chemist working in Richland, WA and is married with 2 daughters and a son. The younger is single and works at Ripley House with responsibility for community development programs.

When he was 60, Felix was elected to the School Board for a 4-year term. Then, when he was 66, he was elected to the Houston City Council for a 6-year term.

Felix reported that the greatest trauma and sadness in his life was when his first son died of an illness at age 4. He also felt some regrets that he might have spent too much time at work, especially when his mother died while undergoing surgery at age 66.

Now Felix is officially retired, with a pension, but he still works for Neighborhood Centers half time as a contract worker. Nelly works for a state agency that arranges meals for kids. Felix says, "My greatest joy is to be able to help somebody. The joy you get when you help somebody...you don't even need the joy, but when it comes it's great!"