Alicia Jarry oral history
- Interview with Alicia McCullough Jarry, February 28, 2021
- Conducted via Zoom Video Conferencing
- ALICIA JARRY: Going to grab some water just to take this step is it can you.
- hear me yes. Okay. ELISE RANDALL: Okay, so I’m starting the
- recording. So I am here with Alicia Jarry on February 28 2021. Can you please spell
- your name for me. JARRY: A-L-I-C-I-A McCullough middle name
- M-C-C-U-L-L-O-U-G-H and although I was given a Spanish name with pronunciation most people
- call me Alicia. Okay, I go by both.
- RANDALL: Ok JARRY: My mother would call me at least yeah.
- RANDALL: Okay, thank you for that. So I want to get some basic information out of the way
- really quick. When were you born? JARRY: I was born April, the ninth 1944.
- RANDALL: Okay. JARRY: Houston Texas. Anything else now?
- RANDALL: Yeah, where did you go to college?
- JARRY: University of Texas. RANDALL: And what years was that?
- JARRY: 1962 to 1966 and then back again and 1992 to 94 for graduate school.
- RANDALL: And what did you major in? JARRY: I majored in Spanish. I did take one
- year of physical anthropology graduate school in 1985 also at UT. In 1994, I graduated with
- a Masters in Social Work from UT Austin and received a Licensed Clinical Social Work degree
- to practice psychotherapy. RANDALL: Okay um what year around did you
- get started in activism? JARRY:
- Well, with the history that I’ve recalled over the last few days, I felt like it was
- important to start at the very beginning, so, I wanted to give credit to three of the
- women in my life, who influenced me because they were activists, so the first one is my
- maternal great grandmother and her name was Katherine Hoenes Link. This is a very short
- little bio of her, but she traveled alone in 1852 from Germany at age 15 to live with
- her cousins in St Louis and Belleville Illinois. As an adult she became the equivalent of a
- Barefoot doctor and a midwife and attended births, the sick and the dying in rural areas
- around the area for many years, she would ride a horse into these areas and she was
- famous for being this health activist there. She was not allowed to go to Medical School
- as women were not allowed to be doctors and so she practiced medicine in an independent
- way. I still have the heavy wool cloak that she wore when she rode her horse to the countryside
- to care for her patients and there are many, many stories about her. I'm considering donating
- her cloak to the Smithsonian Medical History Museum.
- So the next person is my aunt who I’m named for. Her name is Dr Marjorie Alice McCullough
- and she became the first woman to be admitted to Baylor Medical School in Houston.
- She was a pioneer and the first woman, therefore, to graduate from Baylor Medical School. She
- was 35 when she entered and she was much older than the average medical student, having a
- degree in medical technology. She was recommended to apply to Medical School by
- doctors who recognized her exemplary ability to diagnose patients in their office.
- After Medical School she was accepted and completed a residency in pediatrics at the
- renowned Boston children's hospital. An oral history of her experiences is recorded at
- the Baylor college of medicine archives. My mother grew up in Venezuela, so she loved
- Spanish, she spoke Spanish very well, and she decided to name me Alicia after aunt Alice
- delivered me. The last woman who influenced me greatly to
- pursue activism in the medical field was my mother, Adrienne Camp McCullough and she was
- of Cherokee Indian heritage and Irish heritage and she founded the International Patient
- Service in the 1970s to interpret for Spanish speaking patients who were visiting for heart
- transplants and heart surgery at the Heart Institute Methodist/St. Lukes hospital Houston.
- The all Volunteer Service now is thriving with over 40 different language interpreters
- available for patients, she also served as president of the organization so I had a lot
- of experience witnessing her work activism with that hospital.
- Now, my activism started when I was in high school. I worked as a volunteer at Texas children's
- hospital and I became very interested in health professions.
- During that time I was advised by my high school counselor at Lamar high school in Houston
- that women's college careers would only be in teaching or nursing and that medical schools
- are not realistic for women. Out of my graduating class of 500 students, only one woman was
- accepted to Medical School and within the next decade five women from that same class
- would apply and be accepted. Recognition of women's ability to function
- as a doctor finally began, and that was in the 60s. When I recently went into surgery
- for cancer, the entire operating room staff doctors, nurses and surgical technicians were
- all women. When asked if I had anything to say before
- they gave me the anesthesia I thanked them and I remarked at how great it was for me
- to live to see all the women caring for me and then the woman anesthesiologists put me
- to sleep. Yes, we've come a long way baby and I was
- just so thrilled to be able to be there and witness that and felt so at ease with this
- entire staff. So when I attended high school and college;,
- women were not granted the opportunity to use contraceptives as non marital sexual relations
- were not acceptable. When women became pregnant accidentally in
- my high school, they were not allowed to continue school, while pregnant, they were often sent
- out of town to live with a relative until the birth of the child and the child was given
- up for adoption. Everything was kept very secretive and the women were made to feel
- shameful for their actions, the availability of contraceptives, especially oral contraceptives
- in my lifetime literally liberated millions of women, and this gave them control of reproduction
- and their lives, and so I see that is like one of the number one things that happened
- to liberate women. Suddenly women were not afraid to work at what they wanted to do and
- to have children or not have children. Choice arrived with birth control.
- I had friends who, in their early 20s had made decisions not to have children and were
- able to get tubal ligations so that they would permanently not have to make the choice between
- motherhood and careers. So I wanted to say that, through my journey
- , you'll find out that I’ve done so many different things, and all in the area of women's
- health. I wanted to give credit for the support of
- my best friend and life partner Robert Jarry for his open mindedness to my passion for
- righting the wrongs and improving health care for women.
- And for financially supporting me to seek education and work in my areas of strong interest,
- and this is what has made my journey possible. And that is where I want to add what I had
- given as the title of my talk today: the rising of the woman is the rising of us all, and
- this is the logo of the United Women's Garment Workers Union and I truly believe that when
- women fight for equality, dignity, respect. and compassion in their health care that their
- family and friends will benefit from their efforts, and so it is the women who rise up
- and the rest follows, and that is still my thought.
- In the late 60s, I worked in the medical division of the headquarters of the Peace Corps in
- Washington DC. I was respected as a researcher doing case
- studies on returned Peace Corps volunteers who had developed a medical or psychological
- problem during their service and peace corps. And they were medically evacuated to the main
- office for evaluation and I was the first person that I saw out of the Bush.
- This was a wonderful gift for me, because it showed me that I had a great aptitude with
- medicine as I’d always been drawn to it. It gave me a couple of years to practice with
- medical staff and not only interviewing these volunteers and such interesting types of diseases
- that they had acquired, including Cobra snake bites and motorcycle accidents and psychologically
- flipping out and not to mention all the various kinds of parasites and different kinds of
- diseases. The reason that the Peace Corps sent people
- to Washington first was they were afraid that their doctor in their hometown would not recognize
- what was wrong with them and would not treat them correctly, Tropical Medicine was a really
- big part of peace corps volunteer’s problems and they knew how to take care of that so
- needless to say, it was an amazing experience for me at that time, and so my job was to
- interview them to interview the doctors and then to write up cases so that the United
- States Government would be responsible for their care.
- So, now that I had the gift of availability, I used contraceptives effectively. I'm proud
- of that, I was able to control my fertility and I had a planned pregnancy, while working
- for the Peace Corps in Washington DC. During the time that I worked for the peace
- corps office located by the White House in Lafayette Square, I was able to protest the
- Vietnam war on breaks from work. The next revolutionary health care change
- was in new ways of childbirth. So, having heard about a new Labor and delivery
- education program preparation for childbirth through breathing and relaxation exercises,
- based on a French program by Dr Lamaze. My husband and I enrolled in it, and we were
- in the first class in D.C. RANDALL: Yeah, that was?
- JARRY: In Washington, D.C. in 1970. So the breath work is very important, and also the
- woman is empowered to be part of this experience. So my husband and I were the first to have
- this style of Labor and delivery in Washington DC and to use this type of preparatory childbirth,
- the medical staff was taken by surprise at our request, but they allowed him to assist
- me in Labor as long as he did not enter the delivery room.
- So he dressed in surgical gown and he was there with me for the entire time except he
- was allowed to stand at the door of the delivery room and watch the final moment of birth.
- But he was the first to hold our newborn baby girl. In the activation of going to this,
- the nurses were thrilled that he could be with me which freed them up to be with other
- patients, It
- was revolutionary and was the beginning of the natural birthing methods that consequently
- developed and were allowed in many, many hospitals in the US, to this day, so I was so excited
- to be part of that and have the nerve to tell them this is how we're going to do it coming
- in, we took lollipops and cool things ready to go and in a way it was almost like they
- couldn't say no, because they didn't know what to do.
- So I moved from the DC to the New York City area at the end of my work with the Peace
- Corps after a couple of years. Having a good command of the Spanish language I volunteered
- to accompany doctors from Rutgers Medical School to make house visits at the tenement
- housing in New Brunswick where I would translate patients information and advocate, especially
- for women patients in the health care system there. They were immigrant women from Puerto
- Rico and I’ll never forget that experience.
- All right, the Bible of women's health Our Bodies Ourselves was published in 1971 and
- I read and was inspired to teach women about their bodies from it, and although you're
- not doing a visual here's my copy, my original 1971 copy. (shows copy to interveiwer)
- And they will not be having this this, I will not donate that I will probably take a picture
- of it and have the cover of it to include because it was so influential in my life,
- and still is actually there's new versions of it, I don't know if you have seen the newer
- version but they're very good they're very inclusive of more information about us. So,
- after two years, in the New York area I moved to Austin in 1972 where I immediately began
- to work at the people's free clinic later would be named the People's Community clinic
- and it just celebrated 50 years this year in 2020 after two years there. Let's see how
- many innovative women's programs began there, and that was probably the Center of my activism,
- because I had a place that could back what I believed in.
- The support of the medical directors, Dr Greg Maksymowictz and Dr. Tad Davis and Dr. Ken
- Blair in the 70s, was totally essential to the success of the following monumental changes
- in women's and all persons healthcare. The clinic was founded in 1970 in the basement
- of the First Congregational Church, under the direction of Reverend John Towery who
- donated the space for the clinic. It was near the University of Texas; its original
- purpose was to serve runaway teenagers, who had no medical resources in the city. It was
- opened one night a week and staffed by volunteer doctors many of whom belonged to the Church.
- In the fall of 1972 three professional women arrived to volunteer on the same evening,
- They were Marie Draudt, who had just arrived from LA and heard about the free clinic and
- their need for a nurse she was an RN, Sophie Weiss, who was a researcher in women's health
- genetics in New York and had just moved actually from upstate New York, I think, and myself,
- moving from the East coast. And we all three arrived at work on the same night. My goal
- was to be a health educator for women and assist women and be an advocate for them.
- So, after many hours of serving patients that night from five till midnight in the evenings
- and there was only one or two nights a week at that time after these many hours working
- and we were put to work immediately and the clinic says we saw 150 people that night.
- But we did it and when the clinic was over the last patient had left the three of us
- sat together and said this is going to be our place is, we're going to work, we're going
- to serve with the best healthcare for everybody, and especially women and children, so with
- the expertise of Sophie we were able to get federal county and city funding as the clinic
- had just operated on nothing at that point, it was just volunteer band aids, literally.
- And so we could see that we could actually begin to see certain types of patients, women,
- women with children, various kinds of patients. We started something that's called patient
- advocacy and I was very involved in that for that time people's clinic developed an advocacy
- program so that each patient was assigned a person to advocate for their care from the
- beginning of the visit to the and it involved interviewing compassionately assisting and
- giving patient education, after the exam. Women were treated with respect, compassion
- and taught the latest women's health information. Separate clinics were established on certain
- nights exclusively for women and for women with their children so that sort of started
- this whole process to separate out and let women have what they deserve and not be just
- thrown in with everybody that's walking in to the clinic. Non judgmental information
- was given on contraception, sexual health, women's anatomy, sexual preferences, body
- image STDs and other women's issues. Classes were held by trained practitioners in the
- upstairs parlor of the Church. We would demonstrate and teach the above information that I just
- said, women were referred to places like women's space nearby in the YWCA office for counseling
- and support as lesbians. As consciousness raising groups had formed to teach women about
- their rights and to advocate for them, this is a very, very famous group. The screening
- groups, aimed to raise the health consciousness that these women were already having in women's
- liberalism and how your rights and everything with the law, legal aid and that kind of thing,
- but there was not enough level of that in terms of learning about your body.
- So these types of consciousness raising health groups were generally held in different people's
- apartments because of the need for privacy and we were able to demonstrate anatomical
- differences and teach people with mirrors, flashlights and speculum, and we had throwaway
- speculum so we could actually give a speculum for someone to take home, which is great.
- But in the groups, they were small and they were always led by nurses, PAs, or other knowledgeable
- professional people. People were able to raise consciousness amazingly and still learn about
- everything from their anatomy and not think that just having a vagina is what makes you
- a woman. Rather teaching this course of women's anatomy with all of our new information knowing
- the actual G spot as part of the clitoris and everything.
- We also included a very good self, breast exam so that people would understand how to
- do their own breast exam on their own. We also allow people who had had children if
- they were more into it, to show how different the cervix looks than someone who had not
- had a child. So we also allowed, with permission of the
- group , men who were genuinely interested. Perhaps it's the husband/partner allowed them
- if they were genuinely interested to see what it looked like, and one of the men fainted
- after seeing the cervix of a woman. So, after that, we decided that we could just show photographs
- to the partner. So, in the area of birth control and demonstration, we would allow a partner
- to be with the woman, as she was learning how to put in the diaphragm or feel the string
- of the IUD. And we have a wonderful video where the nurse
- was showing a couple the diaphragm and the man was trying to fit it in. It had slippery
- gel on it and flew across the room and landed smack on the wall of the exam room again,
- peeling it off and starting over again, but it was that kind of hands on help that was
- offered. Yes, trying to make people feel comfortable
- and to really to understand about their bodies, instead of showing them pictures.
- JARRY: All right, since patient education materials available provided by the pharmaceutical
- companies were often lacking information, the information was incorrect or they were
- judgmental or these types of things that we'd want to give them, for example, something
- about using medication for yeast infection. They would also contain false information
- and they would only be supporting their product so I actively started a health education nonprofit
- program to provide accurate sensitive information for women in the areas
- of contraception, anatomy, pelvic support. I’ll be giving you samples on topics of
- : healthy elimination , bladder, sexual functioning, premenstrual syndrome, healthy pregnancy,
- fitness, nutrition, pregnancy. The name of the group, and it came out of
- a people's clinic with the doctors, it was called Healthy Publications and was edited
- and written by experts in various areas. Artwork was done by a doctor named Marie Valleroy
- who still practices in Portland and she was a volunteer for the clinic, production was
- done by Austin women. Donna Lynn and Red River Women's Press, which
- you may be able to look up, it was an all women's press here. And another press, Six
- Street Press, these were used, they were given out free, they were used by many feminists
- clinics around the country. And copies of these will be submitted to the
- Briscoe Center for reference, special programs were set up for problem pregnancy, which included
- testing for pregnancy examining the women by women nurses or doctors for determination
- of pregnancy timing, counseling for decision making for continuing the pregnancy or giving
- it up for adoption or discontinuing the pregnancy with legal abortion. Lutheran social services
- helped those who wanted to continue the pregnancies and needed support and this was free, so there
- was a real egalitarianism effect. This was a place to find out everything thats available
- to you in Austin and hopefully at no cost or very low cost so referrals, financial systems,
- and transportation were made. People's clinic wanted women who wanted abortions to have
- a legal abortion, that meant San Antonio because we didn't have that available in Austin.......
- And then in Austin as they were made available here through board certified gynecologists
- at Brookside Women's Center, Reproductive Health Center, and the Ladies Center, so all
- three of those had sliding fee scales, including scholarships for some people who couldn't
- afford it all. Kind of a little sad story, but I think, since
- we have plenty of time, I'm just putting it in as those of us that drove women to San
- Antonio. Often they were very sick with morning sickness and so we had to drive down. They'd
- be in the backseat with a bucket in their lap.
- They'd have the abortion and afterwards the hormones of pregnancy in early pregnancies
- like that will drop very fast and they were completely back to feeling normal and would
- get back in the car and I’d say is there anything I can get you before we go, like
- oh yeah, hamburger, french fries, and milkshake. Oh well, I know, part of this is your just
- relieved, so grateful that you feel so good after feel so horrible you know, and then
- the psychological relief and, of course, as you know, many, many of those women had already
- had many children already, and this was not only a physical thing, but a financial thing
- for them to be freed up for continuing and, of course, they were all given birth control,
- if they wanted it in whatever work
- the best for them.. So we had carpools that we did, which was really great. You know it
- was like sisterhood and when I’m talking about the past you just seem to know a lot
- of these things are still going on because that's the beginning of us being very active
- about that part of women's health. You know, it feels like that was an era, and you know
- when it wasn't available. People's clinic offered grants for persons
- qualified to study women's health at UCLA Medical School and earn a certificate as a
- nurse practitioner or a PA.... so during that time I applied and, fortunately, I had already
- had a lot of science at UT I took biology and though and the only thing I had to take
- was organic chemistry, in order to qualify, so I went back to ACC into for organic chemistry
- and then I applied, and I was the first person in the State of Texas, to be accepted, to
- this special program so this program was for nurses or someone who had medical background,
- so it was the beginning of the PA programs. And this was a specialized PA program for
- women's health only. My husband and our daughter moved to LA. In 1976. And I spent that year
- studying to be a PA and to qualify I had to agree to return to the people's clinic and
- work for a couple of years, as part of my training which I was glad to do. I had to
- be sponsored by a Board certified M.D. and Dr. Tad Davis agreed to sponsor me. I graduated
- as a clinical practitioner and returned to work at Peoples, and I was sponsored by one
- of the clinic directors there, Dr Davis, who later I’ll tell you about his work with
- helping out with women's health outside of People’s clinic and so he was my preceptor
- as other doctors began to sponsor more staff. So all in all, I think we had about 12 people
- who had gotten trained through that program or a similar one and were able to work. Most
- of them stayed with public health to Planned Parenthood or city clinics or People’s clinic.
- So I returned to the clinic being trained now as P.A. rather than just a health educator.
- As a P.A., being able to give direct service to women, including even inserting IUDs.
- So in 1976 under the direction of nurse practitioners and midwives Mary Barnett, Elaine Brightwater,
- Carol Cody, and myself, the PA, we started the official women's health clinical Program
- at the clinic with a federal grant from health, education and welfare. As before we just had
- specialized nights that we'd have women come in.
- Now we had the money to actually set up and have prenatal care, postnatal care, gynecology
- health care for women of all sexual orientations, STD care, we had you know just a broad range
- of women's health care that wasn't being offered anywhere in Austin so we had people who came
- and they were paying patients. And we didn't let them take the place of someone
- who couldn't pay but we had extra they would come to us because it was non-judgmental care,
- and it was care that they knew that they could count on our being very professional so that
- they so that's what happened there and I think now all of us who worked on that we're so
- proud, because it was kind of like breaking the ceiling to have this kind of care allowed
- for women of all backgrounds so prenatal and postnatal care,
- There’s an educational book written by me with input from professionals in the area
- of pregnancy and birthing and early parenting was published and I’m going to give that
- book to you all. It's called “Feeling pregnant and Healthy” and it's full of illustrations
- of women of many different ethnic backgrounds, very inclusive.
- The book also had the goal of normalizing the pregnant state and allowing women to feel
- free to display their healthy pregnant bodies, without shame.
- In the past generations pregnancy was often something a woman was made to feel embarrassed
- about including wearing special clothes to hide it and being overly protected physically
- and socially, with the new alternative programs women could feel positive and in charge of
- their pregnant bodies, making decisions for themselves about the pregnancy about the birthing
- and about the parenting so pretty revolutionary at that point, and to make sure that everybody
- in their family read what our philosophy was and how we were going to help these people,
- we had that available, also in Spanish. Coordination with other women activists and
- agency clinics in Austin for outreach to women, so this is a whole area that decided we're
- doing referrals to other places for various things and people are referring back to us,
- but none of us really know what we're all doing really.
- So we gathered together the leaders of Planned Parenthood, Model cities, which are the big
- East Austin places that you know we're a different clientele probably, we saw everything everybody
- from everywhere. And we would meet quarterly with them, so
- I do want to make sure their names get in it, do you want me to say them or just spell
- them out for you later. RANDALL: Oh you can say them all right now.
- JARRY: Okay, so. So, let's see. We started a group association of women; it was called
- Women Nurses and Counselors in Various Clinics. We met quarterly to share information. The
- key players in the Community were a nurse practitioner with Model Cities and Planned
- Parenthood, Deena Mersky, counselor at planned parenthood, Maria Amaya, health educator Planned
- Parenthood, Lynn Hudson, a nurse practitioner, Margaret Magness, who founded the Teenage
- Parent Council. We created a pocket-sized publication to be passed to teenagers in high
- schools. So here we are way before cell phones and any way for people to really communicate,
- but we decided when we met with the high school counselors that some of the high schools had
- the highest pregnancy rates. Like these kids need to know where to come
- for contraception and you know testing and blah blah blah, so they suggested that we
- make a very small one, I think I have one that I can donate somewhere. It's pocket size
- little booklet that gave basically the referral information all the places in Austin that
- could help them, so it was you know to carry in the back of your jeans and it must have
- been successful, because all of them were gone once we took 500 to each high school
- and then they disappeared in the cafeteria and you know, so the idea was learn and pass
- it on learn and pass it on. The activist group also created a fitness
- Conference which we held at the Thompson Center and we pulled together. It was my idea, but
- I was able to pull together all these wonderful people of from all parts of the city. We used
- the UT physical ED department and I’m not sure she's still there, Dr Ann Baylor. The
- nutritionist was Terry Shaw, head of nutrition at ACC, and Ann Baylor, UT Professor Physical
- Education, and Seyma Calihman sex therapist psychotherapist.
- It was booked as a fitness conference, open to all women of Austin covering many aspects
- of women's health throughout the lifecycle. It was full and we had people out in the hall.
- And we also had women who were in the 70 plus age range, who all came together and they
- had more questions. All of it, believe me, we had so many questions, though it was wonderful.
- Let's see, I guess, this is my final page, how are we doing.
- RANDALL: We're doing good on time right now. JERRY: We're good. Okay let's see. And this
- was done in the early 80s this fitness conference and we produced a wonderful booklet that gave
- information about exercise, fitness, nutrition, sexuality, but it also gave good information
- just about women's health and how often you should be checked, for a breast exam and anyway
- it's chock full of information and then at the back, it has all the different places
- in town that you can go to have you know, whatever. Exercise , Biofeedback, you know,
- a whole range of health fitness and health things to keep people healthy. So that was
- for people to take home, they did. Yes after that I started doing many more things
- through Gregory gym and other places, for they were informational kinds of fitness different
- you know, health, nutrition. Okay now we're in the early 80s when I’m
- still activating for improving women’s health care.
- So, we began to see that there were people in town, who thought it might be a good idea
- that we had some women Ob gyn in Austin because all the all the Ob gyns are guys okay. A group
- started in town called Women Partners in Health founded by Dr Karen Swenson and Dr. Diana
- Weiss, and they immediately hired midwives and allowed the midwives to do their deliveries
- in the hospital under their direction. Just you know, revolutionary it really was, it
- was amazing. Then another clinic started that was women's health, Brookside Women's Medical
- Center in South Austin was founded by the people's clinic medical director Ted Davis.
- We were seeing so many people come there who really could afford to just go to a doctor
- and use their insurance so he created a similar setup to People's clinic with the Center of
- the staff from People's some people worked part time at people's clinic and then came
- over and worked part time of the week at his clinic so that people knew it was the same
- type of care that we were giving and we had the patient advocate system . The one complaint
- we got in the Community were other doctors who said “how can you afford to have all
- these professional women on staff when we just have one assistant who sets up
- all the patients and puts them in the stirrups. He's like we don't do it that way as we have
- a chance for the woman to talk with her clothes on first to an advocate to make sure that
- we're going to see her for whatever she's coming for and make sure that she is comfortable
- before she removes her clothes. A radical change, and now suddenly we're seeing
- so many women patients because we are in such an open-minded place. Willie Nelson's wife
- and having all these people coming in, who were fairly famous but we're willing to pay
- and wanted to come and get the same kind of care that was being given at people's clinic.
- So let's see he also had abortion services so that women could come in Austin and have
- a sliding fee so that women who could not pay had access to abortions through the clinic.
- So he did Ob care and deliveries, he did the whole range of women's health care. So let's
- see. During that time I was working part time for him and I said it's time we had a woman
- doctor on staff, and it was this doctor plus one other guy doctor and he says that's a
- good idea why don't we see. So, we went up to Scott and white, and we asked if they had
- anybody that was interested in coming and working in our clinic who was a woman and
- so turns out the woman was the chief resident there. but anyway, we drove up and we convinced
- her it would be a good place to come so she came . Her name was Dr Roberta Braun, and
- Dr Braun was with us for a year or two and then started her own private practice and
- I worked for her as her PA so things you know are going around. Everybody knows everybody.
- Okay so, having worked with young women, reproductive age women, and being in midlife I decided
- to start a group for women who were nearing menopause or in it. And the group was called
- Womenopause because I hate the name menopause and so Womenopause groups were open to women
- on a sliding fee scale and included professional speakers. Many women's health practitioners
- referred their patients to to the group, it was a six week group and nothing like it had
- existed. I’m hopeful that something like that is still going on, but I did that for
- several years, so to advertise it, a flyer was made and we put it in the bathrooms of
- all the Ob gyn practices. So it was a great way for everybody to see it
- in the bathroom at their doctor's office. I did that
- for several years and it was in the university areas where my office was.
- So, after a decade at People's clinic I took a position as a provider as a PA with Planned
- Parenthood at a a low-income clinic in East Austin.
- With a working knowledge in Spanish, I was used as a bilingual practitioner for the 10
- years I was there. Seeing the need, I provided women's health information in Spanish, for
- our clientele and also spoke at neighborhood centers to promote health in Spanish and coordinated
- care with the Teenage Parent Council to educate teens about pregnancy prevention and at that
- time, HIV protection. And I wrote in here, by the way the stats in 2021 show that Texas
- has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of any state in the United States.
- And 60% of those pregnancies are to Hispanic women, so I wrote in there, we have much left
- to be done to help those who did not intend pregnancy that early in life to disrupt their
- life. After 20 years of practicing as a PA, a health
- educator and a Community activist advocating for women's health, I entered graduate school
- of Social Work at UT with the goal of becoming a psychotherapist with a specialty in women's
- issues, especially chronic health issues like cancer, chronic pain, lung and heart disease,
- depression and postpartum depression. I am one of the few in Austin that has a combined
- background in medicine and in psychotherapy. Most of the referrals come from doctors and
- nurses who worked with me or I knew of them and knew that it would be helpful to have
- someone who already had the knowledge of what the patient had As well as helping them to
- cope with those health problems. This also included hospice work with women. It's been
- a journey. So, I like to joke that I switched from mainly
- seeing women from the neck down to now seeing them from the neck up! of course, it is a
- holistic , integrative approach with attention to the mind, body and spirit.
- And now, is my conclusion, and you can ask me questions, but I see this time of my life
- as a way to look at what I call the third act of life, those women 65 and beyond.
- And how to correct the prejudices of aging in our society, so that we may live healthy
- non judgmental lives of our choosing. I’m strongly considering an educational, health
- blog for this time in life, to offer colleagues and friends who would be interested for themselves.
- my area of interest is in alternative and integrative health care of mind, body and
- spirit. And I figure eventually everybody, everyone
- will need this information. That's where I am now, not to mention that I’m loving being
- a grandmother of an eight year old and being able to hopefully shape her life in a very
- non judgmental way, as she grows up. I will be submitting not only the pamphlets
- that I published but I will also be submitting some very significant, I think, photos. This
- photo was on the head of the Social Work Utopian, which is the social work journal that comes
- out, and this is a picture of people lined up for People
- Clinic and it says,” help us help you”. Fill out a questionnaire to tell us what more
- we can do for you so that's just typical and clearly for the people. And this photo is
- a fundraiser with Peter Fonda was in town and that's our director, so we could also
- do fundraisers with Willie Nelson. Did Willie Nelson's picnic for donations. This is kind
- of a motley crew with I’m in here, somewhere, but. This is the group. (shows picture of
- PCC staff) From the 70s. The worker bees. There's probably about 20 of these different
- pamphlets, so when I gather them from my archives, I’ll put them in and then there are other
- wonderful photos and People's Community Clinic has an archives of photographs and there's
- some that are more specific to women's health and some showing us at the beginning of the
- consciousness raising health groups with our speculums held up, and you know just things
- that I think people would find of interest. That is kind of my history or my recollection.
- RANDALL: I will say, one of the big questions I have for you; outside of what you've said
- during your time working in the People's Community Clinic was there any specific stories that
- you have that had an impact on Your activism like specific stories with women working with
- women. JARRY: Like a specific person or just kind
- of in general, what. RANDALL: More of a specific, like this woman
- specifically had an impact on how I saw my activism, and things like that.
- JARRY: Well, I think, I'm not sure if this answers it but I’ll go for this part too,
- but I think when a person comes in, and they have to take the clothes off and sit on a
- table and they're stripped of so much of their humanity in that moment, and to be able to
- wrap something warm around them, and to have the chance to talk with them before doing
- an exam and establishing the rapport with them that I always felt like that was my forte
- that I could see the whole person first and then work with what the problems that person
- had physically and that so many times I had a patient ask to talk after the pap smear.
- So I always talk to them through the pap smear, which means that they often were like are
- you done you're checking me,? I said yes, because you were talking to me about something
- you're doing, and you know you were distracted. And I learned a technique that is very gentle
- in California, that I talked to all the other people here that, indeed, was very gentle
- and at the end when I would be through with their examination, over and over they would
- ask “can I talk to you about such and such going on with me right now the way I feel
- about my sexuality or my partner or my kid or you know.”
- Just really making connections with people was when I felt like it was such an activism
- of radically changing the way people are treated in the medical setting.
- And what happened from that is a trust that was so strong that those same people that
- might not tell anybody this story were able to feel free to tell that in a confidential
- setting and know that number one they weren't going to be made fun of number two they're
- actually probably going to get some information or find out where to go next and, so I know
- that's a general term that it just happened over and over again, and then we got so many
- amazing feedback letters from people I still have some of them, and of course confidential.
- Yes, but, in general terms, you know, just very heartwarming and there is a wonderful
- video that I’d love for you to see in its people's clinic has it it's if I can email
- it to you, it's not really related to this whole thing but just you know, really, really
- let you see the impact that the women's activism and healthcare has had on women and hopefully
- the next generation. but you know just really amazing stories that people told where they
- felt open to be able to get help to tell their stories and that one funny one about the guy
- turned to put the diaphragm and it sticking to the wall and the exam rooms are really
- small because we were in the basement of a church.
- And we just had these little, wouldn't you know, curtains on the outside and everything,
- so the other person is another nurse that both of the nurses who are in there, telling
- the patient stories like you're asking you. Sadly, both of those nurses died of cancer
- way too young. And so, for me to watch the videos always
- just get so emotional that they're so just so heartwarming and those are two nurses or
- doctors that talk about things. you know. Some of the people were turned off by that
- you know he just said, well, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to be standing for five hours
- and in this place helping you all and he was a family practice doctor that you know resident
- full residency and everything you, as you know, it was the real thing and guess what
- people are saying, because he always had given them the right thing for them to know and
- we use sort of alternative therapies like use of yogurt for yeast infections. In some
- people that worked because they had the right bacteria so we had a lot of that type of thing,
- where we would offer you to take medicine or, if you want to you could try, this is
- an alternative. There was one case that I think it's okay
- to share because I don't have a name for her, but she was a young woman in her 20s and she
- had a condition of her skin that she was born with and her entire body was covered with
- scales that look like elephant’s skin. And so, she wore clothes all over to the exception
- of fingers. Everything was covered, and she came in to see me and came in for women's
- health care, and we had a talk and I kind of noticed it was a hot time of year, and
- she was completely covered. So as things progressed, and I said I need
- to examine you and she began to tell me that she had this condition and that you know she
- was so upset because there was no place she could go that she didn't feel that would be
- judgment, so I just got one of the doctors that I work with, he was familiar, but really
- it's very, very rare and explain to me what that was and the challenge for me, was to
- work with her and let her know that she was safe and that she was safe at our place, and
- so we became her health care providers. The time period that I worked there, I saw her
- annually, and then, when she needed it and so she had left us with a beautiful letter
- of what it felt like. Now let's get to now because People's Community
- Clinic still offers the same type of compassionate care, but they have expanded to have mental
- health, we have a whole mental health section with therapists who offer group therapy. They've
- got a clinic that's nothing but teenagers , it's their adolescent clinic with a specialist
- who did residency in adolescent medicine and they have a pediatric clinic. They are beginning
- to have a geriatric clinic. They have, I mean, all free unless you have insurance or have
- the ability to pay. They have a complete bilingual system. It just blows me in away. It makes
- me feel so good, because the essence of what they were offering is still the goal. And
- they had this crazy picture of us that I was showing you, its blown up wall size so it's
- in there and who they are now....one is a judge now, three are doctors. Four or five
- have emerged as nurses and midwives, and it's just like, you know the beat goes on, you
- know their experience did nothing but enhance their lives to move on and continue in the
- same vein, so, so I shout out to those peoples, all the time I just think it's the most amazing
- thing the director of the clinic right now used to be on our board when I was working
- there in the 70s. She, Regina Rogoff, was the director of legal
- aid she's a lawyer and she was like you know, one of the main board members of our board
- members there, so when their director quit about 15 years ago they went to her and said,
- would you be interested in directing the clinic, we're moving, we're growing , we're doing
- all this, everything, and she said yes. So much trust in her because she was in the original,
- you know, she's not going to let the field of healthcare delivery, especially the women,
- be changed. You know the favorite thing that people love to use as excuse harmful for changes
- is to use the excuse they don't have enough money to do that anymore.
- So I don't know if you're aware, but they're taking away the Medicaid patients from Planned
- Parenthood right now. There's 8000 women and it's not even abortion care it's just regular
- care, One of the unusual things that that I’ve seen through this is the story of woman
- in East Austin that came to Planned Parenthood and said that she had gone to the emergency
- room and they had totally blown her off and that she'd had the pain for like three or
- four days. And I did her exam and she had an ectopic
- pregnancy, which is a dangerous pregnancy and the once it ruptures you're dead, I mean
- it's not like we'll tell her to go home and call me back later.
- So we got her to come and I was, you know, able to get her to Breckenridge right away
- and they saved her life, but you know, again, that had she'd been paying patient gone to
- a private gynecologist, they would have found that right away, that an ER doctor didn't
- recognize it. So yeah. I have those stories too. positive
- feelings about people having great births and wonderful prenatal care and just feeling
- great about their sexuality and Dr. Davis did surgery for gender change or transgender
- back in the 80s. That early and it, to my knowledge, might have been one of the only
- one in Austin with that, so we would have those people be counseled by a psychologist
- because it was required. And then they would have to wait a certain period before they
- can have sex change surgery that will solve them. So very open minded healthcare environment
- in Austin so, and I credit him greatly with having the guts to do it, but most doctors
- wouldn’t. RANDALL: I want to say thank you so much for
- doing this for agreeing to be part of this project. It's been an honor getting to know
- you and getting to hear your story. Everything that you've talked about doing
- has been so important and I’m blown away by just some of the stuff you've said that
- you got to be part of. It's amazing to me how much you've been able
- to accomplish with women's health activism. JARRY: You're gonna make me cry.
- RANDALL: So this is. JARRY: Part two now it came very natural,
- but with a lot, a lot of challenges. A lot of challenge, though, to buck the system.
- That and I give so much credit to those who I’ve
- worked with who were in the same camp with me and saying about, you know it's like, it's
- like you really need a team, need a village, can't do it by yourself. So it's been an honor
- to do a life review of what we say in therapy. And, of course it's only pinpointed to my
- health activism and I’ve had other parts of life.
- But just for me to hone in on that part of my life and look at the evolution of it, I
- think the last night, when I was looking backwards, I thought , “do you remember when I went
- to those tenement houses in New Brunswick with the medical students.” See the medical
- students there, they had all their, basically, we're from the New Jersey area, and they studied
- French. They didn't, whereas in Texas like Spanish
- is the main, you know, I mean, of course, everything but Spanish is really what most
- students learn. Yeah and because my mother grew up in Venezuela,
- I had already known Spanish before I even studied it and I lived in Mexico and lived
- in Spain, you know. It was natural for me to have that language
- but they didn't, and so it was like such a godsend to go with them into these places
- where you know the 15 people living in one room and we will be working with a woman who
- was either pregnant or you know. Various women's health problems and being
- able to translate for now. So, and also, it was an honor for me to be
- able to give credit to my ancestors. All three of which are no longer, in fact
- today is the anniversary of my mom's passing. RANDALL: Oh wow.
- JARRY: Yeah, talk to my sister this morning like, yeah, but she was a remarkable lady
- and, anyway. So it was great to be able to, she started that international patient service
- which is just amazing. And just recently I heard that they had over 40 languages, like
- African languages, and they have volunteers that are all these different languages. When
- she started, it was just Spanish. So directors debate and coolly or that famous heart surgeon
- that they didn't know Spanish so she would be their interpreter with the family, after
- surgery and for surgery so with all these people all over South America, so.
- Anyway, I had good role models. The way I see it is that women have a chance now to
- be in medicine, you know we have probably more women medical students and I go to Dell
- Medical UT, they're my doctors and are chosen on purpose. People that know what they're
- doing, but I’m just so amazed, how many women are medical students there it's just,
- yeah, and then my doctors, there are women and, yeah. So, I feel like I lived through
- that time where you know for the first 25 years of my life was like that was not unheard
- of. And then suddenly there's this breakthrough
- with women being recognized for their talents as being providers of healthcare, but they're
- also, you know, being respected for their needs, with contraception and respect for
- their sexual orientations and. So what a difference.
- And UC San Francisco, I did several training workshops there that were on sexuality and
- gender identity success, that was during the 80s, and that was like not even available
- anywhere else, but that they're not even on these coasts, mean, you know, just the breakthrough,
- you know that I was so, I guess you could say I felt like, I mean my daughter was born
- into it when it's already happening. But my granddaughter when we look at all of her yeah.
- Just, she’s got everything so normalized for her and she doesn't see at eight, the
- difference during her generation, I mean it's like. Are we on record still? Yes, okay. I
- was gonna say something to you, but I can tell you when I see you in person, because
- I’m gonna have you come pick up the things, give me a week or two to do that okay too.
- Yes, get together yeah because I’ve gotta go probably make copies of some of them, so
- that, yeah, I was gonna say something to my daughter, but I know she wouldn't want me
- to record it. But that is tje truth that my granddaughter will have so many things easier.
- Oh my gosh as a woman. I mean her choices could probably be the, the key word is choice
- you know all the way through, health jobs, gender, where she lives, you know I mean.
- Yeah. A lot of work to get there, I mean there has been a lot of working together that still
- leaves. You know, and of course set up with an equal rights amendment, and you know protested
- all these different things through the years. Austin capital or US capital or whatever.
- Gotta keep working and keep it going. Can’t let up. Especially right now. Yes. Okay, so
- will you be in touch with me about coming over for a little visit.
- RANDALL: I will be, um, I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording now.