Hispanic Oral History Project Interviews

00:02 It’s been so sad over the years and I will be interviewing Greta Barris from Idaho Falls.

00:14 Rita, can you tell me your whole name and where you were born in? What year you were born

00:20 with? The edits? I was born 1930 here in Idaho Falls.

00:30 Do you know when your family came to this country?

00:34 My father came in 1911.

00:37 Did what? What state did he come to

00:42 Texas. But he did not stay there. I believe he went on to San Francisco.

00:48 And what was the reason that he came to the United States?

00:54 A dream of coming to a rich country where people could easily make a lot of money.

01:01 Why did why did he move from Texas to California

01:11 where he could find work with ability work mostly with a railroad so forever? The word trucking, that’s where he went.

01:18 And how long was he in California?

01:23 Off and on, I believe until 1995.

01:28 Would he be in California and stay the whole year? Or would he just work? A season and go back to Mexico?

01:41 He went back to Mexico three or four times. But then he’d come back to wherever

01:48 there was work. And was that always California?

01:53 No, he went this far is this Illinois,

01:57 working for the railroad working. And when was the first time that he came to Idaho 1919 99 teen What was the reason that he came to Idaho?

02:11 I believe they came contracted by the sugar factory.

02:15 And did he ever work in the railroad when he was in Idaho?

02:20 Yes. Yes, but he is. At one time he had worked from Pocatello send to Alexander near Soda Springs then to Bancroft or Hall black food St. Mary’s.

02:40 When did your mother come to United States

02:44 19 When the by 1924. Two came right after they were married.

02:52 And did they come directly to Idaho or since your father had been here since 1990? Did they come directly to Idaho?

03:01 No first they stopped in Arizona to visit my father sister who lived there but it was in July and they could not stand the heat. They went to San Francisco for my father had a brother living and

03:18 and then they came to Idaho.

03:20 My mother was a country girl she couldn’t take CD live and my father had to work night shift all the time. Her health deteriorated to a point where a doctor told my father he had to get her out of the CD out in the country that she was accustomed to. So they were saving for the trip when my brother was laid off.

03:41 They will stay in for the trip to Idaho. Yes. And and how did they come to Idaho? By train or? Yes, they came by train. How much did it cost for them to come over?

04:00 I don’t know. But my mother said that my father only had enough money there was only enough money for one fare for one person. And my father proposed putting her on the train and then bumming himself meeting her here. She was petrified at the thought of traveling alone not knowing the language. So when he left to take care of final business, she caught her hair that was done to her knees up and pulled a cap over her years and put on his clothing overalls. And he returned he was aghast to the point of tears. And she just gave him an alternative. Either she’d accompany him or he could take her back to her parents home.

04:52 So he brought her with him. Do they ever tell you how long it took them to too, to come to Idaho for the length of time it took them from California to Idaho.

05:06 No one can remember my mother ever telling me but she did say that they they walked to the outskirts of San Francisco where they, quote boarded a train in the dark. They had no problems until they got to work on the train over there salt lakes in Utah when a conductor caught them in. He wasn’t about to believe that she was this man’s brother told my father to tell it to the authority system in Salt Lake. To good thing, he had to tend to his work, gave him a chance to get off the train and hide under the bridge until night when everything was no sign of life, or danger or getting caught again. And they walked. They weren’t clear to Ogden. walking at night and hiding, sleeping during the daytime.

06:04 Why were they hiding? And why were they?

06:07 Because they were afraid that if they tried to catch a train again in Salt Lake, the conductor might have worn authorities and they wouldn’t be looking for them on the trains.

06:19 Because she didn’t have a ticket or because she was a woman.

06:24 And neither, neither of them had a ticket. Oh, I see. And they were a few they were afraid they would be separated.

06:37 So they came to see he brought her to either to Idaho Falls in 1920 by 25. And he had already been living here since 1990.

06:51 He had not been living here all the time just just off and on and on when there was one there was work with the railroad and the Sugar Company and potato harvest and a potato harvest What did

07:03 did your father find a job right away when when your mom came with him that first time

07:12 when they came here to eat a home I believe they were had been living in town and he was going out to work on a farm in Amman to theme Bates. So then when need was time for my brother to time for my brother to be born. He, they had talked to a midwife, but he had to go bring her and he brought her and he was going to go off to work. They had to work when there was a chance and a midwife said that you are staying here I go. My father wanted to go back, go to work and do what he could when he could. You said you’re going to stay here this. This is your first baby but it won’t be your last your there’s going to come a time when you will have to know what to do. So my father had to stay and she taught him told him why she did everything she did and using sterile technique. And he didn’t use good sterile technique better than some doctors and nurses that I saw. So it’s a good thing she did.

08:27 And so, so your your first brother was born, your older brother was born? Yes. And what year was that?

08:36 Do you mind making 26?

08:40 And was there other Mexican families there in Idaho Falls?

08:46 Yes, because they had told them about this midwife.

08:51 The midwife was Hispanic. Yes. Now they’re

08:53 elderly. Every Indian woman.

08:55 I see. So then, did you use the did your parents use a midwife for all of the children? Where were you born? Rita. Were you born at home also? Yes. And so how many of your brothers and sisters were born at home? How many are you in your family?

09:18 There are? Well now there’s like 15 Leaving since one of my sisters died recently? Just November 1 1989. So there’s the three older boys and I see So Danny Sandra died. Julian Adel, Alex the for eight of first. Middle the second Alex the first. Alex the second 12 were born at home

09:47 12 were born at home. And and when did your mom start having her babies in the hospital.

10:00 Oh, Joseph was born in 1944 We were living at a labor camp tanky out of Pocatello. And all these other woman’s started telling her all these horror stories about a woman who had died in birth, and she got to pants, I think to be able to have a baby naturally.

10:19 What was the name of that labor camp again,

10:22 it wasn’t the labor camp. It was just the owner of the store had a little park there and had cabins we rented a cabin. But then a lot of other people came and pitch their tents in the little park he had in the center. Are

10:35 there a lot of Hispanic people there? Yes. And what year what year was that? That Joseph was born 1944 1944. So how many of you live in Idaho Falls still most of you live

10:52 in I know most of us. One sister lives in Boise in the one that I lived in Oregon, and also lives in Pocatello.

11:00 So the house where you were born, Rita? Where was that house?

11:05 On pre Monday when you were the homies now?

11:07 And you still have your home there? Does someone still live in that? Yes.

11:11 My two bachelor brothers. YouTube older brothers live there. They just recently a CD demanded at our old house be demolished?

11:20 On they have to or Edwin it has been demolished or it has been. When was that? Just this last year in the fall? So how so when your father moved here with his wife, with your mom, in 1924. moved here to Idaho and moved here to Idaho Falls? Did he come to live in that house? Was that their first home?

11:48 No, no. They they had been renting. Somewhere in the river side by the river. No more between the river and the tracks? Where were the Senior Living centuries

12:05 I see about J

12:07 J or K Street?

12:08 And how long did they live in a rented home

12:12 until 2008. They bought well, they had bought a lot on K or J Street and started building. But he did not have money to complete the building. So the fire department made him cut up the frame and told him to move it out because it was a fire hazard. A man that he used to work with told him that there were lots up near the river that he could buy and didn’t even have to make a down payment on or would settle for $5 down and my father would have to pay the property taxes. So they cut up the frame

12:50 $5 down for a down payment and a lot.

12:55 Great. Sure. But they didn’t even make $1 a day. And so they had to cut up the frame that he had put up for this house on K or J Street and move it to that place over there. It was just like a sand dunes with a lot of piles of garbage here and there.

13:16 And he built it. He’s the one that built a house.

13:19 So he they they put the frame together the best they could there on that place. Who is they? My parents and this co worker of my father’s that had helped him about us lots,

13:31 a friend of his and he helped him build a home. And you live and you live with your brothers and sisters and your mom and dad there for how long? When was the when was the house? demolished?

13:47 1989

13:49 last year. So your older brothers still lived there till then

13:55 oil. We built a bigger house 19 started building it in 1965. No 1960 You just added on or you built an entirely totally new house in the basement in the older house was behind the chop that my brother built.

14:21 Do you have pictures of your house of your first house that your dad built?

14:25 Yes my sister and brother two pictures before it was totally demolished.

14:34 How many other families Hispanic families lived in Idaho Falls when when you are born or when you as long as you can remember, as far back as you can remember, there’s two or three, two or three families that

14:49 used to live here. There used to be a lot of Hispanic families that used to come from southern Idaho, Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado but they did not stay they would just come to Pick Greenpeace and they put up potato harvest. Some of them wouldn’t even wait until the potato harvest was over when it got too cold for them they

15:10 and where did your your father work? Did he work all year round?

15:15 No. Remember 1936 He came overjoyed because the neighbor had given him $1 For working all day cleaning up big bands.

15:28 So he had to work at odd, odd jobs. What was what was the main job that he did? He did.

15:36 Some work started with thinning the towing beads and we would go to drinks and pick Greenpeace. Come back about mid September and potatoes and then after the potato harvest was done, if there were any sugar beets to harvest, then we’d work at that.

15:56 And when you went to drinks, how old were you?

16:03 The first time I can remember I was four going on by?

16:07 And how many brothers and sisters did you already have?

16:11 That’s three older was the nod to younger sister.

16:17 So there was a handful of children and did when you when you would go to drinks. You would stay there and drinks and

16:32 work. I will stay there for probably about six weeks.

16:38 And where did you live?

16:40 They had a place at clearing in the forest where they were we were allowed to either pitch tents or build shelters out of bark.

16:50 How many other families work there?

16:53 Oh, quite a few there were three or four families that we knew quite well. But there were probably about eight other families Hispanics

17:04 So was that a self made? Oh, labor camp type of

17:10 no I believe the

17:19 contractor made arrangements to allow people to camp

17:24 to combat fans out there. What was the name of your contractor? James like and he was the one that would find those jobs for instance that job picking piece

17:36 the the contract with farmers and then he would provide all the labor?

17:43 How did you how did he communicate with your father if your father

17:50 Well, my father spoke, broken but very understandable. English.

17:59 And so you lived there for six weeks? And did you? Did you ever work there? Rita? Did you ever help your mom and dad?

18:09 The first time did I worked out in the field? I was about eight years old.

18:13 And what did you do before you worked out in the field? Babysitter? You took care of your little brother sisters. And your two? Your three older brothers worked? Yes. And your mom and dad also? Yes. And then you would stay in the in the tent?

18:30 No, no, they would take us in the car or truck and pocket at the end of the field where my mother would come at intervals to check on the baby and nurse.

18:42 How old was the baby when you when you took care of it?

18:47 Well the first time I was left in charge and my younger sister she was about six weeks old.

18:54 How old were you? Not quite five and so how long did your what was a normal working day for your mom and dad? How long did they work that you have to take care of your

19:12 from sunrise to sunset cleaning beads could be from four o’clock in the morning to nine o’clock at night picking Greenpeace because it was another contractor and he said that or she was from six to six probably.

19:31 And so then you went you went there. How many years to drinks to pick peace

19:39 as far back as I can remember until 1945

19:45 Tell me a little bit about how, how you how your parents picked the piece. Also I would it would be nice to know how much the car tractor got paid for as part of his wage,

20:06 I have no idea of what the contractor got paid. I think that we might have been paid about three cents a pound.

20:14 And we’re still in barrels. So what how did you how did your parents

20:18 know they had their wooden baskets that were some kind of cylinder shaped starting with about a 12 inches at the bottom and coming up to 24 or more inches across.

20:36 So, kind of, maybe if you could describe to me your first memories of Idaho.

20:45 My first memories of Idaho was home my father always planted a big garden the nine lots we had. I remember walking out the door and squash were in bloom. It was beautiful. And I had no notion as to state.

21:15 You didn’t know there were other?

21:16 No, it was just a very small world, just Idaho Falls. And not even Idaho Falls. It was just one of my first recollections was just home the lot the fence around it, and we were not to be side that fans.

21:32 So then did you have neighbors?

21:34 Yes, but they were not. Friendly, say the least.

21:40 Why were they not friendly?

21:44 What was it that they did that? Oh, discrimination. We had one neighbor that during the Depression. My parents raised chickens and he wanted my father to give me my hand and my father said no, you’re getting help. We’re not getting any.

22:02 What? What do you mean by the neighbor was getting help? What does that mean?

22:06 Welfare. But we because my parents were Mexicans, we were Mexicans. no help from Mexicans. He was told, I see during a depression during the Depression. So you’re this neighbor who was getting welfare one day, my father to give him a chicken and my father said, What should I give him I give you a shake, and you’re getting welfare. And this is all we have. So he or she can cook they found the tire. The fire had been started on a tire and there were rigs with gas on him and called the fire the neighbor across the street called the fire department and helped my parents carry buckets of water to throw on the house. To keep the fire from burning the house that we lived in. The fire department came but they wouldn’t do anything they just said they’re visiting.

23:01 They wouldn’t stop the fire.

23:02 No. So my parents in the neighbor carried buckets of water.

23:10 So How were you treated? Like for example, you would go to the grocery store?

23:17 I don’t know because we were never taken in the grocery store. When we were children. My father went and got the groceries. But was it

23:23 your mom stayed home? Yes. And your father never talked about the way he was treated?

23:31 No, never. Never said anything but healthy was created in the grocery stores.

23:37 Or in any other place? Would he also go how? What kind of clothes? Did your mom saw for you and your clothes? Or did you buy your clothes?

23:46 No, my mother sewed most of her clothes

23:53 well at the time would you say that maybe there would be maybe one grocery store and describe to me Idaho Falls at that time.

24:05 Oh, I can remember the is that on the way to work? There was a blacksmith shop where taping centuries now on Memorial Drive. That was the park what is now the parking lot was more like a dance lot of piles of garbage and hitching posts. I believe quote star Landry was already there across the alley from taken center.

24:33 But like on a Sunday, a typical Sunday. Did you have to work? Did your parents work on a Sunday?

24:41 Yes, when they were working for an individual farmer. They set their own hours and they worked from sunrise to sunset when there was work to be had.

24:51 Well, especially in this area Rita, the people the religion that’s dominant here. They don’t believe in on Working on Sundays. Why is it that you worked on Sunday?

25:04 The farmers that we work for most well, I don’t know. I know one farmer is the kid my father, he’d be a good Mormon because he had so many children. But that was said he was free to work or not. I mean, he was free to work when there was work to be had. They never told him he could take time off.

25:24 Did you go? Did you go to church to church service?

25:31 No, there was no church, my parents. We prayed at home, but I didn’t know where the church was until I was only two.

25:39 Until you were 22. And where was the church?

25:42 19.

25:44 Oh, so they had a church built what religion would that be? Catholic? And they they had built a when did they build that church?

25:55 I believe it was built in 1944 1944 That’s the new one. There used to be a church kitty corner from where the church is now where the school playground Please

26:12 tell me your if you could describe to me your first days of school, what were they like? What did you start school and kindergarten? Was there kindergarten? Or did you start first grade?

26:31 I started first grading La Habra, I believe.

26:37 What is that? The habra

26:38 itself plays in Orange County, little town.

26:42 Oh, in California. Yes. Oh, I see. And okay, so then your your family would go to California to

26:50 work? Yes, and to get out of the cold.

26:56 So you didn’t need to stay here all year long.

27:00 Well, my uncle came in 1934 and convinced my father to go to California where there was work to be done. I see turned out to only work my father could get with speaking citrus fruits. And it turned out to be allergic kid all over anytime he got under the citrus

27:20 fruit trees. So he had to find another job.

27:23 So some co workers told him there was work in Imperial Valley picking Greenpeace. So after that, we started going to Imperial Valley and on to Bakersfield where there was work picking Greenpeace again.

27:36 And when would you come back to Idaho.

27:38 When the weather got so hot. My father couldn’t stand it. One time, about mid March, he went and picked us up at school that truck already had for home.

27:54 It was always exciting must have been always.

27:57 We were like gypsies and always looking forward to save which of our friends we would see again

28:02 in the different towns that you were in. Well now tell me how was it in the first grade in in that school? In California?

28:13 Not bad. Mostly we were segregated. And there we were just Mexicans knowing that I recall off and they had festivities

28:25 Why were you segregated?

28:28 I think it was the norm at that time.

28:31 So then what you will go to a different school than white students.

28:38 All I remember that there were no English they’re just Mexicans. And the school that you’re that you’re in denial that we went

28:48 between your father first registered you in school in California? Did he go to the right school? He should have gone to or did he go to?

28:56 I think we will just end with our cousins.

29:01 And so were there a lot of Hispanic students there?

29:13 Well, only Hispanics, and no other race no other race. There were no no blacks. They’re

29:20 telling me so you were in school in California, in the spring or

29:29 mostly in winter, just winter and maybe part of spring until work started.

29:35 So tell me your first memories of going to school in Idaho. How old were you and what grade was that? Would that would be still the first grade it

29:45 was still it was still first grade

29:54 but I think I had learned enough English probably that I was not aware of and even though it don’t understand the language you get the message. But when we were in Idaho Falls and we were the only Hispanics in at Riverside School then you will see there. He learned to swim or drown. So we learned English because we were the only ones that spoke Spanish. We had to learn to speak English.

30:19 Were you accepted? Well in the school?

30:21 Yes, we were.

30:24 Did you have a lot of friends Rita

30:27 can say that a lot of friends. But we got along fine.

30:33 Were the teachers, good teachers, most

30:35 of them were very kind and understanding.

30:41 Did you go to school there than in the spring?

30:50 No, we started school after the potato harvest. And then beet harvest was all done. When there was no more work to be here. We started to school. Sometimes we didn’t start until mid November.

31:02 But would that be in Idaho or in California?

31:05 Either place wherever if, if we went to California, we started school there. We were not allowed to work in the field. So we had to go to school. So we started school there. When we went there, there was nothing they could do before we move there.

31:21 So you missed a lot of school when you’re growing up? Yes. Did you graduate from high school?

31:28 No. Just went through them. It’s great.

31:36 But your younger sisters and brothers did graduate. You were the one that had to help support your family well, although

31:44 older ones had to work to to help support the whole family. And so Daniel was the first one to graduate from high school.

32:03 What was it like for you when you have to leave school here in Idaho and go to California, tell me if you know how it works?

32:12 Well, we didn’t have to leave school here because we were not in school. If my father decided to go to California, he didn’t even enroll us in school here when there was no more work to be had we loaded up and left for California.

32:26 had told me that you had started school here.

32:29 Well, actually, the first year I went to school was at La Habra school in Orange County. I can remember to Marsh it’s very hazy and and then I did go to school here.

32:43 What was the name of your? Who is the best teacher? Or who would be? Who would be the teacher that you would remember the most in your life?

32:58 Teacher I heard in Gonzales, California.

33:01 What was her name?

33:06 She was very good.

33:10 So then, you’re telling me that you went to school in California more than you went to school in Idaho?

33:16 Yes, because the only time I went to school here in Idaho was the winter of 3940. Or the five that’s the year that we were going to go to California and they didn’t get the truck fixed in time. So my father decided it was too late to go to California. So we started school after Christmas vacation that year. So we went to school here in Idaho that

33:46 was that a good experience for you

33:48 picked up and us to face life’s reality.

34:01 Did you have a language problem when you went to school here in Idaho? I know that in California, most of them were Hispanic students. Did you have a language problem here?

34:13 Well, we had to learn English at school because we did not speak it at home.

34:21 Was that hard for you?

34:24 No. I think we took everything in

34:26 stride. And your brothers also. Well,

34:29 my younger brother had a problem one time he had had a tissue mismatch. There was very kind and understanding the circumstances but he had a heart attack. And one time my teacher sent me with a note to the principal’s office who taught sixth grade and here was coming to soft tissue had insisted that he stand up and say something in England say something seesaw was reluctant, but she insisted make him stand up and say something. So he said what he knew. And so she was carrying him off the floor by the hair to the principal’s office. I walked in behind her and Mr. Bush was the principal told her, me, yes, you are punishing the wrong person. She looked very perplexed. I stood up and looked at the class room. I said, All right, boys, all of you will have been teaching Cecil, stand up and apologize to miss Webb. They had been teaching him behind the schoolhouse the wrong things.

35:46 Well, tell me read out how much education did your parents have?

35:51 By father was kind of a spoiled kid, whose father was well to do. My father was very restless, they got expelled from school. They hired. They hired private teachers, and all of them gave up when my father and they finally hired an elderly man to teach him that was giving my grandfather good report. But by him by my grandfather happened to come along and he was my father pasturing the professor’s horse. So that was the end of the education for my father. My mother did go to school to third grade. But in Mexico, third grade amounts to about 10th grade here. They’re more advanced in Mexico. Oh, very nice, though.

36:52 When your father was in Mexico, was that during the Mexican Revolution?

36:58 Yes. Because he was born in 1891. So

37:03 And does he ever talk to you about? Did he ever talk to you about the Mexican Revolution?

37:08 Oh, he didn’t do but he did talk to my older brother. My mother told me some of the experiences they had.

37:19 So did his father, your grandfather, did he fight in the Mexican Revolution?

37:24 No, he was so well to do so Money Talks anywhere.

37:29 Also, he didn’t have to know because he had money.

37:33 And well, not only money, but he also had authority he was very good with quip with a color theory on a good can handle anything and anybody

37:47 quite well. How was your father, your grandfather what to do? What did he do?

37:53 He had land.

37:57 Farming or

37:58 Well, he had people taking care of the land all he did was collect.

38:09 Talking back about education

38:16 how have that education opportunities for Mexican Americans in Idaho changed in your lifetime, rightly.

38:30 First thing the economy increased. Amin improve very much since that depression was over. And then we grew up and stay together. So we managed to tuck my father into allowing the younger ones to continue school and not have to take time off.

38:50 Was that hard for you to convince your father to not let your little brothers and sisters going to work? Well, I

38:56 think we kind of gave him the alternative that if he didn’t let the younger one stay in school, what was the use of us staying home to help support them if they weren’t going to get advantage of it?

39:08 And so then they graduated from high school and went on to college.

39:12 The younger one stayed the first one that graduated from college, went to work at a concrete plant.

39:20 Do you think that Idaho’s Mexican Americans do well in school?

39:26 Some, but I think that a lot of them still have problems.

39:33 What kind of problems do you see

39:37 in different teachers in parents that don’t care.

39:46 And teachers they don’t care or they.

39:52 So many of them don’t care because I remember once when one of my brothers was having problems in school and send a note home wanting to talk to our parents? Well, our parents would never go bothered to go talk to the teachers or to PTA meetings. I got the node, but I couldn’t. That’s when my mother’s appendix had ruptured, I was in charge of my mother and two month old baby and the whole family. So I asked my sister to go talk to the teacher, my sister went to a third grade classroom, the teacher was starting to get her own masters and expect it to get given assignment to third graders and let them do the best they could with it while she studied for her own interests. My younger brother didn’t know how to read and we didn’t know it until he started junior high. And recent, when new hidden found out was because he had always always been very good in math. And then he comes home with a report card with a U and math. And so my older brother and I questioned him, hey, what’s the meaning of this? What are you doing? And he said, Well, I don’t understand the so he brought out his math book. And there was a problem. Farmer had so many apple trees, he harvested so many bushels of apples from all of them. How many bushels? Did he average per tree, he would have had to read to solve the math problem. And he did not know how to read any word more than two syllables. So we got him.

41:32 He didn’t understand. Problem Solving. Storytelling. So read out when what was your first job? You know, I know that you have to take care of your little brothers and sisters, by your parents worked in the fields. What was your first paying job?

41:57 In the kitchen at all Sacred Heart Hospital?

42:02 Did you work in the fields with your parents before you? Oh, yes. But that but that money went to the family?

42:09 Yes, they went to the Family Fund.

42:12 So that really would have been the first time you went to go work? How old were you when you went to work in the fields?

42:22 As far back as I can remember, we had to pick the vines. Off the potatoes.

42:29 How old were you then? 646. Did you work a whole day? Oh, yes. A whole day. And when your parents got paid from the farmer, did they get paid cash or cheque?

42:50 You should be ashamed.

42:52 And when you were at Rick’s you went also to help them when they went to go pick peace in Driggs, Idaho. Yes. Were you also working the whole day over there and were you six years old and also

43:08 I was left to babysit and I didn’t work out in the field picking Greenpeace until I was eight. Tell you

43:15 eight. Tell me describe to me a day. A typical day in Driggs, Idaho. After after your parents would come home from work were there. They don’t remember if you told me how many Hispanic families there were over there at the same time you were

43:40 but 12 altogether. Did you all get

43:43 together and

43:44 No, no, we I think the men did visit a lot but the woman had her chores to do.

43:52 Well tell me about you know where you washed your clothes or your mom washed her clothes. Oh, they

43:59 dug a well, I didn’t reach didn’t have to dig very deep to get water beautiful clear good water. So they dug a whale and we had to dip a bucket in to bring the water up in be able to fire outside play stones to hold on old galvanized Washington and so that’s where we had to hit the water and

44:27 took the family share that water.

44:30 We had several families shared that well. About six families shared that well and somebody else below Duggar will partner on

44:42 was their only Hispanic family Pharaoh Were there other No There

44:47 were also Filipinos and Anglos, but they kind of wind up to different corners.

44:57 So then, when it was time am for like a Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Because you didn’t work on Sunday at Drix. You did work on Sunday in Idaho. What was that like on a Sunday?

45:12 Catch up on the chores do the washing, mending and ironing.

45:18 And did your parents visit with the other neighbors?

45:24 Oh, yes, they would come there was there were two families that were particularly close that my mother enjoyed their visiting with him very much. And especially one family was from my mother’s hometown so they could always reminisce about old days.

45:41 She had someone to talk to another adult. How many years did you go to drugs?

45:48 Well, I don’t know how long before I could remember but from when I can remember in 1935 to 1945.

45:55 And did your father go to drinks by himself before you started going? Before you were born?

46:01 I don’t know.

46:06 Did you ever have celebrate? Might think what am i You’re already Maresa anything like that?

46:19 I remember one thing. We were still in California and LeBron may celebrated Cinco de Mayo at school. But it was just the activity said school no more.

46:31 I was referring to your family know that our family? Did you ever at that little area and drinks? Did families come together and have a dance party or know the

46:49 other families had a lot of other setup? I danced just about every Saturday. But we were not allowed to leave that area for our shelter was we did climb up on top of the truck and watch and listen to the music. Who’s watching you and your my brothers and sisters, my brothers and one sister at the time?

47:17 Rita Can you tell me if your father worked in the railroad here in Idaho?

47:24 Yes. But I he worked on the railroad off and on everywhere from Pocatello to like food in St. Mary’s nourished and

47:39 I think you told me that earlier. Yes. How long? What was the length of time that he would work? How many months or how many days?

47:51 I think he had to take his vacation to work under potato harvest. But then he was laid off for good when the depression worsened for the discrimination. So he was one of the first ones to be laid off. And after that it was strictly farm work.

48:06 For when did he first start working in the railroad?

48:09 I think from the first time he came to United States

48:13 in Idaho would be the first time that he came to I think

48:16 is in Idaho. Might have been 1925 20 I’m not sure.

48:24 Okay. So then the depression of the 1930s You were born in 1930. And then the Depression hit and he lost his job in the road.

48:35 Yes.

48:37 Did they tell him why?

48:40 No. But if he was fired when he hit seniority, they didn’t have to give any excuses in those days.

48:48 So he had been working there longer and yet other people didn’t get laid off he did. So was that harder for you? Obviously it was because it was during that depression. But was he always able to find work in farming communities?

49:07 He was a good worker and so he always on work if there was work to be had.

49:14 You probably couldn’t tell me very much about the depression but maybe if you could remember what it was like, you know if you struggled or if your parents had a hard time bringing in food into the home,

49:32 well yes, like the winter of 3637 I remember there wasn’t any money

49:46 we just had vegetables from the garden potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions, but no, no money for flour, not even for oats. A nine pound bag of oats cost nine cents and wheat didn’t have it because my brother didn’t have nightstands. Well did you have chickens and? Well, we well we had had before 1934 Before we went to California, but they sold everything they could sell. And then came back to the house had been wrecked because my father left it to be used for any poor people that had no place to stay. And they knocked off old plaster of the walls and it was all greasy, dirty, filthy. So we had nothing but our little shack in the middle of the night lots when we came back, and that was already they had to scrub with lye and even that wouldn’t bring that grease off the walls, wooden walls. So that that year then winter 3637 There we were with. One of my brothers was born on December 5, and we had nothing but like I said, we didn’t even have beans. There had been some beans that we had been saving to say, feed to chickens or a pig. Come next year, spring. But my mother got those beans because she wasn’t nursing the baby. We we stayed with up potatoes and other vegetables and my father used to go to the butcher shop and ask for dogs. I mean, as poor bones for the dog was we didn’t have and he’d boil the bones in with the vegetables which gave him a little more substance until he swallow his pride again to go and ask for more. But then a Mexican man family that the farmer had let them plant all the one that had planted Mexican corn and he came and offered it to my father. My father said yes, I can use it but I don’t have any money to pay for it. And the man said just as well you said as leave it there for the mice to be needed. If I come back next year, you can pay me so we had cornbread calm porridge that made life a little better.

52:10 Did you during the Depression were your neighbors were starting you’re just

52:20 no the they were given welfare. But we were not eligible for welfare because we were Mexicans

52:28 and solve them did your neighbor share with you?

52:30 No way. The best they did. A neighbor across the street had pigs. We hired my father to go and clean the corrals and paid him $1 For a whole day’s work. My father was delighted he came home with a bag of flour and a bag of oatmeal.

52:50 And did your neighbors tell me a little bit about your neighbors during that depression? Did they treat you well for up and one of how many Hispanic families one of three Hispanic families and I don’t fall?

53:03 Yes. Fathers brothers went to school in Lincoln. I believe not, not where we went

53:11 on the other side of town. How were you treated? The neighbors how?

53:17 Oh, the big donors a lot like these later in the winter of 39 and 40 that we stayed here in Idaho. We had a dog his name was Mariano and my mother used to let him loose just about the time. It was time for us to be coming home from school. And so the neighbors were afraid to they were afraid of the dog so the dog went to meet us at school so then they didn’t pick on us for fear of the dog but they eventually killed him.

53:52 Did your neighbors would they come and visit your?

53:56 No. No it was pretty much everybody stayed on their side of their fences. So it was one of those times during the depression and one of the neighbors across the alley one and my father to give me my chicken and my father said Why should I give you’re sick and you’re getting welfare help and we won? They wouldn’t give us any well their neighbor was mad enough that he put our chicken coop on fire found a tire and some rags soaked in gas. So we know he must have been the one because he was so mad because my father wouldn’t give him the chicken and so he put our chicken coop on fire but the neighbor across the street helped us to help my parents carry buckets of water to throw on the house so the House wouldn’t burn along with a chicken coop.

54:46 What did you have fire department at that time?

54:49 Oh yes, the neighbor called them but they just came and said they’re jelly visiting from my parents in the men carried buckets of water

55:02 Did you? So were the chickens last? Yes.

55:08 They were all dead.

55:12 Tell me about your transportation. What kind of transportation? Did you have? Hearing in Idaho Falls, for example, when your dad would have to go get the groceries,

55:31 what did he use? The first I recall, we had a Willis night car had been quite fancied had velvet upholstery inside. And I remember how my younger brother and I used to have great fun picking Great Green Peace and feeling those great big pockets, some doors. And then when that car gave out, my father traded in for a one time Dodge truck. And he built kind of a little box on the back that we were putting. So that was kind of a part of our home when we went camping in California.

56:17 So those vehicles, were they the kind that you had to crank in front

56:23 of a car? Yes, but I can remember my father having to crank the truck.

56:30 So your father must have worked very hard, and you work very hard in your older brothers. To be able to have a form of transportation.

56:39 It was essential. There was no way of getting around. Especially with discrimination. There was no finding a ride with anybody else. Had to be self sufficient.

56:59 Tell me a little bit about about your older brothers. did. Did anyone have to go to for example, the Korean War? Yes. Any of the wars?

57:11 My two older brothers, two brothers older than I served in the Korean War in the battlefront?

57:21 How were how were your How did your father manage when they were at war when they were

57:29 very bitter because the fact that when he went to ask for help to buy food for them for us, he had been told nothing for Mexicans. But when a war came then the Mexicans who were good enough to go risked their lives.

57:42 So what were your brothers? Were they in the navy or no, they were in the army in the army. How long were they? How long did they serve in the Korean War?

57:55 Just about all through. My older one of my brothers had gone to Georgia and he was trained to be what they call Medic, Medic. Army medic. And he had been saving all his weekend time off to come and help the family with a potato harvest. But complicated harvest time he was on a trip for Korea.

58:21 Well, does he have? Did he ever talk to you about whether there were more, you know, Hispanic soldiers apart from him or?

58:31 Well, not so much with my older brother he had joined the army. But then my other brother joined in 51. And he said there were mostly Hispanics said there was a shipload of mostly Hispanics bound for Korea after three months of training at Fort Ord near San Francisco. And but then General MacArthur said he gave the order he did not want anybody with less than six months training. So when they were detour to Japan, where they got another six months training. My brother said that without those six months training, they would have been dead ducks at war France battle France.

59:17 Read Can you tell me the first time that you actually started working in other areas aside from working in the fields?

59:27 Yeah. So you went to work at indication at Sacred Heart Hospital. And while working there in the kitchen, they noticed they had I noticed that there was a class training for practical nurses was going to be starting soon. So I went in as the sister in charge and she asked me about my education and since I didn’t have a high school diploma, he advised me to go work in a nursing home and maybe between that and taking a GED test, I might be allowed to get into a training program. So I went to work in a nursing home and one of my work, co workers told me by that there was programmed by the state paying, offering to pay for training, because he had such a shortage of nurses. So I went into the test and pestered him. While I was working there, I had taken time off to help with a harvest. And when I came back, they had admitted lady just a couple of days before I came back that they were having problems with she was Swedish. And tried to insist that she did not understand English and was refusing to cooperate. I was the same assigned to take care of her. And sure enough, when I walked in and greeted her Good morning, and she jabbered off some to me that I did not understand. So then I spoke to her in Spanish. And she talked back to me in English, why don’t you speak English? So the bat the cat was out of the bag, she could understand English and spoke. So we we got along fine after the head. Well, that was in a nursing home that was in the nursing home and I did take the test and passed it, but I still had a GED to take and after about three months into training The training program, my supervisor told me that they still insisted that I had to take the GED test so she provided transportation to Pocatello so I could take the test then. I guess I learned enough helping my brothers and sisters with their homework to pass the test.

1:01:50 For you. How old were you when you took when you got your GED?

1:01:53 Was 28 going on? 29.

1:01:57 And so then did you get a different job? Oh, yes. So

1:02:00 I went through the training and it was rough at one time I was almost discouraged to the point of giving up but then I thought since my instructor had gone to all that trouble, the least I could do was hang in there and I made it. So I worked there at the hospital. LDS after I graduated

1:02:21 so you worked at the LDS hospital? Was there a lot of patients there that were Hispanic that they need Your? Your ability to speak both languages?

1:02:31 Very seldom once in a while?

1:02:34 How did you get along? Working at the LDS hospital? Were you the only

1:02:42 spanning No, there was another young Hispanic girl. But we did not we never worked together we’d see each other once in a great while.

1:02:52 How did the nurses treat you? How did your co workers treat you?

1:02:57 One of my classmates had avoided me like I had something contagious and that’s when I we were still students. And my our supervisor could see it, I guess. And we had instructions that usually we work to students in each department together. And we were not to ask any of the other nurses for help when we need if we had a patient that we needed help with that we had to ask the other student before asking anybody else. She assigned this other woman to student to care for a patient where she would definitely need help. And I noticed that she was kind of very reluctant just hanging around and peeking in. So I finally asked her if she needed help. So she admitted that she needed help with the patient. And so I went and helped her and and our instructor, I think follow that always giving this woman patients that she had to have help with and she had to swallow and ask me for help. And invariably, we got to know each other and I guess she came to us at me. Then after we were done with training, we were offered a class in psychology. And it came out that she had grown up in the area. Ron Lincoln the sugar factory. And she remember when they had the head camp of Mexican families there to work on the sugar beets and the children she was a child and her children loved the music. And were very curious about the comings and goings of the Mexican people but their parents had warned them to stay away because Mexican say children so so she had always had that fear and apprehension around Mexicans. Oh my goodness. So then we could understand why you her reluctance to be anywhere. be anywhere near me. or accept me until we work together. And you got to know each other talking to each other. And we were all friend good friends.

1:05:09 So you were an LPN? Yes. At the hospital? How long did you work in the hospital?

1:05:16 Oh, he worked until 965. Oh, got a new director of nurses. And from the time she came, she was kind of breathing down my neck and maybe some other patients had complained, because I’ve never been one to push my religion on anybody else. But so many of them do. And they would always ask and try to push their own and I tell them to issue its own. You have yours I have mine. I guess I didn’t like that. And I was told and warned. I was not to discuss religion with the patients. And I sense that there were some of the nurses were maybe appointed to spy on me because I could always see them kind of sneaking near the doors. And eventually, I was fired not for talking religion, but for informing a patient of her rights. I found her crying her head off one time. She couldn’t even stop crying. He couldn’t even talk. I just sat there with her until she calmed down. And she told me that the doctor insisted she had to have a surgical procedure. I told her like hell you do? It’s your body and you do or don’t do whatever you want. If you don’t hire want a surgical procedure, you don’t have to have it. So they found out I had been there, assumed that I was the one that had advised her to do what she placed and so I was fired on the spot.

1:06:49 So what did you do after that? Did? Did you file a grievance against the hospital and

1:06:54 now at that time, there was nothing we could do. And so I just, it was in summer, so there was a lot of work to be done at home. And I was uncertain what to do. So I just stayed at home and gardening and canning and made clothes for my sisters. In the meantime, I I got called to there was they needed an LPN at Sacred Heart Hospital, so I went to work there.

1:07:24 And that was a Catholic hospital. Yes.

1:07:27 And I stayed there until I went to work. Quit there to go work at the Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. I I enjoyed working with children more than with adults.

1:07:39 Well read so you got your high school diploma. And you obtain an LPN certificate. Your other brothers and sisters. Did they graduate from high school and go on to college,

1:07:57 or just the younger ones then he was the first one to graduate from high school, but then he went to work at a concrete plant. Julian did go on to college. Well, Sandra, that’s next to Daniel who died recently. She went on to college in Oregon and got her teacher’s degree and taught all her life after that, till just totally before he died, and Julian got his degree to. He’s an insurance salesman. And hadal was still restless, but he went to two night classes and he’s a pipe fitter. Alex did go to trade school. Electronics is now working as a fireman. Joseph went to college. Majored in agriculture, but he’s a bus driver at the side. Three younger girls who went to college and got their degrees or teachers. Margie had

1:09:09 studied Spanish in college and wanted to be a Spanish teacher. But she even went to Mexico with a college group and spent one summer there and came back and there was an ad in the paper for a teacher to teach Spanish in the junior high school and she applied for the job and was told she did not have she did not have the qualifications necessary. So she applied, she went back to college and got her Master’s. And then the meantime just before she finished that there was an opening for an instructor to teach the blind so she went to work for the National Federation for the Blind and she worked for that until she got married just shortly before she got married. Now she helps her husband in his business Seeing the youngest one of the girls, Lupe went to Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake and got her RN degree there. And he’s working at the emergency used to work for the emergency room. It works in surgery now. Tony, the youngest, went to trade school, learn studied welding. And he taught at that crate tech here in Idaho Falls for a time, but now he’s working as an engineering management at the site

1:10:39 at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. You had two other younger two other brothers that that passed away when they were babies.

1:10:52 Yes, the first one was six months old.

1:10:55 Was he born here in Idaho Falls,

1:10:57 he was born in California, Alta Vista in Orange County. Came to Idaho. One day, my mother given him his bath and went to sleep, which he usually did. But then one o’clock he hadn’t awakened up and so my mother went and tried to rush them and he was not responsive. So they took him to the doctor and the doctor said there was nothing wrong with him. He was just the thing. Give him some teething lotion. But he got worse at night. They took him to the hospital and the doctor said the baby had doubled in pneumonia and he was very angry that the doctor they had taken him to earlier in the day had done anything else and that was the time before antibiotics. The doctor told him his lungs were shut there was nothing could be done. They could take him home or living in the hospital. They left him in the hospital but he died.

1:11:51 And was he your monitor? How old were you when he paid your eight so he was one of your younger brothers. And

1:12:02 and then the second one that died was born in Gonzalez, California 1941. He was the most loving baby. Very smart. We came to Idaho and returned to California following winter next year.

1:12:29 We were living in a labor camp in Madison and in army tent. The weather was very cold and raining. You got the missiles and you seem to be coming along fine. We still have blankets hanging in the bed around the bed in the corner to keep him in semi-darkness. One time he was like I said rainy weather and cold. We didn’t let him come out of the corner. I had to stay with him most of the time. But he was such a jolly loving baby it was wasn’t too much. But then one time he fell asleep and I went out of the corner was washing diapers when it was raining outside and there he was standing in the doorway laughing like he had outsmarted me. Well, he got kind of favorites at night and got sicker the next day he was unresponsive. But when my father talked to him he’d always brokering smiles like you solve Selvan It wasn’t until he got so sick that he wasn’t responding. They couldn’t receive then my father grabbed a blanket and ran to the car with my mother and my older brother following he died on the way to the hospital. My sister’s birthday.

1:13:56 That was That must have been very hard

1:13:58 for everyone. But then she had her first baby girl on her birthday. So that made it okay.

1:14:06 Read up. What kind of responsibilities did you have aside from taking care of your brothers and sisters? What other responsibilities did you have in the home?

1:14:20 Well, my first Bansal abilities were along with my younger brother we had to cut the weeds in the garden plot and red roots. They were would be a big galvanized washing tub full of red roots and my younger brother and I were assigned to clean them cut the roots off. It was a very tedious job that we hated but we had to do where I’ve always liked the red roots. We used them before we had other vegetables.

1:14:52 Was that what people can’t delete? Yes, I still like them. And did your mom Make that the guillotine?

1:15:01 Yes, you would then cook them with onions and tomatoes if we had them.

1:15:08 So then you had to take care of the garden. And did you help your mom with cooking

1:15:15 oil at first, I would just help with sweeping the floor shelling Greenpeace, cleaning, trimming green beans, things like that. And caletas never failed. There was always an ample supply of ammo. And then, but when my mother got sick, that’s when I really had to take over cooking and everything.

1:15:36 Well, tell me about your mother getting sick. What did she what happened?

1:15:45 Well, the first time I had to take the cooking over I was 14 years old when Joseph was born. That’s the first time I had to take over everything when she went to the hospital. And what year was that? 1944 July then,

1:16:03 what was wrong with her?

1:16:06 Well, at that time, it was just having the baby but then when Alex was born her after Alex was born her appendix I think he was having appendicitis attacks. But then when the doctors did a blood test, her blood tests her blood tests were normal. So they would send her home with a bottle of milk of magnesia. wrong thing to do, but she survived. And it was in 1947, just about six weeks after she had Marty that her appendix ruptured. So then she was in the hospital for about three weeks and had pneumonia on top of that ruptured appendix. So then I had the baby to take care of and the whole family and then my mother when she came home.

1:16:54 Did you ever get sick Rita, were you did you have a serious illness when you were?

1:17:00 Yes, yes. That’s what stopped my education. I had been in fifth grade in Idaho Falls for moms about four months and then we went to California and I went to the sixth grade for two weeks and I was supposed to have gotten to the seventh grade. Because our education in Idaho is higher than California but I got sick I started having severe headaches and chills. I high fever soon turned out to be romantic paper. So that was the end of my education.

1:17:31 Or your at the time when you’re growing up. Did your parents take you to get your immunization shots?

1:17:40 They gave them in school?

1:17:44 How long were you sick with rheumatic fever it was

1:17:56 spring we had been living in Bakersfield and the days were hot, hot and the nights were cold. That’s when I got sick. I thought it was just a case of the flu very sore throat probably strep throat but we didn’t used to go to the doctors for any stomach aches or sore throats we stopped on the way home there was a hill covered with California puppies in bloom it was orange beautiful and we took a walk up the hill and that after a while I started getting the kind of blisters on the front of my legs and and then when we got Whitehall and started bit thinning, I had always been able to work and keep up with my brothers never complained. But this time I was hurting so bad that I just couldn’t especially at night and my sister who slept with me. One time was taunting me in the daytime after we got out and saying Cry Baby Cry Baby or crying. I had always been on the Shelby side and here I was getting skinnier day by day. So my parents finally took me to the doctor and diagnosed rheumatic fever

1:19:26 tell me more about your brothers and sisters. What? What would be a typical day in the baddest home with your brothers and sisters. Did they get along with each other?

1:19:50 Since you told me that they that your father was very strict and he didn’t let you go out of your lot where you live. So therefore, you couldn’t have very many friends,

1:20:02 right? We had our friends at school. But I think we got along better than most children. I see there were some Oh, once in a while, like one time seesaw was very careful with his clothing like to keep them nice and he’d gotten a new school new code for school. And here Danny, who was in charge of taking care of that kindling would start the fire in the coal stove and the heater had used Cecil’s new code to go rummaging in the dumps for tomato Craig came so I was very, very unhappy with Danny

1:20:48 How did your parents discipline you? Was there a difference between the way they discipline your brothers in the waiting discipline the sisters?

1:20:57 Oh, yeah, so we all knew so it was very seldom that anybody that disciplined in but the the boys the boys broke rules quite bad. Remember one time my parents were napping after the beat harvesting. I mean, be thinning season. My parents were making up for lost sleep. Were my brothers in the neighbor’s strawberry patch? I think it was a Sunday afternoon the neighbors must have been at church or my brothers were over there and I was going to join them and they wouldn’t let me. So I went and pedaled when they were getting whipped, I repented I wished I had and pedaled. But it was very seldom and I was girls just never got the belt. We got lectured.

1:21:45 So did you when you were a teenager, did you go out and have fun?

1:21:51 No, I was busy helping with other kids at home.

1:21:56 What about your older brothers? Your older brother

1:22:00 May when there was work they were usually too tired after putting in 1618 hours work to care to go anywhere they did on my second oldest brother one time even played hooky from work he went off with his friend and with that he was gonna get scalp. He came home with a bag of fish, fresh fish. They had gone fishing. My father was so happy to get the fresh for gaming.

1:22:30 So that was good. So so how about your younger sisters when they were teenagers today? Go out? No,

1:22:43 they they go out only to ballgames with my brothers. But that was all unless my brothers went with them. There was no going out.

1:22:54 So then they had to be chaperoned by an older

1:22:57 brother, well, and they were just going out to have been observed but not what you would call dating.

1:23:03 I see. So they went to the buildings. What kind of volumes were there? baseball, football. Did your brothers play in those games?

1:23:15 One of my brothers Danny started. But then when he had to take time off for harvest, and again all summer long, where they were practicing at this what the call was not allowed to be in the team if he couldn’t be there all the time.

1:23:35 He didn’t make it to the practice he was disqualified. Tell me about your home. How many rooms were there in your home in your house?

1:23:47 Well, the original was 10 by 16. And then my father added some before I was born as far back as I can remember that’s where we were quarantined. When we had the chickenpox and measles in the winter of 3637. It was made up of railroad ties, kind of like our log house with wood on the top and then dirt for insulation. Then in 39, he added another addition to the whole front of the place that was about 12 by 24. So that was the size of the house. Very crowded, but we managed.

1:24:26 Well did you have other relatives living with you? Or did you

1:24:31 know one of my father’s brothers came in live with us for a while. There was always room for one more.

1:24:41 And did he come to work in a potato harvest or thinning beets or

1:24:44 No, no it was when we were older and he was sick when he came. I

1:24:49 see how what year was that? You remember?

1:24:57 Posted being around the Be 54

1:25:04 And did you celebrate as you were growing up? Did you celebrate any? any occasion like qingsiya naira?

1:25:16 No. We were far removed from that.

1:25:21 How about what would you do on Father’s Day or Mother’s Day?

1:25:26 Just Happy Mother’s Day or Happy Father’s Day. And equally he had the means with by some little thing for my mother

1:25:43 how long did you live with your parents Rita?

1:25:47 Until I went to Salt Lake in 1965.

1:25:55 Did you have someone aside from home that you respected very much aside from your parents?

1:26:05 My like my father sister lived in California very much and her eldest daughter, Mary, I think the world of her she was more like a sister. Almost a second mother was very kind and understanding to us. And principle that we had at the Riverside School in Idaho Falls, Mr. Bush.

1:26:30 The principal at your school? Yes. And tell me why you respected him so much.

1:26:36 Well, when winter, a boy who was head and shoulders taller than my brother had been picking on him all through the winter. By Name the spring something snapped, my brother had had all he could take and he grabbed these boys in just banged his head against the bark of a tree until he was bleeding and the boy was bellowing Mr. Bush was up there looking out watching from the second floor window and he didn’t do anything to stop my brother welled up. bell rang, it was during lunchtime recess and that saved the boy you went home crying my brother went into classroom so here comes the boy’s mother for code means they must have had money was demanding that my brother be expelled from school Mr. Boost told her that she needed to teach her son to respect others my brother had put up with his lack of respect all winter long so my brother had finally given him his do

1:27:49 what is the most important thing that you’re valuing your family and family customs or values have been passed on to you

1:28:07 Oh, we tried to get together at Christmas New Years and sometimes for birthdays when possible.

1:28:14 family reunions with that be your immediate family or uncles and aunts

1:28:20 know the uncle finance are just about all gone so it’s it’s just the immediate family brothers and sisters.

1:28:26 What about your customers that lived in California?

1:28:30 Oh they’ve come to visit once in a blue moon and summer other than that they’re gonna come for weddings and funerals.

1:28:39 Well read I know that you are always saying special expressions or sayings or that I’m sure your father used to say to you what would be special thing or expression that has been passed on down to you

1:28:59 know there was that one by a muscle Nagata the sangri Kiona Panella de carne, which means a drop of blood is worth more than a ton of flesh. Meaning that those are the ones on race are more likely to be helpful and understanding and compassionate. But then there was also another one quote, no, I Konya must Mala Killa del mismo Paulo, meaning there’s no nail worse than the one from the same wood meaning that those of our own are more likely to hurt us the worst weather of our own race or our own family.

1:29:49 Do you feel that it’s important to maintain the customs and traditions of your ancestors?

1:29:57 I think it is important but it I think it’s dying out with this generation.