Juanita R. Valdez
San
Antonio , Texas
April 2, 2002
Roxann Casares
Tellez
Palo
Alto College
History 1302 - Spring 2002
Juanita R. Valdez, my great-grandmother, is 82 years old and now lives in San Antonio, Texas. Still fresh in her mind she remembers those days of the Great Depression, but unlike many others her memories are of happy days. As a young Mexican girl, she along with her siblings and parents lived on a big ranch owned by a wealthy family where her father was the gardener. She recalled having all the food they could eat, her daddy's car, and the times she sat on the porch beside her mama while she was sewing. She misses those days with her family on the ranch.
TRANSCRIPTION
Well we lived out there by Helotes on the other side in the little town of St. Geronimo. I lived there when I was a little girl. My parents were born in Fredericksburg. Me and my brothers and my little sisters lived there. How old were you during the Great Depression?
Well I’m 82 now so I guess around 10 or 12 years old or something like that. I was born in Luling,
Yeah, I was the oldest. I took care of my brothers and sisters when I stopped going to school. The boys went into the Army when they were 17. They went to war. Did they go because they wanted to or they had to?
No, they went because they wanted to. They were still really young when they left home. Like on the weekends, or would you all go out? I mean since you all had a big family?
Oh yeah, my father use to take us, he used to bring us to
You all had a car? (She has a cup with the picture of a car like her daddy’s in her house)
Oh yeah! He had a car.
It was a Monte.
We would go to church every Sunday. We used to walk but we used to go. Mama didn’t have to worry about “get up and get ready or whatever”. We used to get up early, take a bath or we would take a bath the night before. Oh yeah?
Yeah, we would just get up get ready. We’d have a pancake and a glass of milk and bamalios. Cause we had to walk. We walked to…
How far?
Well… ahhhh. ((She takes
in a deep breath of air) At first it was about five miles, but then we moved on
further and we had to walk 10 miles everyday.
So we used to walk to church like I said. We never missed a Sunday. We used to come to church every Sunday. Me, Manuel, Daniel, and sometimes Francis
quiere la otra chimaca. But it was kind of far for her so we didn’t really want
to bring her with us but me, Manuel, Daniel, and Nene used to. We didn’t have to bother mom.
How did you meet your husband?
How did
you meet your husband? (My great-grandfather)
Ohhhhhhhh…(it was
silent as she started to think about it) Well, I had a seen him at his sister and one of his
brother, he used to go very often to his brothers cause he was a, Como
dice? Buedo, este (she turns
to my Aunt Namoi sitting across the table to see if she knows how to say it in
English)
Juanita- A No. Buedo!
Naomi- Como?
Juanita-Buedo.
Namoi-Cuando no puedo ojed o habla?
Juanita-No! estaba buedo.(She raises her voice a little).His wife had already passed away. Widowed!
Naomi- Widowed!!!Widowed, There you go. I couldn’t get it, the word to say. Bueno, Como quierea. I started to see him more often. That’s when he was already widowed and his first wife had passed away already so he had the three boys. Like I said I used to go to this a..His brother and sister-n-law use to call me very often to go help her out with her children. Estaban chicitos, tamiben. In that time I was teenager. I was so young. They weren’t that far away, we use to walk. It was walking distance or whatever and well makes a story short (She laughs) I mean he used to be at the store. The little store. His brother and sister-law was running a little store, you know?
They owned their own
store?
Yeah, it was a very nice store and he would
come by there to see his family.
Sometimes I would go to the store with my brothers and some of the other
school kids and we stop at the store for a soda and we used to buy them for a
nickel.
Wow!! The sodas were only a nickel?
Yeah, a nickel. They would give us a quarter and we could all
buy a soda for each one. We would buy
something and his sister would give us cookies or crackers or anything cause we
used to buy there so often. So that’s
where I started to meet your grandpa. It
wasn’t that I was paying attention to him or nothing. Como dicen? Lo tare loco.
I mean… I didn’t expect for him to talk to me. He would ask how I was doing and that was
it. He keeps talking to whomever he was
talking to and we would just go into the store and buy what we were going to
buy and we had to take off home. Because
they were waiting for us. Finally,
finally a year before mama passed away he went over to talk to my mom. There was going to be a dance I think. And he was asking mom if a, well getting
permission more like it. So he could
invite me and my oldest brother to this dance.
Mama said no anyway.
Well I think he was 29. I was 14. I think because I was still in school. I was 15 when mama passed away or 16 and I had to quit school. Because mama got pneumonia and she was in the hospital and they put her in the hospital for three months. Maggie, my sister, was six months I think. I think six months when mama went to the hospital cause when mama passed away she was only nine months. Since that time I had to take care of her and Joe was eight. They were both very little, small. Well like I said or what I was saying Mama didn’t let me go. There was other friends that came over and wanted me to go out with them to a dance or to the movies or whatever but mama didn’t let me. And always I’m always thinking about my mom. Maybe, maybe if mama hadn’t, If she would have been alive I don’t think I would have gotten married at all because I didn’t think about marrying but grandpa was-terdco!! (We all laugh) He was after me until he asked my daddy, yeah by then I was about 16 and he asked my daddy because mama had passed away. So he asked my daddy cause he wanted to marry me.
So how old were you when
you got married?
I was about 17 years old.
Well we have 13 with the baby that died. Their names are Mary Jane, Jenave, Johnny,
When you were little was there any type of racism going on out
there or people who didn’t like Mexicans?<
Oh,
no!!! We didn’t have that kind of. Like I said most of my life I lived on the
ranch and there was no people around we knew of like that. They knew us school kids. We never ran into families that were fighting. I didn’t see anything of that until I got
here in
Well , umm, they were Polish and mainly white people. Were there any black people around where you lived?
No, no black people. No, there were no black people that way. No not even the stores. I didn’t know anyone that was black. I didn’t see a black one. Well yeah, now I remember my daddy’s boss had a man who drove their car and women. She was their maid. They were very nice to us, very kind to us. But we didn’t get to see them very often because there were always at the big house working and we used to be afraid of them. But we were afraid cause we never did see black people around. Wherever we'd go there were just white people and Mexicans. They were the only two black people that we saw for the first time and the longest time. Not even at school, no teacher, or no student was black. Just German and Polish people were out there.
Was that in Helotes?
Helotes, Texas. The other side of Helotes was St.
Geronimo where we had our school. We had
only men teachers. We only had one for
the whole school. Twelve in a row. 1st,
2nd, and 3rd all the way to 12th grade.
Do you think that you had a good childhood?
I sure
did! I wish I had it right now! I had a wonderful childhood. I wasn’t mistreated or beaten up or nothing.
Was there any type of government help available to your
family back then when you were a little girl?
No,
there was nothing like that. Nothing.
What about for medicine?
The
only medicine we had was baby purse, and umm… castor oil. A bottle of castor oil. We couldn’t say “My stomach hurt” or “My head
hurt”. Mama would come out with the
bottle. (She laughs remembering this) Every weekend she
would give us that. That’s why we never
had to see a doctor. Now that I am old I
finally saw a doctor. Mom use to give us
tea. We would go pick the plant for her
and she would make it for us. We had a
lot of egg, and milk on the ranch. They
would give us all the milk that we could drink.
I didn’t come to drink coffee until after I was married. I knew how to make it cause I used to make it
for mama. But I never did drink coffee
until years after I got married. I start
drinking coffee without sugar. There was
a limit on sugar and we used to use it for oatmeal.
We lived on a big ranch. My daddy’s boss gave us whatever we wanted to eat since my dad worked for him. He was like their gardener and he also did lots of other jobs around the big house. We had fields from here all the way to past Nogalitos Road. We had every type of vegetable you could think of. We never had to go to the store. We didn’t need to go for papas or nothing like that. We only went to the store for sugar, flour, salt, and things like that. But daddy would sometimes kill a little goat for dinner so we could eat something different. Mama would go out and kill a chicken for dinner. We ate rabbit, deer, pig, and goat so we could change what we ate. But no we hardly ever went to the grocery store. We didn’t need to. How was San Antonio different from things on the ranch?
Well I think we weren’t use to it. I still don’t like it here. (She laughs with honesty) But it’s okay. They left me here so I have to be here. Where did you get your clothes when you were younger?
Mama use to make my clothes, clothes for the boys too. But she went down town also to buy clothes. We were lucky cause our daddy’s boss use to buy us shoes and clothes too.
Yes, they had a boy and a girl. They gave us stuff. I never had to work outside of the house. Some times I went to dust and do beds at the house but there was a maid for each thing. They just really wanted me to be with them. They were white women too. There were no children besides us on the ranch. There was nothing else. It wasn’t a town or nothing. A little creek ran through it. Only a few stores were there and that’s all. I stayed at home with my brothers and sisters. I didn’t care to come to town or go to the movies. I didn’t know nothing of that. I didn’t like it. I spend my time with my little sister. Looking at some books or reading books to them. Like I said we also went to Sunday school. In the first place there were no other families on that ranch only the two kids of the boss. They would come ask us to play or go walking. We would walk all around the ranch. It was very big, very big!
Did you ever learn how to drive?
No, I
didn’t care about driving or nothing. There was no place to go. Just around the ranch and around the big
house. I liked being home.
No, no at that time the women were not allowed to vote yet. Is there anything special you remember about living with your family and siblings?
There are a lot of things. My mama used to sit out on the porch making me dresses, shirts and pants for the boys. I used to like that I used to sit around with my mom. I passed her the scissors or the thread. (She had a few tears run down her face) I enjoyed the time that she was alive very much because she was a very wonderful woman. She never did spank me all she did was talk to us. My daddy never did whip the boys or me. We never did have a rough time or nothing. He used to buy everything for the boys. We were very lucky. Daddy’s boss bought us clothes and toys. Oh, I had a bunch of dolls. After I got married daddy stayed with most of the furniture so I don’t know what happened.
