Carlos Cardona De La Rosa

San Antonio Texas

March 21,2006

Elizabeth Cardona

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2006

INTRODUCTION

Carlos De La Rosa Cardona was born on Novemeber 7, 1921 to Juana De La Rosa and Candelano Cardona in Lampacitos Coahuila, Mexico. On his first birthday he moved to Agujita Coahulia. Carlos is the third oldest of eight children. His first job at the age of seventeen was as a baker in the nearest backery, and at the age of nineteen he became a miner and worked in the Minas (Mines) of Agujita. When he turned twenty-four, he moved to Nueva Rosita Coahuila where he married Juana Perez and bore six children, five girls and one son (my father). He moved to Nueva Rosita to work in the Mines, since the mines in Aqujita were closed down. In Agujita he would break down the coal by hand, and when he moved to Nueva Rosita he was given a portable machine to break down the coal. He stopped working in the mines at the age of twenty-six, and one year later his wife Juana Perez passed away. He later moved to Mexico D.F. where he was a timekeeper for six years. In 1966, after working as a time keeper he decided to quit his job and moved to the United States. Carlos knew someone who moved to the united states successfully and that person was going to help him become a United States citezen. In 1973, he completes his paper work and decided to arrange the paper work for his family as well. Carlos remarried in Novemeber of 1979 to Hidalia Rangel,a women that he met in Mexico D.F with whom he bore one child. Although he found the United States a place difficult to get accustomed to he tried his best to accompish everything he has and would not change a thing.

TRANSCRIPTION

(This interview was conducted in Spanish and was transcribed and traduced to the best of my ability.)

Describe a typical day for you as a child in Mexico.
I played hide-n-seek and well pretty much anything that the kids played.

Did you attend school?
Yes

Up to what year did you attend?
I attended up to the sixth grade, I don’t remember what the name of the school was it was in Agujita.

Why only till the sixth grade?
school was free but i did not have enough money for the school supplies like for the pencil, paper or journals, so i just decided to get out.

At what age did you start working?
Oh! When I started working? I started working in the year 1938 I was about 17 or 18. You know where? In a bakery. I use to know how to make all breads, but now, I don’t know how to make anything. Nothing. I just know what you put in the microwave.

I understand that you worked in the mines, what exactly did you do?
I work in the minas de Agujita,Mexico and I worked underground. I would put up the wood to hold up the ceilings, kind of like the borders around the doors. I did that for four years, and then I started knocking down the coal. I did that for three years. Then I went to the coal cutting machines. I worked with those machines for ten years. I worked til 1950 then I stopped working for a year. I didn’t work. Then in 1951 I went back top the mines. Theres where I broke my leg there was an explosion in 1940. I was still kind of new but I was scared to go down. I had all my equipment and we had a lamp that hung from our waist. There were three of us. We had to go down a hole that fit thirty men. I didn’t want to I was scared I would ask why, why do I have to? No! When we would go down we had to go down we had to two chains, you had to hold on real tight. When we would go down it felt ugly I felt like I wanted to cry. In the first explosion ten died, they all burned to death. But the fire ended there, there was this thing that would put out the fire, but what we got in the area I was in was smoke, smoke everywhere. The man that I was with knew everything about the mines. So we heard the explosions, luckily it didn’t go to where I was at just the smoke. The man covered me and told me not to pick up my head. He was in front of me and another man behind me. He knew what he was doing, the whole time I was crying because I was real scared. We finally went up and went outside. He led us outside because it could have exploded again. In 1952 when I barely went back to work after taking that year, there was another explosion but it was in the top of the mines. I already knew what to do though. I knew one of the men that died. The next one was in 1969 and on the spot where I was going to work. You know, I didn’t go in that day; I really didn’t feel like it. I think it was God that was telling me not to go. I guess it was not my time. But I didn’t go and it was in my area. That was the last one I heard about it later, cause I went out of town. The ones that were working all died.

Why did you leave the mines for a year?
I stopped working because there were alot of extra people. Do you want me to tell you everything? Even the accident? Well in 1955 I broke my leg. A rock fell from above me and landed on my leg. The doctor drove a nail through my heal and put over fifteen pounds on my leg. The doctor asked me do you want one leg shorter then the other? I said no, and the doctor told me to deal with it then. Later they started taking off two pounds and it felt better. But when the nurse would go fix my bed, they would bend my leg and it felt so good. That all happened in 1955. They put two plates in my leg. Then I went back to work at the same place where I broke my leg, my mom didn’t want me to go, I went back to the bottom where I broke my leg. I lasted there ten years. I got out of their in 1967. I was in that bed for 90 days without even moving. When they took the weight off to change I felt so relieved. I begged them at times to take off the weight and they would tell me no cause the doctor would get mad. Once I yelled and told them to take them off and they did, and luckily one leg is not shorter then the other. 90 days like that. Can you imagine every three hours they injected me here, there, everywhere all so it would not get infected. I would wake up at nights and cry sometimes.

Carlos Cardona in the hospital extending his broken leg after the accident.

Why did you return to the mines after you broke your leg?
Well we went on strike and they told us not to return so we didn’t and we lost our jobs. But after a year they called me back. The ones that had a bad record were not allowed to go back. In 1967 that’s when I stopped. Since I worked there for twenty-five years I was due for termination. I later started working in Mexico City (El Distrito Federal) for sixteen years and that’s when I was arranged to come over here.

Why did you decide to come to the United States?
Because the son of my wife (Lala) at that time came over here at the age of 16 or 17. He lived over here and he got married over here, that’s how he fixed his papers, he married an American. He asked me and his mom to come to the United States and he would fix our papers. I came over here on the 20th of December of 1973. Then that’s when I asked all my kids and fixed their papers so they can also live over here.

Did you have any problem coming over here?
No, no we already had our residence, we filled out the papers and well we are all here.

How did you feel when you arrived here in the United States?
I was scared when I was coming over here. I was in a car and the ride seemed like it took forever. They dropped us off on Trinity Street next to the church. I had no idea what was going to do. I didn’t know where I was gonna work, nothing. I finally got a job collecting trash cans for four months. Then I quit cause I got a job at a school. Olmos Elementary School. I started working there for 14 years. I think. I retired there so that means I have 18 years retired. I worked there til I was 75 years old and here I am now. I don’t work anymore.

Is there anything that you regret coming over to the United States or did you accomplish everything?
Oh, yes I accomplished everything. I even retired.

Are there any times that you just want to go back to Mexico?
Well I go over there as often as i can and stay over there for a couple of days and then i come right back.

Is there anything that you would like to say?
Well I am glad that I could help you, very honored to have answered your questions. I’m embarrassed but I was glad I could answer all your questions.

Garciela, Carlos, Soccoro, Idalia, and Juan (sitting down)

ANALYSIS

It's funny how you can be around someone for almost you whole life and not know a thing about them. While going through the process of making up questions was a bit difficult only because I thought that I knew everything about him. When it got to the point to where I was at in front of him with questions that I came u with I realized I really knew nothing about this person. So when he got to taking about being in the hospital for breaking his leg and all those times that he came out alive from the explosions, I was very grateful to still have him here with us. My grandfather can go on with his stories whether they be when he was in the mines, his childhood or his family, but I believe that stories and emotion complete the stories. Doing this interview was a great way to learn about the past. You get to learn it from some one that is close to you instead of having to read it from a book, article or even a lecture. I think that knowing that someone went through the process of coming to the United States or fighting a war and getting to hear the whole story rather then just learning half of the story or what the text books would like you to learn. Talking to someone about a topic is filled with emotion, you see their anger their disappointment, happiness and sadness. Emotion completes the story.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Internet annotated sites:

Mina de Barroterán Coal Mine disaster!. Copyright © Wikipedia®. is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_de_Barroter%C3%A1n_Coal_Mine_disaster Last Updated: 19 February 2006.

Cuahuila, Mexico. Coahuila State is located in the middle of the northern border of Mexico and is entirely landlocked. It is on the north by the USA, on the east by Nuevo Leon, on the south by San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas, and on the northeast by Durango, and west by chihuahua. Tour By Mexico ® Av. Cuauhtemoc # 119, Col. Chapultepec 62450 - Plaza El Pueblito- Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. http://www.tourbymexico.com/coahuila/coahuila.htm.

Distrito Federal History of Mexico City. Tour By Mexico ®.Av. Cuauhtemoc # 119, Col. Chapultepec 62450 - Plaza El Pueblito- Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico http://www.tourbymexico.com/df/df.htm

Olmos Elementary School. the location and information of Olmos Elementary School.NEISD -- 8961 Tesoro Drive -- San Antonio, Texas 78217 -- (210) 804-7000 Use of NEISD network and computers subject to Network Acceptable Use Policy. http://www.neisd.net/camp/scholmos.htm.© 2005

Family of Carlos Cardona De La Rosa-

Brothers and Sisters:
Cruz Cradona, Fransico Cardona, Manuel Cardona I, Manuel Cardona, Maria De Jesus Cardona, Margarita Cardona, Maria De Los Angeles Cardona, and Rejuja Cardona.

Son and Daughters:
Maria De La Luz Cardona, Socorro Cardona, Graciela Cardona Idalia Cardona, Juan Carlos Cardona, and Maria Cardona.

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