Clotilde Martinez (nee Padron)
How was your family life growing up?
Bueno pues… cuando yo estaba chica… pos no muchas cosas buenas, realmente much negativo. Entre lo negativo…no fue bien, por que como quiera tuve a mi papa y mi mama juntos, peliaban mucho… realmente fue triste.
(Well…when I was a little girl…not many good things, in reality many negative things. With what was negative… was not good, because even though my father and mother were together, they fought a lot… it was actually very sad.)
At what age did you start working at?
Cuando tenia ocho anos empeze a ayudarle a una senora donde mi mama trabajaba, lavaba y planchaba ropa, y yo le ayudaba limpiar la cocina y trapiar y… cosas domesticas. Pero ya cuando comense a trabajar, tenia catorce anos y comense a trabajar en un tortilleria haciendo tortillas, y ese fue mi primer trabajo.
(When I was eight years old I started to help a woman where my mother worked at, I washed and ironed clothes, and help clean the kitchen and mop and…domestic things. But when I was fourteen I started to work at a tortilla factory making tortillas, and that was my first job.)
How old were you when you decided to leave Mexico?
Tenia veintiun anos cuando decidi, decidi salirme del pais, y venir al Estados Unidos… nunca pense que era la economia… mas bien no era lo economico lo que me iso salir de Mexico, mas bien todo lo negativo que yo tenia en Mexico queria apartarme de eso, queria algo diferente. Actualmente yo creeo que lo emotional y a la mejor tambien lo material envolvio, pero mas lo emotional, y ya no queria estar en Mexico.
(I was twenty-one years old when I decided to leave the country and come to the United States… I never thought that it was the economy… better put, it wasn't the economy that made me leave Mexico, but all the negative that I had in Mexico, I wanted to break away from that, I wanted something different. Actually I think it was the emotional and maybe material things had a bit to do with it, but more the emotional issues made me not want to be in Mexico.)
What events exactly, occurred that made you decide that you wanted to leave Mexico?
Pues como dije anteriormente, fueron muchos, porque cuando yo estaba en la escuela… no fui a la escuela porque me gustaba estudiar, me gustaba ir a la escuela por que era para mi un escape. Despues mas grande mis inquietudes fueron cambiando y mi manera de actuar tambien fue cambiando y ya no quice ir a la escuela. Los inquietudes de la vida me hicieron, pos no que me hicieron… pues yo comenze a salir con muchachos y luego tuve un embarrazzo, no en el matrimonio, y ese emabarrazzo fue a los dieciseis anos que fue Mauricio, entonces todo eso envolvio… ya despues el papa de Mauricio ya no quiso casarse conmigo, paso el tiempo y yo decidi salirme de Mexico por que yo no creeia que yo tenia futuro en Mexico. Solo que no fue much lo economico fue mas bien lo emotional lo que me hico salir de Mexico.
(Well like I said earlier, there were a lot of reasons, because when I went to school… well I didn't go to school because I liked to study, I liked to go to school because to me it was an escape. Later on my priorities began to change and the manner in which I behaved and I didn't want to go to school anymore. Priorities of life made me, well they didn't make me… but I began to see a lot of boys and then I became pregnant, out of wedlock, I was sixteen with that pregnancy, those things were reasons… afterwards Mauricio's father didn't want to marry me, and as timed passed I decided to leave Mexico. So it wasn't so much economical than it was emotional that made me leave Mexico.)
Were you ever a victim to discrimination when you got to Texas?
Fijate que no. Nunca senti yo ese… actualmente yo no sabia que era discriminacion por muchos anos hasta que empeze a comprender a las noticias en ingles porque tu papa no me dejaba escuchar nada en espanol, y eso me ayudo mucho hasta oy dia. Cuando yo empeze a compreneder el ingles y oyia a las noticias empeze a saber de discriminacion, pero para entonces ya pasaron como unos diez o quince anos, y yo nunca senti esa discriminacion.
(Come to think of it, no. I never felt that… actually I didn't know what discrimination was until many years after I began to understand the news in English, because your father wouldn't let me listen to anything in Spanish and that helped a lot to this day. When I began to understand English and I listened to the news, I began to learn about discrimination, but that was about ten to fifteen years after it happened, and I never felt discriminated.)
What year did you get to Texas?
Mil novecientos setenta y uno.
(Nineteen seventy-one)
What did you do for work?
Bueno yo empeze trabajando en barres, cantinas, y luego despues empeze a conocer gente y fui a restaurantes, y hasta el dia, bueno tambien e cuidado a ancianitos, y tambien e trabajado en factorias, trabaje en un occasion en pacadora de tomate y cevollas en el valle. (Well I started working in bars and from there I met people and began working in various restaurants to this day. I also have taken care of the elderly worked in a packing plants for tomatoes and onions down in the valley.)
Did you work in the piscas?
No nunca trabaje en piscas, eso no mas lo mire en television. Pero hasta hoy me gusta mucho trabar en el restaurante, me gusta mucho trabajar con la gente.
(No I never worked in the fields, I only saw that on television. But to this day I really enjoy working in restaurants, I enjoy working with people.)
How old were you when you met my father?
Faltaban como unos dos meses para que yo cumpliera veintidos anos. El hiba completar veintiocho anos.
(It was two months before I turned twenty-two, he was going to be twenty-eight.)
I'm aware that my father dealt heavily with drugs, was there a time that you were involved with drugs as well?
Si. No antes de conocerlo a el, pero cuando lo empeze a conocer si me envolvi en drogas.
(Yes. Not before meeting him, but when I met him I began to do drugs.)
So when you were in Mexico you were never involved in drugs?
No, nunca.
(No, never.)
Was that ever a problem when you were in Mexico?
Que yo escuchara, no. Todas nuestras amistades que yo supiera, no estaban envuelto en drogas, mis hermanos tampoco, si mucha cerveza y mucho alcol pero esta tan malo como las drogas tambien verdad.
(That I knew of, no. All the friends that I knew of weren't involved in drugs, nor were my brothers and sisters, I mean they drank a lot of beer and alcohol, but that can be just as bad as drugs can be right.)
Compared to the U.S. is there a difference in the crime and poverty rate as opposed to Mexico in over the last thirty years that you have been here?
Realmente nunca, nunca e escuchado tanto noticia a cuanto el trafico de drogas en Mexico como en estas ultimas semanas, que inclusive han matado a nueve gente en un dia en diferentes partes del pais y todas relacionadas con drogas.
(In reality I have never ever heard as much news about drug trafficking in Mexico like there has been in the past few weeks, there have even been nine murders throughout the country that are all drug related.)
Was there ever a moment in your life time that you wanted to give up and go back to Mexico? If so, what made you stay?
Primeramente, no es que, "I'm giving up", a mi me gusta mucho los Estados Unidos, San Antonio, no muy bien, no es realmente donde yo quisiera hacer me vieja. Pero me gusta mucho el valle y la razon que yo quisiera mover me de San Antonio no es irme precisamente a Mexico, es mas bien quedar me entremedio en la frontera de Estados Unidos para que Mauricio venga y me visite y ustedes pueden ir a visitarme tambien. Porque etsoy aqui en San Antonio y Mauricio no puede venir, si me voy hasta Monterrey entonces ustedes quisas tambien tengan problemas ahora con lo que esta pasando con la imigracion.
(First of all, its not that "I'm giving up", I like the U.S. a lot, San Antonio not too much, it's not really where I want to grow older. But I really would like to go to the valley, and the reason I would move out of San Antonio isn't to go straight to Mexico, but to be in the middle on the frontier of the border so that Mauricio can come and see me and you can come down to visit me. Because I am here in San Antonio Mauricio can't come up here to see me and if I move to Monterrey then maybe you would probably have trouble with all the problems with immigration and border laws.)
Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?
Bueno pues siendo que yo se que esto va estar a alcanze de muchas personas, quisas muchas personas estan pensando de dejar su pais, dejar su familia, yo por experencia ahora pienso que nunca lo debia de haber hecho, de haber dejado a mi pais, porque estoy bien dividida en cuanto a familia. Quiero estar en Monterrey por que hay tengo familia, pero que estar en Estados Unidos por que tengo familia. So lo que los que quiren dejar su pais o dejar su familia por cualquier razon, economico, sentimental, o lo que sea que lo piensas dos veces para nuestras familias sean unidos y no divididos. Eso es todo lo que quiero decir.
(Being that many people will have access to this, there maybe a lot of people thinking of leaving their country or leaving their family. I have learned from experience and I now think that I should have done that, never have left my country because now I'm divided by my family. I want to be in Mexico because I have family over there, but I want to be in the U.S. because I have family here. So to those that want to leave their country or leave their families for any reason, whether it is economic or sentimental, think twice so our families will be united and not divided. That's all I would like to say.)
List a minimum of five sources. There must be links to each of the sources within the transcription.
San Luis Potosi. Map of Mexico website. All original maps on this site may be reproduced on other web sites without modification, provided a link to this website is show alongside each map. All maps marked as copyright other than © Code Network are not permitted for use without permission of the copyright holder, GEOATLAS.com.
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Mexonline website. Travel guide through Mexico as well as maps.
Jehovah's Witness. Jehovah's Witness website. This is the authoritative web site about the beliefs, teachings, and activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. is a legal organization in use by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
piscas.Latino Art website. Place and sell your work, purchase art, learn about the work of others, announce or read about events and exhibitions. Join the directory, enter the chat room, or link to museums and galleries. This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Handbook of Texas Online is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at UT-Austin. It was produced in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and the General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. Copyright © The Texas State Historical Association. Last Updated: May 6, 2004.
