TRANSCRIPTION
When did you start working in the fields?
I would probably say when I was like maybe six or seven years old
What was school like?
As I recall school when I first started going, I did not know how to speak English, and it was very hard cause we would be punished for not being to speak a language which we were not familiar with. But as we continued in school we learned and felt a lot of discrimination because of the kind of people we were and not having financial the way other people had
How did not knowing the English language affect your upbringing?
Not being able to communicate, and being downgraded by other people who knew their language real good mentally it affected us quite a bit
What grade level did you go up to?
fifth grade
Did your parents ever push you to continue your education or did ya'll (brothers and sisters) mainly work?
My parents were more into to make a living was to work, they didn't think to much about education.
Did you usually work with your parents and the rest of your family (brothers and sisters)?
At that age, we did work with my parents during the day. We did not go to school and after like 3:30 p.m. we would go and help in the fields picking cotton. Back in those days it was mostly like picking cotton.
Whenever ya'll pick the fruit did ya'll get paid or did the money go to your parents?
It was all to my parents at that age
How were you paid?
By containers, if it was half a bushel they paid you a certain amount of pennies and you had to make quite a bit to make a good paycheck. I think the only thing pulled out was Social Security.
Once you would arrive at the ranches and farms, where would you stay?
Well you know there is a town here close to San Antonio, Texas by the nameTaylor, Texas they had like a city park back in those days and the people would show up and park your car and the white people would go over there and kinda look your family around and see if they could use you. If you had plenty of help it would be easier to get a job from them, if your kids were real small they didn't really want to have you because you couldn't work the kids. And the little houses that they provided for you they were houses like just a little shed. They weren't houses some of them didn't even have wooden floor, a dirt floor. And the water you would drink would be old well and the water had not been clean. That's where you'd get your water from. Anything of value would be our clothes.
Once married to Soila did your family (sons and daughters) continue to be migrant workers?
Yes we did. We got married in '67 and I worked a little bit in construction here in the state of Texas and I continued with my migrant worker up to Michigan and Ohio, but I had a different way of viewing things. I thought a lot about school I thought about my kids going to school, I wanted something better I wanted a different lifestyle, and I still strongly believe we can better ourselves.
The town Hope, Arkansas how was it significant to your children?
Well they would go to that school they would like the buses and all that, but when you talk about Hope that's a different thing. Hope for the poor people the migrant workers is something that when you're coming or going, it's a place like a refugee camp where people can relax. When you are tired of driving cramped in a car, and you just need some rest. Well in Hope, Arkansas the government put that camp there, and they would furnish a trailer mobile home, big nice park to barbeque, have your meals, and your nice showers and could rest, and people loved that and needed that.
What states did you work in?
Well we, worked a lot in the 50's to the 60's in the cotton fields and then like in '64 we branched off into Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio, and it was seasonal work so sometimes you'd be in one place two months a couple of months and maybe three months, and then go back to Texas. Every year we would do the same thing
Do you have any old friends you still keep in contact with?
We have our old friends from Ohio, the Weihls family We worked for them for 16 years, when we first started to work for them they owned one ranch (in Texas we call them ranches up there they call them farms) Right now that I know of they own four or five farms, so they have moved up in life, and we have moved on with our lives, we live in the state of Texas now I'm a heavy equipment operator we have insurance for the family some of my kids are going to college and we're just moving on, day by day we look for better ways of living and getting along with one another.
At what year did you and your family (wife, daughters and sons) stop working in the fields?
I think the way I recall, if I'm correct I think in 1980 I didn't go back anymore until about five or six years, in 1986 we went back, but it didn't work out for us. It wasn't what I wanted anymore, so I stayed here in Texas doing construction work as a heavy equipment operator. I wanted to educate them and better them. I didn't want them to follow my footsteps.
What are some important memories you have from being a migrant worker?
Well I remember back in 1965, we were migrant workers, and we were moving toward Florida. And it was probably tomato season, and we found out there was work up there. Being that all our lives, we had been out working in the fields, so we ended up in Homestead, Florida, everything was new up there, we saw a lot of different kinds of people; Cuban, Puerto Ricans, and other cultures that came different than we were used to. Our housing was different, couldn't find a rental house because of the race that we were. People trying to put you in camps, and sometimes we felt that we didn't have a say so. We needed to find a place to sleep, so we kinda mingled with them and we worked like a couple of two or three years in Florida. It was rough moving from one place to another from one house to another. In life, you get use to what you do. Then later on in life we moved up north, up to Michigan and we headed up that way too. And people up there were different, you hardly didn't see no Puerto Ricans or Cubans, but you would see a lot of Indian people and black people and the Mexican people. White people- very poor- that we were not used to seeing in our hometown in the state of Texas. And as we worked in the cherries, different kind of work the country was different and we liked it. Michigan is a great place to live in, not in winter time, winter time we never been up there. But it was nice and from there we moved to Ohio, and I have talked about Ohio already, nice state different kind of work, and that's when Cesar Chavez was running the Raza Miga and people would make strikes. For like my family, from my father to my brothers were mostly like, (by that time we were married), we didn't want to waste no time marching or anything like that, so we just decided to work. Sometimes it would be hard because people didn't agree with us. But we were never at no time felt that we were under threat or anything, it didn't really bother us. But we had a great time and we looked at life that it was hard. The shed little house where they would put you until the sixties you hardly had place where to take a shower. Everything was different so in some places you had to make your own bathrooms and showers. Maybe just shower with cold water. In places I remember our houses didn't even have wooden floors, they were dirt floors. You know we continued doing this kind of work. As we started having children me and my wife would focus on our children had to have a different life to go to school. And we encouraged them to go and learn listen and be obedient. I think it is very important when you come from a background of not having anything, but don't give up hope that you can live a better life. You know over the years as I look back now, I still don't have any skill, but I learned to be a construction worker as a heavy equipment operator. And it has blessed me in all different ways; I was able to educate my children. I think overall learn in life how to manage our life and what we're willing to accept. And everyone is entitled to accept or reject to love people or to hate people, and I took that we need to love people. And Migrant workers isn't really that bad if you don't have what a lot of people believe what you need to have, you don't miss it because you never had it, and now that I look back I believe now that more than ever that it is rougher now in 2007,than it was back in the early fifties. Because now there is a lot of demand I don't even think about as migrant workers anymore. I see now in the '07 that a lot of people from Mexico do that kind of work I don't think they are treated as bad as I remember growing up as a migrant worker. I don't know, I see it and look at my kids you know I never thought that in those days that in the culture we spoke in our own language, and now I look at my kids and they don't speak Spanish. But it doesn't make any difference, we love each other, the same way if we spoke Spanish, we understand each other it something to look back and think about our old life. As I got older and my health is kind of poor now -I don't know why the reasons or anything- so I got something to say that its nice to look back and say that we can beat the system together. As I believe that my oldest children, some of them went to college, some got married, started raising their children and a lot of them are 100% on their kids going to school and obeying the laws of this land, and to love people. I don't think I have failed in no way, I am thankful I live in America. America's a great country a free choice of people that they can do as long as they do not break the laws; you can live a very happy life in America. You can work hard for what you want and I think that it's very important to believe in that they have a right to attend a church and to worship their God. And only if people could remember where they came from and where you're going, I think that's important. I know if what I am saying (will relate to everyone) but to the migrant worker I know that it will be so. I thank you for taking what I have say, and may god bless ya'll.
Do you feel that your health has been influenced by the working conditions as a migrant worker?
Definitely I believe that our health not being able to prove anything ,but I suffer from asthma and the field like in Ohio was sprayed with a lot of chemicals and sometimes they wouldn't even tell us they were going to spray chemicals and they would just spray it over us. Or spray the chemicals and put us to work in just in a few minutes and go right into it and those chemicals I believe had a lot to do with our breathing, skin where you'd get all different types of irritations plus the kind of position the way you stand the way you have to bend down the abuse of your muscles, the bones, walking sideways for a long period of time, and at my age now if feel the aching and the pains, there and I really believe there are effects and if they did some kind of research of migrant workers, they would find a lot of back problems because of picking cotton the way you pulled it. It's just so much to say it and cover it up in just a little short time.
How did Cesar Chavez change things?
In our case from my father to my experience as a migrant worker it didn't really affect us I think in a certain way it benefited us because they were there to protest for rights and I was there to make a living for my family, so I never was involved with Cesar Chavez protesting, we only went to work and make a living, and they're the ones that did they protesting and changing the laws and a lot of it was to better off and everyone benefited from it.
After the laws were changed, how did things change for you?
Better housing, better health clinics, better lawyers, better income because of the strikes like that sometimes from one year to another it would change. It might not sound like very much but it might change from ten cents per basket and that's how we made our living and to us it was quite a bit even though to a lot of people it was like pennies it was a lot to us.
What types of government programs were you involved in?
Well the government I don't know how exactly how it went, but they provided clinics like in Bowling Green,Ohio for every migrant worker or low income, they could go there and they would take care of your family, even though a lot of the medicine was generic. The doctors might be students but still we needed help and that's how they provided for us. We used colleges; colleges would open the doors to the clinic and would provide spaces during the night; it was mostly done at night. They had other places, schools that were not colleges that they provided, and they would stay during the day there and you could go to. And there was a lot of churches that provided a lot of help too clothing and stuff like that.
How has being a Mexican American migrant worker affected your life?
I can go back to the like in 1955 One day I was sitting in a …it's like a little store that sells ice-cream for everybody and me my brother my cousin go and buy an ice-cream cone then this white man says "I will sell you the ice-cream cone but you have to go eat them outside" it affected me quite a bit till this day. I remember that day that was in Grant Oklahoma. And then as years went by I think it was like in 1958 or 1959 just happened I was in Taylor, Texas and my parents stopped to buy some barbeque and to eat and my dad was told we'll sell you the barbeque but you'll have to go eat with the black people in back. That affected me, and when I was going to school it haunted me and I hated that, to see my dad not saying a word and just accepting it. And as I grew in school, many times the school teachers would downgrade us because they were of a higher class than we were and would use statements like do you want to dig ditches the rest of your lives, you won't amount to nothing like your parents did. To me its uneducated people who don't know how to talk to people you're not helping them you're destroying them. And as life went on I always wanted to better myself and till this present the kind of work I do now, I can still see a lot of it not as bad but if you just open your eyes you might meet qualifications and they're bypassing you and giving it to the white people. But not all white people are bad some are trying to help you
Is there anything you would like to add?
I think as a migrant worker and if it gets to somebody who reads it that knows anything about being a migrant worker. I hope they can appreciate what I put in here, and to look forward in life. That life can be good.
