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Title
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Migration Routes Leading to Santa Clara County Quotes
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Description
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"My father was born in Sialo, Guanajuato and my mother was born in Big Springs, Texas. And my dad came across the border when he was two or three years old… Both my grandparents, my maternal and my paternal grandfather came from the same town, Iropato, Guanajuato. They came as farm workers. They worked on ranches in Mexico in Iropato, when they came [to the U.S.] they were farm workers. My father, and my mother’s father, my grandfather, worked on the railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad. And for that reason, I… have over 2,000 relatives in 46 states, the majority is in California, Texas, because of the railroad. They came prior to the Revolution, around 1910. That’s the reason my mother was born in Midland, Texas, because of the railroad. Midland is like the hub of the Union Pacific. What happened was when my grandfather’s family, mostly males, came up from Guanajuato, they came up to Texas, and that’s where they found the railroad. And so some of his brothers went to Illinois, some stayed in Big Springs, and the others, my grandfather and one brother came to California, and they landed in Wasco. They came for work. There was no family, they were the first of family there. That’s what drew everybody, you know, it was getting out of the fields, and doing something different, making money. My grandmother wasn’t happy, because when you’re working with the railroad you gotta move, and so my grandmother was always losing clothes, because she would wash and hang clothes out, and the train would leave! (laughs) They lived on the train. That was like luxury, if you could live on it. From Wasco, my mom had come to San José before, because her oldest sister, my Tia first came up to San José. She invited my mother to come to work in the canneries. My mom did, she came to work one summer, I think she was a senior in high school. And after school was over she moved back to San José. But in the ‘40s she went back home and met my dad in Delano at the dance. I don’t know their specific ages, but they were in their early 20s, and they got married at Sacred Heart church in San José in 1940, ‘cause I was born in ‘42." Richard Vasquez interviewed by Dr. Margo McBane, Ph.D. and Margarita Garcia Villa, Dec. 21, 2017, Watsonville, California
"I was born in El Paso, Texas, June 30, 1936. So was my sister. [My parents] were from Mexico. They got married in 1930. They stayed in El Paso six years. My dad and grandfather worked on a dairy. Then we came from El Paso to LA in 1936, I was two months old. We had a lot of family living in LA, all our aunts. My dad's family was a family of 10. My aunts came in the 1930s, they were going to school in Downey because my aunt lived in Lakewood and the other aunt lived in Norwalk. They had a strawberry farm. I think they got married very young. Yeah. My aunt Tilly got married when she was about 14. Yeah. And then she got married. Neither aunt worked, only their husbands. I think we came to Santa Clara Valley in 1947. We ended up in Hollister and we didn't go back to LA again. I know when we came from L.A., there was an uncle of ours that said, with your kids, you could make a lot of money picking prunes. Oh, I didn't even know what prunes were. And ah we did for a little while, about 2 years. In Hollister we were cutting apricots because it was in June and then we came to Gilroy. And we were cutting grapes. But my dad had never picked. He worked in a dairy. So we ended up going back to the dairy. My dad got a job there and it was a milk vendor from Gilroy with Mr. Benny Gilroy." Julia Barrientos Interview by Dr. Margo McBane and Suzanne Guerra, April 23, 2012 at her home in San José, California
"The camp was...Giffens Camp, and that was 1942…. In them days…every three months or every month...you could collect stamps, and that was the only way you could buy shoes for the family…because of the war. [We lived in a shed]. It was like 9x10 or 12. Well my dad used to put two of them together. And whenever we went to a camp, they could do that, put two cabins together. He'd get an extra one, you know, for the boys… We were all eight: five sisters, and three boys, and then my parents… My older brother used to make us kites. During the...the summer times, we'd spend it at the camp. All we did was just go swimming, they had little canals, irrigation ditches. And that's where we used to go jump in 'em and fool around. [This was in] Firebough, mostly cotton. Well that was when I was five years old. Then we lived in another camp, Briton Camp. that was in Firebough too. Nobody would stay home. My dad wanted everybody. “Let's go! Everybody is going.” [I would] make little bunches in the middle of the row. I would go in front of my mother or my dad and I would, you know, pick up the little bunches…[of cotton balls]... When it gets time for the cotton to start opening, the cotton falls to the sides. And that's when you pick… We used to go pick and cut those things…“Cabola.” Like the ball, we call it, “bola.” They always said, “Vamos a pescar la bola.” Let's go pick the bolas, the cotton balls. When you're picking cotton…when the thing opens up, the cabola opens, the ball opens up like that, they call that a “cabola.” It's all dry. And it has real sharp points on it. And when you go like that to get the cotton, you are hitting that with your fingers. A lot of people [wore gloves], but we couldn't afford em. A lot of people picked cotton, my sisters did. My father used to buy [my sisters gloves] so they wouldn't mess up their fingers. But they didn't care about us. When I was seventeen I still picked cotton. That's why I remember, that it messes up all your fingers. In that same camp, the Briton Camp. That was the only Christmas present I remember. [The camp owners] used to come around with a big truck and any kid that was outside, they would give you a little gift or something. And I got a little bus. It was a tiny bus. At that time they had a grader, that was leveling off the ground. So that when it rained, everything used to get all muddy and everything. So, they were gonna fix it. And I was playing with the truck out in the dirt. Then when I saw the grader coming, I got scared. So I took off running – that was in front of our cabin – and then when I went inside, I realized I forgot I left my bus outside. And when I was going to get the bus, that grader mashed it all up. That was the first toy I ever had. I said, “oh boy.” Workin' in the fields you can't make a life… The only way you could live, if is you had a big family. [The camp manager would ask], “How many are gonna pick?” And nobody could say no. They wanted most of the family to be pickers. They don't anybody staying home or anything. My aunt used to [stay home], like my uncle told them, “No, she can't pick, she can't work”, because she had..one or two little kids." Leandro Villareal Interview by Margo McBane, Ph.D. and Joseph Rivera, Aug. 28, 2008, at his home in San José, California
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Identifier
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B4SV Exhibit Topic Two: Slide 006.1
