Oral History Commons^™

Interview No. 985, Refugio Pérez Lolla

Combined Interviews

When Refugio was only nine years old, he was put in charge of his father’s land because he was in the United States working as a bracero; his father worked in Dell City and Pecos, Texas, picking cotton and watering the fields; every six months his father would visit his family; Refugio decided to go to the United States to work because his father worked there; Refugio was unable to work for very long because he was apprehended by Immigration officials twice; he entered the United States through Palomas, Chihuahua, México, and walked for several days; he was hired in …

Interview No. 972, Elías García Venzor

Combined Interviews

Upon entering the United States, Mr. García was sent to Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, where he was given a physical exam; those who were sick or physically unable to work were sent back to México; he worked for about ten or eleven years as a bracero; his four brothers were also braceros; his worst experience was when he worked in Pecos, Texas, because he earned very little money for very difficult work there; the living conditions were also difficult because there were between 200-300 braceros per barracks; because they had no showers, they filled steel tanks …

Interview No. 974, Eulalio Hernández Guzmán

Combined Interviews

Mr. Hernández went to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, in the hopes of being hired as a bracero; he had to wait for two weeks before he could actually begin the hiring process; he and other braceros were given vaccinations, but none of them were ever told what the immunizations were for; his first work contract took him to Wyoming; he was transported there by airplane; he recalls that the trip took seven hours and that it was very noisy; as a result of the trip, he developed an ear ailment for which he was never medically treated; he remembers that in …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee

Interviewees: Reverend Albert Jackson (born in Slabfork, Virginia; age 61; lived in Maine for 43 years) and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson (born March 1948 in Marengo County, Alabama; age 55; lived in Maine for 3.5 years)

“Well I like it. You know, I describe it as, ah, a place where you can shop. I notice when it rain, a lot of people go out to eat. They like to eat here in Maine. And I've noticed -- I've (inaudible) –but this is a good area to live in.”

Interviewer: “Are there any events in Lewiston and Auburn's …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

(Clemmie not pictured)

Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Education, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in sociology with a minor …

Dan And Eunice Powell Interview For The Lest We Forget Collection Of Oral Histories, Dan Powell, Eunice Powell, Jeff Moyer

Lest We Forget (MS-396)

Jeff Moyer interviewed Dan and Eunice Powell about their life together and their experiences with Dan's developmental disability. The interview was part of the Lest We Forget Collection of oral histories that was created to capture the stories of those involved with mental health and those with developmental disabilities. The project focused on stories and experiences of people from Ohio that lived at, worked in, or dealt with large institutions and the modern movement to smaller home settings and modern treatment of mental illness and developmental disabilities. There are two transcripts to cover the full interview.

Ua19/5/1 Marti Whitmore Interview, Marti Whitmore, Wku Athletics

WKU Archives Records

Audiotape interview of women's basketball coach Marti Whitmore at end of her career at WKU.

Mr. James Sheppard On Leisure, Sanela Zukic

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Sanela Zukic

Interviewee: Mr. James Sheppard (born in New York City in 1924; both his parents immigrated from Antigua in the West Indies to Canada, then they came to the United States in 1923; moved to Maine in 1971).

“But in addition to that we'd have lots of summer events: picnics and that sort. But that's separate; that's a different thing.”

“Between my wife and I, we saw to it that they did a lot of reading. And we did a lot of traveling. We did a lot of traveling to the Caribbean and South America, and we took …

Emma Jackson On Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Emma Jackson Full Interview

Emma Jackson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1941. She and her husband John Isaac Jackson had three children, and at the time of the interview she had been living in the Lewiston-Auburn area for forty five years. She spent the first ten years of her life in Maine doing domestic work, and then worked in the nursing field for thirty years, at a number of different facilities owned by Central Maine Medical Center. She discusses her life in Lewiston, challenges in finding housing she and her husband faced when they first moved to the area, …

Interview No. 1572, John Tomlin

Combined Interviews

Mr. Tomlin recalls how his mother ran the farm after his father’s passing by using Italian and German POWs; in 1946, after finishing his tour of duty in the Army, he returned home and began attending New Mexico State University; the following year in 1947, he started running the farm on his own while he went to school; in 1948, he began hiring braceros; he used a crew of thirty men during the cotton harvest, which ran from mid September to the beginning of December; he had about six braceros who stayed on year-round driving tractors and irrigating; oftentimes, he …

Interview No. 1574, Raymundo Villa

Combined Interviews

Mr. Villa recalls his childhood growing up on a farm near Ysleta, Texas; he remembers that before the braceros were hired as workers, German POWs and the Tigua Indians would often pick cotton on the farm where he lived; when the braceros were contracted, he acted as an interpreter and aide because his boss could not speak Spanish and they could not speak English; oftentimes he had to help his father work on the farm, and he was unable to finish high school; he recalls picking cotton, the size of the sacks they would use, and how much they were …

Interview No. 1570, Sam Sanchez

Combined Interviews

Mr. Sanchez recalls his childhood and early adolescence; he would often work in the fields with his father picking cotton; during the early years of World War II, Italian POWs and undocumented workers often helped with the harvesting of the cotton as well; he recalls missing the first two or so months of school to help with the crops; in addition, he also recounts how he would often go to Rio Vista, a processing center for braceros in Socorro, Texas, to pick up food slops from the mess hall for his father’s pigs; later, when he graduated from high school, …

Interview No. 1062, Ceferino Palomares

Combined Interviews

Mr. Palomares discusses his family and childhood; he initially learned about the Bracero Program through an advertisement in the local newspaper; his brother, Alfonso, encouraged him to enroll in the program; in 1944, they were both hired at the contracting center in their hometown of Tampico, Tamaulipas, México; consequently, Ceferino continued to go through the center in Tampico for all of his subsequent work contracts; his first contract took him to work on the railroads in Union City, Pennsylvania; when his contract ended six months later, he returned to México; the following year, in 1945, he went to work in …

Interview No. 1119, Anónimo Por Petición

Combined Interviews

Mr. XX was hired as a bracero at a recruiting center in Zacatecas, México; he recalls that there were also other recruitment centers in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Aguascalientes in México; there were two types of braceros, specialized and common; the specialized braceros were hired for eighteen months and received higher salaries; the common braceros were hired for only three months at a time; he worked as a specialized bracero weighing cotton; his job was to make sure that the cotton was not mixed with rocks, wood, or any other objects that would make the cotton weigh more; …

Interview No. 1554, Minerva Christine Ann Cheatum

Combined Interviews

Minerva C. Cheatum was born in El Paso, Texas; shortly after she was born her mother died, and she was consequently raised by her maternal grandparents in Clint, Texas; while still attending high school, she began working as a clerk and typist at Rio Vista, a bracero processing center in Socorro, Texas; she started in August of 1957 and continued working there seasonally until 1962. Ms. Cheatum tells how she came to live with her maternal grandparents shortly after her mother’s passing; she continued to live with them even after her father remarried and moved to California; her grandfather had …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 9, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

It may not be the most dignified of nautical customs, but it's certainly one of the oldest and most widely observed. When a vessel approaches the Equator, crew members who are crossing for the first time must appear before King Neptune and his court to demonstrate their worthiness as subjects of the sea. Proof is exacted through tests and punishments that can range from the mildly embarrassing-singing a song or reciting a nonsensical rhyme-to much more grueling treatments: running the gauntlet, tarring and feathering, or crawling through slops. The custom earns the sailor or passenger little more than a certificate …

Interview No. 1571, Faye Terrazas

Combined Interviews

Ms. Terrazas recalls responding to an advertisement and being hired to work as a clerk and typist at Rio Vista, a bracero processing center in Socorro, Texas; she worked there seasonally during the spring and summer from 1954 to 1957; her primary responsibility was filling out the contracts for the braceros; she offers detailed descriptions of the facilities and the process for filling out the contracts; there were specific insurance specifications that detailed what the braceros were entitled to receive in the event of an injury or accident; her knowledge of the other screening procedures is somewhat limited; she gives …

Interview No. 1573, George Veytia

Combined Interviews

Mr. Veytia briefly recalls his family and childhood; he graduated from Texas Western in 1954, and shortly thereafter joined the Army, where he served until 1956; after being released from the Army, he came to work as a claims adjuster for an insurance company; his primary responsibility was to receive all the claims from the Bracero Program in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; he describes his position with the company, the various types of policies that were applicable in different situations, their coverage, the company’s range of action, and the average number of insured braceros during a harvesting season; in …

Interview No. 969, Juan De Dios Estrada López

Combined Interviews

Mr. Estrada recalls a recruitment/processing center for braceros in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, called El Trocadero; the hiring process there was easier if your name was already on the county’s list; another center for braceros was located in Dell City, Texas; ranchers came here and hired braceros; legal and illegal workers were hired at the same time, but illegal workers received fewer wages; in their free time, the workers would go to the movies; sometimes the ranchers would give them rides on their planes for $2.00.

Interview No. 978, Perfecto Márquez

Combined Interviews

When Mr. Márquez was hired as a bracero in 1957, he was married and had two children; as part of the hiring process, he and a group of other braceros were physically examined while in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México; upon being hired, they were then transported from there to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and were not allowed to bring any personal belongings with them; they were physically examined again in El Paso, Texas and in Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; while in Rio Vista, the Mexican Counsel spoke with the braceros about what was expected of them, and the …

Interview No. 977, Manuela Márquez Flores

Combined Interviews

Mr. Márquez traveled to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, in order to begin the hiring process; he recalls that there were thousands of people from cities all over México waiting to be hired as braceros; because many of them did not have any money, they looked for food in trash cans; Mr. Márquez was hired as a bracero when he was twenty-seven years old; he also remembers that at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, whenever a potential bracero was turned away due to illness, the rest of the braceros would collect money for that man so he could return …

Interview No. 961, Jesús Aranda Morales

Combined Interviews

Mr. Morales traveled to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, in order to begin the hiring process for the Bracero Program; the only requirement was a Mexican Military ID card; he waited at El Trocadero, a processing center there in Chihuahua, for eight days to be hired; from there he was taken to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where he had to pay $1.00 in order to get a place where he could spend the night; he was then sent to Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; he was then finally taken to Dell City, Texas, where there was a kind of Bracero …

Interview No. 963, Nicolás Carreón Vega

Combined Interviews

Mr. Carreón briefly recounts his childhood; he focuses on his time in the United States as a bracero from 1953 until the mid 1960s; he discusses work contracts and the possibilities under which a mica card could be obtained; he worked in the cotton fields of Texas and New Mexico, the beet fields of Colorado, and on ranches in Arizona as well; while working in Artesia, New Mexico, he caught pneumonia and was hospitalized for a month; in 1955, he worked without a contract in Pecos, Texas, was caught and sent to jail; in 1958, the cotton field he worked …

Interview No. 979, Noberto Mata Baylón

Combined Interviews

When Mr. Baylón was only sixteen years old, he worked in the United States illegally; in order to cross into the United States, he walked through the mountains, which took him an entire day to do; in 1956, he went to El Trocadero, a processing center in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, to begin the hiring process; he paid the security officer in order to get a good place in line while waiting to be hired; in Pecos, Texas, he had very bad experiences because the wages were too low and there was too much work to be done; in addition, there …

Interview No. 1135, Anastacio Montalvo

Combined Interviews

Mr. Montalvo briefly recalls his childhood and the Cristero War, which took place during that time; later, in 1942, he began the hiring process for the Bracero Program in Querétaro, México, using someone else’s name; while there, he was medically examined and then sent to the border by train; upon arriving at the reception center, he and other braceros saw movies that gave them information regarding their rights and obligations; he describes his first job in the United States, which was hammering the rail road tracks in California, and his second job, which was picking cotton in Texas; in addition, …

Interview With Cynthia E. White, Antoinette E. Walker, Cynthia E. White, Legal Oral History Project, University Of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Legal Oral History Project

For transcript, click the Download button above. For video index, click the link below.

Cynthia E. White (L '80) worked in the City of Phialdelphia Law Department from 1984 to 2017, becoming Chief Deputy Solicitor of the Tax Unit in 1995. She has also served as president and board chairman of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project

Interview No. 1143, Manuel Vazquez

Combined Interviews

Mr. Vazquez briefly recalls his childhood; in 1945, he was hired as a bracero, and taken to work in El Paso, Texas; the only requirement for him to work was his Mexican military I.D. card; he recalls that representative from the Mexican consulate approved the work contracts for the braceros, but they denied renewals for those who had already been contracted three or four times; because of this, he often had to return to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, in order to obtain new work permits; upon passing through the Stanton Bridge in El Paso, Texas, he and other braceros were often examined …

Interview No. 1142, Gregorio Trejo

Combined Interviews

Mr. Trejo very briefly recalls his childhood; when he was nine years old, he and his family moved to Plateros, Zacatecas, México; from there they moved to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, before returning to Zacatecas; because one of the recruiting and contracting centers was in Zacatecas, Zacatecas, he was aware of the Bracero Program; he recalls that the governor of Zacatecas did not want workers from the cities of Fresnillo or Plateros to be hired as braceros because there was plenty of work for them to stay and do in the mines; in spite of this, he managed to have his …

Interview No. 1666, Dolorez Rivera

Combined Interviews

Dolorez Rivera was born on June 15, 1932; her older sister is Andrea Villalba and baby sister is Maria Urquieta Molinar. Rivera and Villalba are both widowers, at the age of fifteen Mrs. Villalba worked in the big house, cleaning and cooking, she recalls receiving hair pins as gifts from Mrs. Craft; Mrs. Rivera attended Perry School in Terlingua, TX. She recalls learning to sing and play the guitar; she performed at church and home; for fun she used catalog cut outs to play dolls, walked in the woods, played baseball, marbles and jacks with friends; she remembers wanting a …