Oral History Commons^™

Interview No. 1791, Ingrid Leyva Vasquez

Combined Interviews

Ingrid Leyva Vásquez was born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, but grew up in Ciudad Juárez. She considers herself a borderland resident since she often travels back and forth between the United States and Mexico. She remembers traveling to El Paso on weekends to spend time with family or enjoy family celebrations. Her family had birthday celebrations at Furr's and went shopping at the dollar store; she felt that her childhood was typical for Juárez.

However, she also addresses the violence created by the Calderon Administration and the “narco” war. Ingrid is the middle child of three women and was raised solely …

Interview No. 1789, Jorge Peña

Combined Interviews

In this interview, Mr. Jorge Peña describes his childhood living in Ciudad Juárez. Walking to school, playing with other kids on the street, as well as his family are some of the memories he has from these early years. One that stands out is crossing to El Paso to eat at restaurants and go shopping, creating a positive impact in his desire to cross the border in the future. When the time came for Jorge to enter high school, he came to El Paso to live with an aunt. He then attended Irving High School, went to El Paso Community …

Interview No. 1787, Antonio Marín

Combined Interviews

Mr. Antonio Marín is a former resident of El Segundo Barrio. Arriving to the United States from Jalisco, Mexico, at the age of 5, he recalls entering for the first time through the Santa Fe port of entry from Ciudad Juárez to downtown El Paso. He and his family first rented a single-room apartment and then moved to a two-room flat in a tenement. Antonio attended Aoy Elementary and Bowie High School. He talks about how Southside El Paso was a segregated community of Mexicans and Blacks, where they would get along well in places like Douglass Elementary. Mr. Marín …

Interview No. 1788, Simon Chandler

Combined Interviews

Simon Chandler was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. He graduated from North Staffordshire in 1990. After that, he began traveling through America. He got to El Paso in 1991 to work as a volunteer in Casa Anunciacion.

Before coming to the United States, Simon had impacting life experiences in Africa and Israel, shaping his approach to community life and community service. After that, he came to the United States to know the culture more profoundly, leading him to El Paso as a volunteer at Casa Anunciacion. His plans to travel to Peru changed unexpectedly, keeping him and his family in …

Interview No. 1792, Osvaldo Velez

Combined Interviews

Mr Velez grew up in Segundo Barrio during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He associates those times with gang warfare because of the introduction of guns. He also remembers that in Segundo Barrio, many families lived in tenements. With the number of people living in the tenements, there were a lot of activities in the community, including social gatherings, parties, and family parties. In the absence of technology, most time was spent outside, whether it was hearing local gossip, visiting family and friends, or socializing; that was life in a small community. He lived in a tenement on the corner …

Interview No. 1750, Tarango

Combined Interviews

The audio is unintelligible

Interview No. 1762, Leyva Bustamante

Combined Interviews

In April of 1970, Leyva started working at Farah. Everyone at Farah despised their job, and she didn't understand why at first, but after two months, she realized what was right and what was wrong. Leyva, like many other Farah employees on Paisano, was fed up with the unfair treatment and low pay after only a week on the job.

She initially assumed that the hiring process was simple and that Farah employed anyone who was willing to work. Soon after, Leyva recognized that Farah had employed a large number of individuals, and that they needed to balance the number …

Interview No. 1754, Ortega

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Ortega, she was part of the Farah Strike at El Paso, Texas. She says that the Union was getting stronger because more people were getting involved. When she was working, she will notice cases of harassment and she says that many of the supervisors were trying to get advantage of other workers. She was part of the strike that many other people participated because they were fighting for their rights and for a better wage. When she was working at the company, she says that many workers will get fired for no reason or reasons that …

Interview No. 1772, Perez

Combined Interviews

She was working at Farah and she says that they will treat them really bad and that they were told that this was the best job that they could ever had. The least they can do was to continue to work but they eventually got tired of how they were abused. Her responsibilities at Farah included cleaning and cutting, which was a labor-intensive task. She claims that prior to the union, they had no one to turn to for assistance. They believed that the union would improve their situation, but it didn't work out that way. When they were employed, …

Interview No. 1770, Del Hierro

Combined Interviews

Nearly all of Farah's employees were exhausted and tired of work. That was when Del Hierro started working there. She didn’t understand the problem in Farah of Paisano that was causing all workers to be reluctant to go to work every day. A few days went by and she received her first check and when the manager told her she would be paid more, she realized she had barely been paid, and realized that the contract she signed was also a complete lie and not respected by her manager.

At first, she thought the hiring process would be so easy …

Interview No. 1775, Jaramillo De Palacio

Combined Interviews

She mentions that the companies were demanding the same quality of work and they were not realizing the amount of work they were giving to the workers, and it was an excessive amount of it. She says that the strikes separated people because it was a movement that had different opinions, but in the end they were fighting for the same thing. The union was created to support employees but the workers realized that that wasn’t true at all. When the strike first started she couldn’t ever imagine that the strike was going to be as big as it was, …

Interview No. 1776, Paraa

Combined Interviews

She says that everything is back in busisnes at Farah and that the new president of Farah is not fighting with the union any more. She says that many people are getting left off and many people just like her she was let off and came back 3 times in a row and she says that she is thinking that is better for her to start studying. She says that Willy Farah, the owner, was very hated and loved at the same tiem and she says that many people will give them gifts such as bringing him mariachi and workers …

Interview No. 1774, Jaramillo

Combined Interviews

Jaramillo was born in San Antonio after her parents cross the border thru Laredo when immigration wasn’t very strict. After a year they moved to El Paso, Texas where all of her other siblings were born.. One of the things that she admires about growing up in El Paso is that almost everyone knew each other or knows someone who knows them. Her mother owned a restaurant and her father a tailoring shop in which Jaramillo and her siblings grew up. After a couple of years her father passed away. Her mother then decided to sell the tailoring shop and …

Interview No. 1777, Tarango

Combined Interviews

Tarangos fathers’ parents were from Mexico and they passed away when she was very little. She never got to meet them. Her grandparent where from Leon Guanajuato, Mexico as well as his dad. Tarango mentioned that most of his family on her dads’ side were shoe makers back in Mexico, which was all he talked about to Tarango about. Sometimes he would talk about God or the Bible, but mostly about the shoe repair shop they had in Mexico. When Tarango’s dad came to the United States in the 1911 and he didn’t know English very well, but he managed …

Interview No. 1781, Sanchez

Combined Interviews

Sanchez grandparents took her in and his brother after his father passed away during the war. A couple of years after leaving with them, his grandfather got fired. Sanchez grandma and mother then started to work to support the family, since his grandpa couldn’t do it anymore. Her Aunts used to work at Luby’s to help support them. After a couple of years, they went to live with her mother and his husband and he bought them a new home. Sanchez mentioned that he was a great man that always push them to do best and to go to school. …

Interview No. 1780, Arieta

Combined Interviews

Arieta started off her interview by mentioning that she had always wanted to study to be a nurse. Her husband didn’t believe in her because she was 30 when she began trying to get into nursing. She even mentioned that she felt old to be studying, but she really wanted to be somebody and have a life other than just being a housewife.

Arieta was tired of being at home and not knowing anything about the world. She ended up not being a nurse because at that time they started to ask for people to have a high school degree …

Interview No. 1779, Del Palacio

Combined Interviews

Del Palacio was a worker at Farah during the 1970’s. She first started to work for the company when the working conditions were not as bad. Soon things in the company starting to go South. Her quota became higher and higher every week and she was not able to meet the quota many times. Her boss didn’t care if it was literally impossible to complete that many tasks in a short period of time, he just wanted the work done no matter what.

Many of the workers at Farah during that time lived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Those workers had …

Interview No. 1784, Hernandez

Combined Interviews

She was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, May 12, 1929. She had a very big family and she got to meet her grandmother and she was living in Ciudad Juarez, so they moved from Alamogordo to Juarez to be with her. Her grandmother used to have a son that had an accident in a mine, and they got a lot of money for compensation, but the son of her uncle spent everything. She was only 6 years old, and her grandmother died when she was 10 years old, they weren’t living with her, but they lived close, so they visit …

Interview No. 1785, Telles

Combined Interviews

Audio Unintelligible

Interview No. 1778, Herrera

Combined Interviews

She said her husband worked for Farah, but they treated him very poorly, and were told to keep working with the bad consditionds. All they could do was keep working, but eventually tired of the abuse. She says that his His job at Farah included cutting metals that left a lot of metal debrie, which were labor intensive and heavy jobs. She claims that before the union there was no one to turn to for help and his husband was part of the union. They believed a union would improve their situation, but it didn't work. When you were hired, …

Interview No. 1783, Avalos

Combined Interviews

Avalos grandmother is from Mexico. Her father was always on duty and her mother passed away when Avalos was four years old. After her mother passing, her grandmother adopted them and she became their mother. Avalos considers her grandmother her real mother, because she did everything for them. Avalos thanks her grandmother for everything she did for them even when she was an older woman struggling with her health. During her childhood before living with her grandmother she was at an orphanage for a couple of months. Once Avalos and her siblings went to stay with her grandmother their lives …

Interview No. 1773, Del Hirerro, Leyva, Gonzalez

Combined Interviews

They are talking about their job at Farah, and how bad the conditions were. They have been let off work for months now, they said that some of them have been 5 months but they say that the company will take over a year to tell you that you are not required anymore. They said that the company will never raise your pay, even if you have been for years working in there. When they were done with their job they were obligated to full fill other positions were they had no experience so that they don’t have any type …

Interview No. 1749, Jesse Muñoz Rev.

Combined Interviews

Jesse Munoz was an El Paso priest from Our Lady of the Light Church. He was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in 1940 during the depression years. When he turned eleven him and his family moved to El Paso, Texas in hopes of a better life and education. At the age of fourteen he took a bus to New York and worked there for over a year. He then had enough money to go to Spain and pay for an education and many years later he came back to El Paso, Texas.

At the time Rev. Munoz came back to …

Interview No. 1751, Hernandez

Combined Interviews

Hernandez began working at Farah on April of 1972. Everyone at Farah left 2 moths after and she mentioned that those two months were enough for her to know what was right and what was wrong. Hernandez saw and experience many unjust things in those two months. She didn’t know how bad the situation inside the company was until she started to work there and realized that what the people were saying was right and even worse than what they described it as.

The worse part of the Farah company were the managers and their lack of experience in retail …

Interview No. 1755, Gandara

Combined Interviews

He says that he stared working with his father after returning from the ARMY. He says that when he was working, they had a union that sometimes will fire people for nothing and they will have to legally open a case against that and he says that in order to get a response you needed to wait a long time. He says that one of his duties in the job was cutting ropes into different sizes. There is another woman interview that is his wife and she says that women were a minority in their job and they had to …

Interview No. 1756, Eva Valdez

Combined Interviews

Eva was offered to join the strike during her time working at Farah Manufacturing Company, she first felt kind of scared because she didn’t want to be part of a strike. Eva didn’t understand what the union strike was about but she would later find out.

Eva’s first days at the Farah Manufacturing Company were filled with patches and jeans. She mentioned that she had to put patches in clothing items all day for long periods of time. For her work she would get pay less than $1.60 an hour. Some of her women coworkers had been working there for …

Interview No. 1753, Sanchez

Combined Interviews

Sanchez began working at Farah on April of 1969. Everyone at Farah hated their job and at first, she didn’t know why but 2 months after entering she realize what was right and what was wrong. As many others Farah workers on Paisano were tired of the unjust treatment and bad wage, Sanchez felt the exact same way in just a week of getting hired.

At first, she thought that it was so easy the hiring process and that Farah hired anyone who was willing to work. Soon after Sanchez realized that Farah hired many people, because of the amount …

Interview No. 1752, Valenzuela

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Valenzuela and she was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. After she graduated from high school, she got her first fulltime job at Farah. She was working in setting pockets, that involved a lot of hard work and many hours of work. The training that she was, was how to use the machine but like her many other people wants trained well. She says that many supervisors where over them all day long. She says that thru out the day they get 2 breaks from their job and they can rest on site and can …

Interview No. 1759, Herrera

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Herrera and she used to work for Farah. She says that when she was working in there the supervisors where very racist with Mexicans and Latinos, and they treat them like slaves. She says that the instability of the workers and the company was because of how supervisors did their job. She says that as a woman was very difficult to defend herself from a man and she says that the best thing to do was quit. After she was thinking of quitting her job, she heard people talking about a protest against the company that …

Interview No. 1758, Saucido

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Saucido and she was working at Farah and she was part of the strike. Some of her duties at Farah was cutting and cleaning which was a very demanding job. She says that before the union there was no one that could help them and they thought that the union was going to make things better for them, but it wasn’t that way. When they were working, they will have supervisors that were making sure you did your job correctly, but sometimes they were extremely demanding and they will fire many people for either taking long …