Biographic Information: English, Female, 70yrs
Themes: Biographical information (where participant is from), Languages spoken by participant, Participant’s family (dynamics and relationships), Participant’s life (childhood memories, likes and dislikes, etc.), Participant’s career motivations and aspirations, Participant’s education
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Transcript:
[00:00]
00:02
Interviewer: Hi, there! Thank you for participating in this interview. Today we’ll be talking about your childhood and what you are like today. So to begin. I’d like to start by asking, Where are you from?
00:15
Participant: You wanna know where I grew up?
I: Yes.
00:18
P: Okay. I, I grew up in Tularosa, New Mexico and it is I am currently living in Albuquerque, and it’s about 210 miles south of Albuquerque.
00:30
I: Awesome.
00:31
I: Um, what language or languages do you currently speak and what did you speak growing up?
00:39
P: I spoke English and I understand Spanish, but I I understand more than I speak it.
00:48
I: Awesome. So, um, tell me some of your favorite memories about growing up.
00:57
P: Well, when I was a little girl, I mainly stayed uh with my grandparents when my parents were
working, and it was a little town in um New Mexico called La Luz and I loved La Luz ‘cause it was a very small community and when I was growing up everybody knew each other. Everybody
went to the local Catholic church and we always have had family gatherings at my grandparents
house and it was a lot of fun, because all our family was there. We used to have Sunday
dinners. We used to play Bingo or pokino. We played croquet with my grandfather. He set up
the croquet outside and um there was always just lots of family lots of fun.
01:46
I: That’s fun. Were you close with any of your um cousins or your aunts and uncles growing up?
01:53
P: Yes, I, I since I grew up around my grandparents a lot I was very, very close to my aunts and
uncles and they’re more like my sisters and- my older sisters and brothers, and they are an aunt
and uncle and um and my first cousins, we were always close. We were always together and we
just had lots of picnics we had going to the White Sands. We just had so much fun together. It
was just always a, a, a, a very close-knit family. Extended family.
02:28
I: I love that since you said that your aunts and uncles were, you were pretty close to them,
and you considered them like siblings. Um, was there a big age gap in between? Or was it kind of a smaller age gap?
02:42
P: It- well, my one of my aunts is five years older than I am, she’s more like closer in age to me and then the other ones were a little older but they still I still considered them my siblings more than my aunt and uncle an, and I’ve always been really close to them.
03:04
I: I love that. Do you have any like favorite memories um with your grandparents that are like
specific other than like Sunday dinners?
03:15
P: Oh, yes, we used to go outside and um they had running water. They had irrigation water and
running through the ditch, and I loved being over there because my my grandmother never
uh stopped us from playing outside, and we played in the mud, we played in the dirt. Nobody was worried about you getting dirty, or, you know, had to have your clothes clean. We just loved
playing in the water in the ditch water. Loved picking fruit uh you know, and her their property was really large. They had pecan trees. They had apple peaches, plums, cherries loved to do that
and uh you know, watching my grandmother come in and and making pies and watching her can
uh food, so we always had something fresh during the winter months, when everything was off
season. Um and one of my favorite- several, but one of my favorite memories is always going to the White Sands. We loved playing in the White Sands, and we’d go and have big uh gathering
during Easter and they used to have Easter services there and we’d spend the day. My
grandfather would put up a volleyball net, and so everybody played volleyball, and we had a
cook out there and another one of my fondest memories growing up is uh going cherry picking in
the bagwells in La Luz and also in Cloudcroft and um and then just going camping. We used to go camping I can’t remember now the name of the campsite, but we used to go there, and it was so much fun with everybody there. It was just so much fun camping and we, just, you know, had a lot of fun. We always played games outside and uh had something going on for everybody and
then, you know, just camped in the tents that back. Then nobody had a motor home. (laughs)
05:24
I: That [So.] sounds like a lot of fun.
P: Yeah and just cooking, smelling bacon and potatoes frying out there in the open air. (laughs) smelling coffee you know, brewing coffee outside. Those big old tin kettles, you know, it was really, it was so much fun.
05:42]
I: That sounds like a lot of fun.
P: Mhm.
I: Um, alright. So, what was your favorite holiday or holidays as a kid? And why?
05:53
P: Well, I, I loved Christmas. I loved Christmas, because uh, my mom and my grandmother and all my family would be cooking and baking. Loved the smell of all the foods that we made tamales and and uh we used to have family gatherings for um Christmas Eve, but you know, just cooking and baking and stuff, and just being there, you know, and learning how to do different things and uh and really like going to midnight mass and being there, you get all dressed up and go to midnight mass. And that was a lot of fun just as a kid, because, you know, it was a big to do, ‘cause you dress up in your Sunday best and go. And even though I probably fell asleep most
of the time, I like going (laughs) and and then afterwards we used to go to my one of my aunt’s house, and uh she would have little you know, like little snacks and drinks and hot chocolate and all that stuff after we went and so those were my my really favorite holidays, and of course, getting presents and stuff for Christmas, cause you never knew if you’re gonna get a bike or a doll or anything else that you got. I used to love to read, which I still do, and I used to get books, and that was like my most favorite thing ever to get books. And uh so when I was younger, my mom and dad just knew I loved to to read, so I’d get some, I’d get books. I’d get toys, but I’d get
books, and that was my favorite thing.
07:37
I: That’s awesome. So you’d say, like, if you were thinking back to one of your favorite, most
favorite Christmases. Do you remember um the details of like that one specific Christmas?
07:49
P: I, I do. When I was growing up in Tularosa. Uh, Tularosa used to have a a fire department and
one of our cousins, but we didn’t know it then dressed up as Santa Claus, and so the whole
town would gather out uh in front of the fire department, and Santa Claus would come in the fire you know the fire truck, and they would, you know, turn on the lights and the siren and stuff, and
we’d all gather there and I wanna say it was probably the Lions Club that would do Christmas
stockings, and we’d have an apple, an orange, Christmas candy, some nuts and everybody,
the everybody in town got one and a candy cane, and uh we uh we all gathered around there. Then we used to go around town, and Tularosa had all of the luminarias and so all the luminarias would be uh lit, and so all the lights would be turned out, and you could just drive around town and see all the luminarias and then the Catholic church was across the street from the fire department. So father always used to have the manger and stuff outside, and it was lit. So that was really like a neat thing. So people would go by, take pictures and stuff like that and then all of it would be gathering rounds so that we could go, and my parents would have a Christmas Eve dinner at their house and uh so we go over there, and then we’d wait around till anticipation of um going to midnight mass. But I love that. I love going through getting my Christmas stocking. I like going through the town and seeing all the luminaries lit in town and then just driving around just to see things that you know, who had a decoration outside or so. (laughs)
09:46
I: That sounds like fun. So is Christmas still your favorite holiday today, or do you have a
different favorite holiday?
P: No, I, I love Christmas. I, I do. I like Christmas.
09:56
I: What is your favorite thing about Christmas nowadays?
09:59
P: Well, nowadays I’m older, and I have grandkids and I love to see them just get so excited
about little things like waiting for Santa Claus to come. My, my daughter-in-law had somebody
come out uh, a couple of years ago, one of the um therapists that work with her, he dressed as Santa Claus, and we were all sitting there, and we were like pretending that- well we weren’t pretending we were watching TV, but we knew he was gonna be out there, and you should have seen the look on their face when we go. “What we think there’s Santa Claus outside” and they go what? They went running to the solarium, and they looked out, and they did see him and he ran fast, and he dropped a few presents in the yard when he was running so they never really did see his face, but they saw his boots and everything, and they knew it was Santa Claus. (laughs).
I: That is so cute.
P: That e- that excites me more than anything to see them get real excited about that and the holiday, and they’re both going to Catholic school. So there’s a little thing to like it was with us when we were growing up in Catholic school is the anticipation, not only a presence, but about what really the meaning of Christmas was, you know, or is and it’s not just all presence and stuff that you know there’s other things. And so that’s kind of neat for me, that’s it’s it’s still my favorite holiday I love it.
I: I love that. Um, alright so, what was one of your favorite things to do as a kid?
11:39
P: You know, I this is really gonna sound silly, but you know, ‘cause I don’t even think people
know about that these days, but I used to love to play um paper dolls. I, I didn’t have a barbie, and I did have other dolls besides Barbie, but I didn’t have a Barbie per se and I like to play part- uh paper dolls! I, I could spend hours playing paper dolls, and my cousin across the street her and I would play paper dolls growing up, and it was like so much fun, and one of my aunts, who was really close to me as a sibling for Christmas one year they used to have them in the newspaper in the the the comic section and she cut ‘em out, and for I don’t know how many weeks she went, and she cut out all the paper dolls that used to come out on there, and she gave me a box for Christmas. (laughs) All the paper dolls and I loved them.
I: That’s so cute!
P: Yes. (inaudible) You know we do- we play, make believe and all this stuff. And so
paper dolls to me were like really a fun fun thing to do a lot of fun and [did you have like-] huh?
I: Go ahead.
P: No, I was just gonna say, it’s just, you know. It took a long time. We just played paper dolls
and stuff, and it was like a really neat little different world to play paper dolls and stuff and um the other thing that I like to do is I like to ride my bike. I had a bicycle, and I loved to ride my bike all over La Luz, or you know all around my neighborhood in Tularosa. I, I spent a lot of time riding my bike. I used to love that.
13:16
I: That’s so fun. So, um what are your favorite things to do currently?
13:24
P: I I still like to read. That’s that’s one of my favorite things to do still, I I read, I read a lot. Um, I like doing um, um which I got my kids- my grandkids interested in, but I like doing word cookies on my phone or my iPad, and and my daughter in law has got them into their iPads. And so they play, you know, and it’s a lot of it is their spelling words at school. So it’s kinda like, really fun to watch them. Uh, you know, I like word- to uh uh do word searches. Um, yeah, I just like to to to do, you know, like puzzle type things like that. I, I like word cookies. I like unscramblers. Um, you know, I like, uh you know and I like, I said, I like reading. That’s one of my favorite things to do. And I also I know it’s gonna sound crazy. But I do like going to the gym and I’m not like uh heavy duty, whatever health nut. But I just I like going, because now that I’m getting older it’s kinda like neat just to keep your body moving and so I like going. I like meeting friends at the gym. I’ve met a lot of people that you know. Some are older than I am. Most of them are older than I am, and I like talking to them, and we talk about our childhoods and things, funny things that we remember from our childhood and they grew up in different parts of the state so kind of brings in something, you know, different things a different experience in my life, too.
I: Yeah, that sounds so awesome.
P: Yeah. And I like spending time with my grandkids. I pick them up from school, which I did
today. And uh you know, when they have half days I go and take them to the Mall, and that’s my
excuse too not only to eat, but to go walking. And so they go walking with me and stuff. So that’s
that’s a lot of fun.
15:24
I: Yeah, those sound like really good hobbies.
15:27
P: So.
15:29
I: Um, alright. So what was your favorite food as a kid?
15:38
P: Wow I don’t even- I don’t even remember as a kid. Maybe I liked- oh, I know what I like, I
and I still like em to this day. I love fideos. (laughs) I like fideos. I like beans. I used to like corn bread when my mom would make beans and have corn bread and um those those were my favorite things to eat.
16:07
I: Well, that’s good. Did somebody specific make them that that’s the reason they were your
favorite.
P: My mom. My mother always made fideos. She always made then, and I love tortillas so you
know, my mom would make tortillas all the time and stuff. And so I think , I probably had a lot of things in my childhood, like, you know, my mom used to love to my mom’s a really good cook. So, she had a lot of good things. She liked to make pancakes, and she made beans and rice and tacos, and and my dad was a really good cook, too.
I: Hmm!
P: So, my friends from high school. They used to come when my dad, my dad, worked at the fire department, so when he was off, my friends would come over to to eat at my house, ‘cause they’d say, Is your dad off today? And I’d say, Yeah, and so they would come over and eat lunch with us, because my dad was a really good cook, so they’d come over and eat lunch with us.
I: Oh, that’s so fun.
P: (laughs) Yeah, my dad would say, “Aren’t those girls, gonna don’t they think they bring a lunch?” And I’d say, “Yeah, but they don’t want that lunch. They want your lunch.” Yeah. So they they he would make something, and they would all come over and and and eat with us at lunch.
17:35
I: This is making me hungry. Did you have a favorite restaurant as a kid?
17:42
P: No cause growing up. Nobody really went out to eat. Um, there was not really anything like now where we have pizza and stuff like that. I, I would say maybe the one thing that I could remember was the A&W Root Beer. Where they used to sell A&W Root Beer. [Mhm.] Uh we would go over there, and and we would always have a root beer float. Or my dad would get a gallon of root beer and bring it home so, we would have root beer once in a while. That was a big treat uum and Tularosa had a little restaurant that was, you know, I think, came real popular when I was in high school and it was called the CNC and um we used to go over there and get hamburger baskets for fifty cents. (laughs) A hamburger and french fries. (laughs)
I: Yum
P: (laughs) And a Coke, and it was really good, and we used to go over there and have that it was really a a good place to eat like after the games, or you know.
18:48
I: Mhm. That’s cool. [Yeah] So what is your current favorite food?
18:55
P: You know what I always say this, and it’s kind of crazy, but I, I love spaghetti. I love spaghetti. And um, and I like tacos.
19:06
I: Is there a specific place you like them from, or someone makes them? or you make them?
P: I make them. And if I’m gonna go to my favorite restaurant I would go to either Memos or
Luigi’s. Here. Um, they have really good Italian food and tacos I like my own. I make my own tacos and my mom.
I: That sounds good.
P: Mhm. That it’s it was it’s really good. So I have that going and um those are the only two restaurants and Memo retired, and I’ve been to his restaurant once since he retired, and I didn’t really go eat I met somebody there, but Luigi’s ‘cause Luigi used to be a cook there, and he owns Luigi’s restaurant on Fourth Street. It was, it’s really good. I like that.
I: Yum.
P: Yeah.
20:01
I: Alright. Switching subjects. So what career did you want to have as a kid?
20:09
P: Do you know why, believe it or not? I, I when I was probably- I started thinking about going to college in the eighth grade, and and then, by the time I was ninth grade. I felt like I wanted to be a nurse and so oh, um oh I wanted to be a nurse so bad in high school until I saw somebody get sick to their stomach, and I thought, I’m not gonna be a nurse! [(laughs)] no way. And you know, I hadn’t thought about what I wanted to to really, I just knew I was gonna go to college. And I I really hadn’t thought about it after that until, I wanna say, probably my sophomore in college um I decided I wanted to go into teaching. And and then I wanted to go into Special Ed. And so I, I went into Special Ed and and I I’ve I’m retired now going on 8 years. But I I loved what I did I loved teaching and and being around the kids I really did.
I: Can you tell me more about your career?
P: I- you know what, I started off the first two years I started off in a Catholic school and I started off uh teaching, I think it was sixth grade. And then the second year I was with seventh and eighth graders and then after that I I left it, I left teaching for a while, and then I went into I was working in television and independent. I was working Channel fourteen and Channel two. And um you know, I I really liked it. But it wasn’t something that I I felt like I was gonna do as a career. I I wanted to do something else. So I I missed teaching. So I went back I took. I probably needed like maybe one or two classes, and I got my license, and I went into teaching. And looking back, I just like I loved my my two years at the Catholic school. And I loved all my years in the Albuquerque public schools. I loved it. And I wanna say, the last thirteen years of my career I was an IEP specialist, so I got to see the other end of it being outside the classroom, but being in the classroom to me was wonderful. I, I loved every moment of it. I loved the kids. I loved what I taught. I taught language arts and reading social studies and there was times that um during my career I, I taught math and science, but that was only for a while and then I got into really my language, arts, is what I was really focused on, and and was my strong suit in school but (clears throat) I had a I had a really neat career teaching.
23:05
I: Oh okay, so what made you change your mind when you were in college from being a nurse to
teaching like what influenced you to um become a teacher?
23:16
P: You know. I think my mom was working at the time um at Zia in Alamogordo, and I think that I, I just saw you know my mom has and has a lot of patience and I just like, I just thought I wanted to try something else. And so I think what that’s what influenced me. And also you know,
whenever I was in in college I, I had a couple of professors that I really liked and I think that I just I just wanted to try it and and I think that you know I I’m glad I did. I’m glad I did. I think I found my niche in life, but I think that’s what turned me around is that I had a couple of of um professors that really made it interesting, and that I wanted to do that. You know? I wanted to try teaching and stuff. And I and I liked working when I was working in the Catholic school, I really liked that and and then I had a a person in the Catholic school that took me under their wings, and and uh she was really patient with me, and she just she helped me, and I just really really liked her and I thought, you know what I, I want to stay in this. This is really like, I want what I want to do and so I did it.
I: I love that. So where did um you attend college?
24:41
P: At UNM.
24:42
I: That’s awesome.
P: Yeah, at UNM.
I: Very cool. Alright. Um, who did you look up to as a kid?
24:54
P: Oh I think I, you know what, I think my my parents were my role models. My parents were my role models. I think. Back then, I just, you know. And my teachers. I, I had some really good
teachers, and I, I think I looked I, I uh I looked up to them. I, I think in high school I had a couple of teachers that you know I always used to think they were so hard but really they were really a good teacher. (laughs) But my parents most of all. My parents modeled what I, I needed to do, and I think they were my role models. My my mom and I’ll tell you who else to is my grandmother. My grandfather died when I was young, but but you know I my grandmother, too my grandmother was my hero.
25:48
I: I love that. So what qualities did your parents and your um grandmother have that um you looked up to?
25:59
P: I wanna say, you know what? Uh, with all of them. It’s patience, kindness um you know, persevering in life, never giving up, and my grandmother because she had a very um uh hard childhood it growing up because her her mom was was murdered, and she lived with her grandparents. She never gave up. She always, you know, she always uh persevered. She didn’t let anything stop her from, you know, doing what she needed to do and and uh in my mom’s, my mom and my dad are like that, my, you know, and they’ve always instilled in me that you know you don’t, you’re not a quitter. You’re just you keep going and you know my mom and dad always said this, and and my grandmother is that you know? You can’t say anything nice about somebody. You don’t say it at all and that stuck with me, for to now I you know I just you know they just have the kind of qualities that you know you, they made you feel safe they made you feel secure and loved and loved everything else its just love. Love with each other love and kindness with each other, and patience, with each other.
27:27
I: I love that. Alright um what scared you? As a kid.
27:37
P: (laughs) You know what it’s really silly, but I was terrified, and I, and I never seen a real one, it’s I was always scared of skunks. (laughs) I don’t know why. (laughs) [(laughs)] I was afraid of skunks, and then one time we were picking, ‘cause we, when we were younger, we used to go every Saturday we used to go picking asparagus in the ditch banks. And uh I remember one of our cousins, Betty, oh my gosh, she was We were picking asparagus one time, and she was yelling, “Ohhh I see a skunk. I see a skunk.”. You know what I almost like killed myself trying to get out of the ditch fast enough, ‘cause I really thought- she was lapping her head off and and I don’t know why I was so afraid of of the skunk. I (laughs) was and Pepe Le Pugh was a cute little skunk in the cartoons. (laughs) I don’t know what scared me. (laughs)
28:33
I: [(laughs)]. That’s funny. So, so what? Oh, what scares you now?
28:42
P: Oh I think what’s going on around the world right now. I just I, I want peace in this world. I
want people to be peaceful and kind to another one another, and, and that you know it scares
me now that that um, I don’t know. I just want it to be peaceful. I want people to get along at stuff and not be so mean to each other. And and that scares me just, you know the just, the things
that are going on these days. The the violence, the the you know. The being mean to each other,
not, you know, and I think the biggest thing is is that people don’t respect just like respect each
other. [Mhm.] So what if you get mad when you’re going down the freeway? You get mad, I mean doesn’t mean that you have to shoot somebody, you know. [Yeah]. Just be kind to people, I mean, you know.
29:40
I: Absolutely. So what made you happy as a kid?
29:46
P: Oh, being around my family always being around my family, and and I’ll and I’ll tell you
Something um, uh, I miss my sister. I miss my sister so much. I, I had a sister, and she passed away six years ago, and we were really really close and she was my best friend and she made me happy.
30:12
I: Can you share one of your most favorite memories with her?
30:16
P: Oh, I have so so many. Our vacations together going to Las Vegas, being, you know, (laughs) growing up, you know my- it was funny my dad never believed in being idle. Nobody could be lazy. So (laughs) he went and he taught- he went, and he bought me this old I called it the Jalopy typewriter, and he brought bought me a like a cardboard keyboard and he told me, he says, “You know what you’re gonna learn to type.”, and I said, “Okay”, so you know, I sat there and I taught myself how to type and I was, I’m pretty good to type typing I’m pretty fast and my sister would sit there, and I I’d help she, you know, she would look at me, and I’d say, Come on, let’s do this. Let’s pretend we know what we’re doing. And so we play and type and stuff, and and I think the most that that uh my sister and I got really close is when we got older, and she moved up here with me and um and we did everything together. We went to, you know. We went to vacations. We went to Tularosa. We went to La Luz. We went, you know they, her and her husband loved camping, and so we went camping all the time and uh at one point we went to New York when my son was uh in high school, and we went with uh your mom and your grandma and grandpa and um and her kids, and we had the best fun ever. I mean, we had the most fun ever and uh you know, I’d never been to New York. I’d never been to Washington, DC. I mean, we had so much fun, and it was like a, a trip of a lifetime. And we also went to uh the Bronx because I, I love soap operas, and I still love my days of our lives, but they had another world back then, and it was filmed in the Bronx in New York and so we went over there, and we got to meet the characters that was like I died and went to heaven. To meet all the characters they gave us a copy of the the script for that they were working on. They and I always wanted to see how they put things together like their clothes, the music, and all that stuff, and we got to meet all these people. That was a really fun trip. Uh. Oh, my gosh! It was just so much fun! I, I and and everybody was like teasing me when I got back, because there was a scene where one of the major players uh they said, why don’t you go over there and lay in bed and and take a picture of them. So you know one of the scenes on on the soap opera, he’s he’s like in bed with this other character. So I go in there, and I’m just like leaning against him. And so I told everybody about that. And so I came back and told everybody here at work, and so everybody was like, “Hey, I heard you were in bed with so and so.” (laughs) Oh, my God! I said, “yes, I was. It was fun.” (laughs). I took- we took pictures of everybody. Everybody treated us like like royalty, and then
the fun thing, too, is uh your grandma, grandpa, and and your mom and all of us we went to. We
got to go to NBC. We met Katie Couric and Matt Lauer and Ann Curry and Al Roker. That was like so much fun. We got to sit in the green room where all the movie stars go in there when they’re being- all the celebrities and stuff. So that was like one of the best things that we did [How exciting!] Yeah. So my sister and I did so many fun things together, but that was one of them that sticks out my head because we went with other family and it was quite an adventure. (laughs).
34:15
I: Good! Well, I love that.
34:18
P: Quite an adventure.
34:21
I: Well, I think that’s all we have time for today. Thank you for sharing all of your stories. I
really appreciate it, and-
P: Thank you for interviewing me.
I: Yes, thank you for participating. (laughs)
P: (laughs)
I: Aright.
P: Okay.
[34:36]
New Mexico Border Spanish Corpus 