Biographic Information: English, Female, 88yrs
Themes: Biographical information (where participant is from), Languages spoken by the participant, Learning a second language (as a child), Participant’s childhood memories, Participant’s likes and interests (from childhood and into adulthood), Participant’s family (vacations, etc.), Education and school, Participant’s future plans
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Transcript:
[00:00]
00: 02
Interviewer: Alright. Hi, there! Thank you for participating in this interview. Today we’ll be talking about your childhood and um what you are like today. So to start with um I’d like to ask, Where are you from?
00:15
Participant: I’m from La Luz, New Mexico.
00:19
I: Awesome. What language or languages do you speak?
00: 24
P: I speak both Spanish and English.
00:27
I: Did you grow up speaking um both Spanish and English?
00:31
P: No, in fact, that I didn’t know any English when I started um uh Kindergarten. My uh yeah best friend taught me how to speak English so I could. I wasn’t passed through the first grade until I learn how to speak English. My father at that time the teacher came home and told them that I wasn’t going to be promoted, that because I didn’t speak the language. So my dad came home. Mike just told us all that we were not gonna speak anymore Spanish in the house. We have to speak English so that we could learn to communicate with other people. So that was the beginning of my learning how to speak in in English but we still kept the Spanish language at home when it was necessary with my great grandparents, because they did not speak English.
01:20
I: Were your parents learning English at the same time that you [No.] were as well.
01:26
P: No, no, they weren’t. They they knew English. Um, my dad was uh, um, he only attended the eighth grade, finished the eighth grade, and my mom only the fifth grade, but they were able to pick up the language. English first. So that worked out them- for them. At that time there, there
wasn’t much, I mean, if you needed a job you had to learn how to speak English so my mom
and dad were in that position that needed the job so they learned how to speak English. So
when we came along, Spanish was the first language in the house and so, when it was time for
me to learn it, I they they were of much help to me.
02:18
I: That’s awesome. Um, alright. What um is your favorite memory about growing up?
02:27
P: As a little girl at home my favorite memory is gosh! I have so many. I think, just being
Always- when I was very, very young. We, my parent- my mother lived at the ranch with her
grandparents she was raised by her grandparents. So, the Sundays were always important. They
always had to be at with a family, and it was at the ranch, and our weekends were spent there at
the ranch. So to me, being able to pick um grapes, you know, for wine making, being able to go to the garden and pick up fresh vegetables was a treat for me on the weekends, so that I had- that was the best time in my life that I can remember, ‘cause I learned how to make crushed wines with the with boots on my feet. And so uh later on, as time went on and we got older, my dad, my parent grandparents, passed away, and my dad and mom demanded the same thing from us that our Sundays weekends were spent with them with our families and so we, my dad always wanted us to have dinner with him, and he we learned to be um be ready. We used to go to church Sunday morning at eight o’clock but we had to read the paper before we got to after mass, to the house, because my dad left to discuss the news with us and we better be good at it, because if we weren’t, he’d say you didn’t read the paper today. So I have many good memories. I I can go on and on with that. Um, as time went on I spent a lot of time also with my great, with my grandmother in La Luz, my dad’s mother and father they- my grandmother was cook at the lodge, and my grandfather was- he groomed horses for the guests that came to the lodge, so I got to sit with my grandmother in the kitchen and watch her cook, and when they got time for dinner I was standing in front of the buffet and serve the guests that were coming to the lodge that would eat there. And and I had um, had a lots of fun. I learned different the different cultures that would come into- that I get to meet and talk to people that were from different from big cities, that, of course we were not accustomed to seeing. We a I learned to try different foods with my grandmother growing up and I just learn to set the table with her I learned how to uh keep the the silverware straight and clean with the before the guests arrive to set the table. So it was, it was, it was beautiful. I had some beautiful, beautiful memories.
05:37
I: I love that. That’s really cool. Um, what was your favorite holiday as a kid? And why?
05:46
P: My favorite holidays were Christmas. We used to have run our our uh- my goodness. My- we
used to go with my dad and my mom up the mountains and cut our tree for one. We were
allowed then. You didn’t have to have permit. We were allowed to go up and we’d cut our tree,
and my mom would take a picnic, and we’d have a picnic up in the mountains you know, and
just waiting around for the tree. And prior to that we, if there was any piñon for that year we’d sit. We’d go around picking on before my dad would cut the tree. And if it was cold it was just a very short picnic and we’d bring it home, and we’d decorated with popcorn at that time, you know, the times were hard for our parents, but we were able to decorated with popcorn and and string it with string, and then we cut paper bells and things out of newspaper that we would color. My dad would make little ornaments out of wood, and we paint them and hang it up and before, on the twenty-fourth we have apples, and that was a specialty. We’d have apples and oranges that my mom and dad would buy and we hang them up on the tree and put cinnamon or cloves, and the app and the oranges, and hang them up on the tree to make the house smell good. And then we’d have Santa Claus come around deliver presents I had- my uncle would dress up in
the Christmas- uh Santa Claus suit and come in deliver the presents to us at home, and then we’d have my mom would always have hot chocolate, and then, after that it was time to get ready to
go to midnight mass and uh, uh after the time rest we’d come home and and get our open up our gifts and we’d uh- of course always was a pair of pajamas homemade. My mom would sew our- make our pajamas. She’d make them out of um flannel and so we had that, and then we’d go to mass the next day for Christmas. It was um a time to prepare for the Christmas dinner, and and all the family would get together, and and just have just have fun with everybody. It was just that time that everybody got together it was a you didn’t visit very much at that time, because not everybody had a car. So, the ones that did would come from long distance, you know, like they thought it was a long distance from Alamogordo, or Tularosa, and to La Luz. So, it was a fun time for all of us.
08:33
I: That’s so fun is there like a specific um Christmas gift you remember receiving as a kid that was your favorite?
08:41
P: One of my favorite Christmas gifts my, my uh mother bought a little black doll and I remember just taking that little doll and just just loving it. I would take it to bed with me I’d play with it, and I talked to her. She was my buddy and I enjoy enjoy just having that, because at that time we never saw uh black people there. There was never a time that we I would see black people until I got it to be in a a teenager. So having that black, little doll was a novelty to me. and that was special.
I: That’s cool. I love that. So is Christmas still your favorite holiday, or do you have a different
favorite holiday now?
09:33
P: Christmas, I think, is just a special day for us from my whole family because that’s a
time that everybody gets together they come from which way from I had my son that lived in
California for twenty some years. So he come down every three years or every year, whenever it was possible and so we’d all get together the whole family did and we we just shared our our dinner and gifts and and just enjoy being with each other.
10:06
I: That’s awesome. Um, okay. What was your favorite thing to do as a kid?
10:15
P: (laughs) As a little girl I used to play marbles with uh the boys uh cause there was few girls, a few boys that used to make teams. We made baseball teams and basketball teams out of boys
and girls because we were not enough but playing marbles was the ideal thing at that time. We
were young and played hopscotch and uh Red Rover, Red Rover, and and we we uh it was a matter of endurance and strength for us, you know I always, and wanted to have more marbles than anybody, and I was good at it, and I enjoyed that. I know it’s supposed to be a boys game, but at that time it was boys and girls.
I: That’s cool. So you keep saying you played with people. Who are these people that you
would um play with growing up?
P: My cousins. My cousins. They were all cousins. There was um in La Luz, where we grew up. Everybody was first cousins to one another. The, the Garcia clan there was five brothers and one sister and so the the family was big so, and we were all first cousins. So there was, you know, we got together with most of us that were my age played together and it’s it’s age groups that we separated each, you know, as time went on everybody had different ideas about you know, playing and staying together.
11:4
I: Mhm. Did you have siblings growing up?
11:52
P: Yes, I had uh two sisters and two brothers. I was the oldest.
11:58
I: Did you ever play with them when you were growing up?
P: Did I what?
I: Did you ever play with them growing up?
12:06
P: Oh, yes! Oh, yes! We used to- (laughs) I don’t know if you uh- yeah I guess we did. We uh we used to go outside and and um, pick up some fruit and our favorite thing we were told to pick up basket during the su- the summer to pick up fruit and bring it into the house because my mother used to can it and then uh we’d get mad and thrust, you know, because one would have more than the buck than the other one. So we’d start spitting the food that we’d put in our mouth to each other, and an or then uh or we just help each other. Um, we had to haul uh bring in wood. One would chop, and there there was hardly much time to play at that time. We had a lot of chores to do. The time that we have to play was either on uh Sunday. Saturdays or Sundays but the other time it was short time, and by the time you got done you were tired you went inside ate supper room did your homework And went to bed. There was no TV, you know. My dad very rarely put the radio on. So we did our, our play time was um doing chores.
I: Oh okay um so what is your favorite thing or things to do currently?
13:31
P: My favorite, what?
13:33
I: What are like your favorite things to do now? Or your favorite hobbies?
13:39
P: Oh, my goodness! I love playing piano and I, I loved the sew. I love cro- um embroidery. and I did arts and crafts with ceramics. All that I, I like. I, I switch from one thing to another as I go along. And now, as an old person or um or elderly person (lauhgs) I don’t do much of that, my at all. I in fact, I don’t do anything except my hands have gotten bad with arthritis so I do, but I do piano. I like to play the piano.
14:23
I: Awesome. Um, what was your favorite food as a kid?
14:30
P: My favorite food?
14:32
I: Yes.
14:34
P: Gosh! I like to eat um, my mom used to make bread homemade bread and I used to love to eat
that with butter and or peanut butter and lettuce that was my favorite (laughs) sandwich growing up.
I: Peanut butter with lettuce?
P: Peanut butter and butter. Yeah. Pea- and I always had- my mom always had jelly, but or and
jams, because she ca- she canned a lot. But all I liked the fresh bread with peanut butter,
or butter.
15:16
I: Nice. So did you go to restaurants as a kid?
15:21
P: No. I don’t ever remember going to a restaurant as a kid. Remember, at those days um, I don’t
know, if you remember, or you’ve read, but in those days, there wasn’t very much money around,
and I think my dad was making maybe like a dollar an hour at that time, so there was no
restaurants. Everything was done at home. There your home cooking we took our lunches to
school. Everything was done from home. [Okay.] My first restaurant I think I went to was when I was in high school and was in high school when I first went to a restaurant, and the first thing I ordered was a cherry coke.
16:06
I: That’s cool. What kind of a restaurant was it?
16:09
P: It was uh, it was called, um, Oh, my God. The Rooster! And that’s- [That’s cool!] yeah, was called the rooster was a café and that’s why I learned- I drank my my order, made my first order was the Cherry Coke, and then I think we went back me and my cousin went back, and we ordered um I think we ordered a hamburger, and we split it because we had enough money to split between us. (laughs)
16:43
I: That’s super cool. So what is your current favorite food?
16:49
P: My favorite current food is red chili and meat.
16:56
I: Oooo. Is there someone that makes it really good? Or do you cook it?
17:01
I make it.
17:04
I: That sounds good. Alright. Um, what career did you want to have as a kid?
17:12
P: Oh, I always wanted to be a teacher.
17:1
I: Okay, um so um what career um did you have?
17:22
P: I worked as a preschool teacher at a my first job, and then I went on to college and I got accumulated some hours, and I applied for a teacher’s aide um and so I worked there for oh, my goodness twenty-five years and I uh I, I just love the just being part of a classroom and the company of the teacher and I always felt like I had reached my goal.
18:02
I: That’s awesome. So what um age group did you work with?
18:07
P: What? What? Repeated it.
I: Oh, what age group did you work with?
18:12
P: Oh, gosh! I work with what with three years old up to eighteen. With handicapped- multi handicapped children.
18:28
I: Are there any special memories that you can remember from those days?
18:33
P: Oh, my goodness! There was, there’s so many memories I have of so many of the students
that I work with but I think the most um exciting thing for me was to be able to work with the visually impaired I also worked with the the deaf. We had a pilot program that we worked with the Deaf for a year in the school that I was at, and then I went on to work with a visually impaired and I think for me that was a eye-opener for the has been for all my life the rest of my life because I it taught me humility and I that is so important in our lives, because most of the time we go through life thinking we can do it all and you can’t and you don’t. So that’s been the most important thing that I learned in my life.
19:41
I: I love that. Um, when you were a kid who did you look up to?
19:48
P: My great-grandmother.
19:52
I: What, what qualities um did your great grandmother have that um made her a good role model?
20:00
P: She was a very strong religious person. Always, never said I can’t. Was never judgmental.
She always looked ahead. Don’t worry about yesterday. Don’t worry about tomorrow just lunge ahead. I think those were some very strong qualities that she had and I admired her all the time.
I, I learned so much from her and I continue to apply that to myself as an adult.
20:42
I: I love that. It’s so cool. UM What scared you as a kid?
20:50
P: What?
20:51
I: What scared you as a kid.
20:54
P: What scared me?
I: Yes. Like, did you have any fears as a kid?
21:04
P: Well, I’m not really I think, as a kid to see somebody dead somebody dead in a coffin always
scared me because I wanted with the first time that happened to me. I approached it, and I wanted to I, I touched him, and I wanted him to wake up. Anyways it just scared me to death that it wouldn’t. That person wouldn’t wake up and that person was my great-grandmother and I
couldn’t make her move and it scared me to death. For years and years. I didn’t want to see
anybody that died in a coffin. I just couldn’t see it. I just wouldn’t get nearer. That to me was
the scariest thing I ever encountered.
22:07
I: How old were you when this happened?
22:10
P: I was twelve years old.
22:15
I: So do you still have the same fears? or do you have any like, are you scared of anything
else now?
22:23
P: No. What, what- I get an anxiety I get- is when not when they die. I don’t mind seeing them
when they’re they’re gone. When I, I can touch them now, and it doesn’t scare me. What does
get under my skin is when that coffin is going down slowly into the, into the grave. That’s the
one thing that scares me and I don’t know whether you call it scary or just an anxiety that comes
over me. I want, I know it’s that it’s not coming back up and I can’t help it like help you get up.
And it, it just I can’t get over that one. I, when I go to funerals, I prefer not to go to the cemetery.
23:17
I: It’s scary. Um, alrighty. So changing the subject, did you like going to school as a kid.
23:31
P: Yes. I loved the going to school.
23:35
I: Why did you love school so much?
23:38
P: I had I, I, I loved um- uh I got, challenges. You know? I never I, if somebody would tell me I can’t do it, I would. I would just prove to them that I could. and I, I continue to do that all the time. I, I didn’t like that idea of anybody telling me that I can’t because I will and I did.
24:05
I: That’s awesome. Um did you have a favorite subject in school?
24:12
P: Oh, my goodness. I, I loved reading and I, I loved writing.
24:25
I: Is there a was there a specific um grade that you can remember the most that you really loved?
24:32
P: The seventh. Seventh grade. I remember our teacher wanting- we had been given a um a story to read, and we had to write the short paragraph of what we had learned from it and then we had
to make up a story of our own. And I remember telling him the story of my great grandfather.
About I, I wrote about him in a paragraph of him coming. He lived- he was born and raised here
in Albuquerque and he um crossed, he walked on foot um shepherding uh some sheep and goats going to towards 3 Rivers and I remember him telling me there were times they the the winters were so harsh you know, that they couldn’t, they didn’t have food, and that him pulling up onions wild onions, and eating them on the way for food, and and uh walking, getting close to sheep to sleep and for for heat so I, I wrote that in a small, short paragraph, and I, I got a straight A for that and thought. And that teacher asked me, she said, “Is that a made-up story?” And I said, “No, it’s real.” but I never forgot that, because he told me, he said that was the best one that he had had in the class.
26:14
I: Oh, that’s so cool.
26:15
P: Yeah.
26:17
I: Um, do you have a favorite memory of your mom and dad?
26:27
P: My mom and dad I remember them. Oh, my gosh! When my father came back from the
service I remember to going to meet my dad at the train station in Alamogordo to pick him up
when he um was discharged, and I remember holding my mom’s hand and looking for all the sailors that were coming off the train, and and when my dad met, my mom just forgot that I was there and just ran for it’s my dad. And they just hugged and kissed, and then they come. My dad keep running looking for me. and I remember the happiness of tears in my mom’s face coming down, and she was so happy. And my dad
27:10
I: Oh, how old were you when he came back?
27:14
P: Fourteen.
27:16
I: How long was he away for?
27:21
P: Two years. Two
27:27
I: love that! Do you have any favorite memories with um your siblings?
27:34
P: With my siblings?
27:37
I: Yes.
27:39
P: Um, during Easter time that we used to come (laughs) my dad used to hide Easter eggs around the ditch and in- we might we there was a um grape- a vineyard and we used to- he used to hide eggs in the tall piece of uh areas that alfalfa grew wild and he’d hide eggs there, and all of us would run all over the the acre of land that my mom had and dad, and look for Easter eggs, and we, you know, to see who’d get the most, and um just just enjoy the running around the wild time that was so free and s- are are just the fun of it and then bringing them to my mom’s and my mom to make potato salad.
28:37
I: That sounds good. That sounds fun.
28:40
P: It was. It was so much fun. My- we couldn’t get the eggs when we get em to the basket. My
mom would count them, and and she would say, Okay, we have enough potato salad now, and
she’d make some egg salad the next day. But that particular day was Sunday. So it was potato
salad time. So it was. It was fun. So much fun.
29:02
I: Are there um any recipes that your mom made um that you continue to make that she taught you?
29:13
P: Gosh. There’s a lot of them I um, one that in particular, because you don’t find it any more, is
mincemeat to make pies, and and um uh uh fried pies with mincemeat with the um sheep, instead of many people in the old days used to get the loin from the deer and cook it and make it into
mincemeat. Well, my mom, because my dad never went hunting she would buy the the she
would get the pork that grandma would give her from the ranch the pork loin, and cook it, and
and grind it and make it into mincemeat with apples and spices, and whatever it else that went
into it. That’s one of my favorites, because you don’t find it any more. [Really?] And the other one is is, gosh. What’s the other one? I think the the other one was always making some just making carne adovada or like we used to call it “carne enchilada”. But the term really nowadays is “carne adovada”. That is is still a recipe that to date I, I use constantly mince the meat with the pork that I made pies out of mincemeat pies. My children do not care for it, so I don’t make them anymore. Just just so, carne adovada.
31:00
I: Okay. Um, one more question. Do you remember one of your first vacations?
P: Yes.
I: Do you have good memories? Can you tell me about them?
31:16
P: Yes, we went on our first vacation uh was to go. We, one of my best friends, brothers, got
married in Aztec, New Mexico and I, I was a bridesmaid and we, my dad drove us all there, of
course, my sister and my brothers, and and uh uh we went, we stayed in um in Aztec in Bloomfield which is close to Farmington and then we drove into Aztec for the wedding the next day, and then from there, after the wedding and reception, we went to Colorado to Trinidad and my dad took us all over the place, and it was, oh, my gosh! I’d never seen such old buildings. Now that just old old buildings, and I kept telling my dad, “Why did you bring us here? You know this is such an ugly place.” And then he said, “Because this has got a lot of history, and I want you to remember it.” So he took us to different places and showed us the town and that was our first vacation for all of us. That’s when we were – [inaudible] Yes.
I: How old were you?
32:26
P: I was fifteen.
32:30
I: Well, that’s fun.
32:32
P: Yes, it was. It was because we had never traveled that far you know, and I and just be, you
know, even to get up on the state that was something. My father always encouraged us that
we should, if if we never attended, got to attend college, to be always to make sure that we
vacationed and travel so that we could educate ourselves.
32:55
I: That’s awesome.
32:58
P: I, I, I uh, that’s one of the things that my, my dad, I, I was so thankful for him point in that direction to us. And that option.
33:11
I: Yeah, that was really good advice. Hmm.
33:14
P: Yes.
33:16 – 33:23
I: Well, I think that’s all we have time for today, and I really appreciate you taking the time to
do this interview.
33:25
P: Well, thank you so much.
33:27
I: (laughs) Thank you for agreeing to participate. And I appreciate it.
33:33
P: Okay, thank you.
[33:35]
New Mexico Border Spanish Corpus 