1 50 15 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/11651/archive/files/63831c95f89caabebfdba6269c38a8f7.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=d4iozdxr4iWvaMsudMZJBAn1c-vv9rTDR25rx2kbaUO0iQt-IY5JC2v%7Ej6L3iRADL606TKMpEvUPQxS6xpjeqqj9R9KsKDs1qxswimX24AIiXDFXSdfWn-T0Qlim1OUQYZ5aF1EY%7EuOxaw277ngOOwe5U8kYLh5BHS9FDXMhCpn4ZeHX08hcRBRDo3g5ebUxnXlZjp6ktH0%7E%7ETBDYJ58P4lVApuiFn8FtH%7ENMFuG5TQQyOuAggJPtnv-h-a9673sbq4m61nTni2BAlRDs%7EIexICcgjAX2H9CdvsBZN2Y7i-RMyOaM2-0uquFlZx5KCv%7E7xNB6fs62giFocFx91gOtQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3f4d254a63362a43f3841fdc8e50de36 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Allan Jason Sarmiento Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Lorraine Agtang Location The location of the interview. Sacramento, California Finding Guide Interview Finding Guide for Oral History of Lorraine Agtang [0:00-10:00] Place of birth in 1952 – father’s occupation as a migrant worker – mother’s immigration into the United States – parents meet and Arizona, marry, and relocate to Delano – growing up in East Delano – ethnic relations in East Delano [10:01-20:00] Ethnic relations in the fields– farm work at an early age– first experiences with farmworker activism– 1965 Grape Strikes and the Agricultural Workers Organizing (AWOC) Committee – early strikebreakers – joint strike with the National Farmworkers Association (NFWA) – Delano’s Filipino Community on strike – working with the United Farm Workers (UFW) [20:01-30:00] Working at 40 Acres and Agbayani Village – decline of Filipino-Americans in union participation – The 1973 Strike and Teamsters – Filipinos in the Teamsters – ethnic tensions during AWOC-NFWA merger – Paul Agbayani’s death during the ’65 strike [30:01-40:00] Pre-UFW strikes: Filipino farmworkers and “wildcat strikes” – wildcat strikes and the 1965 grape strike – Filipino farmworkers after the boycott – Agbayani Village and Asian students – deaths during the strike – Lorraine’s experience in the 1973 Grape Strike – working at the Rodridgo Terronez Memorial Clinic [40:01-50:00] Working at the Rodridgo Terronez Memorial Clinic – construction of Agbayani Village– interactions with Manongs, Agbayani Village workers, and students – first manager of Agbayani Village – The Manongs daily life at Agbayani Village – Philip Vera Cruz – [50:01-01:00:00] Cesar Chavez’ visit to the Philippines – working as a UFW labor organizer – post-’65 strike Filipino families in Delano – [01:00:01-01:10:00] Supporting Filipino-American Farmworker History – Assembly Bill 123 – Legacy in Filipino-American Farmworker History Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Agtang (Lorraine) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Welga Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available University of California, Davis. Asian American Studies Department. Welga Filipino American Labor Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 17, 2014 Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga Project and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Description An account of the resource Lorraine Agtang was a UFW organizer during the 1970s and served the first manager for Agbayani Village. In this oral history interview, Lorraine recounts her early experiences as a farmworker, along with her experiences in both the 1965 Delano Grape Strike and the 1973 Grape Strike. Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers Grape Strike Labor union welfare funds Retirees United Farm Workers United Farm Workers Organizing Committee Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Interview with Mr. Max Bacerra Welga Interview Daisy Montes Cabrera and Lucero Vera June 5, 2015 Phone Call Interview: 7:45 PM  Max: Hello, is this Daisy?  Interviewer: Hello Mr. Max Bacerra, are you ready for you interview?  Max: You can call me Max. First of all, I am kind of surprised that your teacher would ask you to give me a call, but what is the base for this phone call so I can respond better to you? So the both of you are taking an Asian Pacific class?  Interviewer: We are actually sociology majors and we are taking a Filipino American Experience class. And in this class, so far we have learned about the Filipino American Experience and about Delano, and the Filipino immigration to the United States, and all of that. We are actually doing this for our final, because we were supposed to go to Delano, but unfortunately, our professor could not book enough interviews there and so she sent us your contact information because she thought you were a good person for us to interview.  Max: And your professor? I don’t know if I know your professor.  Interviewer: Her name is Robyn Rodriguez.  Max: I guess I just don’t know her personally. Both of you, what year are you at UC Davis?  Interviewer: We are both second years.  Max: Both of you, where you grew up, you grew up in San Jose?  Interviewer: Yes, I grew up in San Jose and Lucero grew up in San Pablo.  Max: Oh.  Interviewer: Yeah, so we are both from the Bay Area.  Max: There was a good friend of mine, her name was Madeline ______ (1:56) and she was a director there in San Pablo. And then another good friend of mine was the the assistant developer for San Jose. And they are good people to reach out to too. And that is good, at least I got some background.  Interviewer: (chuckles) Oh that’s great!  Max: So you studied and have a little bit of background on the Filipino American migration here?  Interviewer: Yeah. Actually, one of the biggest class projects that we had this quarter was to be assigned to a city. For example, I was assigned to Pacifica and the goal of our group project was to try to get history or social science teachers to want to include the Filipino American Experience into their curriculum, and so our task was to find contacts. For us, we emailed a lot of people, trying to ask them to teach more about the Filipino history and the experience. As a class, we all agreed that it is something that is not really taught in class, and so we think it is really important to do that to share those experiences and get those experiences out there.  Max: That’s good. A lot of that history. A lot history is told by father. They call them Manongs and in our culture that is a sign, like the Spanish Manongs, they were the first wave of Filipinos who came around the early 1900’s around the 1930’s. My dad came here back in 1923. So that’s a lot of their stories around Delano, Salinas, parts of Castroville, Watsonville, and Washington State. They came here looking for, to look for education, a better way of life. And as you probably read, they did not have that opportunity. Either you worked in the shipyards or you just worked in agriculture. My dad, as a young man, he went to pick apples up there in Washington. But primarily, he was picking broccoli, cauliflower in the Salinas, Castroville area. And then grapes in the Delano area. But they went as far south as the _____ Valley (5:42). Because they had grapes over there too. And it was a hard life. My dad was telling me that the ratio of men to women was like 120 to like 1.  Interviewer: Oh wow.  Max: Yeah. And then the thing is that in California, it was against the law for them to marry anyone that was of Mexican descent. And so that was true for a long time. And at east in California, that it was upheld that they couldn’t vote, they couldn’t intermarry, they couldn’t own property and so it was really tough for them in a way. There was a law that overturned the right for Filipinos to own land and was overturned in the 1950’s. So that wasn’t that long ago.  Interviewer: Wow, that really isn’t.  Max: Yeah it was hard. And there was a similar program called the Braceros program.  Interviewer: Yes, I’ve heard about that one.  Max: Yeah. And so, they used... Filipinos actually, Chinese came over to help build the railroads in the 1800’s and so the Japanese came, and all the ships that would bring people over were filled up with people of Chinese descent and Japanese descent. And they would hop that ship and just have a new way of life. And Filipinos had a lot to figure out during that first wave. Some of them were dropped off in Hawaii. Both of them came to California in the United States, and some of them to San Francisco. And well, that was the story. After World War II, the Philippines were on the same side as the United States and they beat Germany and Japan, and they were reprieved. They told them, you can go home to your country. But, for many of them, this [United States] was their country already and then he went back home, and my great uncle, my mom’s uncle, my grandmother on my mom’s side, or my mother’s mother which would be my grandmother, she had a brother who did the same thing. He came from their province, my mom and dad are from the same province in the Philippines.  Interviewer: Excuse me, what province is that?  Max: ______ it is in the Northern. My mother is from a town called Alaminos, and but what is interesting is that now that you mention Pacifica, my grandfather, even though he is my great uncle, we still call him my Lolo. My Lolo Eli, that is his Americanized name, he told my dad to go visit my neighbor because she was a good gal and she was working in the city of Manila as a hairdresser and she was from our province. My dad courted her, and courted her for almost a year and he asked her to marry him and asked her “Will you go back to the United States with me?” And later on he would petition her for citizenship. And so, that was back in ’52 and by ’54 by mom and dad had came over. The first place they went to in California was, well they did not want to go to Washington state because my dad had already worked here for 20, 30 years working in the Salinas area, the Delano area, and the Coachella Valley (12:20). And what happened was that they really liked the Salinas, Delano area. My mom told the story that she first ended up there, and it’s pretty warm there (~13). And it is pretty cold and foggy in the Philippines compared to the Salinas area. And I mean, where else would they go then? They decided to go towards Delano. And she went there mainly through a lot of people that spoke her same dialect, Ilocano. And so then, we landed, well they ended up in Delano in ’54. My brother was born in ’56.  Interviewer: Oh okay. Where were you born actually?  Max: In Delano. Delano, California. So was my brother, he was born in 1956. I was born in 1958. By that time, my dad was 52 and my mom was 42. And that is when there were really harsh conditions, and people were working for the major farmers in the area. And so then that was when Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz and people would ask them to be there, and to me they were just my uncles.  Interviewer: Wow.  Max: They lived like maybe about 10 blocks from each other.  Interview: That is so interesting because I read the book about Philip Vera Cruz and I am just astonished that they were like your uncles to you.  Max: Yeah. Did you read that book by Sid Valledor?  Interview: Yeah [actually wrong author, read book by Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva]  Max: Okay. There is actually a picture there of my dad’s side, it was his great uncle, which is Candy Bacerra. He is in that book and, he came in from the Philippines just like my uncles did. He was a bit older, he was my dad’s uncle, okay? And his story was that he came in separately from the Philippines and landed there in San Francisco. And he was taken there to Idaho. And he met this farmer, and met his daughter and he liked one of them and they were really strict here in California. He went to, they got married. Basically, my Lolo Candy they went to Orange County and they lived there in the Anaheim area. But he was a school teacher back in the Philippines, but he came here pretty educated. He was a teacher so he went to high school and went to college and all of that. But he went to Anaheim, and then he started to be a carpenter. And the funny story is that my Sid Valledor and he was trying to get the story when I was there. And everyone looked up and they introduced me. And I remember him say “Hey, you have a great Uncle!” And I said “Yeah!” And to this day, I still carry my grandfather’s and great uncles’ social security cards and medical cards. And well yeah, that’s me. And so what happened was they had 5 kids and they had a divorce maybe around the early 1960’s, so my Lolo Candy and I mentioned Anaheim because he went to Disneyland. He worked and was a carpenter. Anyway, they divorced and he lived in Delano and he was in Delano when he worked here and he was living with us. And in the middle of all the strike, he was one of the main workers who worked on 40 Acres up there. He came here was a school teacher in the Philippines and became a work laborer, farm worker over here when he came to the United States and he ended up being a carpenter for the roof and the building of Agbayani Village.  Interviewer: Oh okay! I’ve heard and learned about Agbayani Village.  Max: But my dad, he raised us here but we were in Dover Street in Delano. From my Uncle Larry’s house, we were probably, I don’t know, maybe 4 blocks. So he lived in 19th Place in Delano. And we were on Dover and 19th, that was our address. But anyways, our family and a lot of the other Filipino families were a pretty close community.  Interviewer: I see. I actually I have a question for you. I have the understanding that you worked at a high school, is that correct?  Max: I did work in a high school. I was involved. I mean, Mom, Dad were always involved in the community and they always taught us to be proud of our culture and our heritage but they also told us to be involved. They told us to always be close to our roots and be close to the community. I remember sometimes we would watch Kennedy on TV and all the speeches and my dad would say, “You see President Kennedy? You can do that too!” And I would say “Yeah, Dad?” But, I ended up having a license to do government. So, I was involved in our local associations club and I became the President of our high school, and that was maybe 2, 3 years. And then I would start our local Filipino high school club, the United Filipino Organization, the UFO. And then, the next year I was President of the Junior class, and then Vice President during Senior year. And so that was in 1976. The next year, I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I got my degree in City and Regional Planning and my Bachelors in Science. And well education is important. That is why, well I don’t know who the two of you are but, I really feel strongly that education is something that they can’t take away from you. And the Manongs, they brought up wanting that education and they paved the path for us, including you. They fought for their rights and action programs, and, there were minorities in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. There weren’t many Filipinos there. But again, education is not something they can take from you. When I graduated, I asked my mom, because well they would give me like $50 every three weeks or something like that, and by that time, in the ‘70’s they didn’t have the best health care back then. And I asked my mom, well it’s graduation time and a lot of them were able to go to my graduation ceremony to watch me. And I came back to see my dad, and he wanted me to take him to the doctors and there was a trip I had planned with one of my best friends who was also Filipino from Delano and I got him to go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. And so I told my dad that well I wanted to go travel, and he said that I needed to take him to his doctor. And I said okay. I told my friend, “We’re going to have to do this later.” But anyways, I took my dad in and he had a bladder/prostate problem and so he was taking medicine and the doctor said, “Take your dad to the Emergency Room right now, he’s having a heart attack.” And I did, and he stayed in ICU for maybe 3 days, and the day he was supposed to go back to the regular ward, they told us he died, that he had passed away. And after I graduated, my dad, well one of the Manongs, had passed and that is what he wanted to see, to see me graduate from Cal Poly. And I think about that and I try my best for him and for everybody else to do the best I can and do what I do and Mom passed away from cancer 5 years after.  Interviewer: I am so sorry.  Max: Yeah. She was able to see me get married. She only had two kids. It was my brother and myself. And I remember that there were a lot of Filipinos in a similar situation as us. I remember when we would go to concerts or to school awards they would ask us, “Oh is that your grandpa?” And I would say, “No, that’s my dad.” And but, I was proud of it, that he was my dad.  Interviewer: Yeah of course. That is something to be proud of.  Max: Yeah. And, I don’t know if what I do but I started working in Delano as the Senior Planner for the city. I love my major and I still do. So I opened up an event planning and government services firm called Max P. Bacerra and Associates. I also worked on large development projects in Southern California and in the Sacramento Area. And over the years, I have done this for about 35 years. About 5 years ago, I started to do land development.  Interviewer: Oh okay.  Max: Yeah. So I am now a _____ developer (31:02). I do smaller projects here in this area but I am a land developer but I have been involved in so many different land projects and different subprojects. I think what I do is something important because how many Manongs and Filipinos wanted the same opportunities that I had. I just try my best and I was telling, I had never met Sid Valledor and he was trying to say the stories of the farmers and the farm workers and the Manongs and how hard it was. I still stay close in Delano, still here in Delano, but my reach is pretty far. But some of these older farm workers are still active, they’re alive, but active still. A lot of the farmers are on probation, but a lot of them started working in the city being on planning committees and being involved in economic development. And someone came up to me, and he is maybe 90 years old and he is someone they were striking against. He said, “I’m really proud of what you’ve done to help Delano growing, and thank you for your commitment and your hard work.” And so, I can’t get angry but I wish they would’ve given them the respect to the Manongs way back when. But to hear him say that it lightens my load right now because had they given us the chance to all work together, to achieve more. But, I don’t want you to ever forget, both of you here, those who came in and made it easier for you to be able to go to school and to be able to go to McDonalds, to go to Taco Bell. I really rep those guys and I rep those guys because we could never go there. We were always eating at home and Mom cooked and Dad picked from the vegetable garden and we got our McDonald’s restaurant back in 1973. We got back home and well we didn’t have anything else in town but that was pretty cool. And I was going to high school, but compared to the Bay Area, you’ve probably seen all of that. In every block there would be something, but we had nothing. And that was the way it was, we didn’t have much to shop in the area so we would go to Bakersfield. And in that time, we couldn’t travel and so there was…. Hm, I’m trying to figure it out. I remember working, I would work in the field and we were in the fields since I was 8. And at 11 I would have my own paycheck working in the fields and I remember you had to change your clippers afterwards and I went up to my dad and said “Dad, you work every day and make 50 cents an hour.” And at the end of the week you would work 6 days, and make $40 for the week. And back then, that was a lot. But now you get the salary including the benefits, and now it is a lot more. But that would not be possible if they did not do what they did, and fought for what they fought for, things wouldn’t be how they are. So it is important that we give back and we did okay. We always gave back to the community and to community organizations, different foundations, especially to the Delano High School kids. And now we have three high schools here in Delano, Delano High School, Cesar Chavez High School, and Robert F. Kennedy High School, and the United Filipino Organization, and well we are really proud of it. We were able to maintain our cultural identity and the heritage. We were able to participate in the statewide Festival ______(39:14)_ for 41 years. And so we helped in those celebrations, in the services, and cultural praises. And in Delano we are always reminded and we are always told the new generations to remember the struggles and the sacrifices of the Manongs. And we see at those events that throughout all of those dreams have passed on. And their wives, my dad, would have been 119. He was born in 1906. Or is that 109?  Interviewer: Yeah. I think that is 109.  Max: Yeah, then 109. And my mom would have been 99, yeah. So even the Manongs (chuckles), their wives were 20 years age difference between the Manongs and the young wives they brought over. They are all passing too. Yeah, so, they are kind of leaving that culture. Filipinos were very proud and they didn’t want to talk about the bad things. They didn’t want to put the negative sides on what happened. They always stressed to always look forward and to do your best. To find something you enjoy and be really good at because there was a lot of blood and sweat to give us the opportunity to go to school and be a mechanic, or to be a salesman, or whatever. There is a lot of pride without bringing up the past, but when you bring up the past, like working in the fields and the old Manongs that would have to select varieties, the farmers would _______ (42:13). But when you would ask them, like, “Uncle, was it really like this?”  And they would just bow their head and be like, “Yeah.”  And we were all boys, so I had to make the change, to do better than we did. And they would tell me, you are starting. And we were already in the ‘60’s and there was a lot of pressure. Even in Delano, even for us. And things started to change a little but, we were able to make a change and specifically now, to Filipino Americans and people of Filipino descent. We are on city council, on (45:03).  And in the elementary school board, high school project, community college, college district and they’re Filipino too.  Hopefully we’ve the Manongs proud but being in those fields, with them and seeing all of them being talked down to, all the time.  At first we didn’t have any restrooms and we didn’t have any breaks. Nothing to protect the workers so but you there is uh more accommodations the time rates, theres those port potties.  It’s really come a long way but I still remember what it was like back then.  It was kind of odd because we went to high school with all the farmers kids  They’d say we’ll pick you up, we would get rides and would say oh you’re talking about my dad and they would say oh no you’re talking about my dad.  Delano, until recently, still maintained a 32-34% unemployment rate  Interviewer: Is that currently or before?  Max: Until probably about five years ago, so 1 of 3 people you could count on. Either in unemployment or without a job. We’re down to about 15% now.  Interviewer: Oh okay that’s good.  Max: Now we have a lot of jobs here. In this area we have a _____ center a lot of distribution, a Wal-Mart distribution center, have the Halos for oranges, so that’s here in Delano.  So we have two state prisons here. Say what you want about state prisons but still it provides, each prison provides about fifty thousand jobs.  So its around 24/7. And so that’s basically, some of those jobs in to the area so the ___ from almonds and pistachios here, and blueberries and the almonds is a lot more animation here but there are still a lot of jobs.  We just got our first Wal-Mart about two years ago.  Interviewer: I actually heard about that, one of my peers lives in Delano and he was talking about how you all just got a Wal-Mart  Max: Yeah and we got one Starbucks here. Let’s see, you go on the 99 from Bakersfield, to Delano and it’s about 30 miles from Delano going North on the 99 to _______ there’s another Starbucks. So in 60 miles and only one Starbucks. We’re enthusiastic and so thrilled to have that. We only have one Panda here.  Delano has such a rich history but all that ___ jumped over Delano. We’re so proud of it, a new Ross, just for us and a Big 5 and we have the 2 state prisons but we really don’t have a lot of national ____. _____  00:51They’re kind of staying away from Delano for a lot of years, for many years they didn’t want Delano to grow. Us Farmers just want to make sure that they had a work force, a ready work force that they can depend on to help them Harvest the grapes and prepare ___ theres Churning and then theres tipping, Theres certain things that you do that you just wait for that so August to November and that’s just when the grapes are being produced. In between, outside of the little three, four months, the work is to prunes or pine vines, that the vines are getting grown, that they’ll be grown on the wires. So at the end when they get flu of bloom they come out with those parts hanging down. Its like off and anyways that was hard, they were picketing for higher wages and better conditions. It’s hard to make it through but somehow ___ they made it through.  Theres a lot more chances but at_____  00:54 my brother has his degree in English and he became a schoolteacher. For many years we were in the Delano area but now he started another career  Interviewer: Yeah that’s good  Max: So you see he’s Barbecuing. He does careering and cooks better than I do. He’s barbecuing. Also makes ____ and rice and serves __ salads, but anyways I have stayed here in the area and have continued to be helpful for the Delano community setting up boards and I sit on county boards, I chair ___ Delano Housing Authority  Interviewer: Oh okay  Max: And we try our best to provide affordable housing for our current county residents we need our ___ requirements but we help out seniors, foster care, the homeless. I’m thankful that even though Filipinos weren’t able to have or own housing up to the 1950s, we’re able to understand what it’s like to be farmworkers and to be poor so I think that __ it helps me become a better leader and a board member  Interviewer: Yeah That’s good  Max: In communities that I’m focusing a lot of my land development activities are small areas like _____, McFarland, Wasco. As small as even Delano. They were all and they still are primarily farm working __ but __ a new AutoZone and it makes people really happy, a dollar general, which is a discount store. It’s good. Other than that, these communities for years have had to drive from ___ into Delano. Or to go from Wasco to either River__ Delano or really go into a big city which is Bakersfield.  What’s its’ like to work in the sun or even very cold. You’re thankful that you don't have to do that. We have realtors and they get insurance ____ Basically we would wake and we would be sleeping in the back of the car and we would find our parents, find in which row they were working on and hang around with them all day until it was time to go home  00:59 And then when we had to go to school, seven years old, all of us were Filipino and Hispanic kids. Lock the doors, go to school. Walk, for us, others had to walk even further but for us it was about six blocks. You’re just walking to school and along the way you pick up your other friends and ___ all the way to elementary school. Cross the big street. ____ we would throw a rock and by the back door and then you would come home. Water the garden, fold the clothes that were on the clothesline. We had no dryers back then. It was okay, it was okay. Changed a lot but, that’s fine.  We didn’t have a lot of the programs, the social programs that now I was involved with No food stamps and no things like that, __ housing. We just didn’t have it. There was a pride that we didn’t want to just ____ families in that condition. You had to suck it up, do your best. I realize that there were a lot of families, ours was no different, and they had their personal problems. But they had to deal with apart from being poor but for the most part, I liked my childhood, my parents they made me feel happy and at the same time always encouraged me to do my best. Around the corner very empty __ you had that feeling that all the ___ are your uncles. You earn that respect. One of my best friends, __, his dad was a barber, was very supportive of the United Farm Workers and uncle Larry would every time he’d get a haircut, in a one car garage, ______, Larry would tell him, this is why we need to get it right, we need to get our rights.  For me Uncle Eri? or uncle Larry were just out there and my great uncle was a driver. He would say we’re going to go to the Bay Area and we’re going to Safeway to Picket. We used to go visit him in a smaller town ___ was eighty miles north, __ was eight miles to the east. He had his house there. And then he’d also go on the grounds of 40 acres. Have you heard of 40 acres?  Interviewer: No where is that at?  Max: Well in Delano, this land was donated to the United Farm Workers and that’s where the farmworkers headquarters, well the cite is still there. how much land the ___ donated to the United Farm Workers?  Interviewer: No (chuckles)  Max: 40 acres (both laugh)  Interviewer: That was a trick question  Max: Yeah so they built a medical cline out there, gas station, UFW headquarters, little villages in 40 acres. We have all the 40 acres now the United Farm Workers headquarters are another piece of the land probably about 50 miles away but it is bigger. The __ town called Tieen?. All of the acres, its more than 40 acres, they named the whole land where the United Farm Workers, they names it ___and that’s where Cesar was buried. I still Dolores Huerta, with her kids  Interviewer: Wow  Max: Yeah so yeah they are really good friends from high school. Emilio, Dolores’ son ___ but yeah. We all kind of grew up with each other so to me, in the __ there was Mexican ___ of course there was Emilio and Chavez’ family ___ built the church for Our Lady of Guadalupe. So, to us it’s a way of life we haven’t forgotten it and there’s a trend there especially from the Manongs that each of us, we were there, we took care up until they died, ___ I was in Hospitals they said, we wither have rooms in our house or my mom says your uncle George wants to see you go pick him up. And then I’ll wash him and your turn to wash clothes. These old men didn’t have anybody. Right, and so anyways the story behind ___ don’t live my life, we sacrificed our lives to this and even have a better life. Study hard and do your best. Do your best kind of like don’t cause trouble just show them that you can do it. I get to travel and I give them ___ respect. I work with the East Coast, the ___, but I never forget where I come from. As much as I always __ with my colleagues, I am always humbled that I want to go over board and forget that there was a lot of sacrifice, I don’t want to say my grandfather’s I feel like it was many many years ago, but it was my dad. That was my dad ___ working in the yard after his garden. A lot of values and he looked older backed then but it wasn’t my grandfather, it was my dad. And it was just one generation that came from the Philippines.  01:11 I was and still and first generation born, I was born 1958 first generation born here but I had the honor of being here growing up in Delano and being part of the whole history  Max: Have I bored you enough yet?  Interviewer: Oh no we’re really interested, Last year I actually took a Chicana/o Studies class and It was actually based in Delano too. I got the opportunity to interview somebody that was actually doing projects in Delano, and I am Mexican-American myself so I thought that it was really interesting too  Max: who’d you get to interview?  Interviewer: I forget his name, I interviewed him with a partner but he was part of the artwork and I know that he later moved on to Sac State and he was a professor there but I can’t recall his name.  Max: Well I’ll invite both of you to Delano there’s the lady her name ___ who as a teenager was __ some folks took their her family so yeah she’s there she lives by __ the school board here. These are great stories while they are still alive to interview them but the meanings, they’re not around anymore but we have Tilten? hall there. We were able to name this __ the Doctor ____. Our national hero, Filipino, the city council they allowed us to name the bridges. The bridge of _____. Its divides the East side.  There is a lot of history. I know that there is a lot of history in the urban areas but yeah if you would like to see 40 acres, the retirement home that they built for Manongs. Have you seen the Delano Manongs?  Interviewer: We watched part of it in class  Max: Yes well one of the old men was my uncle and __ I buried them. I would see my Lolo up there at ___ village. They would also be down and tell me their stories. That’s a good, about half an hour to sit down and just watch it. it would be worth it, and it’s real. It was historian and they wanted ____ with the __ and the Mexican-American and they are able to for the United Farm Workers. To bring something bigger. Like Larry, the vice president and of course the president. Over time they became the other vice president and also uncle Pete. But it’s a good story if you want to go see what it’s like with the strikes and that’s just how it was. And __the farmworkers you go to. everyone went to the same high school. Delano high, it’s what we teach them. To be mean or to be tasteful but I had a lot of fun. Farmer friends they were all going to the same school playing sports and joining clubs together. Taking classes together and would just go on about farmers vs. farm workers. They would start talking, oh you’re talking about my dad, or you’re talking my dad. You’re dad is wrong, That’s when we would have walkouts in high school but I would really encourage the both of you to watch the movie  Interviewer: Yeah I’ve watched the Cesar Chavez Movie and in our class we were talking about the things that were misrepresented in the movie. Our professor was talking about how a Filipino person talked about how they were really misrepresented in the movie from how it actually happened and I think that it’s something that is really interesting too.  Max: When they did the Cesar Chavez movie, it was really portrayed ___. the Filipinos were the ones who really started the strike and they asked Cesar Chavez to join them. The farmer would play off, saying you guys have to cross the picket line for five cents more. no better recognitions and when they got tired they were realizing, we’re just being taken advantage of, we’re going to stop. and the next day they would go to the Filipinos and say, “we’ll pay you five cents more” and then they played each other, they played one against the other. If they would’ve worked together they would’ve gotten better conditions and better wages a lot sooner. But that’s not how it was. I find it very interesting that the Filipinos really weren’t given that respect. We were there and I guess they made a _____ a couple years ago, ___ village for the contributions of the Filipinos and then the Child’s foundation of the United Farm Workers said we owe a __ gratitude to our Filipino brothers because without them we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we’ve been able to achieve. We need to recognize who they were. Some says it was a little too late but still it happened in the past but that they acknowledge it now, I appreciate it, it still means something just like I was telling the farmers now. Thank you for all your contributions to help out Delano  01:22 It still means something. If it’s something that makes my mom but especially my dad feel a little bit better.  Interviewer: Yes of course  Max: then that’s good. To the both of you, if you want to go to Delano, A lot of it is still in our city halls, in our schools. They have a school named after Cesar Chavez and they have one named after Robert Kennedy, he came here during the grape strike, he ___ and the ___ in the hall is still there. Delano has gone through a lot of history  San Pablo, I don’t know real history of it but there’s a casino there, but San Jose a lot of history ___ in that area there was crops that were _ in that area but right now you see all around you and you see (Delano), you still see 100 times more crops than you see housing, industrial and commercial development. Any ways that’s something that I hope that as sociology majors you study this and not just read it but its important that you visit the area and kind of think and imagine what it was like. Besides reading it, if you have a chance, before something happens to the ___ hall or like you said interviewed people who were part of the great strike and the community. __ still alive. It keeps you grounded. And, 20 years from now you play it back and you have these other people, Filipinos and Hispanics who worked hard and sacrificed so that your kids could have a better life but at least you’ll recall those oral interviews.  Interviewer: Thank you so much for this interview, I think it is very important to keep this history alive and make sure everybody knows about it. As I said in my class, there’s not a lot of books written about Filipino history or about the Filipino experience so it’s important to keep it going and be able to understand it.  01:26 The wives of those Manongs before they came here. They can tell the stories a lot better than I can. Their kids, they can say a lot. I see some of them, I’m still very good friends with some of their kids or I go visit them at their resting home, they can’t live alone in their homes anymore, their kids are all grown up now and they all moved away. Only some of them come back to Delano, I don’t know any of the wives of them that are less than 80. Their time is limited. The professions to keep it alive would be you guys, you guys since _ can rely on your oral interviews. And again instead of hearing about some of us that you read, to really talk to them and get a real grasp of what went on. They’re just people, they’re friends, I can talk to them, its not a special thing. I can talk to them it’s not a special thing, I’ll call them and come talk to them. Theres some that have been in city council fir twelve years and they’re ____ people. and they’d come up to Delano ___ from East LA and San Luis Obispo, we’d have a weekend celebration. Uncle Phillip would be eating at the picnic table and he’d be eating _____. People ask, "can you tell us where Phillip Vera Cruz is?" and we’d say "yeah okay he’s in that table." "That’s Phillip Vera Cruz?" “Yeah.”  01:30 And they’d ask can you introduce us to him and I’d say well yeah I’m kind of busy right now but would just say “Phillip” and he’d __ loved to talk to all of you and tell all his stories so all could know. And they’d say “wow, you’re a legend” __ Phillip was very well educated. HE was very well read. ___ My great uncle - candi?, He had a lot of books in his room, that’s what they did. They had great vocabulary they read books well and they were deep, but not too deep that you wouldn’t understand it. That to me was the era to be around. I am very grateful to be around it. I work for a congressman, up north and many years younger than me but he works for a congressman up north at ___ and he said to me “ I wish I lived in your era, it would’ve been so cool. It looks like a lot of fun memories to remember to be a part of” Remember we were poor, but I think he grew up in Hercules but he went down to East LA and they were poor so __ wish they could back to __ And ___ our ancestries weren’t all that big.  Back in ’73 we got our first Taco Bell, maybe in ’85 got a KFC and our Wal-Mart just came in. Its a different way of life but it kind of keeps you grounded. Some say I’ll never come back. Some want to raise their kids in a better environment but this is a much better environment than raising a kid in a bigger city.  I don’t know if I really answered your questions?  Interviewer: Oh no no we actually had questions set up but we didnt even ask them because you hit all of them. We really want to thank you for taking time out of your day and I actually became really passionate about this, honestly I was just taking this for the class but after learning more about Filipinos and their experience I got really passionate about it. I really enjoyed listening to you talk about your experience and talking about your family. Thank you for opening up so much to us.  Max: I don’t get to talk too much about it. My wife and the __ background but she is from the Oceano __ area. Also farm labor and they came 1909 so she worked with Phillip too but she has a medical ____ so we’ve been married 31 years I met her at Cal Poly, and we have 36 grandchildren. I want to tell the story because it is still a farm worker background. There’s the Mexican and the Filipinos, anyone who worked really hard. Their story hasn’t been told. ___ In the Bay Area the strawberries, the tomatoes, the roses, I think of how we’re here. You guys have got to come down to to see __ the roses, the rose gardens and the sun, the grapes get shade, they call it under the vine, and they can go there and cool down a little. __ in a different city. I am always reminded that I have deadlines and have commitments, contractors waiting for me and reports to do and I think about how tough my job is and __ you make me suffer so much and I’m on my phone, on my cell phone, in my air-conditioned car and I look over while driving over Wasco and I see those guys with no shade at all and100 degrees  Interviewer: Yes hard conditions.  Max: They’re trying to fill up those roses. And I go okay never mind. You can’t feel __ (too bad) because you get to Bakersfield, to your air conditioned office and these guys, day in and they out. They start the day before you and finish the day after you, and so you really can’t complain. Just say Thank you, Mom and Dad for not letting me give up.  01:39 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Daisy Montes Cabrera and Lucero Vera Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Max Baccera Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bacerra (Max) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] National Farm Workers Association [lcna] Mexican American Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Description An account of the resource Oral History interview with Max Baccera. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 5, 2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Language A language of the resource English https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/11651/archive/files/0d6c9fe0a6a756bcfe7a70f032194a40.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=i1Rfxms9OOCBkV6CafYByIDSUFps7RgU0%7EBTA35IluWKjcoX1ruYm1YBdS7VGZPnwafN0AAGo%7ENpRiappUz8BGR7tNjTAQE0qJ0SCHUZQb7ZZ5qoWS4hISBNYPg-698rw%7Ez22dkO3kDoBbGTf3aqPAa3u%7EAeqCzU7gTvQqtagvLv1osRFih%7EnNDHEggES0fxR1B3he9AhxQlRFWaj725lD2w2RVLvD3dXy5XNz8Z0drIzo4Bw3xtjIRntIiWNjfm8N7WJ7exV4F0N2gsGoeYcdXgy2JNF2p79XJZ6Re%7EVlbVPAljKzI7YNjQT%7EHdZ4ofPm0aYVEJldm4AbJb2Wnj1A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 94a69939e1c1727f6427a4a50a336a79 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Linda Nguyet Nguyen Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Cynthia Bonta Location The location of the interview. Alameda, California Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bonta (Cynthia) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers Delano Calif. Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 Itliong-Larry Labor union welfare funds Retirees United Farm Workers United Farm Workers Organizing Committee Description An account of the resource Oral History Interview with Cynthia Bonta, mother of Assemblymen Rob Bonta Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga Project University of California, Davis - Asian American Studies Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 5, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga Project and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Document; Transcript Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s001_0010_orh_2017 Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee Delano Calif Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers Grape Strike Calif 1965-1970 Itliong - Larry Labor union welfare funds Retirees United Farm Workers United Farm Workers Organizing Committee Vera Cruz - Philip https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/11651/archive/files/0a647bbd1567d7138524becefd873e1c.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=Ioz4vKHrqY1o1w%7EfIybZGX2-YVdFgLlQqdWFlamTQ9lmecgAVnHlyWv4A6fX%7ENnGfb1iuOAhOftF2dHLF0W8xaL7sB8IQxrH%7EJCDuQi87paMxk1IbGyhv0d3LVJ28ycpyAGVr1j%7E6xqEzzLPpkGlILMtxqYdwFjnkVGH4ienWNNxH88-moORYA6l14Op1sLASOQbEFaaA5pg94FRO1AKT3XbMZ5oWsFMRqBTGKf2UG5lBvRNPRjJ4n1G4ytaJDrbxMnbgwVXeLC88J8CAO7Me28gADzeDHOlvs2Y5atEGPAxH-Wk-GKvEZoyholBoaz9B1J4aCzCXPpJXYMylUjw6Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 642cdb8003fe2ecfc58f4f3e707f3298 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Robyn Rodriguez, (PhD) Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Isao Fujimoto Location The location of the interview. Davis, California Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview [0:00-10:00] Welga Project background – Working with educators from the Philip Vera Cruz –Larry Itliong Middle School– growing up on the Yamaka Indian Reservation – Student Movement at Indonesia – early involvement with farm labor activism – meeting international activists and representatives [10:01-20:00] Cal-Indo Project – Post-baccalaureate experiences – science revolution – increase importance of activism and civil rights –attending Howard University and connection with civil rights – rural sociology work at Cornell and the Philippines – field work in the Philippines (Mindoro, Initao, Laguna, Cotabato) [20:01-30:00] American Friends Service Committee – joining the picket line during the 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike –picketing the Giumarra Winery– association with Pancho Botello – farmworker activism in Northern California (Davis, Marysville) – assisting the UFW in Northern California– Yuba City school board stops bussing in children from farm labor camps – collaboration between social justice groups (Peace Corps, United Farm Workers, student organizations, UC Davis Faculty) – grassroots bussing programs for rural school children – Grape growers swift response to UC Davis Chancellor Emil Mrak – the firing Molly Freeman – Discussing the farmworker movement at UC Davis College of Agriculture – hate mail for bussing rural school children – creating the Community Development course [30:01-40:00] UC Davis’ response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy – Asian American Conference in California – organizing UFW Filipino leaders to attend lectures (Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong) – UC Davis Asian American Studies and the United Farm Workers – the farmworker movement and Asian American studies curriculum – [40:01-50:00] Cesar Chavez visit to UC Davis – Fujimoto’s involvement with the United Farm Workers – the origins of the Delano Grape Strike – Illocano and Pangasinan members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee – Arabic boycott signs during the grape strike – disagreements between Filipino leaders and other UFW leaders [50:01-01:00:00] Relationship between AFSC and UFW – Filipino farmworker involvement and the creation of the UC Davis Asian American studies curriculum. [01:00:01-01:10:00] Supporting Filipino-American Farmworker History – Assembly Bill 123 Legacy in Filipino-American Farmworker History – Fujimoto’s tenure situation Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Fujimoto (Isao) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Davis, calif. [lcna] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Farmworker activism in Northern California United Farm Workers [lcna] University of California, Davis [lcna] Description An account of the resource Oral History interview with Isao Fujimoto, who recounts his experiences as a Rural Sociologist and his association with the farmworker movement. Detailed in this oral history is his overseas experience in the Philippines, the connection between the Asian American Studies program and Filipino farmworkers, and local support efforts for the United Farm Workers. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 13, 2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Born-digital PDF Document, 30 pages. Language A language of the resource English Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Alaina Kyra Cagalingan and Miggy Cruz Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Lillian Galedo Location The location of the interview. Oakland, California Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Welga! Filipino American Farmworker Oral History Project Oral History Interview With LILLIAN GALEDO June 5, 2015 Oakland, California By Alaina Kyra Cagalingan and Miggy Cruz Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives UC Davis Asian American Studies Department [June 5, 2015] [Begin Audio File] CRUZ: Starting now is the interview for the oral history of Ms. Lillian Galedo. I’m Miggy Cruz. CAGALINGAN: I’m Alaina [Cagalingan]. GALEDO: I am Lillian Galedo. CRUZ: Can you tell us where and when were you born? GALEDO: I was born in Stockton California in 1948 so I was a post world war 2 baby, part of the baby boom. CRUZ: Can you tell us where were your parents born? GALEDO: Both my parents are from Bohol. They are from a town by the name of Garcia-Hernandez, Bohol, which are two priests. The city was named after a priest. Well, it’s more like a village. My father first left in about 1922 to look for work. He ended up on the West Coast of United States, and was sort of a migrant farmworker like most Filipinos were at the time. Because the Philippines was a colony of the US, they were considered nationals of the US. And so they could travel back and forth without any problems. He continued to work in the US until about 1939. He went back to the Philippines to find somebody to marry because there were anti-miscegenation laws here in the United States that prevented Filipinos from marrying outside of their race. He was introduced to my mom. She was 16 years younger than him. So I think when he left, she probably, was she even born? [laughs] Anyway, they got married and she got pregnant pretty much right away. So he left to come back to the United States to get ready for her and the baby. Because the plan was she was going to have the baby and at a point go take a boat. Because the boat took over a month, and join him. But World War II broke out and nobody was allowed to leave the Philippines because it was very dangerous. They didn’t get back together until 1947, and my sister was already 6 years old. Then the rest of us was born one after the other. I was born ‘48, my sister was ’49, and my brother was born in 1950. But by that time, my father was 50 years old already. Because by the time he got married, he was 40, I think. CAGALINGAN: And so, your father stayed here all throughout the war separated from your mom, and after the war, she came to the US. So the rest of your siblings were born here? GALEDO: Yes, so except for my sister, we were all born here in the United States. All in Stockton California, where he had pretty much settled and plan to raise his family there. CRUZ: Is there a specific reason why Stockton? GALEDO: Well, it’s an agriculture place. You can almost find work year round in Stockton. Because during winter, you can get a job at pruning, which is something he was able to do. He got pretty good at pruning and so he got employment in the winter, and then the rest of the year is some kind of crop was growing or needed to be harvested. He actually tried not to be a farmworker and tried to get out of farm working because it was hard and also he was already 50 years old. He had worked since about 22 as a farm worker, so he tried different things. When my mother arrived, he had a what was called candy store. And, we moved into a house right across the street, and this is kind of in downtown Stockton, which was sort of an extension of Chinatown. So, Chinatown and Manilatown were pretty much the same place [laughs]. And he had this candy store, but he didn’t make much money in this candy store. [5:09 – 9:39] GALEDO: We thought of it as our neighborhood, but it was considered by the city as a [inaudible] neighborhood, ‘skidro” [inaudible], that kind of stuff. One of the things he did is he had people who sometimes stayed at the back of restaurant or the soda fountain candy store, which is what it's called. Maybe to make a little bit of money but also just to sort of give guys who were looking for work and sort of migrating down up and down the west coast a place to stay for a little while until they found some work. But we move out of there fairly soon after he lost the store. We moved to what was the unincorporated part of Stockton. It’s just on the outskirts of Stockton before you cross a bridge into what’s called the Delta. So we were right out the edge of the Delta, living in an unincorporated part of Stockton. During my life in Stockton, that part of town finally got incorporated. But at the time we were living there didn’t have sidewalks and didn’t hook up to [the] city’s sewer systems so we had a septic tank in the back. And it was still so rural-like. But it was a like a quarter acre. He had a quarter acre of land so his idea was to build like a big garden. We have a huge garden in the backyard and a very little house. It was a very racially mixed neighborhood. Well I shouldn’t say that because there were very few white people there. But a lot of Filipinos and especially Filipino mixed families: Filipino-Mexicans, Filipino-white; and mainly farm workers or people working in the agricultural industries, so as cannery workers. So I always went to school at places, well not just me but my whole family went to schools that were very integrated schools because south Stockton were pretty much one of the areas where people of color lived. There was sort south and east Stockton. And Stockton was still somewhat segregated. North of main street was mainly white with some Asians. Then south of main street was Asian, Latinos, black and some white people. Especially white people in mixed marriages. It wasn’t ‘til I went to community college that I even went to north Stockton because that was where the community college is at. We grew up in a very mixed-raced kind of environment. Mainly, low income people. CAGALINGAN: Its interesting because one of our required reading is Dawn Mabalon’s book and she talked about segregation of Stockton as a city. As you’ve mentioned earlier, there was that line. I believe it was the railroad that segregated the white from the people of color. GALLEDO: Yes that was one of the benchmarks. There is a canal, which is near the main street. When you pass downtown, the city starts to become more and more white. And then housing development was happening more in north side of town. And eventually Asians, in particular, started moving out to north of Stockton. But now it's very mixed. People are everywhere. South and East Stockton are pretty much in low income people. CAGALINGAN: Do you remember your experiences before your father left farm working? [9:39 – 14:51] GALEDO: His business failed, and so he went back to being a farmworker. He was a farmworker ‘til he was 75 years old, which was when he finally stopped working. So most of his life, he was a farm worker. Most of what we saw him do was farm work. As teenagers we also did farm work just to make money. We’d pick berries or tomatoes during the summer season to earn money for our school clothes or things like that. But when we were smaller, we’d also help our dad harvest sweet potatoes because he would have a contract with a particular grower. So the whole family would go early in the morning and start putting sweet potatoes and boxes. I think we did that for 3 or 4 years as kids. There was couple of times when we also worked at the asparagus packing shed. So the workers would bring asparagus to the shed and then it would be put on to a conveyer belt, and we would pack it on boxes. But we have to be there at 6 o’clock in the morning because by the time it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, it was too hot. So you have to work earlier. CRUZ: So after your dad left farm working at 75, and you said, the candy shop.. GALEDO: Yes, the candy shop was something he tried during that time when my mom was still in the Philippines. He had this idea of getting the business going and when she came she could help with the business. They did that for a little while, but the business didn’t take off so he had to go back to farm working. CRUZ: Can you talk about your educational life from when you learned about activist groups and how you got involved with that. GALEDO: Okay, so I went to high school. And all my elementary, junior high school, which is what we used to call what is now middle school. In high school in South Stockton, and then I went directly to the community college which was in north Stockton, which is now delta. Junior college is what they call it then. It was there while I was at junior college that I got recruited to go to UC Davis. I had already been accepted to go to San Jose State. My older sister who was born in the Philippines, she was 7 years older than me, she had already gone to San Jose state. She was already married and had kids by the time that I was getting ready to go to college. I decided to go to the same college as she did. I had really very few ambitions. I didn’t know what to do with myself so I just following her path. Now, this recruiter came to Delta Junior College, that was what it was called at the time. This recruiter, an African American guy, came to our councilors and scheduled some appointments with some folks for him to talk to about going to UC Davis. I didn’t know it at the time, but Davis was embarking on it first major expansion of educational opportunity program. So his mission was to recruit about a hundred kids, minority students or low income, which is what we were called at the time to go to Davis. I didn’t know what I was doing when I went to that appointment. Interestingly enough, I didn’t even know UC Davis existed. And if you have seen a map, Stockton and UC Davis are actually pretty close but we never got anywhere. I have never gone to Sacramento and that kind of, we have a very small university that we operate. The farthest side we’ve went is Livingston because my parents had a sort of a town organization that they belong to –The Sons and Daughters of Hernandez. They would meet periodically in Livingston at this farm. [14:51 – 19:52] GALEDO: Anyways, I didn’t know where Davis was and he had to tell me where Davis was. I was very skeptical because I had never heard about the place. But what was intriguing about it is that our education is going to be totally free. And that was EOP in the very beginning. Everything was going to be covered. And I was like “myehh, really?” He said, “Well come in and look at it first.” They hauled a bunch of us down there and luckily I knew some of the other people who were going. There was Laurena Cabanero who was a year younger than me but also from Edison high school. There was probably about 10 of us who went to Edison high school. It was a rather intimidating experience because there was hardly any people of color. It was all white and the prospect of living in a dorm with all this white people was not something that I had planned on in my life. But you know, it was going to be free. It was hard to argue with that. I signed. My mom was skeptical about signing the papers because she says something must be wrong here. This doesn’t happen. I think she didn’t wanna sign it and so I think I faked her signature. But we went and they took pretty good care of us because they realize that it was going to be a difficult adjustment. There were support groups and tutoring.There weren’t really student organization that we were interested in or knew about or geared toward student of color. They made it possible for us to kind of band together. They started talking to us about the issues of the day. This was 1968, and the UFW had already been created. And so, one of the issues that they were talking about were the farmworkers and how the UFW was created. They talked mainly about the Mexican farmworkers. But you know, one of the councilors, she’s half Filipina and Mexican. She pointed out the Filipinos. But there were no Filipino organizations on campus. I did join a campus group. It was a Mexican Student Association because I identified with Mexican kids. I grew up around Mexican kids and Mexican farm workers. And that was the only group that was organized. I joined that and I think I was a member of it until Asian Americans started getting themselves together. But it was also because that organization was folded into a kind of a statewide organization of Mexican students, whose name I forgot now. But now you’d have to be Mexican to be part of it. And so I couldn’t be part of it anymore. It still exists. God, what is the name of that organization. Do you know of any Mexican or Latino organization on campus? CRUZ: I’m not sure. GALEDO: Its acronym had been blotted out of my mind and replaced by a gazillion other acronyms. But it was the birth the Chicano movement. And so, it was actually kind of an expression of the nationalism of the time where groups were organizing on narrow nationalism. And so, it wasn’t possible to a member of this organization anymore. So I gravitated towards Asian Americans. There was no Filipino group yet there either. But there were beginnings of Asian American studies. This is 1968, and this is the big year of student activism. I was very conservative, apolitical, and I just sort of walked into it. It happened around me and sort of just swept me up. [19:52 – 24:42] GALEDO: So in 1968 was the 3rd World Strike at SF state, and Filipinos were involved in that and I was like wow! They came to Davis to talk about the 3rd world strike. “Ohh these guys are so cool”, and they seemed that way. The student body president was half Filipino and very much identified as Filipino. He is Filipino Guamanian. He was part of a Filipino organization called PASE, which I think is still there. They made it a point talking to students of other campuses about the strike and getting support for the strike. So of course, you know, we supported the strike. And then, 6 months later, the 3rd world strike at UC Berkeley happened. Because when I met with these guys in San Francisco state, the strike was coming to close. Then UC Berkeley happened [referring back to its 3rd world strike] where Asian Americans were part of a third world leadership of the strike. They were not only activist to starting ethnic studies but they were also anti-war activists. They also made a point of going to other campuses to talk about this and inviting us to go to their campus. I went with a bunch of students to UC Berkeley to soak in the political atmosphere. It was very intoxicating. I was like, “ Oh I wanna be one of these people.” I remember Jing Huan (sp?), who is the recent past mayor of Oakland, coming to UC Davis to talk about the war. That girl was so informed and she must have been 18 years old. She was rattling on about the statistics of the war and the impact of the war. I was like, “Wow! I want to be like that!” So yes it was very contagious becoming a political person and being a part of the political organization. With the end of the 3rd world strike at Berkeley, the kind of movement to start ethnic studies program on campuses all over the country was going on. At Davis, I got involved with the students who intent on starting Asian American Studies as part of the larger ethnic studies but we were rather [inaudible] we were looking at just Asian American studies. There were Chicano students are looking at Chicano studies, and black students looking at Black studies. It was in the process of starting these ethnic programs that people got very politicized. For one thing, you started learning about your history. You started getting critical about the education system for not giving you the opportunity about learning about it till now. There was nothing written so we really had to dig hard to find anything. I was fortunate to be part of a research project that [inaudible] Isao Fujimoto , who is still there and somebody who I think of as my mentor, was instrumental in getting a grant. So he got a grant from the Ford Foundation. It wasn’t just him. Bryan Tom who was a little bit older than some of us, but in law school at the time help write the proposal. And they got this grant for students, undergraduates, to do community research. Because Isao Fujimoto was very big on community research and community empowerment especially in small communities along the Delta and the river communities. And so, we got this little grant to get work study positions to go out and research their own communities. Some of the Japanese students researched about rice growers in northern California. [24:42 – 29:95] GALEDO: Some of the Chinese students researched about China towns. What was the history of China towns. Me and my girlfriend from Stockton went to Stockton to research the development of the Filipino Center because that was kind of the big thing. But in the course of that, [we] were trying to learn about the history of the Filipinos from Stockton. It was hard for this student groups to finish this projects. Our project was one of the few that finally made it to the end and actually published a paper on it, which is something that inspired Dawn [Mabalon]. [The paper] was called Roadblocks of to Community Development. It was sort of the documentation of the struggle that the [inaudible] community who had wanted to do housing development with no background fought to get the what is now the Filipino Center. CRUZ: Do you mean Ms. Dawn Mabalon? GALEDO: Yes. So she read later on. Dawn is the daughter of somebody who graduated with me, Christine (sp?). We were in the same class and so Dawn is her daughter. Christine got married fairly soon after high school. We were like “What?! You are going to get married?” [laughs] And so she started her family pretty early. So Dawn is the product of that. She ended up very interested in Filipino history and wanting to know more. So Dawn ran across this paper that we wrote called Roadblocks to Community Development, which inspired Dawn to know more about the history of Filipinos and Stockton and their struggles. So, what was the question? [laughs] CRUZ: Oh, it’s your political activism GALEDO: Oh, my political activism. It was something that was really a product of the times. There was so much of it happening. You could get involved in multiple things at the same time. One of the big things at the time was the war in Vietnam. Almost everybody who got involved in any kind of organizing as a student were also part of the anti-war movement. So we went to demonstrations in San Francisco. Asians were trying to assert themselves in that because this is a war in Asia after all. So we would get recruited to go to the Asian delegation of these major mobilizations in San Francisco. I should say that the other thing that was a big political issue was iHotel. And so, we got recruited from Davis to go do work at this these work parties to fix the walls, repaint, and resurface to bring the iHotel up to code so it would not be demolished, which in the end we lost. But it was a huge politicizing experience. So much so that when I graduate, I wanted to be in San Francisco. That was where I wanted to be. I took a federal job and worked for the federal government in an employment program, processing invoices, and got myself into a house on commercial street, which is in San Francisco Chinatown and 2 blocks away from the iHotel. I worked there for a little while. CRUZ: You mentioned that there were very little organizations for minorities at UC Davis. GALEDO: None, I think [laughs] CRUZ: Well through the years, you said the 3rd world movement happened, were you part of any organization that created and can you mention the name of those organizations? [29:25 – 34:39] GALEDO: Well we helped create Asian American Studies. We had to research what there was already published on Asian Americans. One of the by products of that research project we worked on was the bibliography of research on most Asian Americans. Most of those research was doctoral thesis or master's papers or things like that that were on the archives of Bancroft library. There was nothing at UC Davis. There were only some at the Bancroft library. We created some of the early primary resource material upon which Asian American Studies would be built, upon which the Filipino curriculum would be built. There was nothing to begin with. I was only there [Davis] for two years because I came after junior college. And so, I graduated on time even though I had a D in… What was that D in? Because I boycotted classes for the invasion of Cambodia and stuff like that, so I didn’t learn anything from this class. I tried to talk to him [referring to her professor] in giving me a C but he still gave me a D, which meant I still passed and get my degree. Actually, a lot of students had dropped out of school. They have decided they wanted to get involved in the movement and didn’t finish. I, at least, decided to finish college and get my degree even though I knew absolutely nothing what to do afterwards, except go to San Francisco and get involved. And so, when I got to San Francisco, I got involved in the iHotel, which was really a student-run. It was students from state and Berkeley who made up these work teams and organized the tenants. [They] tried to address all these concerns that the city had about it being out of code. They had to learn a lot about housing development. People really did a lot from scratch, absolute scratch. iHotel turned out to be one of the premier community housing development issues of the day of which other examples would happen, like in Stockton, the Filipino Center was a similar thing; in Seattle and Little Tokyo in L.A., that kind of stuff. People were learning from the iHotel and were getting involved in other cities around low-income housing. But I only hung around, when you’re a young person, you don’t hang out very long in any one place. I was in San Francisco for only about 2 years. And then, I had to go back to Davis to finish my report, to write-up the report and to actually have a product for the research that we did. And so, I did that. Then I got hired to a research project about farmworkers. I wanted to do that because my own farm working history. The premise of that is can the next generation of farmworker families get out of farm work, or do they continue to become farm workers. And so, we interviewed people at random and there were lots of people, including white people, who had been a farmworker sometime in their life that had successfully got out of their farm work. But of course there were some people, like Mexicans, who stayed in farm work, but maybe the next generation got out of farm work. It was a federal project to do door-to-door interviews with people. CRUZ: Yes, that’s actually a good lead into the next question. You said that a lot of things happened in the 1960’s: the creation of the American Studies at UC Davis, the 3rd World Strike that lead to the creation. UFW is also created at 1965, can you talk about how the farmworker related to your student activist group? [34:39 – 38:54] GALEDO: In 1965, I was a high school student at Edison high school. I knew absolutely nothing about the formation of the UFW. I didn’t learn about the UFW until I went to Davis, which was already 1968. People who were involved in EOP and student recruitment were very inspired by the formation of the UFW and basically the Chicano movement because they were very closely related. While I was in my Mexican-American mode [laughs], I learned a lot about it, but through the lens of Cesar Chavez because the Mexican organizations were very focused in Cesar Chavez. When I was already a college graduate and I had gone back to Stockton to work on this research project, I got involved in one of UFW’s campaigns, which was Prop 14. Now I don’t remember what Prop 14 was about anymore, but it was something that would strengthen the union. Then I met Pete Velasco. So Pete Velasco was assigned to Stockton. But I think he was actually the head of the Stockton office of the UFW to recruit people in the community to work on Prop 14. And so, I learned more about the union and its struggles to exist and to stay alive. The growers had a lot of power and they constantly try to weaken the union through the legislation, undermining the agriculture relations board. Well actually, I don’t think the Agriculture board did not even existed till later that decade. So this was one measure [referring to prop 14] that they were trying to defeat or win? [laughs] I have to go back in history. But I got to learn more about the union through that campaign. And, simultaneously around that time was Agbayani village. Agbayani Village was sort of a [inaudible] for Filipinos in particular. Asians, in particular, sent work teams to Agbayani Village to help build the place. I went a couple of times, but this was not as a student but already in my post graduate life, more of a community person. [I] came to support the union that way. It was also around that time when the tension between Filipinos and Mexican leadership was at the tipping point. I forget exactly when Philip [Vera Cruz] left. Then eventually, Larry [Itliong] would leave. But Pete remained [inaudible] member of the UFW until his death. We actually did a memorial for Pete. We did a memorial for Philip as well, but I think Larry died before Philip. Then Pete died after Philip. I also joined late in 1970s the KDP. [38:54 - 43:26] CRUZ: What is the KDP? GALEDO: The KDP stood for Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino. And it was an organization that started in the early 70s, I wasn't a member of it then, partly in reaction to martial law in the Philippines. I think that the formation of the KDP and the anti-martial law movement, especially the left wing of the anti-martial law movement, happened right around the same time, I think even in the same year because martial law was declared in 1972. And, there was an initial formation called, NCLP (sp?), National Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy in the Philippines, or something like that, which I was not a part of but it would become, sort of the seeds, of the KDP. Because the NCLDLP (sp?) was formed by, kind of exiled from martial law in the United States, particularly young people, particularly students whose parents forced them to leave the country because they were afraid they were going to get arrested or jailed by Marcos, who were in New York, in San Francisco, places like that who found each other here in the United States around the issue of martial law. They began hooking up with Filipinos who self-identified as leftists and were involved in things like the iHotel and support for the farm workers, and that kind of stuff. They formed, together, the KDP, which was an organization of U.S. Filipinos as well as Philippine Nationals. Half of their work was around bringing down the Marcos dictatorship and the other half of their work was around civil rights issues here in the United States. My sister got involved in it fairly soon after it started but I didn't get involved in it 'til I returned to the Bay Area because I was working for a while in Santa Barbara at a program that helped minority students. I came back to the Bay Area in the mid-1970s and that's where I got involved in this education task force and then I got involved in the iHotel again, and started working at UC Berkeley, running their Asian American Studies Library and met all the Asian left at UC Berkeley [laughs], which just propelled by leftist development because they were all over you, and eventually got recruited into the KDP in the late 70s. CRUZ: You said earlier that you [did] two years at UC Davis and that's when you learned about, just going back to the strike, that's when you learned more about [the] UFW and what they were. GALEDO: I think EOP taught me about UFW because the UFW in 1968 was the main struggle in the Mexican-American community, that was off-campus because a lot of the other stuff was happening on campus like the anti-war movement was happening on campus and the fight for ethnic studies was an on-campus thing, but the UFW was a community issue. The UFW and the iHotel and things like that were community issues that students got involved with at the time. [43:26 - 48:39] GALEDO: And the other thing about it was the whole logic and the theory of change upon which ethnic studies was founded was that there be a direct link between campus and community. That the reason why people of color in particular were even in the University was that so they could create social change in the communities where they were from, particularly in minority communities. There were classes that encouraged you and even gave you credit for getting involved in the community. There were, for instance at UC Berkeley, community classes where you could do work at the iHotel, or you could do a volunteer health program. Here in Oakland, there's a handful of organizations that started as a result of student activism in the community. So, our organization [Filipino Advocates for Justice] was started by a collaboration between UC Berkeley students and Filipino community leaders. Asian health services, Asian community mental health services, Asian Law Caucus, and a little bit further down the line the Korean community center of the East Bay. They were all started by student activists bringing their knowledge to the community to set up services and begin doing more scientific advocacy for the community through grassroots community organizations. Personally, I think the ethnic studies programs lost that over the last, say ten, fifteen years, but it was really very ingrained, and if you look at the documents from the Third World Strike, it's all about community. That's why some of the students left school and didn't finish their degrees. They just went into the communities to do their political work. Over the years, I don't know if UC Berkeley even has community courses anymore where they give students credit to do volunteer work in the community. CAGALINGAN: I was wondering was your father part of the strike? GALEDO: No. I mean I think that in general Filipinos didn't support the unionization, in terms of the vast majority of Filipino farm workers. It was the leadership that really brought the vision of farm workers like Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and Pete Velasco that bring Filipinos into the formation. Well, Filipinos started, they already had a union [referring to AWOC]. Chavez's group wasn't a union, it was an association. Larry Itliong comes from a history of unionization. Larry Itliong was kind of embedded in the decades long history of organizing and farm workers. He already had this unionization consciousness, and Filipinos did have strikes, Filipinos participated off and on in unions but they were also lots of Filipinos who didn't and my father was one of them. My father was over 50 years old and he was afraid he was going to lose his job. As an older man there were very, very few options for somebody like him. We never ever talked about it because he never told us, when I was still at home, that this organize was going on. He might have participated in strikes before because Stockton had a number of strikes. But he never ever told us that history. It was something that he never spoke about. Actually I had uncles who were farm workers and their friends, a lot of them, I think, were never ever formally members of the union. [48:39 - 53:00] GALEDO: Part of that was the contract system that existed in farm work where there were Filipino contractors who had these crews that the contractor would bring to certain fields to do the work. I think that that's another reason why Filipinos, in mass, didn't necessarily initially join the UFW because there were still contractors, Filipino contractors, in place that the better of them served in some way as the negotiator for these workers, so they would, in some respects attempt to replicate what a union would do for this set of people that they represented, which is not to say that it was a good thing because the contracting system was very exploitative in itself and contractors made the kind of money that the farm workers never did. But I think that in terms of what the landscape looked like at the time, that was a barrier for lots of Filipinos to get recruited in mass. Not to mention the tension that became apparent, relatively early on, with the kind of inter-racial dynamics within the union. I think part of that is because the developing, growing Mexican-American movement and Chicano movement really embraced the UFW and made it their main national campaign. Plus it attracted all kinds of people who volunteered to be part of the movement for the organization of farm workers. I mean, my husband eventually went to work for the UFW, and so it became a possibility that lots of people went to support. People like, my husband is white, there were a lot of white activists who went to support the UFW. If you study the history of the UFW, it has spawned tons and tons and tons of people who went on to be labor activists, or consumer activists, environmental activists, all of whom, at one point, went through the UFW. They went through the UFW without really recognizing what was happening between the Filipinos and the Mexicans in the UFW. They were getting indoctrinated around this sort of revisionist history of how the union started. It wasn't until later, when the Filipino community starts protesting that and forcing that history on them that some of it begins to filter out to this huge network of activists that still see their politicization as having originated with the UFW. It's pretty amazing. But there's a lot of self-destructive things happening within the union that people also have really bad experiences about, but it is what it is. It was kind of the phenomena you have to deal with when you're trying to build an institution. you're trying to create a union that's going to have some level of sustainability when it's being attacked by all forces around it. [53:00 - 59:37] GALEDO: I think to our discredit, Filipino community people didn't necessarily jump in there and protect the interests of the Filipinos that were there. I know that Philip [Vera Cruz] spent a lot of time, after he left the UFW, educating young people about labor organizing, about the broader movement, the left movement, all [of] that because I think he recognized that there wasn't that base in the Filipino community at the time to have helped that leadership when they were struggling within the union to try to have equality and get recognition there. But a lot of that is in hindsight, I mean, I didn't recognize it really at the time myself, and there were all these different things that you could be a part of in the UFW. I think that if we really examine the UFW, to wring out from it, all these institution building lessons, I think that's what our job is now. It's not like we want to bring down the UFW, we have to have unions and unions, [who] are totally under attack, but I think that we have to look at something like the UFW to learn how to build institutions that are multiracial, in an environment where legislatively, growers associations, and trade agreements, and undocumented, and all those issues bisect the UFW. It's a very complicate situation, so rather than write it off, I think we should study it, and learn from it because it's not like that's going to reproduce itself in multiple other forms and I think that there's a lot to learn about it… Maybe when I retire I’ll [laughs] some attention. CRUZ: When you said that your husband actually took part of the UFW, and you said earlier that there were different sections within the UFW, what did he work in specifically? GALEDO: Well one of the amazing things that the UFW did which was use the tactic of boycotts. Through the boycotts they built this huge network and in some ways, international network, of boycott volunteers. I remember I supported the boycott too, I would picket, in my tiny little piece of whatever. But, there were people who organized the boycott [for example] in England, or organized the boycott operation in Berkeley, or ran the boycott operation in San Francisco, L.A., New York, whatever, and they used that boycott tactic, I think, better than anybody ever did before and after. Through that network they met tons of committed people, white people, African American people, Asian people, they had some way that they could contribute to the building of the UFW and they were loyal and they are still loyal to the UFW to this day. My husband got involved in the boycott, and you might also want to talk to Vangie Buell, she's Filipino, and she was very, very instrumental in the boycott here in the Berkeley area because she was on the board of the co-op, Berkeley once had a food co-op, which is also another amazing institution, but they closed at some point. She [Buell] can tell you what it took to run the boycott. But it politicized her and brought her into the movement. He [her husband] was very active in the boycott and he went to Cuba, and that's another story where you get your international inspiration, and then he came back from Cuba and got a job working as an organizer for the UFW. The UFW, in a lot of ways, because of Cesar, was run like a church. I mean he expected people to basically volunteer their time for very little monetary compensation, and so the wage, he was probably violating all kinds of waging hour laws [laughs], the wage was five dollars a week and you [the worker] were working for the union, you’re getting paid five dollars a week. But you developed these stone dedicated people to the cause. I swear to god. And they [the UFW] asked a lot from you, you got up early in the morning, you visited workers at their homes, you wed yourselves to the union and that was the culture of the union, and they burn people out left and right, but they had so much attention on the union that the union got somewhat paranoid about all these people and how to control all these people, and to not allow some of these people to take control of some of these parts in the union and what not. [59:37 - 1:05:11] GALEDO: There was a certain about of red bading (sp?) that went on within the union, and people had to really watch their P's and Q's (sp?) in terms of who else they were associated with. He [her husband] stuck it out there for quite a few years and he met people that he's life-long friends with, all over the country now because, like I said, they went off to do other things. They went off to work for the unions, they learned a lot about union organizing at the UFW and took that and went to work in unions whose membership also began to be very Mexican, Central American, and what not, as migration continued into the Unites States. These people are very instrumental organizers these days in some of these unions. Like the SEIU [laughs]. CRUZ: The what? GALEDO: The Service Employees International Union. There's a lot of folks that at one point in their lives did something for the UFW who went on to be other organizers for other unions like the SEIU. CAGALINGAN: I was wondering have you heard of the grape strike when you were at Davis? Oh no, since it was in 1965 you were in high school, but had you heard... GALEDO: Well the grape strike went on for many, many years, and yes I had hear about it, I promoted it. I think it was two decades before I ever bought any grapes again. My husband still has trouble buying grapes, we'll only buy grapes at the farmer's market or something like that. It was ingrained in us, anybody who was progressive at the time, “don't buy table grapes.” Everybody I knew was participating, at least in the boycott, not necessarily organizing the boycott but popularizing the boycott and made you feel bad if there were grapes at an event, “where did these grapes come from?” “let's look at the box, is there a union label on the box?” But like I said, that boycott, that model was so successful that I'm like one of millions of people who supported the grape boycott. CAGALINGAN: Would you mind describing how you were able to support it, what were the ways you did that? GALEDO: Well, the main way was not to buy grapes and to talk it up among your friends and to picket at places that were selling nonunion grapes. The union would organize the picket and random supporters would just come and do their one hour walking around the line holding a sign, “don't buy nonunion grapes.” It was a broadly supported tactic, and one that people became very committed to, to the point where they look at the boxes before they’ll buy any grapes at stores. CRUZ: Can you recall that experience that you felt though when you were boycotting or picketing, aside [from] “yes I'm doing this for the UFW, for the union,” can you just describe your own experience and feeling when you went and saw the other people doing it? GALEDO: It's like the feeling you have with like a lot of issues that you're not personally organizing, but you're a supporter and you go an do your duty, basically, to contribute some small amount of time by volunteering to be on the picket line for awhile. It would be something that you learn and you use in other movements, and you get accustomed to it. You don't feel self conscious after awhile, you don't feel like you're going to get in trouble. It sort of neutralizes that intimidation that you might have felt like if you’re on the outside looking in at a group of people picketing at some place. It becomes sort of normal and natural, and you learn not to cross the picket line. So you approach something and there's a picket line and you go, “Oh, I'm not going to go to that place because I don't even know what those people are picketing about.” I wouldn't want anybody to cross the picket line when I was walking down the picket line. It transfers to all kinds of other struggles. [1:05:11 - 1:11:51] GALEDO: We picketed through the Free South Africa Movement over at the building on Grand Avenue where the owners of these major shipping lines had their offices. The campaign was to stop business from South Africa by making it really shameful and hard on these cargo companies to do their business, and so there was a weekly picket at the Maritime office building on Grand Avenue during the Free South Africa Movement. I would just go and do my lunch time circling for an hour there. It's something that you learn and you appreciate, and you understand can benefit if everybody puts in some time, and eventually a part tide was defeated in South Africa [chuckles]. You participate in things like that. We participated in pass burning, because in South Africa you had to carry some sort of internal passport to move from one part of the country to the other, which was really aimed at preventing blacks from going very far. We would have these symbolic pass burning demonstrations where lines of people would come and they set fire to this piece of paper and throw it into this garbage can and everybody would cheer [laughs], and it does something to emotionally cement your commitment to the movement. CRUZ: Did you work with any older Filipino strikers during the time? GALEDO: When we were working on Prop 14, Pete Velasco was the head of the office in Stockton, which was where I happened to be when we were working on that, and the grape boycott was still going on, and so you would do your campaigning about the boycott as well as Prop 14. They would just sort of mix these things all together. CRUZ: When you finally heard about the 1970 contract signing, how did you feel that the UFW finally got the growers to recognize the UFW as a union? GALEDO: I don't remember feeling anything at the time. But the struggle of the union was not over, so it began a whole set of other kinds of attacks against the union and on the whole concept of that contract. Even if you might win that one contract, you have to get a contract with every other grower, and so it was one after the other, after the other. The picketing never stopped, the campaigns never stopped, and so it would be the modus operandi of the union where you’re constantly going after the next contract and then trying to defend the contract that you had before because the growers would try to decertify that contract. Then, there were other problems where the teamsters came in and tried organizing farm workers, and so then you were at odds with the Teamsters, getting to the point where it was so complicated the you move onto other things. But it was a victory and I think that that's what cemented the Chicano movement, that they could win something like that. But I think people realized soon after that victories are not permanent and you have to constantly fight to protect your victories as your expanding them. CRUZ: Can you describe who the teamsters were and what they did? GALEDO: Oh dear, that means going into the whole labor movement [laughs]. CRUZ: Briefly [laughs]. GALEDO: The Teamsters were a kind of bad-a** union. A lot of the time, the Teamsters, were the reflection of the leadership of that era. The Teamsters were representing truck drivers. A lot of the truck drivers were people who transported agricultural products, so they decided they were going to start organizing on that end too, on the farm workers. So, that just created all these tension in the UFW, who was trying to expand to get more and more contracts, only to find that the Teamsters were trying to get contracts [inaudible]. It was a scandal within the labor movement, but the Teamsters was a very powerful organization, and in some circles, corrupt organization, but that, I think, was a barrier for the UFW in terms of growth because it had to spend so much time fending off the Teamsters and they were not situations where you sat down and negotiated. It was really very ugly in a lot of ways. I think it got to a point where they eventually could talk and organize, but many years were spent fighting among each other. [1:11:51 - 1:14:50] CRUZ: If you can just, for our closing, what can you say about what students can do now GALEDO: With respect to the UFW in particular or… CRUZ: In general, and then with respect to the UFW. GALEDO: I think that the UFW in my life as well as most people who were my age was a sort of point of inspiration, like the civil rights movement of the 50's and early 60's. You actually take that inspiration and you apply it [to] all kinds of places; for me, anti-martial law. I think that we have to continue educating Filipinos, not only about the accurate history, but the role that this plays in movement building. Like my own development, moves into that arena of movement building. It's a way that, “yeah this is a great experience for me as a young person, and then now I'm going into my career and raise my family,” it really sort of opens the door to looking at the larger system and what needs to change, so that eventually you come to the conclusion, “well we have to have an alternative to capitalism,” “we have to build what seems like it should be socialism, and what is socialism?” It's a gateway, things like the struggle of farm workers, it's a gateway to a larger analysis of what's going on in the country, and what's going on in the world, and how they're connected. CRUZ: That’s all the questions we have, I think. Some of the questions were answered when you were telling the story. Thank you Ms. Lillian for the interview GALEDO: You’re welcome. End Finding Guide Interview Finding Guide for the Oral History of Lillian Galedo [0:00-9:39] Place of birth in 1948 - birthplace of parents - father’s life as an overseas worker, especially in the U.S. when the Philippines was still colonized by the U.S. - father met mother in the Philippines - eldest sister was born in the Philippines, her and her siblings were born in the U.S. - family settled in Stockton - father began candy store, but unsuccessful - segregation of Stockton [9:39 - 19:52] Father’s candy store failed, went back to farm work - entire family worked in the field (helping their father) - educational life (elementary to college) - joined campus group in UC Davis - no Filipino group at UC Davis at the time [19:52 - 29:95] Third World Strike at San Francisco then to Davis - Filipino involvement in the strike - strike sparked her interest in activism - got involved on starting an Asian American Studies (ASA) at UC Davis - talked about difficulties of starting ASA and a project with Isao Fujimoto - mentioned Dr. Dawn Mabalon - spoke about political activism and involvement in the iHotel movement [29:95 - 38:54] Involvement in creating ASA at UC Davis with - further discussion of involvement with the iHotel movement - involvement with a research project about farmworkers - how the farmworker movement related to student activist group - got involved in building the Agbayani Village - talked about Filipino leaders, Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz [38:54 - 48:39] Talked about the KDP and the NCLDLP (sp?) - got involved with the KDP in the late 70s - where she learned about the UFW was the EOP program at UC Davis - community involvement, the logic of it and how it has changed over the years - father was not involved in the strike [48:49 - 59:37] Described reasons why her father and other Filipinos didn’t support or join the union - mentioned the contract system that existed in farm work - Filipino contractors - inter-racial dynamics within the union - husband worker for the UFW - Mexican Americans embraced the UFW - not until Filipinos began to protest that their history was heard - Filipino community didn’t really support to protect their interests - talked about Philip Vera Cruz’s legacy - need to educate - further discussion of husband’s involvement with the UFW - UFW boycott tactic was very successful [59:37 - 1:11:51] Tensions within the UFW - the grape strike, when and how she learned about it - the impact of the grape strike - described how she supported the strike (boycotting and picketing) -described her experience and feeling when she boycotted/picketed - mentioned another activist movement she was involved in, the Free South Africa Movement - experience working with Pete Velasco - how she felt when she heard about the 1970 contract signing - described the Teamsters [1:11:51 - 1:14:50] Closing remarks End Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Galedo (Lillian) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Delano, Calif. [lcna] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Description An account of the resource Oral History interview with Lillian Galedo Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 5, 2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Language A language of the resource English Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Leslie Aniciete and Miguel Bagsit Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Mary Jane Galviso Location The location of the interview. Davis, California Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. [Session 1, June 2nd, 2015] [00:00] [Logistics Discussion regarding the interview ensues] Leslie Aniciete: Shall we begin? So I’m going to start asking you some questions about yourself, just basic questions, the first question is where and when were you born? Mary Jane Galviso: I was born in 1950 in Imperial County and basically, known as the poorest county in the state, basically [for] agriculture and after the war, it attracted a very large number of Filipinos. It became one of the largest Filipino farming communities in this country. [It was] mostly tomatoes farmers, [we became pretty prosperous until of course, UC Davis [laughs]. And in cooperation with the big growers came out with the biogenetic tomato that completely ruined Filipino tomato farmers by early 60s. So today my town is one of very very deep poverty, you don’t see the farming, there’s no longer family farms per se, it’s all corporate farming now. Those are the last Filipino farmers that mainly were able to make agriculture commercially viable. Miguel Bagsit: Okay, the next question going back a little bit as well, we asked you about when and where you were born, where were your parents born? Mary Jane Galviso: My father is from Ilocos Norte Province from the village of Danao. [5:00] Mary Jane Galviso: He immigrated in the 20’s to this country. My family had come earlier, the uncle, this is actually kind of odd, I shouldn’t say odd, I was raised mostly by my father’s brothers, our uncles. After he [father] passed away and my mother moved back to where she was originally from, and that’s in New Mexico. So after she had left, we basically stayed on the farm and [were] basically raised by our uncle. We grew up in the farmers’ town and so on both sides I can say that my family has been farmers for hundreds of years. My mother is from the small village of Corrales, along the Rio Grande, and it’s interesting because Filipinos migrated throughout the southwest. My father and many many Filipinos worked for the Japanese in Arizona and New Mexico and began to intermarry even before the anti-miscegenation laws were passed. And it would be good to do it then, but Mexico was one of the common places where Filipinos would want to marry because they were not allowed to marry in California and Arizona. Miguel Bagsit: Can you recall your first experiences with labor activism, [pause] so you’ve been able to talk about the background and we are now kind of moving into how you first got involved or when did you first realize that [labor activism] was something you were going to get involved in? Mary Jane Galviso: I think that growing up with a very strong working class, we always worked on the farms, when all the harvest was over in the summer, when my father was still alive we would often pick onions for the Japanese growers, and after his death we remained with them and we basically spent the summer picking grapes. We would start off with a few days in the Coachella valley, that’s when we would start working Mecca, Thermal, Coachella, and Indio. I think that’s the greatest, best thing that I think the parents, those that raised[kids] , they can do is to share their life experiences with you, it’s not a matter of just telling you about what their life is like but that you become a part of that experience. Because it’s working alongside our uncles and working alongside other Filipinos, because there would be Filipinos from all over the state, particularly from Delano, because we have a chance to meet Filipinos from all over. We worked hard in the same work force. And you know it’s still true today, the agricultural labor force is a highly racially stratified one. And the agribusiness does that purposely to keep workers divided, so today just as in, you know back in the late 50’s and 60’s when we began picking grapes as kids, there were Filipino crews and Mexican crews and rarely did they mix, and that’s the way the big growers made it. That’s what their hiring practices were and it remains true today. If you could go out to the vineyards, orchards, and talking to my cousin’s boyfriend yesterday and he’s picking blueberries, Filipino crews, Mexican crews... [10:00] Mary Jane Galviso: ...crews from Central America, all have different labor contractors, so nothing has changed in that regard at all. My uncles didn’t have to tell us what is was like to work in the field and how to work with the growers. We knew that from our experiences, and that’s important because too few children and youth maybe know what their parents do for a living, they haven’t experienced it. That’s the good thing about agriculture, we were able to work alongside our parents and other family members. We worked not only as a Filipino crew but we worked as a family, as a family unit, and I think that it’s a very life defining experience for me, to be able to work collectively and cooperatively within a family and among your own people. Miguel Bagsit: I know that you mentioned going into that part of your life, were you a part of any Unions, or were you involved in Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee [AWOC] or the United Farm Workers [UFW]? Leslie Aniciete: Or if your family was involved? Miguel Bagsit: Any of those unions or organizations that you would like to mention? Mary Jane Galviso: That was difficult, when we started picking grapes, there was no collective bargaining unit, there was no union, there were none. So, I think you probably know the background there, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee sent out the organizers to the Coachella Valley to begin organizing in response to a number of complaints and the abuses of growers. So everyone speaks about the 1965 Delano Grape strike of course, it was preceded by the strike in Coachella, the only reason why the strike in Delano gets much more attention is because that was the end of the season. That’s where the growers made the big money and that’s why that strike became so important. If we were going to get any changes in the way we got paid and the ways we were treated, it had to be done. The Coachella strike was just the beginning to let them know that we weren’t going to be treated in the way that they were treating us at that time. It came to a head in ‘65 and this is another interesting facet that people, that history completely ignores and [it’s] that’s those of us who work for farmers who are being wiped out by agribusiness at that time. We were losing our farms in the late 50’s and early 60’s and it forced us back into the same workforce as migrant workers. So, the Filipino crews were not all made up of those who were permanently migrant workers, it was also composed of poor farmers such as those of us who lived in imperial county, [15:00] Mary Jane Galviso: ...and there was a lot of anger over those conditions, we began, that we were facing during that time and that’s what was happening to workers. The big thing, this is a very little understood and documented [occurrence] at the same time, agribusiness is consolidating itself on becoming more international in its features and that’s why I spoke to you about that bio engineered tomato. This is agribusiness beginning to jump the borders, it ruined us right? And it began to cut, it began to grow huge plantations huge farms as far away as Florida and began its production in Mexico and that’s what we see now, today more and more agricultural goods coming from Mexico. That’s the US agricultural corporate interest. They began to do business outside of the US and I think that Filipino labor leadership realized that, they understood that, the local growers were getting rich off of us. These guys began to be international growers, they were in the world market already. They could have paid us a lot more than the penny that they were paying. When I started working we got paid 89 cents an hour, an hour, and that work wasn’t just per hour. Those growers really worked you. They would have us work overtime and not pay us at all. And that was the grievances that the Filipino crews had. They forced us to pack and go down to the depot where the boxes were being shipped to the market and they wouldn’t pay us a penny once we left the fields to do that work. There were a lot of abuses that these big growers, nowadays [laughs] I’m pretty sure they’re doing the same practices to workers in Mexico. Miguel Bagsit: As far as that goes, when you’re talking about the different kind of mistreatments that were happening, was that during the strike you mentioned in the very beginning or is this kind of encompassing the Delano Grape Strike, what was that like? Mary Jane Galviso: I think what needs to be understood, is that Filipinos you know men, are married men, Filipino men came to this country through the Hawaii plantation like my family did, they came as colonial labor. In other words, they came unlike immigrants today. Their statuses that the US owned the Philippines, when I mean owned, they owned not only the land, minerals, and resources, they owned the people and they could dictate, and that’s exactly what agricultural resources did, they went to the poor villages in the Philippines they recruited with the help of the Catholic Church. They recruited very young men. My oldest uncle was barely 14, of course he lied about his age so he would be able to join other members of our family on the plantation in Maui. [20:00] Mary Jane Galviso: A lot of the Filipino men that came were actually teenagers, they were very young. They came as colonial labors, they came as wards of the state, basically that was their immigration status when they entered the United States and that territory. I point that out because classes and exploitation of workers and the class oppression that Filipinos faced was a reflection of our status in the world of the colonial nation and that carried through, certainly the Japanese were not treated the way we were, they did not come here for labor, the Filipinos did, the Puerto Ricans did, and that’s why you see the Puerto Ricans were also on the Hawaii plantations. There was no question in our minds when we started working that the big growers, the employers, they had the upper hand. There was no government protection, they could pay us what they want, they can work us how many hours as we wanted, they had all the rights and we had no right. Based on this situation, this was the condition that Filipinos lived under from the very first moment they entered this country. So organizing was hard and in part of the Filipino labor working class in this country. Filipinos had been organizing, unionizing, striking [laughs], from the very time they entered. This is happening in Hawaii in the plantations, this is happening in Alaska in the canneries, this is happening in the west coasts on the fields. The Filipinos, because we were such a huge part of the agricultural labor force in this country, we were in the vanguard, we were in the leadership of many of the struggles and many of the strides because our conditions were so much [a part of] the immigrant and the colonial labor [movements]. The conditions were the most depressive and the labor practices were the most exploitative against us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, no government education or government department, the department of labor would not even recognize us and any complaint that we had, why? Because we were not covered for the collective bargaining and so if I could interpret the 1965 Grape strike, the strike about wages and about working condition, no. The real issues, the fundamental issues were that we were excluded from collective bargaining, and because of that it was upon us and if anything was going to change, there was nothing we could do, there was no reliance on the government, it had to be by our own initiative and that’s why Filipinos, when you talk about the Filipino leadership, they were some of the most skilled, veteran, and tenacious organizers. They had to be, we could only depend on ourselves. Miguel Bagsit: So do you actually recall working with any of those Filipino Leaders that you mentioned? Maybe some of the Manongs, including Philip Vera Cruz, Pete Velasco, Larry Itliong? Mary Jane Galviso: No, because when I first started working with my family, it was not near there. It wasn’t until my teenage years that we began to hear of the organizing efforts. [25:00] Mary Jane Galviso: Later I did, I was able and I did go up to Delano. Specifically, in those days whenever Filipino crews worked there were two places that you knew to go, you would go to the Filipino Community Hall, the Filipino labor crew bosses, labor contractors[were there] . You’d meet them to find out where there is work or you could go to the labor camps. There were Filipino labor camps throughout the west coast, and that was our network and it was part of our heritage, it’s what I grew up with. And so going to Delano and the community hall was a very natural thing, it was there that I was able to meet some of the members of the Filipino labor leadership including Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz. Itliong was a very outgoing person, Philip was very friendly, but I think that if you went into a room, Itliong probably had his fingers through the coals, he’d notice everything going in and out he was very observant. And I think just the moment I walked into the hall he took note of me and in those days it was a custom [that] if you were new in town, you basically introduced yourself to the kitchen, that’s what you did, that’s where I went and that’s where he approached me and talked to me and figured out where I was from. Of course in those days 99.9 % work on the field that continues and remains to be, our Ilocanos, and you try to figure out your family line or village, trying to trace who’s who and what we are to each other. I realized just in time that I was there that were changes already happening that would eventually cause him to leave. The organizing efforts that he had, so much to build and to create, but he kind of, but I was so young at that time, he had me taken care of by Manong George. George was the one that made sure that I had something to eat, that I was kept busy while Itliong, it seemed like to me Itliong was at meetings all the time, going from one place to another in a meeting, [laughs]. I recalled a lot of it and it was a good experience and I think that the experience that I had, especially with Itliong and Manong George were very telling about how close or the closeness [that existed] among the Filipinos there. You don’t get that from others, you don’t get that experience from others. In those days, Filipinos took care of Filipinos. If you walk into a labor camp or if you walk into community hall there was somebody there that would be concerned for you and cared about you especially if you’re young, especially if you were female, there was no question. [30:00] Leslie Aniciete: You mentioned earlier a Manong George, who does that refer to? Is that a family member? Mary Jane Galviso: No, no, He was one of the leaders like Philip Vera Cruz. He was there from the very beginning, he was the individual Itliong pretty much appointed to take care of me, watch over me while he [Itliong] was in meetings. And once [one time] I accompanied them and this was when the campaign to ban the short hall was going on, I went with him [Itliong] up to Sacramento, a meeting was arranged with the Governor of California. He explained the situation and issues, how things were and what we were doing there in Sacramento, it was the first time I was ever involved in a political action like that. I think that was very important, even young people were very involved and cared about what was happening on an issue. Leslie Aniciete: How were you able to support yourself during your time in Delano, and during your time working in the Coachella area working also? Mary Jane Galviso: Well in Coachella, we supported ourselves, we worked as a family picking grapes so but that was that was two different. But by the time I was already over 18 when I went to Delano. When we talk about a strike, let’s be very clear, a strike is actually a class warfare. It is the working class telling the capitalists and growers “you are not going to make money off our backs today, were not working for you, were not nothing, nothing gets done today, you’re not making money, not until you’re willing to sit down and meet some of our demands and that’s our situation. When a strike is called, the big growers were accustomed to having all the power, they still do [laughs] nothing much has changed, they had the cars, they had the cops, they had the sheriffs, they had everybody, and they were violent. It’s always been distorted that the workers, that there’s violence on the picket line. It’s violence that’s caused by the capitalists because they are not getting the profits or making the money that they want. They get ugly and they get violent, they call out the cops to cross picket lines, so that's the violence, that's the class warfare that erupted on picket lines. Miguel Bagsit: Do you remember any significant occurrences during that time, did you witnessed anything that is with you to this today from those specific instances that you mentioned all the class warfare and everything? Mary Jane Galviso: The most experiences that I had, one thing about the uncles, they knew it was gonna get violent, it was gonna get ugly, and they kept us from that. That was one thing that Filipinos would do, they are very protective and so we did not join the picket farmers… [35:00] Mary Jane Galviso: ...and that’s why I went to Delano because I wanted to see, I think that what’s more important was living and experiencing the true exploitation that other Filipinos [were facing] and just imagine if they treated us this way in the 70’s, how my father and those who were treated [further back]. So they talk about being dishonest and cruel, if they could squeeze another penny out of you they would do it in any which way they could think of and in the early 60’s the situation was terrible and very very difficult for us. Agribusiness was making it hard for us small farmers and made it miserable for us. We were historically forced into a situation in which there was going to be confrontation in which there had to be a strike, there was no other way, and that’s what took place. I think what was so important because these same conditions exist today, what is important is that Filipinos had really great leadership, over the decades in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s we were able to at a point to kind of checkmate the big rollers. And that's the unfortunate thing today and that's what’s lacking in the agricultural sector there really is no leadership like we did have in the 60’s and I’m talking about a mature leadership, they knew and understood collective bargaining they understood organizing strategy, union tactics, they knew the ABCs of unionism, and working class organizing, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have that anymore. But I think that in the year as to come, the situation has not changed, in the agricultural sector, and today there is a majority of agricultural workers that are not unionized and don’t have the protection of a union. So we know that what happened in the 60’s is due to come around pretty soon. You’re beginning to see it as workers spontaneously rise up as they did in Washington and they did in the central valley and they did as they took the time as new leadership is developing. I think that that's why it’s important and to understand what was the Filipino labor leadership and what was their particular contribution into making this country a better society and a better place. Miguel Bagsit: Talking about being able to integrate everything that you want to bring as far as history goes, where do you see yourself in this entire story, because it’s a very interweaved and connected story. We are interviewing you today for that purpose of understanding where you come from since your story is very special as well to this movement, where do you see yourself in that? [40:00] Mary Jane Galviso: Most of those born in the 40’s and 50’s like myself and its interesting we are the first generation to grow up alongside our parents working in the fields, vineyards, and orchards, although of course the anticipations and expectation they had was that we would go to college, a university and get a degree and live in the urban areas and that didn’t happen, the interesting thing is that there is quite a number of us who would go back to live in the rural community and to farm. So I thought that I was going to retire in the early 2000’s I got a farm close to family members [Toronto county] today now Orosi. We are the last remaining community of traditional Filipino farmers. And my particular situation is that the battle for my farm has raged on for nearly 15 years now and I’ve been under attack by the local municipal water district who would like to see my farm turned into an 88 housing subdivision. So I went to the local courts and went up to the state courts and I lost. Not surprising, Central Valley courts are still part [laughs] directly influenced by agribusiness. Small farmers, an issue like that, they are always going to defer to big ag [agriculture] Everyone that sits on the board of supervisors in county are corporate farmers who have their interest at heart. So I haven’t found any justice in the courts. Next June 18th is the fourth or fifth foreclosure, I’ll be paying this year, are saying that I owe $18,686 dollars to keep my farm this year. Every year I pay thousands of dollars to this very corrupt water district. A part of me thinks we haven’t changed, we are still a lot of method abuse against us and what is happening with my farm is another example. And agribusiness as we know is more and more going outside the borders of the US. It’s truly in the hands of multinational ambiguous corporations. So you know in the small Sacramento, surrounding every big city there are hundreds and thousands of agricultural land being lost to development, it’s happening in small rural towns. And the difficulty of course, is that it makes it harder. There are a lot of Filipinos who would love to do what I did, to be able to have a farm, but the cost of land if you had real estate development it’s harder and harder to buy land. [45:00] Mary Jane Galviso: Another really important factor that I’ve come to realize, that there has been a real breakdown within the Filipino community. Disintegrate [ion] within the Filipinos in the rural areas, that’s the most startling difference that I’ve come to see in my own lifetime. I’ve realized that the first wave of Filipinos, how closely they lived and how close they were among themselves, because remember till 1964 and the Civil Rights Act there was no bank that would grant or lend to Filipinos or poor farmers, you’d have to be your own bank. It was in pulling their money together that Filipinos were able to buy their own land, and you don’t see this anymore today and it’s really heartbreaking because it leaves individual Filipino farmers basically on their own, that's not the case in the town I grew up in, Filipinos we banded together, it was our family farm, my father and his two brothers, village mates that came and worked together collectively and cooperatively. There would be, like Filipino farms existed together with 4 or 5 families farming together and living together and this is no longer apart of the Filipino experience. That’s what makes it very difficult now to survive farming. You really are on your own farming these days. That’s my particular battle and it’s just a reflection of the continuing corruption and huge hassle of economic insurance that agribusiness has. There’s another very important aspect and that is the United States coming back into agriculture as the USDA and their collusion into everything that happens in rural communities is funded by USDA but the schools, the clinics, the libraries, the community centers and more importantly in my case the utility district, they get direct funding from the district. Leslie Aniciete: Do you recall when the 1970 contracts were signed? Were you able to witness it? [50:00] Mary Jane Galviso: No, I was not there during the signing, when I got there it had already occurred, but I was there at the important time, the merger has already occurred between AWOC and New Farmers of America [NFA] that was led by Chavez, what I began to see and realize, I was politically inexperienced. When you experience something during the time I was there, you don’t truly understand those locations and the underlying tensions and changes that are occurring. I got a sense of it, and it wasn’t until I stepped away and left Delano and looked back and I realized what the Chavez faction was doing to the Filipino labor leadership. And that’s why I strongly disagree with Arroy’s [Marissa Arroy] interpretation and depiction of the Filipino labor leadership, that film that she produced really supports and propagates Chavez’s factions and views of that time period. It’s a distortion. Itliong left under pressure, Philip Vera Cruz left under pressure, it was a calculated purge of Filipino Labor Leadership, and not because we are Filipinos because we were the [only ones] left. Many of the top organizers and labor leaders that were in the communist party in this country. Let’s be honest and lets be frank, you don’t have those types of skills and that advanced thinking without being part of an organization that was at the forefront of organizing the working class of this country, they are not born with this understanding, they were not born with these skills, you learn it, and you live it, just remember a lot of who we know during the labor leadership were very young boys, when they came here, they were teenagers. They came in the 20’s and 30’s, when the union drives the beginning to work at their height and they just became actively involved especially the immigrants became actively involved. Anyway, from what I saw, from what I experienced, the time that I was there, is how the Chavez faction began to purge. It’s interesting again, many people, they write about (laughs) this time in the Grape strike and they do it in a very classless way. There’s no class perspective on it, what did all of this represent. It represented the riots and the right faction and we were the left and we were the most class conscious and we were ready under Chavez. We never endorsed the strike, it was all about class collaboration to go on strike, Filipinos knew better than that. They knew that when it came time, we were not just gonna shrink away, we have demands and have to go up to it. So if we needed a strike, we are ready. Leslie Aniciete: Could you recall what year this was occurring? Mary Jane Galviso: It was in the early 70s. Leslie Aniciete: So was it in the 1973 strike or about that time? Mary Jane Galviso: No, because when I was there, there wasn’t a strike going on. This was the time when everything was being negotiated. [55:00] Leslie Aniciete: So early 1970s, okay, thank you. So we have one more closing question, from your experience you shared with us, how would you rephrase in your exe. Describe your experience and what you’ve learned, gotten to witness in one word or phrase. Mary Jane Galviso: Because, the Filipino leadership represented the best that the working class can produce. Right now, especially in the agricultural sector in this country, there is a huge void with their passing and without the training and the other generations of leadership. Agricultural workers don’t have the leaderships that they had back then in the early 50s and 60s. Because of that void, that’s [what] truly impacts me, I lived at a time where there was clear strong leadership, and I lived in a time where there was none. It’s a very difficult and sad thing to see. The opportunity is there that exists, all the conditions that existed prior to the 1965 strike exist today. [It] makes me think of course, that Filipinos were not a large part of that workforce as we are in the agricultural workforce, but we are very small now. During the height of course, in 1935, we were very large, the agricultural workforce in this country. And I know everyone talks about the West coast, but if you look into agricultural [sector], we’ve lasted, of course, but our numbers have been replaced. We were a significant part of the workforce that made the cannery, fishing industry what it is today, and that cannot be overlooked, unfortunately. I hope that one day there is a study that truly documents how Filipinos were in the labor in the US, to build and define agribusiness that is today especially in terms of the relationship between workers and the capitalists and the employers. We played a formidable role in that period development. [60:00] Miguel Bagsit: Thank you so much for your time and the interview. Leslie Aniciete: So this concludes our interview. So again from me and Miguel, we want to thank you so much taking the time to have this interview with us and sharing your story with because we really value and how much this experience has influenced you. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Galviso (Mary Jane) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Delano, Calif. [lcna] Orosi, Calif. [lcna] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/11651/archive/files/14378907ca2b955e821c0b2435b04ac7.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=GDJIJL9P9D6uZHSzojvOe2Cv4i02JUEIK%7ESTUBGvHzZjNWJg-554%7EwwIwwnW-phGOiX-4TpWFEs7OiCrMp9EHgHkv1SyiWl7GkKDxc16VkSj9m5S6U4cu8-RPjcL3rbHBsNOQrpNtKvWOq1U3NR-FbwlhA-%7EDqTsTCMogic6GCdTmYtev9DQCR1fm1xqv6lil3hn8obolLy6%7EVxdJ%7Eqt%7E0lQqQs22du81NTfJ2FWYmIoy7JAlyITJtwrSaVXHlFm70DKTU8Vnfd84dqF9bspy9IBHnzbV1l2zhjczXBpXf88mZhPIUbMZDhsnDR3smdv8eYjKEsG4terCXAgnXfv9Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 5486784a50ca48fd3e2adae77260ec70 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jazmin (Jose) Oral History Inteview Subject The topic of the resource Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Description An account of the resource Oral History Inteview of Jose Jasmin, longtime resident of Delano. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 13, 2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Language A language of the resource English https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/11651/archive/files/6e8401a384bccc98994f0098d41c79a5.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=MwkyhgxLMVXrG6IpNHyw6%7EPC3M1N-b0fVDYlHzxZWjHsGfHcX6DZyTvPr1j08OcJQU6CLAPjU8W6tKOJLkuzzM2-bCg9N-Ht%7EdTSe7YS36sxHTG54jwgkC5kh7LMoK1iDEhI7AFIHLP7IF4mt761CQ83WOTcUDD6vOF2nNC4nLffYLvPjoA5ijX95aaGKxmb71n%7EPZAu8hiRLKAE2xhFJKS7JW2erShDRNaknEbRJ5Gh5HqThENJFTxi8hQdZkDW1G3bVgNZUqxeDgdsRacGnvPlfWGPJZU03kv3nAmhZk7Iww8nqhLd7KCwkvjeZhf-4z9dcF4cYW7W8GOurfK0Xw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 22cde9713f176eb3ff19e141f857e6a3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Allan Jason Sarmiento Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Greg Morozumi Location The location of the interview. Eastside Arts Alliance Oakland, California Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 1:08:30 Finding Guide [0:00-10:00] Year and place of birth—short biography on parents—early exposure to activism in Oakland—Black Arts Movement and Chicano Arts Movement during 1965—the arts movements and the Farmworker movements—Activism with the Asian American youth groups (Pilipino Development Youth Council, Kalayaan, Chinese Youth Council, Red Guards, I Wor Kuen) [10:01-20:00] The International Hotel (San Francisco, California)—Joining I Wor Kuen—Organizing voluteers for Agbayani Village construction—association with Philip Vera Cruz—Inter ethnic struggle of the 1965 Grape Strike and multi-ethnic strikes during the early 20th century—Philip Vera Cruz and the international struggle—Linda Mabalot [20:01-30:00] Marcos dictatorship and marshal law—Vera Cruz at the Filipino Far West Convention---Vera Cruz’ early contentions with Chavez—Chavez’ trip to the Philippines—Vera Cruz leaves the UFW—Vera Cruz’ later years at Agbayani and relocation to Bakersfield—Morozumi’s relocation to New York—Mabalot’s term as executive director of Visual Communications [30:01-40:00] Third World Movements, student movements and the farmworker movement—Marxist movements and student youth movements—united ethnic coalition of the 1970s—Vera Cruz and multi-national unity—organizing in the 1970s—mentored by elder Filipino and Chinese activist at the International Hotel [40:01-50:00] Kalayaan members teaching Filipino studies at UC Berkeley [50:01-01:00:00] Cesar Chavez’ visit to the Philippines – working as a UFW labor organizer – post-’65 strike Filipino families in Delano – [01:00:01-01:10:00] Supporting Filipino-American Farmworker History – Assembly Bill 123 – Legacy in Filipino-American Farmworker History Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Morozumi (Greg) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Agbayani Village Chavez, Cesar, 1927-1993 [lcna] International Hotel - San Francisco Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Student Activism [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] Vera Cruz, Philip [lcna] Description An account of the resource Greg Morozumi recounts his activities as a political activist, from his early involvement to I Wor Kuen, his association with Philip Vera Cruz, to his current activities at Eastside Arts Alliance. Notable subjects discussed within this oral history interview include the multi-national unity of the farmworker movements and student political groups in support of the farmworker strike. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 17, 2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF document, 29 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Elise Israel Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Dylan Barazon Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Organization: Bulosan Center of Filipinx Studies Oral History conducted by: Elise Israel Date of Oral History: July 20, 2020 Interviewees include: Dylan Barazon Topics: Bay area Fil-Am, 2000s, school and job life, moving to America, Background information on individual/family: Dylan Barazon grew up in the Philippines. He relocated to America during his teenage years and is currently residing in Davis, California. Transcription Completed By: Elise Israel and Dylan Barazon Begin Transcription Here: Elise: Hello Hello Hello. Dylan: Hello good evening. Elise: Oh okay. My name is Elise and you are? Dylan: My name is Dylan Barazon. Elise: Today’s date is July 20, 2020. The interview is being conducted at the person’s apartment and we’re being recorded on an iPhone using voice memos. So let’s get started. What year were you born in and how old are you now? Dylan: I was born on September 27, 1997 and right now I am 22 years old. Elise: So where did you grow up in the Philippines? Dylan: I grew up in a small province called Taytay which is roughly I would say an hour away from Manila, which is the capital city. Elise: And did you move anywhere else in the Philippines? Dylan: I lived in Taytay for probably I would say about 13 years and then I lived in Pasig which is basically a municipality in Manila for three years, right before I left for America. Elise: Okay, so why did you move? Dylan: My school was closer, more of a traffic issue. So my Mom actually bought a condo over there. Elise : Ok, just so you can be closer to your school? Dylan: Exactly Elise: Ok, so how did you view America before you came here? Dylan: I view America as like a very foreign land. Obviously, my view of it was always stereotypical like in the movies. You know really tall buildings, a really diverse amount of people and I always thought that there were your stereotypical jocks, nerds and whatever you find in typical American movie, but that was further from the truth. Elise: What movie did you look up to I guess about America? Dylan: Well not necessarily I can't put an exact name to it but there's a couple out there. Elise: Can you tell me your own memories about your upbringing in the Philippines? Dylan: So I was obviously born and raised in the Philippines in this province called Tatytay and my Mom is actually a businesswoman. She owned a factory where she made uniforms for children. Elise: Okay, does she still own that factory? Dylan: She still owns it until this day. Elise: So when and why did you come to America? Dylan: I came to America in March 27, 2014. I came here initially because my Dad was actually by his father but we had no plans on living here. My sister was seeking treatment for her back because she had scoliosis so we decided as a family. At least me, my dad, and my sister that was should all move here and I finished my senior year of highschool here. Elise: Ok, can you tell me about your memories of being raised in America? Dylan: So, I went to America and honestly it was very I was a stark contrast as opposed to living in the Philippines cause in the Philippines it was just more… I was more dependent upon my parents for you know for everyday tasks. But here it's a bit more different. I actually had to commute to go to school. I had the independence of managing my own time and just being able to you know hangout with friends I'd say a really late time in the evening. Elise: Were your expectations of America the same from what you expected? Dylan: They were, they were the same in the sense that physically the way the place looks. But they were not met in the sense that like I said as I mentioned previously the whole idea of the jocks, the nerds and how people fit in those specific categories. Elise: Okay, so what is your role in America? Are you working? Are you in school? Dylan: As of right now I am a student in UC Davis pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Communication with a minor in Tech Management. Elise: Ok, do you have any plans to work in those fields? Dylan: What I do aspire to work for is the automotive industry. I cannot put an exact finger to what realm of that I will go into but that is the hope. So within the next few years I am trying to land an internship that will help set a springboard for my future career. Elise: Do you remember your parents describing their lives and what did they say? Dylan: What exactly? Elise: Like what was their childhood, teenage, and adult life if they ever talked to you about it. Dylan: Well my Mom she was very I'd say not necessarily reserved. But for both of my parents it's just more of it's just coming to light recently in the past three or four years knowing more about my parents' past. But I would say like in my teenage years they didn't really talk about it. But right now I am a bit more mature to talk about that. It was relatively normal. My dad was simply your typical college student but he wasn't able to finish due to some quote on quote distractions. Sorry, if that sounded very informal in a sense but my Mom was actually not the one who started the business. So this business is called One&Up it's a play on the idea the uniforms or the garments that she made was actually applicable to ages one and up hence the name. So my grandmother actually started the business and my mother took over. So it was a very small scale business and my mother scaled it up pretty well. So that's pretty much the story of my parents. Elise: Did you ever help with her business at all. Dylan: Yes, I did actually. But not necessarily in the way I could right now just, you know. lack of mental capacity back then I was a bit younger. You know you can't really entrust me with a lot of things. But I would say I'd help in really simple tasks here and there. Some record keeping here and there, label making, and sometimes I would go with her when she would buy textile for the clothing. Elise: So what would you consider to be the most important inventions during your lifetime? Dylan: Come again, sorry? Elise: What would you consider to be the most important inventions during your lifetime? Dylan: Definitely the cellphone, well what I mean is what it is now. Just let me rephrase it the "smartphone." Definitely I feel like that's the most important invention just because everything is done through that. Elise: Ok, why do you like the cellphone so much, or "smartphone" as I should say. Dylan: Just because the accessibility and the ability to just reach such a wide audience from the tap of literally from the tap of your finger. Elise: As a child what did you want to be when you grew up? Dylan: When I was a child I actually wanted to be a toy maker it draws from my passion of cars my parents always told me as a kid I was always looking outside the window and I would count how many cars there are outside the window and I would constantly look at the cars wheels and yeah that was basically the activity that I was doing so from that and that's the funny part I don't know where that passion came from. Elise: You must of really loved cars. Dylan: Yes yes I really do. Elise: Where’d you get that passion from? Dylan: I have no idea. It just it just it’s something that was I think I was just born with and basically from there I started collecting little Hot Wheels. At one point I would say I had like 500 pieces of Hot Wheels. Elise: 500 pieces of Hot Wheels? Dylan: Give or take. Give or take yes. And I did some research obviously with parental guidance of course back then when the internet when I had dial-up back then I found out that Mattel, so Mattel the company, that was responsible for other toys such as well obvious Hot Wheels and Barbie, really famous toys, are the ones responsible for making that. So I wanted to have a hand in designing those at one point in my life. Elise: Interesting. That’s pretty cool. Dylan: Yes. Elise: Interesting. Have you actually like researched into it? Dylan: I haven’t researched into it necessarily but I do know if I do want to go down that path you’re gonna have to do something along the lines of design. It definitely stems away from my current you know pursuit. Elise: Okay. So what kind of jobs do you have in the Philippines and here in America. Dylan: So I didn’t have any jobs in the Philippines. I was basically just a student. When it came to here in America I had a couple of jobs. At first I was my first ever job was a clerk at Target, right beside my high school. I lasted for two months and then I called it quits. After that I worked for my city college and I was a front desk clerk slash secretary or as I like to call it anything they want me to be. And most recently about a year ago I was an afterschool program leader dealing with I’d say about 20 to 30 students at a time. And I did that for a really long time. Actually I found that really fun. Elise: So why did you leave target after two months? Dylan: I left Target after two months just because I couldn’t deal with the attitude that some people were bringing to me. And I do understand from from a professional standpoint you know there’s so many different factors that can play into that but there were really really driving my patience and I would say I have pretty good control of my anger but there were times where I would wanted to explode on them because none of the things that they were complaining about one made any reason or two just were any in my control. You know. Elise: Okay and then.. So what was your favorite vacation? Dylan: Ooh. That’s really interesting. I’d say my favorite vacation so far. Oh actually they all have their own quirks but if I were to choose one I would say when I went to Guam with my family because that was really fun. I’ve been to Guam I’d say about three times? So that was really exciting. I would say the beaches are even better than Hawaii. But then again I’m only quoting my parents because I’ve never been to Hawaii but that’s what they said so I’m I’m believing them. There there beaches are really nice and the sand is very fine to the touch. It’s very very nice. I would recommend whoever is listening to this to go there. Yes Elise: So, who or what person has the most positive influence on your life and what did they do to influence you? Dylan: I’d say my mother but on top of that I would say both of my grandmothers too. There’s no specific person. Just like with anything in life I feel like people tend to like pick things on people and I guess it’s the same. I think from my mother I learned the value of patience. From my grandmother on my mother’s side I would I learned the value of just hard work in general. And my grandmother on my father’s side I just learned how to love. That was all combined together. Those are like the women who really changed my life. Elise: Were you close to a lot of the women in your life? Like do you have siblings or is your mom the only woman figure in your life? Dylan: Yes I have a twin sister and I have obviously a lot what’s really funny is in almost all positions except for the one that I had in my previous job, all of my superiors were women. So that was that was very interesting. So I answer to women all the time. So yeah. I would say that’s very interesting. Elise: I agree. Do you remember someone saying something to you that had a big impact on how you lived your life? Dylan: Um I would say not necessarily but if I were to live if I were to live by a saying I think it would be which is basically an accumulation of the experiences that I have dealt with throught my life, I believe in the saying “if you’re doing it, it’s worth doing well”. ‘Cause you’re already there you’re already spending time and effort and the value you know your resources. So you might as well do it in the best way you can. Elise: I really like that. Dylan: Yes. Elise: That’s really good. Well thank you for your interview. I really appreciate it. Mwah Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Dylan Barazon Subject The topic of the resource San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) 2000s (Decade) Immigration & society Pasig City (Manila, Philippines) Description An account of the resource Oral History interview of Dylan Barazon by Elise Israel Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 20, 2020 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Bulosan Center and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .txt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0005 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Link <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BY5o0kqKn9mifK219ntp0DuNTc2fWaUv/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BY5o0kqKn9mifK219ntp0DuNTc2fWaUv/view?usp=sharing</a> Finding Guide 9/15/2018 - The Morgan Family | 10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Background of George Yanes (Gregorio) <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Came to the United States for college, wanted to become an engineer</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">First arrived in Seattle, fell into indentured servitude under the Catholic Church as a houseboy, had to escape</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Ended up following the migrant labor circuit</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">From Seattle, went to Alaska and worked in canneries</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Ended up in Nebraska and worked on Laura’s grandmother’s sugar beet farm <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">George and Laura’s grandmother fell in love, ran away to New Mexico to get married due to anti-miscegenation laws</li> </ul></li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Settled down in California and worked on many farms throughout the state- Pleasanton, Livermore, Arizona, Bakersfield, Wasco</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Ultimately moved to Livermore, worked for Jackson and Perkins (rose farm) <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Worked in the fields, did budding and grafting</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Also helped with research and creating new rose types</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Had a fluid role at Jackson and Perkins, did many jobs</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Did not participate in labor activism movement</li> </ul></li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Other Filipinos lived in Livermore, on the North Side of town (considered the “rough” side of town) or in labor camps</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">George Yanes and his wife, a German immigrant, had difficulty buying a house because George was Filipino- eventually bought a house in 1950 <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Prior to owning their own home, they lived in a group home for other Filipino laborers, many Filipinos living under one roof</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Congregated with other Filipinos on the weekends at Camp Corrigador, ate pigs and goat, drank together <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Many unmarried Filipino laborers lived there</li> </ul></li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The Yanes family would invite the other Filipinos to their home for the holidays</li> </ul></li> <li style="font-weight:400;">In the Philippines, George Yanes’ family were rice farmers that owned a lot of land</li> </ul>Jeanette Morgan’s Background <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Grew up on the North Side of Livermore, “old money” Livermore on the South Side</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Most of the FIlipino community lived on the North Side</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The Morgans had to sell the family home in 2015 <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">The neighborhood is now mostly Hispanic, less homeowners and more renters</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Neighborhood has also become more gentrified as well</li> </ul></li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Not many Filipino students in Livermore when Jeanette was in school, but she did not feel excluded or discriminated against</li> </ul>Diversification of Livermore (Laura) <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Hispanic population has grown</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">South Asian and Middle Eastern communitie have also grown</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Not very many Filipino students in Laura’s classes these days, some are biracial</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Met biracial Filipinos through the PTA </li> </ul>Jeanette Morgan’s Background Cont. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Worked in data processing after high school at IBM in Oakland</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Married husband at 18, husband was in the Navy</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Her brother worked in the rose fields with their father</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Other brother graduated from Cal State Hayward in 1973</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The Filipino community in Livermore mostly moved away after the labor camps were torn down, mostly moved to Sacramento and Stockton</li> </ul>George’s Life after Retiring <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Retired from Jackson and Perkins in his 60s, returned to work at a local nursery owned by Japanese people</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Started a rose garden at the nursery and trained the Hispanic workers</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Worked there until he was 92</li> </ul>George’s Background Cont. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">While working in Yakima, Washington, he had to hide under the Moxy Bridge because white people were “hunting Filipinos” and looking to “kill a chink”</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Never returned to the Philippines after coming to America</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Became a naturalized citizen in 1950, very proud</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Spoke Visayan, Illocano, Spanish, English, and Tagalog</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Voted in every election, very liberal, followed the news in America and the Philippines</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Worked in Wasco and Shafter during the week, lived in Livermore on weekends</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">His wife learned how to cook Filipino food at the labor camps, the unmarried laborers taught her how to make traditional Filipino food, she served as “den mom” because there weren’t many married couples at the labor camps</li> </ul>Laura’s Experiences with Being Filipino <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Not much of a Filipino community in Livermore during her generation</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">She won a scholarship for Filipino students, learned more about her heritage later on in life</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Met more Filipinos when she transferred from UC Santa Barbara to UC Berkeley</li> </ul>George’s Experiences Later on in Life <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Had a stroke in his 90s, his caregiver was Filipino</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Caregiver, Alex, was intercepted by ICE while bringing his daughter to her kindergarten class</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Caregiver was very close to George, they could speak the same language together</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The Morgans still have ties to the Filipino community through caregivers</li> </ul> Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Allan Jason Sarmiento Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Laura and Jeanette Morgan Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;">Filipino American Farmworker Oral History Project</div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;">Oral History Interview</div> <div style="text-align:center;">With</div> <div style="text-align:center;">Laura and Jeanette Morgan</div> <div style="text-align:center;"> </div> <div style="text-align:center;">September 15, 2018</div> <div style="text-align:center;">Livermore, California</div> Interviewed by Jason Sarmiento Transcribed by Michelle Galat Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies UC Davis Asian American Studies Department [Session 1, September 15, 2018] [Begin Audio File] SARMIENTO: Today is September 15th and it is 10:20 and this is for the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Oral History Program. And today we are doing an oral history in Livermore, California. And if you two could introduce yourselves real quick. L, MORGAN: My name is Laura Morgan. J, MORGAN: Jeanette Morgan. SARMIENTO: We’re going to first talk about you guys just for a little bit, then jump back into your family history. Can you first say when and where both of you were born? L, MORGAN: I was born here in Livermore, California on November 10th, 1969. J, MORGAN: And I was born in Livermore, California of July 29th, 1944. SARMIENTO: Jumping back into your family history - What was your Grandfather’s name? J, MORGAN: George Carian (sp?) Yanes. L, MORGAN: Although I found out this morning that when he came to the United States, he changed his name. So, his birth name was Gregorio. SARMIENTO: Oh! Do you know what part of the Philippines he was from? J, MORGAN: North of Manila. L, MORGAN: San Jose City. J, MORGAN: In Nueva Ecija. L, MORGAN: Yes, in Nueva Ecija. SARMIENTO: What trade was he in? Was he a farmer at the time? L, MORGAN: So, when he was in the Philippines, he was a student. J, MORGAN: He came here when he was 19, 1927. And, he came here to get his college degree in Engineering. SARMIENTO: What school did he attend? J, MORGAN: I don't know. He came into Seattle, which he called his hometown. I know he attended a school shortly, but he came [to the United States] and thought he was going to get his Engineer degree. But he found out he was going to be a house boy in the Catholic priest, so it changed for him. He wasn't able to do [Engineering]. L, MORGAN: He kind of had an indentured servitude for a period of time for the passage? J, MORGAN: No, his mother paid for the passage. His father had already passed away. SARMIENTO: How long was he indentured for? J, MORGAN: I don’t know. He left [Seattle]. [laughs] When it became clear what was happening, he left. And then he started doing - L, MORGAN: A little bit of everything. Working agriculture, but he did some fishing in Alaska. He was one of the fishing boats in Alaska. J, MORGAN: The canneries in Alaska. He did that a couple years, I think. L, MORGAN: He did a lot of different things. J, MORGAN: I forgot about that. [laughs] L, MORGAN: See that’s why we’re both here. [laughs] SARMIENTO: It sounds like he’s following the migrant labor circuit in the Seattle area. Did he come alone or with friends or with other relatives? L, MORGAN: Him alone. J, MORGAN: He was alone. He had a [inaudible] on the ship. And they went to China first, and then across the Pacific. And he told us that one time that there was a famous General on the ship with him, but I don’t remember who it was. L, MORGAN: And didn’t he talk to him? J, MORGAN: Yeah. SARMIENTO: Was the General also traveling or was he actually moving into the States, do you recall? J, MORGAN: No. L, MORGAN: Don’t know. And I don’t know that he was an American General or no? J, MORGAN: No, Filipino. L, MORGAN: A Filipino General, ok. SARMIENTO: You stated he had multiple jobs. When did he get into agricultural? L, MORGAN: Probably right away I would imagine. He wasn’t isolated in the Seattle area. He made his way all the way to Nebraska, which is where he met my Grandmother. He worked on her family farm harvesting sugar beets in - what’s the town in Nebraska? J, MORGAN: Lyman, Nebraska. L, MORGAN: Ok. Very far west Nebraska. That was how they met. [4:53-11:00] SARMIENTO: How was your Grandmother’s family’s reaction to them? L, MORGAN: Not favorable. [laughs] J, MORGAN: Because when [George and his wife] first met, I think it was 1934 possibly, he wanted to marry her then and they said no. He continued working and was gone. But I guess somehow they kept communicating going. I’m not exactly sure with letters, but not to her house so I’m not sure where she picked up the letters. He came back a couple years later and they ran away together. On the - L, MORGAN: 4th of July - J, MORGAN: 4th of July, that was her - L, MORGAN: Independence Day. That was her Independence Day. She came from a German farm family, and how many girls? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 girls? J, MORGAN: Yeah. L, MORGAN: 6 girls and 1 boy. [George’s wife’s] mother - I’ve always heard her referred to as the old bat. She was not a kind person, but her father was. I don’t think growing up was easy. She only went to school through what? J, MORGAN: 7th grade. Then had to work on the farm. L, MORGAN: So it was a tough life and that was why it was a huge Independence Day for her to run away with my Grandfather. J, MORGAN: But they fell in love right away and she knew that was the person for her. SARMIENTO: Where did they move to after they left Nebraska or when they ran away together? L, MORGAN: When they got married? They went to New Mexico, which at the time was the closest state that would allow them to get married because there were so many anti-miscegenation laws. They got married on July 6th, 1936 in New Mexico. Then they moved pretty much to California close after that. And then they were working the farms, the migrant labor circuit. [Jeanette] can probably talk to where they were settled at different points. J, MORGAN: My oldest sister was born in 1937 in El Centro. And then my brother, George, was born 1939 in Calexico. My sister, Carol, was born in 1941 in El Centro. Then they started moving North. When my sister, Mary - L, MORGAN: The oldest - J, MORGAN: The oldest one, was ready for school, my mom said to my dad, “We have to settle down because our kids aren’t going to different schools. We’re not moving them around.” That’s when they settled in Livermore. L, MORGAN: Is that when he got the job with Jackson & Perkins? J, MORGAN: He worked out in the Naval station in Livermore, which is now the lab. He worked out there, and then he worked out in the rose gardens. A couple of different rose gardens. Then he worked for Jackson & Perkins until 1970, then they retired him. Then I was born in Livermore in 1944, and my brother, Gary, was born in Livermore in 1951. SARMIENTO: What was that company that your Grandfather worked for? Is it an agricultural business? L&J MORGAN: Jackson & Perkins, the rose company. SARMIENTO: Oh ok. L, MORGAN: And it was in Pleasanton, right? J, MORGAN: They had places in Pleasanton [inaudible] Livermore. L, MORGAN: Oh ok. I always thought it was just in Pleasanton. SARMIENTO: What types of position did your Grandfather have? Did it run the [inaudible] on multiple positions? J, MORGAN: With Jackson & Perkins? SARMIENTO: Yes. J, MORGAN: He worked in the fields. He did work in research and created new roses, but he mostly worked in the fields. L, MORGAN: He did budding and grafting and that sort of thing. J, MORGAN: During the winter when it was too cold, roses were in the field, he worked in Pleasanton. They had a cold storage warehouse where they put together roses to be shipped out and then in the summers he worked in the field. He worked here in Pleasanton, Livermore, and then when the soil was worked out he worked in Arizona for quite a few years. He’d go there for the summer, and that’s where he worked in the fields. After that, he worked down near Bakersfield and Shafter. L, MORGAN: And Wasco, was what I remembered. J, MORGAN: Wasco was where he ended up retiring. L, MORGAN: He would work in Wasco and correct me if I’m wrong cause I was a little kid, he would work during the week in Wasco and every other weekend he would come home. He would say to me, and I was little, “Do you want to come with me?” And when he was leaving to go back and I would say, “Next time, Grandpa, next time!” Not understanding that there was no way he was going to take a 3-year-old little girl with him to go back to Wasco to work, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings because I wanted to stay with my mom. He loved children so I know why he would say that to me. [11:01-15:04] SARMIENTO: Is it more of a gradual position that he held? Was he a laborer that could make a lot of strains of roses? J, MORGAN: I’m not really sure because I was young at the time myself. The research was here in, I think Pleasanton and in Wasco. He worked with some of the people who had more education in agriculture and helped. L, MORGAN: He worked his way up. J, MORGAN: But mostly he was a laborer. SARMIENTO: Did he work with a lot of Filipinos in the groups? J&L MORGAN: Oh yes. J, MORGAN: They lived in camps. In fact, both my parents lived in camps. I remember visiting some camps, and it was really interesting - the bathrooms. Outdoor bathrooms. My mom and dad, they bought their house in 1950. L, MORGAN: That was here in Livermore. J, MORGAN: Here in Livermore. They had it built in Livermore. But it was hard for them to buy something because my dad was Filipino. They just happened to have some friends that lived around the - L, MORGAN: Where the houses were being built - J, MORGAN: Where the properties were selling. And it was being sold through the Catholic Church. L, MORGAN: Oh, I didn’t know that. J, MORGAN: The man around the corner - who was Portuguese - he told the Church, “If you don’t sell it to them, I’m going to buy it to them and I’m going to sell it to them.” So [the Catholic Church] did end up selling it to [George and his wife], and then they had their house built. Before that, my brother remembers some of the places where you could see through the - L, MORGAN: The walls to the outdoors. J, MORGAN: My older sister and my brother and my sister next to me lived in places that were not so great. L, MORGAN: Where were they living when you were born? On Buena Vista? J, MORGAN: No, they were living in that house across on North K. L, MORGAN: Oh, the one across the street from - J, MORGAN: It's not there anymore. It was a big house and Filipinos all lived there. They each lived together, had their own rooms. I have some pictures of that place. L, MORGAN: Oh okay. I didn’t know that. That was just across the street from - J, MORGAN: It was kind of catty-corner. SARMIENTO: Is that a boarding house or is that an apartment? J, MORGAN: It was a house with rooms and Filipino families lived together. Actually, my two aunts each married Filipinos. L, MORGAN: This is my Grandmother’s sisters. Also married Filipinos. J, MORGAN: They all ended up living in Livermore, not that they always got along. [laughs] L, MORGAN: I was going to say, they didn’t get along and they didn’t like each other. So there’s all these people in Livermore that I’m related to that are part Filipino-part German, and I don’t even know. [laughs] I, one time, had one of the little girls in my class and she saw my class list and said, “Oh gosh, I hope this is going to be okay.” And it was. It was fine. There’s people that I don’t know that [Jeanette] knows better than I. [15:05-20:02] SARMIENTO: I take it this extended family doesn’t keep in close contact apparently. J, MORGAN: No, we run into each other in town occasionally. L, MORGAN: I would say there’s no animosity among the younger generations. J, MORGAN: But all of the parents are deceased now. SARMIENTO: So that’s your relationship with your in-laws. How was [George’s] relationship with the Filipino community? Was he rather involved in the social aspect of it? J, MORGAN: For a while, he was. Lots of weekends partying. [laughs] Killing the goat or the pig. He would go, [the kids] wouldn’t go, but he would go. L, MORGAN: To the camps, because there were a couple of camps in Livermore at the time. This is even after the time you have the house. J, MORGAN: There was one on Tesla (sp?) Road, right where it curves. It was called Camp Korigador (sp?). You’ve heard that? SARMIENTO: Unfortunately not. J, MORGAN: That was one of the places they would go to kill a goat or a pig or drink. He would come home feeling good a few times. As he got older, he just kind of gave that up. Those camps, as the town changed, of course, they were gone. But interesting. SARMIENTO: Could you tell me a little bit about those camps? What was the camp called again? J, MORGAN: Camp Korigador (sp?). SARMIENTO: Was it just one of the laborer camps that farmers lived? J, MORGAN: Yes, and that’s where they stayed. The men that worked and didn’t have families - they stayed in the camps. There were a couple around town. L, MORGAN: There was one out around Haggelman (sp?). [Jeannette doesn’t] remember what that one was called though. SARMIENTO: Did your father and his Filipino friends just mainly congregate at the camps or did they ever go about the towns? J, MORGAN: I think mainly they just had their weekends together. L, MORGAN: At the camps. But they came to the house, too. J, MORGAN: We had parties. L, MORGAN: And there were friends that he was closer to that would come. There were pictures. J, MORGAN: People that he worked with Jackson & Perkins. On holidays, they would come to the house for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years. We had different groups of Filipino friends that would come. SARMIENTO: Do you recall any negative reactions with the Livermore community in regards to your father and his friends? J, MORGAN: No. There were just no problems with that. Probably when my parents came because it’s a pretty white community. They couldn’t buy something very easily and it was hard to rent places. L, MORGAN: Which is why they were in that big house where all the Filipinos were. SARMIENTO: How did the Filipino community treat your mother? J, MORGAN: Oh that was fine. They liked her. SARMIENTO: So there was never any animosity? J, MORGAN: No. SARMIENTO: I believe during that time there was a lot of Filipino men married a lot of white women. Was there any other couples similar to your father’s situation? J, MORGAN: Just my 2 aunts. There were others but I was young at the time. I don’t remember their names. SARMIENTO: Do you recall any specific laborer practices that your father or any other Filipino laborer brought from the Philippines to use in the rose gardens? L, MORGAN: I don’t know. J, MORGAN: His family had rice fields now. He was going to come here to go into Engineering, so farming wasn’t the thing that he wasn’t planning on going into. I think in the Philippines, from what I understand, he was from a more well to do family. L, MORGAN: So he wasn’t farming. J, MORGAN: He wasn’t a farming person who had land. He just came here to have to make his way and get a living, so that’s what he did. SARMIENTO: Did he just learn on the job? J, MORGAN: Yes. [20:03-25:02] SARMIENTO: Was it just your father that worked in the Jackson company or did the rest of your relatives work there as well? J, MORGAN: My one uncle worked for a different company - it was Paul Devore (sp?). This was one of my uncle’s. The other Uncle - L, MORGAN: Which uncle? J, MORGAN: That was Uncle Pete [inaudible]. Uncle Chris had been in the Navy, so he actually got a job out in the lab as a custodian. L, MORGAN: That’s Lawrence Livermore [inaudible] Lab. J, MORGAN: He actually helped give people jobs. At the time, it was a little easier to get jobs in the same situation that he was in. SARMIENTO: During the time that your father was working, there appears to be a lot of labor activists going on in the Filipino community. Was your Grandfather involved in any of the labor unions? J, MORGAN: No. L, MORGAN: No, that was my Grandma. My Grandma was the union activist, not my Grandpa. J, MORGAN: No, he wasn’t in any of that. SARMIENTO: What was your Grandmother’s involvement in the [inaudible]? L, MORGAN: After doing lots of different things, she worked in a cannery. She ended up being a cook for the school district. She was a school cook working in the kitchens. She helped found the CSCA Chapter here in the Livermore School District, which is California State Employee Association. A classified union. She was a union starter. As you can imagine, a white woman with a Filipino man, she was kind of a rebel. [laughs] She was kind of a spitfire. It wasn't always easy to be her granddaughter or her daughter. She had pretty strong opinions, and her way was the highway. J, MORGAN: The right way, she said. L, MORGAN: The only way. It was her way or it wasn’t happening. SARMIENTO: Did your father have any strong opinions one or another about farm labor activism or any the unions? J, MORGAN: I don't think he did. It was different because he was working for one company so many years that if he was treated bearably, it would've helped that he would've made more money. During the summer, they worked peace work and he could make a lot of money during the summer. Winters weren't as good, but they just had to save the money that they made during the summer to help us get through the winter. Because he worked for the company for so many years, he wasn't really involved in it. SARMIENTO: I’m going to go forward into your generation to ask how your experiences were. Can you repeat again where you were living at when you grew up from childhood to high school? J, MORGAN: We lived first in a place in Buena Vista - just a little shack we lived in until we were able to get the house built. Then we moved to a town in North K street. L, MORGAN: Livermore is a town divided by railroad tracks. It really truly is. There’s the north side of town and the south side of town. The north side of town is, still to this day, the more undesirable side. They lived on the north side of town. I remember at one point somebody talking to those neighborhoods. I said, “Oh, those neighborhoods where I spent a lot of my childhood where my Grandfather lived? Not too scared about those neighborhoods. Doesn’t bother me at all.” SARMIENTO: So when the house was eventually built, what was your neighbor’s different ethnicities? Or Filipino? J, MORGAN: Well, let’s see. The house on one side was part of the purchase. They sold it to whoever bought it. It wasn’t Filipino, it was Caucasian somebody. The house on the other side, there wasn’t a house there. Most of our neighborhood was white. SARMIENTO: This was the “undesirable” section? J, MORGAN: It wasn’t the one you wanted to live on, but it was a nice side of town as far as I was concerned. [laughs] [25:03-29:50] SARMIENTO: Besides the labor camps, where did the Filipino community live in? J, MORGAN: Kind of all over in town. But mostly on the north side. L, MORGAN: Old Livermore families all lived on the south side. What I told people - I grew up in Livermore and my mom grew up in Livermore, and they would say, “Oh are you one of those old Livermore families?” I would say, “No, we’re the family that was living in the shack on the older Livermore’s property.” That was on Buena Vista. J, MORGAN: Not the one on North K. L, MORGAN: No, not the one on North K. I mean, it’s a nice house. I’m sad that it’s not in our family anymore now that my grandparents both passed. SARMIENTO: When was that house sold by your family? J, MORGAN: In 2015. My mom passed away in 2014 and she was the last. We had to sell it because we did a reverse mortgage so that - L, MORGAN: We could take care of her basically - J, MORGAN: At home. Then after that, we had to sell it. L, MORGAN: I can't drive by it. I just pretend that they're still living there, and I haven't seen them in a while. I just don't drive by the house because it makes me too sad. [tears up] I spent so much of my childhood there. J, MORGAN: But I drive by it! L, MORGAN: You’ve better dealt with it than I have then. SARMIENTO: How did that neighborhood change as years went on? Was it still mainly Caucasian, Anglo-American neighborhood? J, MORGAN: Now it’s a lot of Hispanics are living in that area. L, MORGAN: And it changed from being owners to renters, definitely. But it’s sort of interesting because that area is sort of gentrifying over time. I saw something where that little American Indian center by the Eagles Hall. Going there to build a house there is like 800 thousand. J, MORGAN: Is that how much they are? L, MORGAN: Yes! I almost fell over when I saw that. The thought of over ¾ million dollar house in the north side, it would have never happened before. It’s interesting, it’s changing. SARMIENTO: When you went to high school, was it a diverse student body? Or was it mainly still Caucasian? J, MORGAN: Mainly still Caucasian. L, MORGAN: You would have to go find a picture. J, MORGAN: Of what? L, MORGAN: Of you dressed as a little Indian and all the little white girls dressed as pilgrims. [laughs] J, MORGAN: I thought nothing of it! L, MORGAN: I know. There’s a [inaudible] side of old Livermore school pictures. If you go through it, ad it goes way back, I could find pictures of my uncles and aunts and things like that. A lot of times, there maybe is one or two brown faces but it’s a sea of white faces. They’re easy to pick out, but my favorite one is when she was in Ms. Kuchinata’s (sp?) class at Junction. It was Thanksgiving and all the little girls were dressed up as pilgrims, except my mom was dressed as an Indian. I said, “I can just see how this went down. Hey darkie! You’re dressing as the Indian!” J, MORGAN: But I never felt there was anything wrong with my ethnicity. It was okay. SARMIENTO: You did mention earlier that were some Filipino families. Did any other children or even other relatives - were they your classmates as well? J, MORGAN: I didn't have any as my classmates. But they were alive before and after me. I was kind of the only one in that grade level. Yes, they were in school. SARMIENTO: Do you recall any troublesome experiences on behalf of yourself or anything that you saw amongst the Filipino studies? J, MORGAN: No. Nothing. L, MORGAN: Not from your brothers and sisters either. I mean, I’ve never heard any stories. I think it’s unusual, but never heard stories of - J, MORGAN: Never felt like there was a problem with - L, MORGAN: Being excluded or made fun of or harassed or anything, which is weird that that didn’t happened. J, MORGAN: No. It just didn’t happen. It was fine. [29:51-34:40] SARMIENTO: Since it’s not too much of a diverse community, I take it there wasn’t any Asian American clubs or anything? L, MORGAN: Oh gosh, no. J, MORGAN: Not then, no. L, MORGAN: Not even when I was in high school. SARMIENTO: I'm assuming the area is still predominantly Anglo-American still. L, MORGAN: It's changed a lot. J, MORGAN: She probably knows a lot more about that since she’s a teacher. L, MORGAN: I teach transitional kindergarten. I have 21 students in my class this year. 13 out of my 21 are English language learners representing 12 languages. It’s pretty diverse. It’s very interesting. It’s cool. I kind of look at it and think, “My grandparents were the pioneers there.” It makes me very proud of that. SARMIENTO: I’m going to jump in a little bit regarding about your teaching. How long have you been a teacher? L, MORGAN: This is my 25th year of teaching, which is crazy because I’m only 25. [laughs] So how’d that happen? I don’t know. I taught here in Livermore most of the years. I taught for a couple of years in Piedmont School District. I went to Berkeley, and that was where I got a job right out of graduate school. But then I moved back to my Livermore. My husband grew up in Livermore, too. We knew it was stupid to not try to raise grandkids around two sets of grandparents, so we moved back here. I’ve been teaching in Livermore ever since, so 23 of those 25 years. SARMIENTO: Did you start to notice gradual diverse in Livermore? L, MORGAN: Yeah, it's changed a lot over the span of my career. I would say when I first hired in - it was mostly Caucasian. Then it shifted. I mean, there's always been a Hispanic population here. It's isolated, kind of, into certain communities. I didn't happen to teach in the schools where there was a Hispanic population originally. Then I moved schools a lot. Over time, definitely more families from the Middle East and South Asia. That's a good portion of my classes, South Asian and representing lots of different languages. SARMIENTO: In regards to Filipino students? L, MORGAN: Not a lot. [laughs] Really not a lot. I had Jeremy, who [inaudible] interview [inaudible]. There's been a few over the years, but really not a lot. Although, so my youngest son - his best friend is Filipino. They’re there. They just don’t always end up in my class, I like it when they do though. There’s been a few that have been part like me. The Burgatos (sp?). There’s been a few families that are mixed. J, MORGAN: My friends. [inaudible] L, MORGAN: Oh yeah, I laugh at her because all of my mom’s really good friends that she met on PTA when I was a kid. I said, “What did you find? The five non-white people in Livermore to be friends with?” Her really good friends are - well Alice is passed - but Mexican, Hawaiian, Filipino. Well, [Jeanette’s] the Filipino. J, MORGAN: [Alice is] Hawaiian, but she’s married to Filipino-Hawaiian. L, MORGAN: Oh true. And then her daughter’s married to a Filipino - Kiera (sp?). Berny and Jan had their own things. They were white, but one was adopted, and one was grown up in an orphanage. So you’ve found all these people who have all these different backgrounds than the rest of the kids that I grew up with. J, MORGAN: [Alice and I are] still friends. L, MORGAN: Yes. Good, close friends. J, MORGAN: Really close friends. SARMIENTO: I’m going to jump back in with your friendships. Did you guys grow up with each other? J, MORGAN: No. We met when our kids started school. [Alice and I] got on a PTA Board together and we’re still friends. L, MORGAN: Like sisters. J, MORGAN: Two of our original group have already passed away. I see them two or three times a week. [34:41-39:57] SARMIENTO: I’m going to go a little bit further from that. After high school, where did you attend college? J, MORGAN: I didn’t. [laughs] My youngest brother did attend college, though. He’s the only one. But I went to work as a [inaudible] operator. I worked in data processing. I met my husband while I was going to school to learn that. He was in the Navy. L, MORGAN: He was also going to school. They met at the coffee machine, which I say is appropriate because coffee has always been apart part of our lives. [laughs] J, MORGAN: He passed away last year. SARMIENTO: Sorry to hear that. J, MORGAN: He was in the Navy. My school was a week and a half, or two week, and his was a three week. We met on 401 Grand Avenue at [inaudible] in Oakland. SARMIENTO: Since he was in the Navy, how shortly after did you get married? J, MORGAN: Five months later. [laughs] L, MORGAN: And she as 18! I always say you’ve killed me if I had done that. SARMIENTO: With him being in the Navy, was he mainly on the ship or did you move around with him? J, MORGAN: He was on a ship. He was in and out of Treasure Island at the time. He was on a ship. He just went out five hundred miles off the coast and they guarded the coastline. There were 16, eight on each coast, that patrolled. We got married in 1963, and he got out of the Navy in ‘65. We just decided to stay here. SARMIENTO: There’s a large percentage of Filipinos in the Navy. Did your husband recall any interactions with any of the Filipinos? J, MORGAN: Oh yeah he had some on the ship. No problems with them. I think one was the doctor, the person who took care of him. [laughs] Never any problems. SARMIENTO: Did you meet any of them while they were on short leave here? J, MORGAN: I met some of his shipmates, but mostly they were Caucasian. SARMIENTO: I asked this already, I just want to clarify. Were any of your siblings also in the rose or in the farming industry or just our father? J, MORGAN: My oldest brother worked with my dad a little bit. When he first got married and he got married young too - L, MORGAN: Even younger. J, MORGAN: He worked with my dad for probably a year and then he got into other things. SARMIENTO: How many siblings do you have? J, MORGAN: Four. SARMIENTO: One of your siblings went to college, correct? J, MORGAN: Mhm. SARMIENTO: Do you recall where he went? L, MORGAN: He went to a lot of places. Davis being one of them, but he didn't finish there. J, MORGAN: Yes, he went to Davis for a semester, I think. L, MORGAN: He was too homesick. [laughs] J, MORGAN: He was homesick so he came back. L, MORGAN: We’re all big babies in my family. [laughs] J, MORGAN: And he went to Shabot, and he went to Cal State Hayward. Got his degree there in Biology. SARMIENTO: What year was that [inaudible]e? J, MORGAN: He graduated in 1969 from high school. So he started in college in 1969. L, MORGAN: Did he get in through four years? J, MORGAN: Yes. L, MORGAN: So ‘71. ‘72. No ‘71. No. 3. [laughs] This is why I teach T-K. I'm actually really good at math but obviously, haven't had enough coffee yet. J, MORGAN: He graduated in 1969. L, MORGAN: Plus four is ‘73. J, MORGAN: He finished in four years. SARMIENTO: It sounds like your brother went to college right when the whole ethnic studies student protest was going on. By any chance, do you recall any memories of him mentioning that? J, MORGAN: No. He probably wasn’t involved in that. L, MORGAN: He lived at home during college. He was a commuter student, probably not as involved with what was going on with the campus community. There to get your degree. When I went to college, that was the message too. You were there to get your degree, don't get involved n a bunch of nonsense. Especially since I was at Berkeley. [laughs] [39:58-45:04] SARMIENTO: So, he wasn’t definitely involved in any - J, MORGAN: No. SARMIENTO: Did he have any friends by any chance? Do you recall if any of his friends were Filipino students? J, MORGAN: I don't think so because he didn’t stay on campus. He commuted, he was a commuter student The only time he was away was when he went to Davis for six months and we were driving there every other day. L, MORGAN: I was a baby apparently. I made that drive a lot. J, MORGAN: We drove there to Davis a lot. We met at the Nut Tree a lot. SARMIENTO: Is that the one in Vacaville? L&J MORGAN: Yes. J, MORGAN: Then it was a really great restaurant. SARMIENTO: When you were your adult age, did your father still hang out with the Filipino community at the time? J, MORGAN: No not anymore. There wasn’t a real community. SARMIENTO: Because the camps were gone. It wasn’t like a gathering place. A lot of his friends, the family friends, moved out. J, MORGAN: Some back to the Philippines. Some down in Sacramento and Stockton. They kept in touch a little bit but not really close. L, MORGAN: And as he got older., he slowed down. He retired for good at 91. SARMIENTO: Oh wow! J, MORGAN: Oh yeah, I guess we didn’t tell him about the second job he got. [laughs] L, MORGAN: So when he retired, he was 70. It wasn’t in 1970. [Jeanette] said it was in 1970, he was 70. J, MORGAN: He retired when he was 70. L, MORGAN: Yes he retired at 70 from Jackson & Perkins. Then he was home for about a year and he watched a lot of soap operas. Hercules and Xena (sp?) Warrior Princess. My Grandma said, “No more. You cannot waste away sitting in the back room watching tv for the rest of your life.” So she made him go get a job. He worked at a local [inaudible] nursery, owned by a Japanese family. That was interesting. He worked until he was 91. He worked 6 days a week, 6 hours a day - J, MORGAN: 7 hours a day - L, MORGAN: 7 hours a day. More than a regular work week and trained a lot of guys that were a lot younger than him. I remember him being more able-bodied than they. He was not fond of the Japanese. J, MORGAN: And he told them so. He said, “You weren't nice to my people.” L, MORGAN: During the war. J, MORGAN: He kept reminding his boss of that. But it was ok. L, MORGAN: [His boss] loved him. They absolutely loved them. They kept him for 20 years. J, MORGAN: He started a rose garden at the nursery. They didn’t have the rose garden, but he created the roses. Then they sold them. He would bud them and graft them and do other things, then they sold what he made at the nursery in Pleasanton. SARMIENTO: Did he operate that himself? Or did he [inaudible] other assistance to help him in that? J, MORGAN: He did it. L, MORGAN: They had beautiful rose bushes at their house too. A long gravel pathway of roses. Beautiful. SARMIENTO: What did he do again when - L, MORGAN: At sushi? J, MORGAN: He maintained. He kept plants watered, pruned them when they needed it. But he did create the rose trees. L, MORGAN: He did what they needed him todo. He probably did a little bit of everything But working with the plants. J, MORGAN: He would go to work at six in the morning and come home at two in the afternoon or whatever. He had to record his soap operas. Then he would come home and just watch soap operas. L, MORGAN: He drives an orange Camaro. It had been my uncle Gary's, the one who went to college. I don't know how my Grandpa ended up with it. A tiny little Filipino man in a bright orange Camaro. If you'd seen him out and seen him driving and try to wave, "Oh Grandpa, hey hey!" No, he's very fixated on the road and he was going to get to work and back and that was in his orange Camaro. He was quite a sight. [45:05-49:46] SARMIENTO: The people he was training, were they Filipino or Hispanic? L&J MORGAN: Hispanic. SARMIENTO: Because at this time, were there not too much Filipinos at the time? J, MORGAN: I mean, they had all kind of been the same age so they were gone like he was. Retired at the same except they didn’t have to tell them to go back to work. L, MORGAN: Until you’re 91 years old. SARMIENTO: I’m actually going to jump back a little bit. I’m curious a little about his experience in the migrant work circuit. Do you recall any specific stories that he would tell you as a kid that come to mind regarding work life or living? J, MORGAN: It was interesting because my husband was from Washington state. He was born in Seattle and eventually moved to Yacama which was apples and cherries and other things. My dad had actually worked in that area - L, MORGAN: Oh I know what story you're going to talk about. J, MORGAN: Actually he worked in the area which was Yacama, but my husband hadn't lived there. He told us about having to hide under the Moxy Bridge because the white people were coming after him to kill him. L, MORGAN: That they wanted to kill a chink. J, MORGAN: That was the story we heard. Actually, my husband drove me to where that was when they heard about that. So he actually had some [inaudible] experiences being Filipino. L, MORGAN: One of the things about my Grandpa - he was a very quiet man, he didn’t talk a lot. He had to be in the right mood to talk. And then when he would talk, the flood gates opened. J, MORGAN: He didn’t share a lot with us. I’m kind of sad because we lost out on some history from him. We had that one time - L, MORGAN: Oh yeah we were up in Tahoe, my brother and I, went on a park course. We were at a cabin and we got lost in the woods and they couldn't find us and we couldn't find the road. Eventually, they did find us. J, MORGAN: That night, he just poured his heart out. L, MORGAN: Told us all these things. And we all went, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk that much.” He was talking about the Philippines mostly, being a young man in the Philippines. [To Jeanette] Do you remember any specifics from that night? I mean, I think we were all in just so much shock from the whole experience. J, MORGAN: He was so glad they were okay because it was getting dark. That’s when we finally found you. [Inaudible] and I were sitting there waiting for them at the park because they were supposed to come back around and then they just didn’t show up. Everybody was really concerned. My dad opened up that night, and that’s when I found out most of what had happened to him coming here on the ship and coming to Seattle and things that had happened in Seattle. Actually, I think my mom said he got involved with a blonde who stole his books. [laughs] So, that was part of not going back to school. L, MORGAN: Oh yeah, his university textbooks. She stole his textbooks to sell. I don’t think she was studying Engineering. J, MORGAN: No, I don’t think so. Anyway, so that all kind of came out that night, too. But he didn’t talk about it too much. We just didn’t question him. I’m so sorry that I hadn’t questioned him. L, MORGAN: He never went back to the Philippines. Not once. Which is so unusual for Filipinos, I came to know later. He considered himself an American. He got his citizenship in 1950, right around the time they were building the house. He was so proud to be American. [49:47-54:52] J, MORGAN: He told us that his life wish was to come to the United States and become a citizen. L, MORGAN: Since the time he was little. J, MORGAN: He left at 19 and didn’t ever go back. L, MORGAN: Never saw his family again, because they didn’t come here either. J, MORGAN: He only had two siblings. He was the oldest. And then he had a brother and a sister. I know they had property and him being the eldest meant it was up to him It was his. He said, "I'm not coming back there. You do with it what you want to do. I'm not coming back" when his mom passed away. She passed away at 98, he was 97 when he passed away. My mom was too, but there was an 11-year difference between the two. L, MORGAN: We have to have a good retirement because we have good genetics. [laughs] But we can work until we’re 91, so it’s okay. SARMIENTO: Would you feel comfortable talking about some of the story that your father said that night? Or if you recall any? L, MORGAN: [To Jeanette] Do you remember? J, MORGAN: Well he told us about traveling, getting on the ship. I think it was really difficult he was leaving his mom and he knew he would never see her again. His father had already passed away. He choked on a fish bone. My dad never wanted fish after that. L, MORGAN: He would say, “I’m not fond of fish.” J, MORGAN: But he told us about traveling. L, MORGAN: Is that when he told about meeting the General? J, MORGAN: Mhm. I'm not sure what kind of passage he had on the ship. I just don't know. I know his mom sold rice for him to get his faire. He came into Seattle and he considered that this home. He lived there for a short time. He got there in 1927 so he met mom in 1934. So there's seven years apart there that I don't know what happened. But he never left her. He didn't ever. L, MORGAN: He had to leave to go to work. J, MORGAN: But not like going up to Alaska to do fishing. He was a wonderful man, she loved him dearly. L, MORGAN: He was kind and gentle. Really gentle. Loved children, loved all his grandchildren, and my boys - his great-grandchildren. So I have three sons, and when my middle son was little, he was sick. He had a stroke actually right after Fran (sp?) was born, he had a stroke. And so here I was with a two-year-old, and an infant, and my Grandma in a wheelchair going to go visit my Grandpa because I was on maternity leave so I had the ability to do it. We would go visit him because he was in a skilled nursing facility for a while. J, MORGAN: But I think mostly I’ve heard from my mom about the bond, who still is [inaudible], and then being indentured to a Catholic priest and being a houseboy that he hadn’t planned on having happened. And he left that and made his way, I think he traveled on the trains. Like I said, he didn’t talk much about it. We weren’t smart enough to ask him more about it. L, MORGAN: I wish we knew more. J, MORGAN: By the time I came they were pretty much settled in Livermore. I hear stories about what happened to [my brother and sister] when they lived in camps. L, MORGAN: Like what? Like you said, being able to see through the slots? J, MORGAN: Mhm. And the camps you had a different life. My mom tried to make it good for them and being German - L, MORGAN: It had to be clean. And cleaner. And even cleaner. J, MORGAN: So I don't have a lot of stories, but just a few. [54:53-1:00:02] SARMIENTO: Do you speak Tagalog? L, MORGAN: He spoke Ilocano and Spanish and Tagalog - J, MORGAN: Visayan. L, MORGAN: English. Spanish. J, MORGAN: He spoke a lot of the dialects in the Philippines. L, MORGAN: And then Grandma spoke German and they only spoke English at home. J, MORGAN: We didn’t speak German, we didn’t understand what dad was saying with his friends. L, MORGAN: Maybe that was by design. J, MORGAN: Maybe so. I know my mom had some German things when she yelled at us when we weren't doing the right thing. SARMIENTO: Your father - did he pick up his language in the Philippines or did he use it here? J, MORGAN: I think in the Philippines. You had to speak English for one thing - L, MORGAN: And he was educated. J, MORGAN: And he was educated, had beautiful penmanship. I don’t know how he picked up the other dialects, but he did. He was pretty intelligent person. Very liberal. A Democrat. And that’s what we were gonna be. L, MORGAN: And [inaudible] J, MORGAN: He voted in every election there was. Absentee towards the end, but he voted up until - L, MORGAN: Signed maybe. [laughs] With an “X.” After the stroke it was different. SARMIENTO: I do want to follow up on his political activity. Was he mainly so a participant or did he volunteer for a local Democratic party? J, MORGAN: No, he never. L, MORGAN: I think he was too busy working. [laughs] Making a living. J, MORGAN: When he could have, he was making a living. But he read the newspaper, he knew what was happening in the world. L, MORGAN: That was always a part of what was going on in their house. Discussions about what was going on in the world and politics. J, MORGAN: He followed what happened in the Philippines. We didn’t correspond much with his family because whenever they wrote, they just wanted something. My parents didn’t have the money to help them out the way they probably could have since there were five of us. SARMIENTO: I'm going to go back to Jackson & - what was the full name of it? L, MORGAN: Jackson & Perkins. SARMIENTO: He mainly worked here in Livermore. What were the sites he worked at? L, MORGAN: Wasco, but that was later. Pleasanton. J, MORGAN: Livermore. Some in Livermore. But in Arizona, a different field in Arizona. And can you imagine working in Arizona in the summer in the fields? And he did that. Never complained about working there. He told us how he kept cool though. They wore sweatshirts. He wore t-shirts a sweatshirt and then another shirt. He said when you perspire, then you cool off. Then he always wore a hat. Then he [inaudible] L, MORGAN: And his blue work shirts. SARMIENTO: Do you recall him speaking of how technology for rose cultivation changed over time? Did it become easier? L, MORGAN: No, I think it was all old school for him. J, MORGAN: He would bud the roses and then the person working with him would come behind him and tie rubber bands around them to keep the graft together. He was talking about having lunch with his tier and we knew what a tier was, but my husband didn’t. He was imaging my dad sitting next to a tree with a tire [laughs] and he was having a lunch with his tier until we explained what the tire was. It was a person, not a tire. [1:00:03-1:04:59] SARMIENTO: I guess he mainly worked in this part of California. Anywhere in the Central Valley or - J, MORGAN: Yes the Central Valley and Wasco and Shafter near Bakersfield. That was where he worked quite a few years. L, MORGAN: And that’s where he lived during the week. I remember going down one time to see him there and it was a little house. You’d think like a little company house, a little house with a lot of Filipino men in there. And it was hot. [laughs] SARMIENTO: He was still communicating and still lived with Filipinos, correct? J, MORGAN: Yes. These really good friends would come for the holidays. They worked for Jackson & Perkins too. L, MORGAN: This is the question I always had. Did Grandpa do any of the cooking, the Filipino food cooking? Or was it Grandma? And if so, how did she learn how to do that? It wasn’t like you could look up the Filipino recipe at the time. J, MORGAN: Okay well when she lived in camps. She probably learned from the other people. L, MORGAN: But there weren't women, I mean there weren't Filipino women. J, MORGAN: No, but there was the men that cooked. And they were usually the only married couple. L, MORGAN: So she was like the [inaudible] mom for all the Filipino men? Which is why I think they all loved her. Because she started cooking for an entire school before she was a school cook. She was probably cooking for households full of people. She didn't know how to cook just for a couple of people. Like if she cooked, it was for an army. Always a ton of food. Always way too much. That was probably where that came from, or when she cooked for the farm when she was younger [inaudible]. SARMIENTO: It sounds like she had a pretty intimate relationship with the other laborers. She cooked for them, did she congregate with them just as friends? J, MORGAN: Yes they did. Living in the camps that was your social life. They had really good friends, and they were single males. They were godparents. Actually, I had Filipino godparents too, but theirs was a little different. They were close friends of my parents that were my older brother and sister and other sister. In fact, I have some pictures of them. The godparents with my siblings when they were little. SARMIENTO: Did your godparents and your parents keep in contact as the years went on? J, MORGAN: No. L, MORGAN: Who were your godparents? J, MORGAN: I can’t remember their name. [laughs] My godparents lived in the San Jose area. L, MORGAN: San Jose, California? J, MORGAN: Yes. Agnew, Agnew was known for being a place they had a crazy home. Sanitary. SARMIENTO: Laura, I think I'm going to jump from your childhood - I'm just going to repeat some stuff to get the flow of it. You grew up in Livermore, and it's still generally Anglo population at the time. When did you experience the interaction with the Filipino-American community? L, MORGAN: Very little, really. It was mostly through my family. The one Filipino person that was completely Filipino was my Grandpa. He was my one experience. J, MORGAN: You had that one in high school, and it was a Filipino family. L, MORGAN: Oh the Santos’ - Christina (sp?) Santos? J, MORGAN: Oh yes Christina (sp?), but no the guy. L, MORGAN: Robert DeMarco? Oh well, that wasn't in high school, that was earlier. J, MORGAN: Middle school? L, MORGAN: No, Sonoma. So there were a couple families that were Filipino. Not too many. [1:05:00-1:09:43] J, MORGAN: She got a scholarship. L, MORGAN: I did get a scholarship. I got [laughs] the Filipino Student Scholarship, but I had only got second place because I went for my interview and they asked me all these things about Filipino culture and I didn't know. I said, "My Grandpa didn't talk about things. I don't know." They said, "Have you had pancit?" I said, "Yes, I've had pancit." [laughs] That’s about all I can tell you. That was sort of what got me to become more interested in my own heritage and the stories. If he's not going to talk about it, I want to read about it and do some research to find out. It was interesting to find out, I didn’t know until then - this would have been in college - that most of the immigrants that came from the Philippines at the time my Grandpa came, were also single men and that they didn’t marry Filipino women. They married white women. They were a generation of people who were half and half and eventually a quarter and whatever. Like me. So I haven’t met a lot of them. [laughs] I’ll meet a lot of people who are my generation who are half, and not a quarter. I’ve had that, “Well you’re only a quarter,” and I go, “Well I’m a quarter because my grandparents were brave enough to get married when they did to pave the way for your parents to get married a generation later.” [laughs] Take that. SARMIENTO: When you were in college, did you get more exposed to Asian American/Filipino culture or was it a little bit after that? L, MORGAN: I would say that it started then. I started getting a little more into it at that point. So I went to UC Santa Barbara for the first two years, then I transferred to UC Berkeley. Santa Barbara was a little white at the time. I think it's a lot more diverse now. When I transferred to Berkeley, I had a more diverse range of friends and definitely had more Filipino friends who took me under their wing. I went to their house and had celebrations or whatever. Got to eat food. So that was the kind of the beginning of it. And then talking to both my Grandma and my Grandpa a little bit about things. Like I said, he didn't do a lot of talking. that was kind of where it all began. SARMIENTO: Were you involved in any student organizations? L, MORGAN: I was going to college to get my degree. And that wasn't actually from my Filipino side, that was my dad. This is a gift, you are not going to college to mess around. You bring home C's, I bring you home. Go get your degree and then when I transferred to Berkeley, that was the era of Desert Storm. There were protests and my Grandma would call me, "I'm really worried about you." I said, "I'm not even going by Sproul Plaza, just leave me alone. I'm going to class. I'm doing my thing. I'm getting my degree. I'm being a good girl, so don't mess with me." She was the one that was such a firebrand anyways, it wasn't until later that that came out in me. Not until after graduate school. SARMIENTO: You said one of your former students got you involved? L, MORGAN: In this whole thing. So my student’s name was Jeremy. And I’m thinking of Jeremy this [inaudible], his dad Arthur is like Mr. Livermore. He’s highly involved in - I don’t even know what his title is - but the [inaudible] of Livermore and definitely the arts here in Livermore. He organizes the Barrio Festival every October, which is a Filipino-American festival that happens every year in Livermore. That was kind of how this came about. He knows Robyn. SARMIENTO: Yeah Robyn knows everybody. [1:09:44-1:14:40] L, MORGAN: People always tell me, “Well you know everybody here in Livermore.” I’m kind of an introvert. It’s just cause I’ve lived here my whole life. My mother’s lived here her whole life. That’s why I know everybody. Arthur didn’t know right away that I was Filipino. In fact, even with [Jeantete], they guess a lot of other things. I remember he gave me a hug and said to me, “I loved you before. But I love you even more now!” SARMIENTO: I think we only have a few more questions. Did you have anything you wanted to tell us that we possibly would have missed? L, MORGAN: I don’t know. We talked about most of it. We’ve done most of the stories we were actually able to get out of him over the years. J, MORGAN: A little bit of interest, just as after Dave and I were married. They never thought I was Filipino they would ask if he had married someone from Vietnam since he was from the Vietnam era. L, MORGAN: Although he didn’t go to Vietnam. J, MORGAN: Or was I Italian? Or Chinese? Now come to find out, I had my ancestry done. I am a little bit of Italian, Chinese, Cambodian, Laotian. L, MORGAN: So when we did the first company, it came back with no Filipino. SARMIENTO: Oh wow! L, MORGAN: Yeah. I think what it is, it's going genetically. I was a Biology major, too. I teach four-year-olds, don't ask how that happened. So the biologist in me said okay well where did the people who settled in the Philippines come from? Well, they would have came from China and Southeast Asia. Going back even further than just the Philippines, that's where it's coming from. So we did another one and it came back far East. East Asia. She was upset for a couple of days and didn't tell my brother and me what the results were And sat on it for a couple of days. J, MORGAN: I said, "There's nothing Filipino in there." I was looking to see because my father's features were not really Filipino with the broader nose. Maybe they were Spanish? No Spanish. I was really devastated that it wasn't Filipino. But it sounds like the Philippines is a melting pot, just like the United States is a melting pot. L, MORGAN: It's an Asian melting pot basically from all different places. That was interesting, but then we had it done from a different company and it showed more in line. It was so interesting because, on my Grandmother's side, it could pinpoint to the town in Germany and also to immigrants in the Midwest. J, MORGAN: And it wasn’t German either. It was Scandinavian. L, MORGAN: It had all kinds of things. Ashkenazi Jew. We were like, “I always wanted to be Jewish and now I am! And Italian!” J, MORGAN: There were so many things. L, MORGAN: It was fascinating. J, MORGAN: Then also too, when my father had his stroke, we ended up with a caregiver who was from the Philippines and they could speak - L, MORGAN: He spoke Ilocano. J, MORGAN: My father spoke Ilocano. L, MORGAN: That was Alex. J, MORGAN: We reconnected again with the Filipinos and he took care of my dad. He was so great. [1:14:41-1:20:22] L, MORGAN: What happened was, I rated and he was deported. Came into the house, like what in the middle of the night? J, MORGAN: No, he didn’t come to work that day and we found out he was intercepted taking his daughter to school. She was in kindergarten in Livermore. They took him away. L, MORGAN: Where did they leave her? At school? Standing there on the street corner? I mean she was so little. J, MORGAN: I don't know if he had got a hold of his wife. He had never done what he needed. his wife had a green card and he didn’t. And actually that’s a whole nother story, but anyways. So he was deported. L, MORGAN: And we were devastated because he was wonderful. His wife was a caregiver too but she had a job. She couldn't help out. She did a little just to get us through until we could find somebody else. Alex was like a family member at that point. J, MORGAN: He was with us for a year and it was good for my dad. [My dad] had a stroke but still could pretty much do things for himself. We would ask him what he had for breakfast and he would say, "I don't know." He lost his short term memory, but he lived a couple years after he had the stroke. We had some really great times with him. L, MORGAN: We had him at home. We didn't ever put him in a home until the very very end. We had caregivers with him. That's where the Filipinos are now. They're working as caregivers. When my Grandma was dying on her trajectory downhill, we had Filipino caregivers for her too. And then when my dad passed away, we had Filipino caregivers for him. I miss them so much. They live up in Pleasant Hill. We're still in touch with them and we still see them. J, MORGAN: We’re like family. But my mom had female caregivers that were Filipino and we were close with them. She passed away at home. We did that directly. My husband passed away at home. We had the caregivers for two and a half years. L, MORGAN: And it was a family. Ace was our main caregiver, then his girlfriend Carla (sp?) was another caregiver that would come at night. Then Carla's (sp?) mom, Leia (sp?), would come on the weekends. And when she would come, she would bring her daughter, Christine (sp?). Christine (sp?) was pre-school age at the time and so Christine (sp?) was always at our house. We spoiled her and bought stuff for her. J, MORGAN: So we still have a connection to that community. Then we had Ryan. Ryan helped out too. Three days a week he would help me get Dave ready for bed. Dave was on hospice for 15 months and so we had his bed in the family room and he passed away at home, too. L, MORGAN: And I would come over at midnight bit [Jeanette] didn't have anybody. If there were videos of us trying to do it, they made it look easy. Caregiving is so hard. I don’t know how they do it because not only is it a difficult job physically but emotionally. You get so attached to people and then you lose them. I know it was really hard on them when my dad died because we had all gotten so close. J, MORGAN: The thing is, Ace, his main caregiver, has a college degree from the Philippines but he doesn’t have a green card here yet as with most of that family which is, I think, a travesty. You come here, you just be able to have the trajectory to get a green card and be here. I think what’s going on now is crazy. So we’re still connected. We’re still connected to the Filipino community. L, MORGAN: We’ve heard of other families having trouble getting caregivers, but we never did because we have the Filipino in connection there. The grandmas’ caregivers - if you go to a hospital, who were the nurses? They were Filipino - they all would love her and just fawn all over here because here was this white woman who had been married to a Filipino. They adored her. They never saw her feisty side the way we did. They always thought,” She’s just a nice woman.” [laughs] SARMIENTO: I think I asked all my questions. Are you guys comfortable? L&J MORGAN: I think so. SARMIENTO: Alright, I do appreciate your time. It is 11:40 on December 15 and we are concluding this interview. Thank you again. Thank you so much. Transcriber Michelle Galat Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Laura and Jeanette Morgan Subject The topic of the resource Livermore - Calif., Women - Filipino American, Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers, Mixed Marriage, Race Discrimination - United States Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 15-Sep-18 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Bulosan Center and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio Recording Language A language of the resource English, Tagalog Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0003_orh_2018 Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers Livermore - Calif. Mixed Marriage Race Discrimination - United States Women - Filipino American Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Daniel Nero Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Nickie Tuthill-Delute View/Download File(s) Link to download files Internet Archive Audio Link: <a href="https://archive.org/details/ucdw_wa006_s002_s0004">https://archive.org/details/ucdw_wa006_s002_s0004</a> Transcript: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S7Wtojocw99munGuUL2N0-18Wkfjp4_9/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S7Wtojocw99munGuUL2N0-18Wkfjp4_9/view?usp=sharing</a> Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Filipino American Oral History Project Oral History Interview With Nickie Tuthill-Delute September 15, 2020 Virtual, Google Voice Interview By Daniel Nero Welga Archives, Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies UC Davis Asian American Studies Department [00:00] NERO: All right, let's begin the interview. It is Tuesday, September 15th and this is Daniel Nero conducting an interview for the Bulosan Center of Filipino Studies to record the history of the Filipino American community and we are conducting this interview via Google Voice. Let's begin. Could you please state your name for the recording? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Ah, yes. Nickie Tuthill-Delute NERO: Then, could you spell your last name, please? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Sure, T, as in Tom, U-T-H-I-L-L, hyphen D as in dog, E-L-U-T as in Tom, E. NERO: When and where were you born? TUTHILL-DELUTE: I was born in Delano, CA in 1953. NERO: And then which part of California is Delano? TUTHILL-DELUTE: It's the Central Valley. It's about 30 miles north of Bakersfield. NERO: Let's see. Tell me about your mother and your father, when and where they were born? TUTHILL-DELUTE: They're actually born or they're from Hinunangan, Southern Philippines. Southern Leyte, Philippines. NERO: And then, when were they born? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh, Dad was born in March of 1902 and Mom was on May of 1918. NERO: Any siblings? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Me? NERO: Yes. TUTHILL-DELUTE: OK yes, so including myself there are seven of us. One had passed at birth pretty much and we have a sixth one that we discovered about 21 years ago in Philippines. So there's six of us living. NERO: And when you said that there's a sixth one that you found, what does that mean? TUTHILL-DELUTE: It means that we didn't know that we had a half—sister until right about the day that my mom had her stroke and we discovered by hook and crook on [Transcriber’s Note: English language idiom]. We discovered accidentally that we had a half—sister from our Aunt, she just happened to mention it and that's how we discovered it. I've reached out to her and we've connected. NERO: And so this is in the Philippines, you said. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Yes, she is actually in. Yeah, she is actually living in him Hinunangan, Southern Leyte, Philippines. NERO: So let's talk about your family's immigration history, how long has your family been in Delano or the United States? TUTHILL-DELUTE: OK, so it's a two parter. My dad was, as I mentioned, he was born in 1902 and he immigrated in 1926 and he came to look for work and historically now I find out that he's a manong [Transcriber’s note: Manong is the Ilocano word for Older Brother]. Part of that immigration group that came in in the early or in the 20s. So, Dad immigrated here and he had a cousin who immigrated in 1905 and was a cannery worker in Seattle at about 1918. And my dad’s brother, our Uncle, immigrated 1926 and so my dad had that. I am aware of because I had to go through genealogy to find all this that he had two relatives here in the United States by the time he arrived in 1928. And from what I had seen in the records, his destination, once he arrived, he arrived in Seattle, Washington. His destination went to San Francisco, which I thought, “wow, that's really interesting. How did he know where to go?” When I'm figuring that it's probably because of his cousin who was, I believe, living in San Francisco at the time. And then my mom came in 1952, it was because she married my dad in the Philippines on 1952. Dad arrived off course many years before and he was working with the Navy as a civilian, and had a break from what I understand on the records. Married my mom and he went back to the [United] States to work and she followed him several months later and came. She actually flew on a plane, which I never knew that. She flew in Acclaim Pacific—I mean Philippine Airlines and came to San Francisco. And at the time they were living— Dad was living in San Francisco while he was working and I am assuming that they were planning on living here [San Francisco]. But then, Mom was complaining that it was too cold in San Francisco. Since you’re [Transcriber’s Note: Referring to Daniel Nero] from Nevada, in in the summer in San Francisco, it's pretty cold. It's not very hot, and so she arrived here and my dad would come home from work and he would say— he told us this is the story— he told us “Gee, your mom is like a cat hanging by the heater.” And it's like “what's wrong”? She's like, “oh she's too cold” so anyway, my uncle was already migrating throughout California and he knew about Delano. He was there for work picking grapes and mentioned to my dad that there were a lot of Filipinos living there and that the weather was much better and maybe that it would be a great place for them to come to move and establish a home there. And then, next year I was born [laughs]. I was the first of the eldest, clearly. So, that's how my parents immigrated to the US. NERO: So, just to backtrack a little bit, so your dad moved because of job opportunities? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Yeah, he was looking for a better life. He mentioned that he was working as a teacher in the Philippines and he —I'm just guessing because, my dad didn't really tell us a whole lot because I just know from personal records/ through genealogy— that his cousin was here already and my uncle or his brother was here, and so I'm sure that they probably spoke to each other and probably encouraged him to come to the States. And historically, to the United States was in possession of those things. Is that right? I'm trying to remember my history, but anyway, I know that my dad always kidded— yeah, well, he and all the other all his friends would always say “hey, you know, there's probably gold on the streets. We should look for it.” But yeah, in reality they knew that was not true, but that was a goal that I'm sure they probably had when they were a lot younger. NERO: So, you mentioned that your mom actually flew on a plane — Philippine Airlines — Did your dad do the same? Or how did he get to America? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Right? Oh, he went by ship, from what I gather since he arrived here in 1928 to 1952 and during the 1940s and [19]50s he was working with in the Navy as a civilian, and he traveled and because of work assignment he was always on the ship. I never found any immigration papers or census papers of him taking an airplane. Back and forth during that time. NERO: So, it was through like the military, that he was able to immigrate to the United States. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Correct. NERO: Let's see. So, you said that your parents, with at least in your immediate family, would be the first ones in America. Correct? Were any of your parents or relatives, were any of them farm workers? TUTHILL-DELUTE: In the Philippines or in the United States? NERO: In the United States. TUTHILL-DELUTE: No, no, they I mean they were. Well, I shouldn't say that my uncle was a farm worker. Farm labor worker? My dad’s cousin was actually a cook. Subsequently though, the story is that my dad and a lot of his friends from Hinunangan eventually came to the United States. They created a benevolent society. They call themselves the Hinunangan Circle of America. And they created the organization so that they could help and support each other. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Because at the time, I thought I found out that they weren't able to own property, run a business, have a bank account, so I know that because the organization does still exist. It's a little different now. It's a little more of a social organization, than it was a striving to help each other through times of trouble, but they would help each other whenever somebody looked down on their luck and…so where was I going with this anyway? So a lot of them who came here if they weren't working in in the fields, and a majority of them were working in late [sp?] agricultural labor — agricultural farms some would even go up to the fish canneries either in Alaska or in Seattle, and a few of them were on from what I can tell I had blue collar jobs like cooks or I had one of my dad's friends with a printer here in San Francisco and somebody with a gardener in LA. But they were just a few, a majority of them were farm labor workers. NERO: For those who are farm labor workers or just, I guess like farm worker adjacent. What were their living conditions like? If you know or if you have ever heard any stories from your relatives. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Well, I was born in 1952 and I grew up in Delano. Delano has labor camps during those times, and I know that a lot of the Filipinos single men lived in those labor camps because we would go and visit them. My mom would sell her pastries, her Binangkal or budbud or Bibinka to the Filipino men that were there, and I do know that. I mean, I didn't see them, but I have heard that there were other labor camps throughout the West Coast from Washington, Oregon, California. And their conditions, you know when you're a kid, you’re just kind of like “well, OK, this this is how they live” but they lived in like barracks [with] a single room — 8 by 12, maybe? I'm not really sure. It had a single bed, a closet. A small little closet, one window and that was that was pretty much it. And I remember when we were kids, when we would go visit and see our Manongs or our uncles, we would say “hey, can we see your room” and they would always say “no, no no, you don't want to see our room” and my uncle—I think was my uncle— finally said “OK, OK you can come see, come look in and see, but you can't stay for very long” and it was kind of like “oh wow this is great” and we go in. And it's like, “Oh my God, it's so small.” Then he had like a calendar hanging on the wall and it had a girly picture up and you know we’re kids, we’re like going “Ohhhh OK”. And he said “OK, OK now you got— now you have to leave” [laughs]. And, we're like “okay” and we’re like five, seven, ten—years old. And anyway, so they had several rooms like that, like in a barracks style. We would go there and go “we've got to use the bathroom and we go to the bathroom” and it's like this this long—Oh, I don't know—it's like a plank up against the wall with a hole in it and you go “oh can go use the bathroom” and you look down and it's like “oh it’s like dirt!” then you're like “Wow, OK. That should be interesting.” And then we would go visit the cook because my mom and dad would always offer them vegetables for their meals for the cook. It was like a large type of cafeteria in a wooden building and sometimes the cook would—if they had any food—they would feed us kids and that was that was really nice. It wasn't the greatest, but they had a place to live, had a bathroom and shower and food and so from what I understand now that those were the standard living conditions that that they lived in. [16:03] NERO: And I know that you said that that you were a child during like, when you visited these labor camps. Could you speak on any like discrimination that they faced? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Now, off hand, I never really saw it. I grew up in a very isolated type of life. So I mean, if there were, it wasn't really obvious to me, and then the labor camps by the time the Delano grape strike occurred in 1965. It was a lot of the labor camps were deemed illegal and were torn down and so by the time I figured out what was discrimination, then that was already gone. But the fact that they were already told that they were kicked out of their living—their home, which what it's called, their home—that’s discrimination there. But I know that my dad really hardly ever spoke about the bad things, so I was pretty clueless. Now of course I have other siblings so they might have different experiences, but that was—I'll be honest—I never really felt it or heard anything. Maybe I have, maybe… NERO: Have you ever asked? TUTHILL-DELUTE: No, not at the time. Like if I didn't know any difference at all and of course, as I've gotten older, my dad, even though he lived to be 88, I was like in my 40s and all his friends had all passed away even sooner than him. So you know the opportunity to ask was not there. That I just I missed that opportunity to know a little bit of their history. NERO” OK, so you've brought up many things about like the Grape Strike we'll get to that in this second section of questions. I have to kind of shift a little bit and focus on you growing up in Delano. So, growing up, were you mainly around family, friends or relatives? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Mostly family and friends. NERO: Why do you think that is? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Small town [laughs]. NERO: That makes sense TUTHILL-DELUTE: Small town and I honestly grew up thinking that I had no relatives except for my dad, brother, my uncle and we had and another manong which was—[laughs] I find out now wasn't that much older than my dad, but we used to call him lolo [Transcriber’s note: Tagalog word for Grandfather]. NERO: [Laughs] TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh, OK. Oh, “why is he our Lolo?” and because you know, we always figured that our grandparents were in the Philippines and I found out later that he was married to my dad’s—his first cousins—and so, I think he migrated to the United States, but around the same time. Anyway, because he was so close to my dad’s first cousin, we called him Lolo, and he was our designated babysitter. But I don't know if you want to talk about that yet, but anyway so I grew up thinking that I had no relatives and I find out years later that I have a lot of relatives in the United States and in the Philippines but I really didn't grow up with them because at that time, they weren’t quite around. There were a few, but not a lot, and so it's just mostly family. My immediate family that I grew up with and all my friends in the town of Delano. [20:31] NERO: In a sense, the people that you're surrounded by are practically your family now too, like everyone’s your Tita [Transcriber’s Note: Tagalog word for Aunt], everyone’s your Tito [Transcriber’s Note: Tagalog word for Uncle]. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh, yeah. NERO: Speaking of, let's talk about the Filipino community. Were all the Filipinos close with one another? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh God, yeah. It's like everybody knew you knew each other. So I mean, it's small, I grew up In in a town, it was only at that time about what 10,000 people or something, and we had a Filipino community hall and we used to go to all social events, Christmas parties, Easter Egg hunt parties, birthday parties. You know everything that you can imagine. My brother in the in the 60s was a king of hearts [laughs]. NERO: What is that? TUTHILL-DELUTE: It was Saint Valentine’s Day. NERO: Oh I love it. TUTHILL-DELUTE: I don't know if they do that anymore, but it was a social box and they crowned the king and queen. You know, little kids for Saint Valentine's Day and my brother was, amazingly, amazingly enough [laughs] was the King of Hearts. So anyway, so we’re a very close—knit community. We all knew each other. We all went to school together. I mean, there were the farmers and the business owners and we always figured to label our town because of the railroad line that that was right down the middle of town. So we had the east side of Delano, where all the white people lived, and then the West side of Delano, where all the minorities who have all the Filipinos, Mexicans, African Americans all lived on that side of town. So we had one elementary school and we all went to that same elementary school. So it was a combination of K through 8 [th grade], so we all knew each other from kindergarten from five years old to 8th grade to 14. So we all kind of knew each other. We all knew all the families and we only had one high school. So then we all integrated with the Caucasian students from the east side of school in our town. So that yeah, the close knit community. NERO: Let's focus on the Filipino community first and we'll talk about the heterogeneous mix of the groups. Were there any tension between the Filipino ethnic group? TUTHILL-DELUTE: No, not that I grew up with…No, I was thinking about that question and I thought, “well, you know, maybe later down the road,” but when I was growing up, no, and not at all who we all got along pretty well. NERO: OK, what about between like Filipinos and Mexicans, Filipinos and white folks, like any tensions between like interracial tensions. TUTHILL-DELUTE: When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, I didn't really see too much of that, then again, the problem I have is that I was pretty sheltered on being the oldest girl and I was not able to see any of that, at least I think that's what my parents did. You know, protected me, but I mean, I know that there were some tension. You know in the 60s, but it was mostly the… NERO: Civil rights movement? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Yes, thank you, that! The civil rights movement and I was more into the Identifying [with] the feminist movement. I'm not sure they called it the feminist movement yet that came in the 70s, but you know, I was remembered as a kid, I was kind of like “I don't want to be like these women, don't want to be like little girly girls and all like those stuff” but anyway. So in regards to Mexicans and Filipinos, I don't know, we all seemed to have gotten along. I just personally mean, I'm trying really hard to think about that, I mean it didn't happen until much later. NERO: And by much later you mean like not growing up, but during the 50s, 60s? TUTHILL-DELUTE: In the 70s actually, I mean in the 70s mostly, I was in. NERO: I understand. TUTHILL-DELUTE: I was in high school when this was all coming out. I mean when the Grape Strike [started] and that created a lot of tension. But again, this is the Grape Strike. This was like in ‘65, but even then, I was kind of clueless until later, but we can talk about that later. You're ready to ask me questions about it? NERO: OK, OK so we're switching back and forth. Let's go back to the Filipino community and earlier you mentioned the Manongs. How did the Filipino families view elderly models? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh well, you know, like they’re relatives, a lot of them. I mean we did, we would have them over our house and they would stay whenever they were visiting, and so our Lolo was Manong, my uncle was Manong, so many of my dad's friends from his benevolent society, they were all Manongs. I mean, now I know the word and so that what it means and I grew up with them and I thought my dad was the only old guy in in in my life and I realized later that everybody in Delano all the fathers were that old and all my dad friends were all that old. TUTHILL-DELUTE: You know how it is, there's Asian Americans, or I mean, Asians, Filipinos. You know, they look so young you don't realize that they're already in their 50s or 60s when you're like 10 years old. NERO: Well, you mentioned that. You now know the word and you know what it means, so can you give me a definition of what a Manong is? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Well, a Manong is older Filipino and it's a term of endearment to respect. And it usually categorizes in what we’re speaking to right now. It categorizes the men, the Filipino men who arrived in the United States back in the 20s and 30s. I mean, I know now you can say to any older Filipino man for respect. But I associate now Manongs with the older, the really older generation of like my dad. I mean if he was alive now he would be over 100 years old. NERO: Let's see, do you have any memorable experiences about a Manong that you'd like to share? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh gosh, I have so many. Oh OK, well you can talk about my Lolo and he was, as I mentioned, was married to my dad’s first cousin, so there were very close friends. He would come to visit us in our home in Delano when you know, and I could never figure out when he would come visit, but he would come visit us and there were times he would come and babysit us and so, I thought “wow, he's a great cook.” I mean, if food always came out and he just you know [his] Filipino cooking, just wonderful. And he would always tell us his kids “Pick a vegetable, pick a vegetable” and because my dad grew all this vegetable at our house. And [he’d say] “pick a vegetable and bring it over and I'll cook something,” I go “Oh yeah, oh OK. Great!” Beans or eggplants or whatever and he’d say “Oh, Okay!” and he’d go ahead and cook something and we’d go “Wow this is really good; I mean he could just whip it up like that.” And there were times when I knew that he was lonely because he would Drink a little bit too much. It was kind of like, that's our lolo and then he would start crying like all the sudden. He's like sitting there and he would be drinking and then he starts crying. My mom would sit there and say, oh “don't do that in front of the children”. You know, “don’t be drinking in front of them” and we’d like going. “Oh well, that's our lolo”. You know, and he would get like you know, even sadder because my mom is yelling at him. But I realized at that time because he must have been lonely because he left [Transcriber’s Note: The Philippines] years ago. This [happened] in the 50s— 60s he left like in the 20s. He left his wife, he left his daughter and he had never went back to the Philippines. He stayed all those years. So anyway, that's happy and sad. That's one story. [31:28] NERO: Kind of switch gears a little bit. How was your relationship between Filipinos born in America and Filipinos born in the Philippines? TUTHILL-DELUTE: When I was born in the 50s, you know that mix wasn't great. It came much later when I was in my teens where we had more Filipinos started to come in and coming into town and working and living in the camps. So the story is this. This is how we had the Filipinos from the Philippines who are living in the camps or maybe some who were living in town with relatives and then there was us: The Filipino Americans who would sit there and try to try to emulate them, or they try to emulate us. And there was some tension and I'm not really sure about all this. My brother saw more so because it was a guy kind of thing but they used to play basketball with each other and they would have like fights. From what I understand but I wasn't really quite sure about it exactly. So there was that kind of tension going on. It's about somewhere in 1975 and my brother and a bunch of his friends of the local guys decided to have a Filipino Basketball tournament in Delano and it would be Filipino Americans and the Filipinos from the camps or around town. They would like have basketball games with each other and my brother would always say “You know it was like really difficult because they would play basketball like they were in the Philippines. They were like really rough. They would like hit each other, hit us and you know play really rough” and so they had to change it and they mixed it up. They would get the camp guys with the Filipino American guys and they created teams and so they created that Basketball tournament, which led to what is now the Delano Philippine Weekend that happens every summer in July, which started with the basketball tournament. And that basketball tournament created the Fiesta [Transcriber’s note: the Philippine Weekend Barrio Fiesta] and now they have a [Beauty] Queen show, they have a Mrs. Queen show, they got tiny tots on competition. And what else did they do...they still have the basketball tournament. I mean to this day they still have It. It would have been the 45th anniversary this year except for COVID [Transcriber’s note: COVID—19 Pandemic], that it didn’t happen. And so what happens is that the basketball tournament was so popular that people from all over they were people from San Jose, California, from Stockton, from Sacramento, from Fresno, from Los Angeles, San Diego. Their Filipino teams would come up or come to Delano for this this tournament. OK, so I have this one story. My mom was in a nursing home in the 90s and you know the nurse who was taking care of my mom was Filipino and she was asking us, "what we were going to be doing for the weekend” and while she was asking how she mentioned that she was going go out and go out of town to this to this event—this Filipino event that happens every year and she was like "my son goes to it, he plays basketball in this tournament” and we're like “Oh well where is this?” I thought maybe Stockton or something., and she goes “Oh, it's probably some place you never heard of,” “Oh well, tell us” and she goes “It's Delano, California. My husband and I really like “Delano!? Oh my God, I grew up down there” and she goes “no way! My son goes and he plays in this Filipino basketball team and this is here in San Francisco, and we go there every summer” and I go “Yeah, my brother helped put this [Basketball tournament] together, I go down there and whenever I'm visiting and help with scorekeeping or whatever.” So anyway, it's a small little town, a big event. it's like wow, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how popular this event is. NERO: But it also goes to show how truly network the Filipino community is? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Yes! Oh my God. I mean I would go down every year to watch the basketball game because that was what really put this thing together. And I would see all these teams from all various parts of California. I think there was a Vegas basketball team that frequent them. And I was like—I mean, the guys in Delano, they got the word out, and there they were and I was always looking forward to [saying] “wow what Filipino basketball team is from where?” You know, it was really cool just seeing this. NERO: So you talked about the Fiesta, you talked about the basketball tournaments every year? Does this happen in the community hall or...? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh gosh. OK, so it happened everywhere in town. NERO: Oh, OK. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Because Delano, it's maybe now 50,000 people. But you know, it grew slowly over time. But yeah, we had a Filipino hall [where] they would do it at the time. The Queen show or whatever in the early days, the basketball tournament occurred in the high school. The school district was very accommodating to the Filipino community. I think it was around that time that we had our first Filipino Mayor in Delano, so that helped quite a lot and we did have I believe a couple of teachers who were also Filipinos and come. But see we had it at a park eventually on various high schools for the tournaments and The Queen Show and all that, it just grew so much. It grew so big. That they had to do it in like in larger venues like the High school auditorium, the Filipino Community Center. Yeah, I mean it could maybe hold 100 people, but it's pretty tight. It's pretty small, in a small stage. So eventually that moved out. But yeah, we had tournaments at the high schools, the Fiesta still was at a major public park. They had a parade down Main Street and they had all the queen shows at the High school auditorium. TUTHILL-DELUTE: So it was pretty popular and the only Filipino—owned business was the Filipino Community Hall. They would occasionally have a few things there, but it actually just eventually outgrew it. NERO: OK, so we're going to switch gears a little bit and talk about the Grape Strike. So you mentioned that you're born in the 50s and then throughout like the 60s—70s, that's when the growth has happened. Do you remember about the Strike? Like, can you talk about the atmosphere any significant events that? You know, like you witnessed? TUTHILL-DELUTE: OK, so I lived through it that I didn't participate because it was in a sense... [40:29] NERO: OK. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Kind of an intense situation. I just remembered my parents, who would argue at home and I just remember them arguing about going to work because you wanted to honor the strike for the benefit that they were achieving. But at the same time my mom would sit there and say, “well we can't stop working because we have children.” I think [it was]1965—I don't know. My sister was maybe six or something, she was the youngest between me being 12 and she being six. You know, young children. So my parents were hard pressed to say “well we have to honor the strike.” So what I recall we would go to school and in the summers we would work in the fields with our parents, and the strike was a long strike, it was like for five years from ‘65 to 1970. So every summer we would work in the field and what I always remembered was we would go to work and then suddenly we were told get out of the field, put all the stuff that we were working with, [and] just put it under the vines, walk away, get into the car and leave. And then we find out later that my dad and the crew boss who knew that strikers were coming over and they were going to come over in and badger us, to say “get out of the field” and so my parents, all the families that were picking grapes would want to protect their families and themselves to get out of the field, get int the car and leave and so that nobody would get hurt because they were some violence that occurred. So it was kind of one of those. This is what the strike was all about and there were times when my dad couldn't go to work because they were striking in a certain areas that they were supposed to be picking, and then that would be the time when my parents would say “the kids won't go to work with them, they would go by themselves.” So what may have happened, they would not tell us, but that was that. That was what I had experienced and there were a lot of news about Delano on TV and on newspapers, so one of those things where you would see it in the news, in in your own town and you would go to the grocery store and they were strikers there and they would say, “don't buy grapes” and sometimes they would hassle you, and bully you. And a lot of people from what I remember really didn't appreciate it and I think a lot of people didn't like the strike because of the way that they were being bullied. As they're going into to do their shopping because we only had, I think at that time just a few grocery stores. Safeway was our major grocery store, and we had a couple of smaller grocery stores. And the strikers would always go to come to Safeway, and that's where they did all the heavy picketing. I mean, so that was my experience with the Delano Grape Strike. I'm trying to think my parents were arguing. Yeah, all the news. I mean, it was like “Geez, all this news on about Delano?” TUTHILL-DELUTE: I do know that my mom had a cousin and he would stay [with us]. So what happened was that we used to live in a very small house on our current property and as the family got bigger, my parents decided to build a bigger house. You know, four bedrooms—three baths versus a two bedroom—one bath. Anyway, but they still had that house and they rented it to my mom's cousin and he actually was working for [Larry] Itliong during the strike and what I always remembered about him was that he was always one of the strikers. He was always out there carrying a sign and yelling at people and I always figured he was one of those violent kind of guys, I mean, even though he was my mom's cousin and so he used to live right next door with us and we would see him around town and at the grocery stores and yelling at people. And so I always figured you know he was a diehard striker and I always figured, “oh he’s probably a henchman for the United Farm Workers and my mom would get really mad at him because whatever he does, that's what he does. But he used to come over and bring all these—= my parents [would say] “Who are all these people that are that are staying at the house” and they were all part of the strike. But they were Caucasian, and we would call them at the time “the hippies” because they were young Caucasian, you know long flowing clothes and hair, they were loose, all that kind of smoking and drinking, and they were hanging out and we’re like “wow what's going on over here?” And my Mom yelled at him and said “Hey whatever you do, just don't bring any of your work over here.” I mean, I can hear him arguing in Visayan [Transcriber’s Note: Filipino Language spoken primarily in the Visayan Islands] he would yell back at my mom, [I’m] like “Geez, nobody yells at my mom” and he would yell back at her and saying like “you should honor the strike” or something like that. I vaguely remember that. But other than that, that's what I remembered. And then, of course, the Forty Acres being developed. [47:30] NERO: What do you mean by the Forty Acres being developed? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh, Forty Acres. It's a location now in Delano. It's kind of about a couple of miles outside of the main part of Delano, and it's where Cesar Chavez—he did his fasting over there and then when the strike—when it was successful—they opened a clinic, and that's where a lot of the people, and even myself would go over and have affordable health care. Doctors—I'm not really sure how the doctors came—but the doctors were there. I don't know if they volunteered or if it was something, maybe they got some benefits or something, but they would be out there with some of the nurses and they would take a lot of patients. And then the hiring hall was created, and anyways that's where the office was located for the United Farm Workers. And eventually the Agbayani Village was built there, which was the housing for all the Manongs that were displaced after the strike was finished, because a lot of them, got kicked out of the camps because the Camps were deemed as illegal. So they moved all the Manongs out. A lot of them had to censor themselves and so that's when Larry Itliong, [Philip] Vera Cruz, Pete Velasco put together the housing units for the Manongs that were displaced. NERO: So that's actually one of my questions about the Agbayani Village. I want to go back to a little bit of what you said about your mom and your cousin, so there's a lot of that contention between Filipinos about the strike. Why do you think that is like? Why do you think that tension exists? TUTHILL-DELUTE: I mean this is my own personal experience just because my mom. OK, so that I was treated with like “we don't want Nikki to see all this stuff” and my mom was always like “we got to show this, like this perfect or a perfect family, we have no problems” [laughs], and it's like, “OK, well that's being a hypocrite.” So and then there's my mom cousin who was part of the strike and he believed one thing and she believed in this perfectness, and they would clash. That's how I kind of saw that as kind of an attitude perception of how their lives would be. I mean, I grew up thinking that my mom really never wanted to address the negative part of life and yet, at the same time she was like really being overprotective. Because I mean every time I went anywhere she was like following right behind me like I would go to a dance and then lo and behold, here she is! You know, in the darkness making sure you know “OK is she behaving herself,” that kind of thing. But there's always that tension, I believe and it might be, just something that's part of our culture. I mean, I can never understand it. And yet to this day I do still see it in in other families and sometimes I catch myself, pretending like everything’s fine, you know nothing to worry about. And I think being honest and showing how you truly feel about things, I think it's more honest which we were not always until they expressed that way. One of the things I do want to bring up was my mom— [about] our half sister— because this is that that part of her life where you think that maybe she would tell us, but she never did. She never told us. I mean, when she had her stroke she lost her ability to write and speak then when we finally said “hey mom, we know” she just kind of looked at us and you know, like, “oh OK”. It's like she couldn't really say anything and it was just one of those things where you sit there and you go “Mom, all you had to do was tell us we would have been OK” and she kind of like nodded and said “mmm hhh”. Like it would have been just nice to know what you went through. And I was telling a cousin of the events and her takeaway was, “well, If your mom had shame so she didn't want to talk about it.” I go “this is our half—sister”, and we celebrated when my brother had his daughter and we said, “Mom, your first grandchild.” In reality, she already had four grandchildren we didn't know about! [laughs]. You know what I mean? It was like that. All of a sudden, life became immeasurable because of the…well, I don't know, the lies, or the secrets that people have. Anyway so, it's great to know that she had grandchildren much sooner than we realize because my half-sister is 20 years older than I am. It's like wow. NERO: I want to ask about the Agbayani Retirement Village. Do you know anyone who volunteered to help construct it? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh gosh, no. You know what. Wait, yes, I do Max Bacerra and some locals[s]— Lorraine Agtang. I do know that they were there. Let me turn my Bluetooth headset off so I can go… [Transcriber’s Note: Tuthill-Delute switching audio capturing device]. Can you hear me still? NERO: Yes I can. TUTHILL-DELUTE: Hang on, you could turn up my volume, OK. I did know some people, local people who did help build it. I mean, even though we had a lot of volunteers from what I understand, I think there were a lot of college students, who came there. NERO: Do you have any experiences during the construction, I guess? Like can you talk about the construction in itself from your perspective? TUTHILL-DELUTE: I was already living here at San Francisco and I would only experience it whenever I visit in town. That and that was it. NERO: OK, that's actually a good segue for like the last section of this interview. Let's talk about your post-high school years. What did you do after graduating high school? TUTHILL-DELUTE: After I went to high school and graduated I went to college and I worked. And I would visit home every other month while my parents were still alive, and that, how would I say, the caged bird needed to spread her wings. NERO: Where did you go to college and what did you study? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh OK, so I went to a couple of colleges; Community College from Bakersfield and I did Cal State University, also in Bakersfield, which just opened at that time. And then, really, for as long as I can remember I wanted to get into design and art and wanted to go to New York. I wanted to be a designer and it's like my parents would always sit there and say “Sure. Yeah, how are you going to get there? Who's going to pay your way?” I go “Oh. Aren't you going help?” My parents would sit there and say “We can't afford you going to New York.” So anyway, so I was going to college and I thought, well, I'm going to fill out an application to transfer to a bigger university, and I applied to San Francisco State and I got accepted. I was like, “Oh OK, it was like wow, great, I can't believe it. I'm going to San Francisco.” My parents were so…Anyway, so I said “hey mom, dad, I just got accepted San Francisco State. I'm going to go to college there.” I just like flat out said “I'm going to college there.” My dad was like “Oh. Well, why did you do that?” “Why did I do that?” “Well, you could go to college here in Bakersfield.” Like “Oh no, I'm going to San Francisco. It’s simple as that.” I know that my parents weren't very happy about it, but you know, I was the first woman [in the family] going to college. Subsequently, of course, my brother went to San Diego State and did much better than I did [laughs]. I went to San Francisco State for a couple of years and then I dropped out in the 70s but eventually went back in the 90s and got my Bachelor’s. My interest had always been in art. That was when I had great time expressing myself and was doing a lot of artwork doing mostly ceramics and sculpture. And then of course I graduated and then I hear my mom's words: “Well, what are you going to do with it?” I know, it's like “OK, now what am I going to do? Where do I begin?” So I started working in a couple of places. I remember working for the classified department in the San Francisco Chronicle and I was trying to get into their art department, but it was kind of an old boys school. You know, printing departments in newspapers, and so I just — hard as I tried, I couldn't get in there, so I eventually left, finally got a job working in an ad agency and that was about as close as I ever got to working with creative people and I've been working in that field. Well, pretty much now, but not in the art field. I was more of a project manager, so I got to work with print managers, art directors, writers, and then of course the account people. So I got to see a lot of radio commercials being produced, even produced a couple of myself. I oversaw a couple of commercials being produced and newspapers and newspaper ads. Those are the days and now of course everything is all Internet —but they still do commercials. NERO: So is that the career that you stayed at for your adult life? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Pretty much. Pretty much until I can't work any longer and that's the druthers. Now as you get older, I'm now in my 60s. I'm having a hard time finding work and now with COVID, forget about it. I'm weary to go back to work and getting infected. NERO: Were there any other Filipinos in your field of work? TUTHILL-DELUTE: There were a few. There were a few. Not a lot, but most of them were more in administrative and you know, like clerical. But not a whole lot. I did grow up with a couple of guys, [Asian] Americans who went to San Francisco State also majored in art. And they were art directors. They were very successful last batch. But they were. You know, one of the few. [01:01:19] TUTHILL-DELUTE: I mean, most of them were Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans. I mean, now I, believe there are a lot more Filipino American artists in the industry kind of world. When I was looking for work in the from the 70s to the to the 2000. NERO: So you mentioned that Delano's population grew. What about the Filipino population and how did it change During your adult years? TUTHILL-DELUTE: In Delano. OK, well it has changed quite a lot. What has happened is, is that a lot of the Filipino families have migrated to the City of San Francisco — I mean the City of Delano. Sorry and, some are teachers or doctors — professional jobs. And they stayed on and they brought other friends and families to the point where there are more in the blue collar—white collar jobs and or white collar jobs and the labor. Yeah I would go down and say “hey you know I used to use a picked grapes” and they look at me and they say “You picked grapes?” I go “Yes! There are Filipinos that used to pick grapes” and because only the Mexicans now pretty much pick grapes and most of the Filipinos have migrated over to the packing shed because they have better benefits there, working conditions [are] much better than working in the field. So that's where a lot of the Filipinos ended up. And anyway. So what happened also to and because of the population has increased, more Filipinos, and also more Mexicans. The town has changed. Main Street used to be of course, owned by — well, I mean you don't know that — but it used to be owned by a lot of Caucasians. But I mean they were also immigrants because they came from Slavonic countries and some came from Italy and in other places, and they own the businesses, they ran Main Street Delano. Now you go to Delano and Main Street Delano is owned by all minorities — Mexican Americans, Filipino Americans and your Caucasian business owners, is very few there. And we would kid around and say “What happened? Do these like kick out all the White People in Delano?” They always wondered about that. It’s they're still around because I know that the family names are there. They always wondered about that. You know, it's just they're still around because I know that the family names some have stayed on because they still have like their vineyards, their growers. They're still there, and some have married, you know, inter marriage, they married either another Filipino — a Caucasian married Filipino or Mexican — and so they stayed and had families over the years. So, the town has changed quite a lot. I mean, we have a lot of Mexican restaurants, hardly ever when I was growing up. Same thing with Filipino food. I mean the only Filipino food you can find was at somebody’s home. Now, there are a few restaurants where you can get Filipino food and it was rare to find anybody who would sell Lechon [Transcriber’s Note: Whole Roasted Pig, Filipino Style]. Now — I mean, my parents would wait until there was a special occasion and buy a hog and then we would have a barbecue at our property. But now it's more common. It's I mean — thank God, but our history needs to change. We need to talk more about our Filipino American history. NERO: So speaking of, let's talk about FANHS [Transcriber’s Note: Filipino American National Historical Society]. So how did you get involved with FANHS? TUTHILL-DELUTE: OK, that's an easy one. My brother who is in San Diego was involved with FANHS because his wife was a president of FANHS and he was mentioning, “oh, you know, we're having a conference in San Diego” and I always love going to their [conferences] because my brother is a teacher — was a teacher — [and] a school administrator and I would love to go to a lot of his teacher conference, because I get to meet all these educators and I see all these vendors, and all the books and art stuff. And I thought “Oh OK, FANHS yeah. OK, Filipino American history organization. Sure, you know this looks really great.” I wanted to volunteer and help out. I went to the first FANHS Conference in San Diego in 2014 and saw how it was run. My poor brother was running ragged because he was helping putting it together. So I would help with the managing people, moving them here and there and I would be a moderator at a panel and I thought. “Hey, this is really great.” My brother would say, “Hey you know, if you want to go to a panel or workshop or something, by all means, go ahead and join in.” And like in a panel and a FANHS Chapter in the Central Coast was talking about people that she was interviewing and I sat there and I thought, “Oh my God, those are my cousins,” because they owned a Filipino market in Pismo Beach. And I thought “My God, I know those people were my relatives!” And then somebody was doing some research in New Orleans. And they were like looking for Filipinos that were in the New Orleans area way back in early 1900s and I went “Oh my God. Let's see if she has my uncle there because my uncle was in New Orleans in 1930.” And lo and behold, she found his name! And there it was on the presentation. I was like “Wow, these people are pretty cool!” We became members and that's where I learned more about like Manongs, the Bridge Generation, the Filipino history in America and I thought “Well, this is great” so that became into the Delano chapter. My brother calls me up one day and he says “hey, you know what? We got to do a Delano — FANHS Delano chapter. I want you to help put it together, and we're going to put up an event and it's going to be on the anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike. It'll be 50 years.” and I went “Sure, sure I'll do it. I'll help. I'll put this chapter. I'll help put the chapter together and I'll help put this event together” and so that became the Delano Grape Strike: The Bold Step [Transcriber’s Note: Event title for the FANHS Delano chapter’s event] and that was in 2015 and I helped along with the officers, helped put this event together. We became a chapter like in June I believe, through July, August, September. The event was in September. We had three months to put it together.” NERO: Oh wow, three months for the 50th Anniversary? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Yes, For the 50th. And you know. People in the officers and some of the volunteers would…You know, because I've done these kind of events because I was working with Oracle at the time and one of the things that Oracle has— It's a it's a software company here in Silicon Valley—and they do this big event every year in San Francisco. You know, they close the street down. They take over the Convention Center. They take over this and that. Anyway, so I kind of knew a little bit of planning, an event, a big event, but so, what I was trying to say is that 50 years and I knew that this was going to be a big event, and I kept stressing to them “Well, it's got to be more than just one night. It's going to have to be a weekend thing” Especially because then Dawn Mabalon and Robyn Rodriguez came into the fold to help us put it together. They helped get guest speakers and suggested topics for our workshops with panel panelists. And I thought, “wow, this is just like a FANHS conference, but you know, it's a Delano chapter event.” So it became a three day event Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And we there are a lot of people who attended and I think a lot of people in Delano and were like “Oh, I had no idea that this could possibly happen” and but what's really interesting is that the people who planned it realized the scope of the history in Delano, but the people in Delano still don't really know it, interestingly enough. They don't go to a lot of the functions that occur there. So that's my contribution to FANHS. And then of course because I'm still here in San Francisco, I decided to join the San Francisco FANHS chapter [laughs]. [01:11:22] TUTHILL-DELUTE: So then they kicked it off this year in right before the pandemic and we have a lot of members, a lot of students. And the President or the person who's kicking off is a Filipino American college professor at the City College Community over here. So she's — she happens to be a student many years ago in San Diego and she knew my brother because he was a school administrator and at the time his wife — She passed away of cancer— but she used to be a student of hers. I mean, of my brother's wife at the time because she knew my brother and his first wife. So, she's got knowledge and information, which is really great. NERO: So we're now just winding down to the last part of the interview. Talking about the Bold Step Event. Why do you think that event was important? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Oh my gosh, why is it important?! It's because of the Filipinos that were involved in it that people don't know anything about. You know they thought Cesar Chavez was the Delano Grape Strike, I mean. Even the people who grew up with it, we all know Cesar Chavez but nobody made a point to say “hey, no, let's get this straight,” so that's my big takeaway is that when I realize that you know this is history that needs to be told correctly. Then our event became the big kick off. I mean, I understand that there are other stories about it, but this was the big kickoff to get the story right because you know we made— we had a couple of people from the from Cesar Chavez Foundation who came and actually said “Yes, Larry Itliong started it.” If it wasn't for him, the Grape Strike occurred because he was the guy who came into town and said “hey, we need to make this change, we need to get more money for our workers and the only way we can do it is to strike.” I mean it's like “Oh my God, let's get this right, let's get it straight.” NERO: And then, second to last question, do you feel that Filipino American history is getting enough recognition? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Enough? No. it needs more, it needs more and I can only say that because in the town of Delano where the Grape Strike occurred, not everybody still knows it and so we need to— I understand that we've now got the curriculum for Filipino farmer history into K-12— but I haven't seen it implemented. Yeah, but it's more and more events. And I now that I'm part of FANHS and I am in the Delano chapter, I try to bring awareness through FANHS with events, and we have a tour that we do every year — er, not every year. That if people request it, they can do a tour of the Delano Grape Strike locations where the Grape Strike occurred. Out in the field the Filipino Community Hall where they held their meetings, where Cesar Chavez took the agreement at the Guadalupe Church, which still exists, and where Larry Itliong is buried, he is buried in Delano. And of course the development of the Forty Acres where Cesar Chavez had his fasting, where the clinic was developed where the hiring hall was, and where Agbayani Village was created. Then of course the other history, which is the Delano Chinatown which is now like bulldozered over. But that's where all our Manongs used to go. You know, go shopping, go gambling, go drinking, go eating. Extracurricular activities and but that in itself is history. And so anyway. NERO: And then here's the last question for the interview. What advice do you have for young Filipinos like me and many others? TUTHILL-DELUTE: Come to Delano. NERO: I'm tempted when you said there’s Lechon everywhere, I'm so tempted. TUTHILL-DELUTE: [Laughs] Yeah, they're— Oh my God. Well, there is one main person that really makes it and you got to go to Delano. And when I mean Delano is a really—I mean in in a whole lot of ways, It's still a small town and it's in the middle of really nowhere, and the freeway runs right through it. But the thing is, is that Filipino history is in all our lives. I mean, it's in Delano, Stockton, Sacramento, Coachella Valley down over by Morro Bay. Down over by. Where the Manila Men in New Orleans are. The kids, the youth, I think are better off than when I was a youth of our Filipino history, but we need more of it, so that everybody is aware of who the Filipino Americans are, how we came here and that our history is part of American history. NERO: And what a great way to come to close the interview. Thank you for thank you for your time. So this concludes the interview with Nickie Tuthill-Delute, and this is Daniel Nero signing off for the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies. I'm now going to stop the recording. TUTHILL-DELUTE: OK. [01:18:06] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Nickie Tuthill-Delute Subject The topic of the resource Delano, United Farm Workers, Farmworkers, Filipino, Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers, Description An account of the resource This oral history interview was conducted via Google Voice and explained Nickie's life growing up in Delano, her interactions with the Grape Strike, Delano's Filipino Community from the 1960s to the present, and her childhood to adulthood. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 15-Sep-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, the UC Davis Asian American Studies department, and the UC Regents holds intellectual control of these recordings. Usage is restricted for educational, non-commercial purposes only. Commercial usage requests should be made to ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 audio file Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Tara Rino Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Russ Rino Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Interview w/ Russ Rino Transcription completed by: Tara Rino TR: Okay, so can you please introduce yourself? RR: Russ Rino. TR: Okay, so we’re just gonna be talking about your experience as a Filipino immigrant, and moving to America. So, when and where were you born and raised? RR: I was born and raised in Pililla, Rizal, Philippines. TR: When were you born? RR: February 18th. TR: What year? RR: 1942. TR: Okay, so can you please share any memories or experiences growing up in the Philippines? RR: Well, I came from a family of 11 siblings. So, my father was receiving what we call pension from the American government. And my mother was always a housewife. And it was a challenge for a big family like ours. And so from my childhood I was always aspiring to do something better. I want the better version of myself. TR: What were you aspiring to be at that time? RR: During those days, I really wanted to be a lawyer. But later on as I get a little older, I realize that it would have been a very expensive proposition. And during high school days, raised as a Catholic, going to Catholic high school, I actually wanted to be a priest. Then I looked at my younger siblings, and I said, “Well, if I go to priesthood, I don't think anybody can provide education to my three younger brothers.” So I keep on with my dream of becoming an engineer, and I did. TR: So, can you talk about some challenges that your family had? RR: Yes, one of the challenges in a big family is we have sufficient food, having abundance of rice, vegetables, and daily needs. But the biggest challenge for me, myself, is finances. So, during elementary school I learned how to sell bread. Back in the Philippines, we call it Pandesal. That is the most popular breakfast for Filipino people. Then during the day, this is during my elementary school, I will sell what we call here ice cream. And I save money to help myself go to school. And then in high school, my father, being politically well connected, high school days I was working for the government in the highway construction. I was what we call a timekeeper. I keep track of all the highway construction workers’ time. And again, trying to save money. And then college, my first two years of college, I was fortunate enough to academically qualify for a two-year scholarship from the biggest oil gas company in the Philippines: CalTex, which stands for California-Texas oil, a joint venture of Texas oil and standard oil here in Californa and Texas. And then after my two-year college, I worked for the Philippine government during the day and then at night time, I will hop on the bus, go to the University Belt in the Philippines that is in what we call a place called Quiapo, then I was going to my night school, going for my chemical engineering degree. TR: So how much did you make selling Pandesal and ice cream? RR: Oh, I don’t know.. Pandesal and ice cream? If I make 10 pesos a day, during those times, that’s plentiful. And then during high school years, working for the provincial government, I was earning the minimum wage of 4 pesos an hour. So again, that money was basically for myself. Saving it for my college years. And then, my first two years, as I said, I was a two-year scholar of the oil company CalTex and I was receiving a monthly… not salary but it’s a scholarship expense of about 350 dollars a month. For the next 2 years of my college scholarship. TR: So, were you the first in your family to move to America from the Philippines? RR: Yes I was. And then I brought seven siblings after I obtained my US citizenship. So, except for one, all of those siblings are still here in America. TR: Can you talk about your experience moving here? How did it happen? RR: Well again, I was always aspiring for a better life. Always looking for what we call in the Philippines “greener pasture”. High school days and college days, that young age, most young men will be maybe looking for a girlfriend, but I wasn’t. I was focused on my studies because I have an ambition to one day come to America. And good enough, I was able to do that, with focusing on my ambition. So here I am, fifty years later, still doing what I think is good for my family. TR: So how did you move here? RR: Well, again, life is tough in the Philippines. TR: No, how did you get to America? RR: I am what you’d call first batch of Filipino professionals to come to America, meaning college educated. And so I applied at the U.S. immigration office in Manila, Philippines. TR: So, what are some of your favorite memories of growing up in the Philippines? RR: Coming from a big family, siblings of eleven, it was always fun playing with my brothers and sisters. Those were my priceless moments. So when I came to America, November 2nd, 1968, for months, I could not adjust to American life. My first year in America, I always wanted to go back to the Philippines and be with my family. There were moments in time that I will say, “Oh, I wish I had stayed there.” That’s how much I missed my family. Although I was always aspiring to come to America, but once I got here, it wasn’t as easy I thought it would be. Because then again, I was longing, I was missing my family. And it got to the point where… and I came you know, November timeframe, cold, and not knowing many very many people, I was really homesick. TR: So, when you first came here it was just you by yourself? RR: Yes! TR: So where did you get situated in America at first? RR: Well, not knowing any better, I ended up living with strangers, people that I’ve never met, people that I did not know. I was just introduced to them by some folks in the Philippines. So my first three months, I was living with a couple. TR: Where? RR: Again, not knowing much about the area, I settled in East Palo Alto of all places. TR: So what happened after that? RR: Well, soon after, within a month of my arrival, through people that I did not know, I was able to get a job from a electronic manufacturing company in San Carlos. And for what it’s worth, to this very moment, I still remember this company’s name, which was Lenkurt Electronics in San Carlos, California. And not owning a car, I was carpooling with a woman that I was introduced to and her husband. TR: So did you get the job because of your engineering degree from the Philippines? RR: No, actually, having a degree coming from the Philippines, I felt like that was used against me in the sense that I was overqualified for the job that I first landed. It was an electric manufacturing company and I did not have to disclose my degree otherwise I probably would have not been accepted for that assembly position for an engineer coming from the Philippines. All I had was $300 in my pocket and a need to survive, a need to find a job quickly so I can settled in East Palo Alto. TR: So did you get that job right when you came to America or how long did it take? RR: Yeah, within a month of my arrival. And it’s rather easy during those years to find a job because there were plenty of job openings in manufacturing, although Vietnam War was getting to its end and there were also many job applicants. TR: So you were in America around the time of the Vietnam War? RR: Yeah, I arrived here in November 2nd, 1968 and the American government was beginning to pull out the American troops from Vietnam. So many Vietnam War veterans were out there looking for a job. And you know, they had the priority over other applicants and they so well-deserved it. After all, they served for the country. TR: So are you still an engineer today or did that change? RR: No, just to backtrack a little bit, I always wanted to practice my chemical engineering profession. So when I first arrived here, my first month, this was before I took that electronic manufacturing job, I went to Chicago, Illinois. I applied for a chemical engineering position. I had a good letter of recommendation coming from the vice president of the oil company back in the Philippines, CalTex. Highly recommended to Standard Oil of California and I went to their San Francisco headquarters on Sansome Street. But you know, there was not very many demand for chemical engineers in California. And that’s why for about two weeks, I went back East or Midwest, I went to Chicago and looked for a chemical engineering job. I found one, but by that time, I realized how cold Chicago can get. So I declined the job offer and instead flew back to California. TR: So you came from the Philippines to Palo Alto, and then you went to Chicago, and then you came back? RR: Yeah, I was just staying, I had a coworker from the government agency in the Philippines that I worked with and so for two weeks, I stayed with him in Chicago. And I went as far as Miluwakee, Wisconsin, which is neighboring state of Illinois, looking for a chemical engineering job. But again, I found one in Chicago area but did not take it. TR: So you said that your first couple months in America was hard, so what did expectations did you have of America before you came? RR: Well, it’s probably the same expectations which is not really the way it is, by many people in the Philippines. People in the Philippines think that money in America grows in the tree, which is not at all. Soon after settling here, then I realized that beginning your life in America can be very difficult and at times very disheartening, not the way I was expecting it. But someone has to adjust. TR: Once you started to get settled in, did you feel disconnected from the Filipino culture, or did you find a way to stay connected with your culture? RR: Well, just to give you a quick background, my father was well politically-connected in the Philippines. Actually, my plan was to stay in America for five years and go back after that because at the time, it was president Marcos who was in the government. And a very good and close family friend of us, a good buddy of my father, Senator Salonga was going to, well the assumption was going to be the next president after President Marcos. And being a close family friend, I was hoping that after five years here, and when he becomes the president, I would go back there and probably get a good paying, good position in the Philippine government. But as I look back, I have no regrets. If that had happened, if President Marcos did not declare Martial Law, and Senator Salonga became president, I can only predict that knowing how the Philippine government runs, I could have been working for a good position in the government but I would have been corrupted. So again, you know, destiny was on my favor that I stayed in America. So here I am, working hard on my own, achieving American dreams, and helping not only my family, but other extended families or friends. So I had no regrets. TR: Yeah but did you feel like you were still connected to the Filipino culture or did you feel more Americanized at all, throughout your life here? RR: After my first ten years here, I sort of disconnected with the Philippine culture. And now, I don’t even go back to the Philippines for like every eleven years, thirteen years. My family is here, and to me this is home. I love the Philippine culture, I love the Philippines being my native country, but at the end of the day, America is my home. TR: Do you still have any Filipino traditions and values that you keep alive in your family today? RR: Well my number one would be the religion. I try very hard to do my obligation to God and then next to my fellow men. I tried very hard to pay tribute to God, attending Sunday masses when it is possible. Eighty, eighty-five percent of my Sunday commitment to God almighty. I’m able to accomplish that by going to mass. Not until the pandemic happened, then I do the virtual mass during Sundays. TR: So what does being Filipino-American mean to you? RR: Well again, I’m very proud to be Filipino. But by the same token, for what it’s worth, I am more Americanized in more ways than one. Politically, I’m totally disconnected in the Philippines. I don’t know (and not in a bad way), I don’t care who runs the Philippine government but at times when I watch the news when I get on a Filipino channel, it hits home when I see beautiful places back in the Philippines which I never travelled. I was pretty much contained in Manila. What is very disheartening to me though, watching Filipino television channels, is how oppressed and how poor the Filipino people are. So you know, to me that is heartbreaking. TR: So how many times have you visited the Philippines since you moved in America? RR: In my fifty some years living in America, five times only. TR: What are those experiences like coming back? RR: Well, overall, it was good experience seeing my siblings, relatives. But after ten, maybe twelve days at the most, I am looking to fly back to America. I don’t think I can ever adjust to Filipino way of living anymore. As I said earlier, this is home for me. TR: So you don’t enjoy being in the Philippines anymore? RR: Well the time, the number of days that I stay there. I love the Filipino culture. If anything else, and even here in America, I enjoy food. I always tell my friends the two things that I truly love [about] being alive is eating and playing mahjong. Mahjong is a very traditional way of spending your time with friends. And to my opinion, it also, especially for someone my age, it also sharpens your mind. It makes you think. So yeah, those are the two things I enjoy in life. TR: So do you try to pass on any parts of Filipino culture onto your kids, like the language or anything? RR: Not really, because everyone in my family speaks English. At times, I will ask them to pay a visit to the Philippines, but with all candidness, I’m totally (for the most part) disconnected with the Philippines. TR: Do you have anything specific you want to share? Like about your experiences throughout your life, anything about being Filipino/Filipino-American? RR: As you get older, you appreciate life more and you really want to give the best you can to your family. Just trying to do the right thing and still, I’m very active in what I do in life which is real estate and also I am slowly developing a second business venture which is helping a family, getting them educated, how to make money and how to invest wisely, and this other business venture that I am focusing more and more, we have a saying that “No family is left behind.” In the financial world, unless you have $250,000 sitting in your bank account, there is no financial advisor that will even talk to you. They won’t give you their time to give you financial education on how to make and save money, how to avoid paying too much on your income tax. So, more and more, I am focusing on this new business venture. But by the same token, after forty years of real estate life, I am still out there, helping families and I am very competitive. My company obviously is owned by Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway. It’s a very competitive environment, and I’m telling you, I’m saying this with no bad taste, that I’m giving those young realtors a run for their money. I’m out there helping families whether buying or selling homes, and I’m good on what I do. After forty years of being a real estate agent. TR: So you’re obviously very educated and successful. How would you compare yourself to your siblings that live here in America? You said you have six, seven? RR: Eight siblings as we speak. TR: How many are in America? RR: Four of us here in America. The other sisters had gone back and retired in the Philippines. Well, I don’t know. I try not to compare myself with other people and not to compare myself with my siblings, but I feel good. I think I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish in America. I feel very successful and I think financially, owning multiple real estate properties, I think in my own little way, I am very successful. TR: Did you help your siblings get here to America? RR: Yes indeed. I brought them all one by one, Some of them took me seventeen years. Some of them took me eighteen, nineteen years to bring them over. But that patience at the end of the day pays off. So they are all here, well still three of them (four including myself) are all here enjoying the American life. TR: Do you think you could talk about the process for bringing each sibling? And you can use their names. In any order, doesn’t matter. RR: Not anymore. The US government, and I think I can look back to the years of Bill Clinton, President Clinton. I think that’s when the Immigration Law had started shifting. Prior to that, you have this… I don’t know if you would call it US citizenship “privilege” that you can bring your siblings, whether it’s brother or sister, you can petition for them. And as I said, depending on the priorities, some of my siblings came here after eighteen years of me filing petition on their behalf. Some of them eighteen, nineteen years. But the US government had stopped doing that from the Philippines, anyway. I don’t know of any other countries and other parts of the world that are still privileged to bring their siblings to America, but at least in the Philippines, that immigration benefit for Filpino people had stopped couple decades ago. TR: Wait why did it take so many years, like eighteen, nineteen years for some of them? RR: Because of many applicants. Can you imagine, every single country in the world, from small countries, island countries to even big countries, everybody wants to migrate to America. So just the immigration process is just very cumbersome, for that very reason that people want to come in to America. And I don’t know why, I think nowadays it’s sort of late to migrate to America because now, it’s not what it was like twenty-some years ago. TR: So you said when you first came to America, you were in Palo Alto. How did you end up here in San Jose? RR: Well, soon after that, I think I stayed in East Palo Alto for about a year, adjusting life, working, and always trying to better myself. And then after that, I start making a little more money, I was able to buy a brand new car, and then I moved to Santa Clara. Still living in an apartment. I had no real estate background, nobody had given me any education on real estate. So at some point in my life, 1969 to 1971, I moved down to Southern California because I was getting tired of working for the electronic manufacturing and so I reached out to a company that I worked for in the Philippines after I left the Philippine government. I worked for a company, that was shortly before migrating to America. A company called Philippine Standard, which is the Philippine operations of America Standard. There in that company, I was able to practice some of my chemical engineering background. I was a lab technician for American Standard in Torrance, California. All it took was one phone call and I introduced myself to the vice president of operations for American Standard and I told them that I worked for their Philippine plant. Gave them a quick background of myself and January 1970, they invited me to fly down to Torrance, California for a job interview and after that interview, I was accepted. Then I moved down to Southern California. I lived there for about twenty-five, twenty-six months. After that length of time, I realized that that is really not the place I wanted to live the rest of my life [in]. It was very crowded, and so I moved back to now what we call Silicon Valley. So here I am in San Jose, California. TR: Did you end up living with your siblings at any point when you were in America? RR: No, pretty much on my own. I bought my first house in Santa Clara and my first sibling that came to America, he lived with me. TR: What’s his name? RR: Roland. At that time, I was working for a company in Mountain View called Spectra Physics. And so I got my brother Roland a job at Spectra Physics. I was in that company for about thirteen years. Until I did not want to be a part of a manufacturing environment anymore. So May 1980 is when I passed my real estate exam from the state of California and I worked real estate for five years after I got my license in 1980. So by 1985, I completely disconnected myself in the manufacturing company. By then, I had established my real estate career and now after all those years, I’m still doing real estate strongly. Still making a difference in families’ lives. TR: So what was it like moving to America and being away from your parents? RR: Tough. Again as I said earlier, there was a point in my life that I said, “Oh, I probably should have stayed in the Philippines. I will probably be still poor, but at least I am with my family.” But you know, after all those years, again, I have no regret. Keeping on, always striving to do better, always wanting to improve, always wanting to bring the best version of myself, and so again here I am. Fifty-some years after, living happily in America with my family. TR: So when you moved from the Philippines to America, was it just a straight flight to America? RR: I can tell you this much, and that was my first experience to fly. I flew Northwest Airlines. And our point of entry to America from the Philippines was Seattle, Washington. And so that was a two, maybe three hour layover from Seattle, Washington airport and then Northwest Airlines flew us down to San Francisco. And that was the beginning of my American life. TR: Do you think you were able to fulfill the dreams you had growing up in your life now in America? Like your dreams and aspirations? RR: Here in America? TR: Yeah. RR: Oh yes, definitely. I would have not been in this stage of my life had I not migrated in America. And who knows, knowing the life in the Philippines, I may not have lived this long. Here, healthy environment, peaceful surroundings, healthy food. If I need any doctor attention, I can easily get it, although at my age, I’m very healthy, I have no health issues. The only issue I have as far as my health is I have a minor case of asthma and that is under control. And then enjoying eating and until about ten, twelve years ago I wasn’t eating healthy, I did not know any better. Eating red meat to non red meat. So I learned that to live healthy, you just have to watch your diet. And I am doing great on that. For the most part, I only eat chicken and fish. And again, thank God. No health issues at this point in my life. And with God upward watching me and me doing my part as far as behaving on what I take in, I intend and I plan to be around for a little while longer. TR: Have you ever made any observations between your family here in America and maybe like your siblings’ families that live in the Philippines? RR: Well there’s no comparison. In the Philippines, just to track back a little bit, that was one of my motivation to get out of the country: it’s either you are poor or you are rich. My family, fortunately, we were not poor. But I would not even call us in the middle because there’s nothing in between. But we were fortunate enough because of my parents’ land holding. We were able to plant rice, vegetables, fruits, the daily stipend, the daily human needs. So, we were not deprived of the common commodities. Not financially rich, but we were okay. TR: How valuable do you view the Filipino-American community in your life? RR: At one point in my life, I was well connected with Filipino associations here in Silicon Valley. But as I continue working real estate, I am doing less of that and spending more time in real estate. After all, that is my passion. So I have not been involved in any local Filipino associations, but I would at times attend different regional Filipino association gatherings. Whether it’s from Central Philippines, Northern Philippines, or whatever part of the Philippines, when they reach out to me, I was always there for them. I will give financial support through advertising my real estate business. So, I’m still there whenever I’m need by the Filipino communities. TR: So you’re happy living here in America? RR: Very much so. That’s an understatement. TR: Is there any final statements or memories you wanna share? RR: Well, I think from my experience on my childhood, always working, doing the things that I did in elementary school, selling bread, selling ice cream. Then high school, I had my own banana, papaya plantations so on weekends I can reach out to three, four buddies and say, “Hey, help me pick vegetables so I can sell it to the market so I can use that money for my high school expense.” And then, moving to America, you know, never stopped. Just like in the Philippines. At my age, I am still working. I think I will get bored if I stay home because I am used to always [being] out there helping families achieve their American dream of home ownership, nothing put a smile on my face than handing a house key to my home buyer, first time home buyer because I was able to help them “Put a roof on their head,” as they say. So to me, what I am doing is my passion. And then this added value in my real estate business, the insurance business that I am slowly but surely developing, I am even able to help other families by educating them on how to leverage on their income by not paying too much income tax return to the government. There are ways to do that legally. I mean it’s something that I wish I could discuss here but for respect of time, I won’t do that. It can be very time-consuming. I am and truly enjoying my life in America. TR: Okay, thank you! RR: You are very welcome. I hope this will help a little bit for whatever use this video interview. TR: Thank you for your time. RR: You’re very welcome. Enjoy the rest of your day. Topics/Themes <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Immigrant experience</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Bay Area Filipino-American</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">First generation</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">1960s-1970s</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Russ Rino Description An account of the resource Oral History Interview with Russ Rino, interviewed by Tara Rino Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .txt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0008 Subject The topic of the resource Philippines Food vendors Rizal (Philippines : Province) Catholic schools East Palo Alto Manufacturing engineering and materials processing Chemical Engineering Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 4, 2020 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Bulosan Center and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Link <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1opNzQ6bFxj5cV6wHzyRWLD0OkEf_dg_f/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1opNzQ6bFxj5cV6wHzyRWLD0OkEf_dg_f/view?usp=sharing</a> Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Katrina Asuncion Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Ruth Asmundson Finding Guide Interview Finding Guide for Oral History of Ruth Asmundson [0:00]-[10:11] Born in barrio – father from Pangasinan – grandparents from Ilocos – born during war September 21, 1944 – Marshall Law – schooling and education – mother and father eloped – siblings – strict Chinese family – Japanese occupation and hiding soldiers – rewarded for helping American soldiers [10:11]-[20:02] Always reading and always daydreaming – sibling dynamics of caretaking – going to school early – wanted to be a doctor – mother’s role in the barrio – mother had a doctor role in the community – spelling contest – teachers put Ruth in charge of her class – cleaned the streets – locked Mr. Manuel and Ms. Filia (sp?) in a room – still visits Mrs. Manuel in the Philippines [20:02]-[29:57] Valedictorian of her sixth grade class – high school life – became TA – student representative and vouched for high school – had no boyfriend and planned to only study – met Dr. Adamson and his wife – became their protégé – take opportunities – nerves with public speaking [29.57]-[40:00] Believing in being a good teacher – analogy for chemistry that resonates – reluctant with Fulbright scholarship opportunity – interview for the Fulbright scholarship – Fulbright orientation in Hawaii – nerves about conversing with others – Master’s in Pennsylvania – applying to schools for PhD [40:00]-[50:00] Deciding which school to go to for PhD – decided to go to Davis – experiencing arriving to Davis – finding her roommate – grounding herself in agricultural chemistry – Secretary of International Student Club – dance binasuan and met Mr. Asmundson – close neighbors with Mr. Asmundson’s mother – dated Mr. Asmundson – the talk about kids and question of marriage [50:00]-[1:00:03] Finishing her PhD – had to return to the Philippines – taught at her alma mater with professorship – Marshall Law – realized she wanted to get married too – Mr. Asmundson visited and asked for permission to marry Ruth – both worked to get Fulbright restriction waived – married and moved, but never unpacked – cultural differences – stay at home mom and working dad deal – four kids in five years – shrinking world [1:00:03]-[1:09:58] Membership chair of University of Pharmaceuticals – duties as she was Mayor of Davis – how she aimed to improve the city – questions that she keeps in mind to make decisions – PTA President – “Citizen of the Year Award” – find the roots of problems, no Band-Aids – school board – mediating and conversing through conflicts – teaching her daughters to have confidence [1:09:58]-[1:19:59] She is understanding of situations – how she directs meetings as Mayor – how she navigates herself through aggressive situations – establishing certain market areas in Davis – husband is a lawyer – not having enough money – pushing kids to study hard and go to any school they want – daughters attended Dartmouth [1:19:59]-[1:29:54] 40-year marriage trial – husband’s incorporation – 401k – lowering tax bracket – husband’s incorporation – daughters attend San Diego and UC Davis – they cannot get married until they finish college – Ruth raised six children – her children were very respectful – being on the school board and prioritizing the children always – communication with the teachers, students, and many – feeling confident in herself, her decisions and her abilities – prays while walking – aims to engage the audience and to wake them up – being available and accessible to staff and council members – what it is like running as a candidate – how she presents herself unphased by others [1:29:54]-[1:40:02] Ruth tries to give Sue (sp?) advice – discrimination in her work and life – Sacramento Council group meeting with many other mayors – buying clothes from Asian because it fits her – Sue (sp?) complains about everything and is high maintenance – making and keeping structure for things to run efficiently – Irena studied economics and wanted to go to Stanford [1:40:02]-[1:50:02] Lessons learned and takeaways – trip to Washington D.C. analogy – losing weight – her daughters’ goals – Irena studied math – wanted to attend Stanford and get a fellowship – rugby black eye injury and broken nose – worked for the U.S. council of economic advisors [1:50:02]-[2:00:05] Traveling for career – conversing with foreign dignitaries – convincing Ruth to run for API member at large – other candidates speeches were boring – Ruth wore campaign shirt and was memorable – being a realistic leader [2:00:05]-[2:10:05] Conference for all mayors, everyone was boring – aims to inspire kids – likes of deadlines – writing a chapter as someone in politics – sitting and talking a lot to family – many stories – helping her second daughter with homwork [2:10:05]-[2:20:00] Talks about her daughters’ families – all Z names – house furniture and pictures – Zander and the traffic lights [2:20:00]-[2:30:09] Picnic Day lemonade stand for a cause – Zander is a hassler – speaks to community development class – mentors diverse group of women – contacting her for more with email – daughter and her husband is a lawyer – Ruth’s husband was Justice Kennedy’s classmate and coworker – Sigrid interned for Govenor Wilson – she also interned at justice department in Washington D.C. – Sigrid’s schooling – Peace Corp and left to AfricaIrena worked in IMF and Afghanistan – taught and stayed in Fairfield [2:30:09]-[2:41:05] Irena worked in IMF and Afghanistan – taught and stayed in Fairfield – sisters take care of the youngest – the two boys’ careers – Jonas is into music – trying to find people for the boys to marry – Ruth is flexible for speaking at the Symposium – four Filipinos when Ruth came to Davis – their pathways and an update on their current lives – pig drawing and meanings – having to leave to speak at a delegation Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Filipino American Farmworker Oral History Project Oral History Interview With Ruth Asmundson September 14, 2018 Davis, California By Katrina Asuncion Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies UC Davis Asian American Studies Department [Session 1, September 14, 2018] [Begin Audio File] ASUNCION: I have some questions, but open to however this goes. The first ones are mostly preliminary, so where and when were you born? ASMUNDSON: I was born in a barrio in the Philippines, north of Manila, the Isabela province. Isabella is one of the three provinces in Cagayan Valley. I don’t know if you know about the Philippines. You were born here [in the United States] right? ASUNCION: I was born here, yes. ASMUNDSON: Right, that’s right. But Cagayan Valley is the northern part in the Cordillera mountain. It’s about three-hundred miles north of Manila. ASUNCION: Okay. My dad is from Pangasinan. ASMUNDSON: Does he speak Ilocano? ASUNCION: No. ASMUNDSON: He is Pangasinan. So [in] my place, they speak Ibanag. This is the dialect in the town. But I come from the barrio and you are Ilocano. I used to speak Ibanag, but I’ve forgotten about it. But Ilocano… my grandparents came from Ilocos and my mom was born in Isabela, so we speak Ilocano. My dad was born in China, so I’m half Chinese, half Filipino. And I was born during the war, 1944. My birthday is September 21, 1944. That date is memorable because when I went back to the Philippines after my Ph.D, I was teaching at the university, and Marshall Law was declared on my birthday that first time I got back. ASUNCION: Oh my gosh. ASMUNDSON: [Laughs] Yeah, it was scary. ASUNCION: Were you there for a while during Marshall Law? ASMUNDSON: Well, we can talk about that, but that’s part of my story too. ASUNCION: Oh, okay. We can probably get into that later. So the next question was, where were your parents born? Which you already touched on that. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, my mom was born in the Philippines and my dad was born in China. ASUNCION: Okay. Where did you grow up? ASMUNDSON: I grew up in that barrio in Isabela. It’s a big barrio actually. And in the Philippines, I don’t know if you know the way it’s set up, we have the barrio and then we have the town which is kind of like a satellite. There are several barrios that make up the town, the nearest [inaudible]. And then the town proper is where the mayor, the government. The barrios, they have [leaders] like captains, but then, the town proper, it’s just like here [in the United States] we have cities, and then the county, and then we have the state. And there we have barrios, the towns or cities, and then we have the provinces. All the provinces compose the Philippines. I grew up in the barrio and all the barrios have elementary schools. And then when we go to high school, we go to the town proper. The town proper has the high school. And then in our place, there are colleges too, but a lot of the students go to Manila because that’s where all the universities are. I grew up in that barrio. I got my elementary schooling there. Then, I went to town and it was a four-year high school. See, in the Philippines, it’s grade 1 to 6, in the barrio anyway. They don’t have kindergarten because the kids go to school later, about six [in age]. I was four and a half, but that’s another story. [Laughs] Then, I went to the high school. Actually, it’s public school. The high school I went to, we didn’t really have any high school buildings. Our high school is a warehouse that used to be at the back of our house that the school district was renting. During summer, which it was mostly summer anyway in the Philippines, it’s just so hot because it’s just corrugated. [Laughs] Corrugated. [inaudible] the siding. Because there we didn’t know any difference, we just took it. During the war, I was born, like I said my father was born in China. And when he was eight years old, he was adopted by his uncle, his father’s oldest brother. [5:08] ASMUNDSON: The uncle who adopted him had five children and he took all the children to the Philippines. So, my father went with him, with his now adoptive father. My dad grew up in the Philippines from eight to [inaudible]. Then, when he was eighteen, he met my mom, a Filipino. My mom was fourteen, well thirteen when they met. My dad was seventeen. They eloped when they were fourteen and eighteen because he was still…yeah. And my grandmother didn’t like my father who was Chinese. [Laughs] So they eloped and got married. And my mom, who was an only child, had her first baby when she was fifteen. I have three older sisters, and then I’m number four, then I have two brothers, two younger brothers. So my dad and my mom had six children. When they had six children, my dad died. He was thirty-two and my mom was twenty-six. Now the siblings of my father, who are Chinese, they wanted the children to be raised Chinese because in our home, my mom actually learned how to speak Chinese. We were like a Chinese family, so the spoken language at home was Chinese, but we speak Ilocano also. Then, my uncles told my mom that she had to marry one of their cousins. Otherwise, they would take the children away from her because they [my mother’s family] were very poor. My uncles wanted the children to be Chinese. So, my mom married my uncle, who is Chinese, a cousin of my dad and they had two more children, so the total six children. ASUNCION: Oh, wow. ASMUNDSON: Right. But then my uncle, he was our uncle, he was very, very strict. He wanted all the children to go to Chinese school and the Chinese school is in the town proper. In order to go to school, we finished elementary school up to sixth grade, when we go to town proper to go to Chinese school, we have to start all over again from first grade on. But like I said, during the war when I was born, my mom and my dad, my real dad, they were hiding American soldiers during the Japanese occupation. It was very dangerous because if the Japanese find out anybody collaborating with the Americans, American soldiers, they would be killed. They [the Japanese] were very vicious, they have those bayonets and they’d throw the person and then just spear. And one of my uncles was caught. And what they did to him, they wanted him to drink these gallons, big cans of water, so his stomach [becomes] bloated. And then they would jump on his stomach. They were very vicious. And luckily my parents were not caught because what they did, my father’s business was buying and selling tobaccos. They had these big bales of tobacco and in our warehouse, we have stacks and stacks of tobacco bales, but in the middle, it was hollow, so that’s where they hid the American soldiers. After the war, the American soldiers left, but before they left, they asked my mom what she wanted. And she said, “I want you to send me books, magazines and newspapers.” In our house, there were six children and we have a two-story house. Very simple. Actually, there were four bedrooms, but we only used two bedrooms for the six children and my grandmother was living with us. So, we had a library. We had libraries in our house. In her [my mom’s] library, she had chemistry books, medicine books, all kinds of technical books. She only got to sixth grade, but she was well-read, and she spoke very good English. [10:11] ASMUNDSON: She was always reading. Because she only got to sixth-grade, she wanted the children to learn, to be educated. And I was reading all those things, I would see the magazines. And we only had, I remember, we only had two furniture, two chairs and a table. I used to look at all those magazines, American magazines, I would see how beautiful [it is] there. I used to dream I would like to have a house, a beautiful house like that. We had these two chairs, every day. We had a wooden floor, so I would polish the floor, I would clean, and I would rearrange the chairs and the tables. And I would have a flower vase, I’m making it [like my dream]. I’m always cleaning the house because I was always dreaming about having a beautiful house. Then, my mother insisted, the girls, the children, know their alphabet by three years old, and by four we were reading. And we were getting all these comics of our favorite, Superman. And so, we were reading English already. In the Philippines, usually, especially in the barrio, the oldest [child] takes care of young, the second one. And the second takes care of the third. The third takes care of the fourth. My third sister was taking care of me because I am number four. She was a second grader and she would take me to school and I was four and a half. And I was reading already. So she would put me in the first grade class because the teacher there was my aunt. And my last name is Uy, two letters. We were always seated alphabetical. And I was seated at the back and, of course, because I was only four and a half, I was the shortest. I could barely sit [in] front, but I always want to participate because I was reading already, and my classmates were not reading yet. And so I would go home, and I would tell my mom, “Mom, when I get married, I will marry a tall guy with a long name that begins with ‘A’.” [Laughs] Because I wanted me and my children to stay in front being “A,” right? That was my dream. I always say that the two things that I remember, two goals. One is, I wanted to become a doctor, a medical doctor because there was no doctor in our barrio. My mom who was a sixth-grader, she was kind of the doctor because of all of these medical books. And when people get sick there, they would come to her and she would sterilize her syringe and she would inject them with penicillin. It’s scary, I keep thinking about that, but she was always so meticulous. She would sterilize everything, everything clean [inaudible]. [Laughs] We are still alive. [Laughs] She was their doctor, she was the doctor they would come [to]. And it’s so funny because she was also the veterinarian one time because of all the farmers there. Somebody came. One of the carabao, a carabao is a water buffalo, was having a baby and the calf was kind of a breech. No, it was a horse, it was a horse. And it was breech, meaning the legs are [coming out first] instead of the head, a breech birth. So they called her because the horse was dying. She went there and she inserted her hand and turned the calf so that the head will come out [first]. So that’s what she did. [Laughs] She did everything. She was just something. So anyway, we always achieved to be educated. Now, my step-father, after they got married, my step-father and I were always fighting, arguing because he was very strict and then he wanted the kids to go to Chinese school. And I refused because nobody has been to college in my family. And I was reading, and I felt that the only way to get out of that poverty was to be educated. So, I studied, I studied, and actually I kind of always the ring-leader in my class, I was always the top. The teachers were my friends. I have more teacher friends than regular classmates. So I studied and I was always at the top of the class. And I was also a matchmaker. I guess I was kind of a naughty kid because I remember when I was in second grade and our barrio, we usually have spelling competition or declamation competition with the other barrios, especially during fiestas, so there are all these competitions. And I was always the one being sent to compete. [15:23] ASMUNDSON: I remember in second grade, we had a spelling contest, and the two finalists were myself and the top girl in the town proper. Of course, the judges were all from the town. We were competing, and so the last word was “constitution.” Well we’re second graders, so what they did was they would show us a paper and then we saw the word. So just to show it and then you read it. And then they’d hide it and then you spell it. And so the last word was “constitution,” but every time they showed me, they just pretended. They showed it, it was always upside down. But because I was reading very well already, the girl didn’t spell “constitution,” I did, so I won. [Laughs] The town people were so angry, well because they’re the Ibanag and we’re the Ilocano, they kind of look down also on the Ilocano. So, they always look down on us, the barrio people. So that was in second grade, and then in the third grade, they started sending me. I memorized poems and we do declamation and things like that. I remember in third grade, again I was kind of the head of the kids, I always organize them and there [in school] we didn’t have any janitors, right? And usually in a class there are fifty students. My teacher was Mr. Manuel, a guy, he would arrange for me to organize the cleaning crew. And there are fifty [students], there are five [school] days [a week], so I would organize per group every day, there are ten kids. Ten, ten, ten. Of course, I would have a bulletin board, put there who has the cleanest room and all those things, then he [Mr. Manuel] would give some reward. Of course, everybody didn’t want to mess up because they were afraid that when it’s their turn, they didn’t want any mess up, so it’s always clean. My teacher was always asking me to do things and I remember a time, too. So we cleaned our classroom, so I said, “Let’s go clean the streets” because, again, there are no cleaning. So we would go and pick up trash in the street. And then there was an orchard, a very nice orchard, somebody owned an orchard and the fruits were always falling, and they [the owners] couldn’t pick up all of the fruits, so I talked to the owner, and I said, because usually all of the leaves are falling, “if we come and clean the leaves, sweep the leaves, can we pick some fruits?” And they said “sure.” So I called some of my friends and said, “Do you want some fruits?” So we would go, at recess, we would go there and clean the orchard. And we had all these fruits. That’s what I was always trying to organize. So then my teacher likes me very much, he was a third grade teacher. And the sixth grade teacher was a very pretty woman, she was single. And my teacher [Mr. Manuel] was single too. And I knew that he liked her. [Laughs] So after class, after I was cleaning everything, making sure everything’s clean, and he was still there. And so then I went out, and I saw that she was still there, Mrs. Manuel or Ms. Filia (sp?). And so I went to her and I said, “Ma’am, Mr. Manuel needs some help could you come and help him.” So she came and as soon as she went to the room, I locked the door and I ran home! [Laughs] And I hid in the closet because I knew that my teacher will report to my mom. [Laughs] Well, they got married. ASUNCION: Wow. [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: They got married, they had kids and one of their daughters is actually in Canada now. But he [Mr. Manuel] died, he passed away, but she’s still there so every time I go, and they’re with her neighbors, Mrs. Manuel, every time I go home, we laugh about it. [Laughs] ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: Because we remember. But I was kind of very naughty, but the teachers were my friends? [20:02] ASMUNDSON: I finished sixth grade, I graduated valedictorian. So I went to the town and then the girl that I competed in second grade was also there. We became friends, actually, but her mother, she didn’t like me because she wanted her daughter to shine. And I was always gregarious, I was always talking to people, and even the town’s people every time. I used to have very long hair and I would walk from our place, our dormitory, well, the house we were staying, to school and I would pass by the stores and they would always ask me to stop so they can see my hair because I was always [Laughs] doing my hair in different things [styles]. They [the people of the stores] like me, but, the mother was very upset with me. So we were competing again and of course I was better than her daughter. And so when she was a sophomore, then she took her daughter away because I was always at the top. So from then on, the teachers were all my friends. Like I said, I had more teacher friends than classmates. I became TA to all my teachers. So they would correct my test paper and then I would correct all the other papers. And then whenever they wanted, the provisional government, to ask for money or we were trying to get a new high school, give us a big high school place. And I would go, I was the student representative and then because we didn't have any high school in my barrio--I can say, "You know you should also build a high school at the barrio." And I was just talking. Because I just talk about the town, I would talk about my barrio. And I found out, when I came back from the United States, I went there, and we have a high school. And I said, "Oh wow we have a high school!" And they said, "Well, thanks to you, we were able to get this." Apparently, it was because I was always lobbying for a high school there. But anyways, I graduated. So I was in high school and I became the president of freshman class, president of the sophomore class, and then I was student body president. And actually I organized all the proms, the junior prom and the senior prom. And actually, senior prom, I had mobs (sp?) during. I had to organize them. [Laughs] But I never dated, I didn't have any boyfriend because I knew I was going to study, I'm going to study. So I never even went, I never went to a single birthday party. ASUNCION: Aww. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, and also because my step-father was very strict. He didn't want me to. And that's one of the things that he and I argued a lot because he's Chinese. And the Chinese in the Philippines, especially in the barrio, because they're kind of middle class. In a way, they're not, even if they're poor, they think that they're better than the Filipinos. And he would look down on the Filipinos and I always say, "I'm Filipino." That why I never learned Chinese, even though, Chinese was spoken at home was because when they talk to me in Chinese, I would speak to them in Filipino. I refused to learn. It was stupid, but you know... [Laughs] But just to show them that I always act Filipino. So anyway, I wanted to go to medical school and then when I was a senior I was graduating and my mom said, "You know, we can't afford for you to go to medical school." And besides my step-father said, "No, I'll never support you to go college. Just get married." He kept saying to my older sisters, "Just get married." So then they go to high school, they went to Chinese school, but for me I graduated and so then my mom said, "We can't afford medical school, so why don't you just go learn chemistry?" So I said, "Okay." There [in the Philippines], you follow what your parents say. And so, I said, "Okay." But I didn't have chemistry in high school. So what I did was, I applied to Adamson University which was the top in chemistry then. Adamson in Manila. And I only applied to one [school]. I was very blessed, I was very lucky that I was accepted. And because I was graduating valedictorian, they gave me scholarship. That's how I got there because, otherwise, my step-father wasn't supporting me and it was in Manila. And luckily, also, my oldest sister, now, was living in Manila. She was married and she was raising so many kids, but I stayed with her. And my two older sisters also came. They found out that I could go to the university, and they didn't go to high school. So what they did was, they would work during the day and they would go to school at night. [25:12] ASMUNDSON: So that's what they did. And they supported me. Then, after that, they went to college because I was going to college. So they supported themselves, but they helped me. So I didn't help. Now, I'm helping. I help their children. I send 7 nieces and nephews to college. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: While I was in college, I would also sell peanuts, underwear. I was always selling some things to my classmates. I ended up having more money than anybody. So when we go shopping, they would borrow money from me and I would charge them interest. ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So I was a business person. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And then I was also very active in a lot of extracurricular activities, like the Honors Society. I was chair and I was the treasurer of the United Nations Student Association of the Philippines and all these different organizations. And like I said, I didn't have any boyfriend, I didn't go dancing, I don't sing. I was just studying, studying. But I have a lot of friends, and I even started a sorority, a chemistry sorority. So at the beginning of the school year, because I was an officer, then we would have this, I don't know if you have that here, the officers, you have a swearing in. And the Filipinos, they usually have at any event, there is a dinner/dance, right? So we would have a dinner/dance for the induction of officers. It's called Induction of Officers. And because I didn't have any boyfriend, I didn't dance. So I ended up always sitting with the speaker, the guest speaker. And most of the time, it was the president of the university, Dr. Adamson and his wife were there. So I would talk to them and he became my mentor and I became their protégé. So I was very close to them for four years and he was very good to me. So then, I finished college and I did very well. And so then, after graduation, the next day I went to him and I said, "Dr. Adamson, Mr. President, I am done. You have a job for me?" And he said, "Yeah." Because my mom always said, "Ask and you shall receive." Because if you don't ask, you don't get. If you ask, 50 percent chance yes, 50 percent no, right? It's okay. So he gave me a job at this laboratory. I was working there during the summer and then towards the end of summer, when school was going to start, he came to me and he said, "Do you want to teach?" And I said, "Yes." Because for me, any opportunity comes, I always say "yes" and I'll think about it later. Then, when school started, I realized, I'm going to teach. And I was 19, I graduated early. So I was 19 years old, and some of the students were older than me. And I just finished, so I said, "Oh my gosh!" I could barely walk, I panicked, I was traumatized. So I was going to the room [classroom], and before I went in, I lean on the wall and I said my prayer because I always pray. I said my prayer and then it was like, epiphany. It was like God was telling me, "Ruth, you finished. You know more than they do. Just go in there and teach them what you know. They don't know whether you're telling them the facts or not." [Laughs] So I said, "You're right, you know?" So I went in, and you know what? I've never been nervous again. You ask me to speak, and I don't. Because I always feel that when somebody asks me to speak, as a guest speaker or whatever, they want to hear from me something that they don't know right? And what I'm telling you [Asuncion], you don't know whether what I'm telling you is correct or wrong, right? ASUNCION: [Laughs]. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, I'm the only one who knows that. So I've never been nervous. So I always tell kids, whenever I'm talking to them. That's how like when I was mayor or when I was on the school board, parents would say, they complain, complain. And I said, "Why don't you come public comments, tell us." "Oh, I'm not a public speaker, I get nervous," they said. "Well, are you nervous now, talking to me?" And they said, "No." So I said, "When you're there, just look at me like you're talking to me and then tell us what you want." And so after that I would ask, "Were you nervous?" and "No." So that's how I invited people to come and speak to public comments. [29:57] ASMUNDSON: I still kind of get anxious sometimes, I have to prepare, but I could also talk extemporaneously. But I always psych myself, like "I know what I'm talking about." And so then, I was teaching. I was a very good teacher, I believe because in my class, I have students who are not enrolled in my class at the door listening to my lecture because whenever I teach I try to make sure the students understand what I'm talking about, so I would give them analogy that resonates with them so they listen better. In chemistry, I would be talking about ionic bonding and covalent bonding. You know those things right? ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: So I would talk about the periodic table and I said, “So then the elements on this side, and the elements on the far end, and you combine them, there is a strong attraction because there is a lot of heat that is generated and in the middle, there's also attraction, but it's not as strong as the elements combined here. So I would say, it's just like a handsome guy and beautiful girl, they see each other, they like each other, they get married and the bond's very strong because there's a very strong attraction." And then I said, "in the middle, when a girl meets a girl, they like each other, and they become very good friends, or a guy." That was before lesbian and gay. [Laughs] That was a hot topic. Because there, you don't talk about sex, right? ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: So I talk about -- I'm very open about those kind of things. And so the kids understand what I was talking about. So now I'm teaching, and my favorite professor in physics and chemistry, she was a graduate at the University of the Philippines. This is a state university, the government university. And my university was a Catholic school, well before that, it's not a Catholic school, but it was a private school. And so my professor who graduated from UP was a Fulbright scholar. Got her PhD from Columbia in New York. And now we become friends, so we were always talking. And she said, "Ruth, why don't you apply for Fulbright scholarship?" And nobody's ever gotten in from Adamson or private schools anyway. So I said, "Oh, I'll never get it." And she said, "Ruth, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you apply and you get in, it's great. If not, it's a good experience." And I said, "You're right." So I applied, and I invited a lot of my friends who graduated with me to apply because I know that I was better than a lot of them, so there will be less [inaudible]. ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So I was always kind of strategizing, you know I've been thinking. We all applied and so then we went to the director of admissions to get our transcript and the guy said, "Oh, you'll never get it." Said, "Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." He said, "You'll never get it" because his son who graduated the year before, he was a summa cum laude or magna cum laude in chemical engineering and apparently, he applied, and he didn't get it. I said, "Well, you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If we get it, it's great. If not, it's a good experience." We applied and so then we went to the U.S. Embassy for the final interview. And I keep psyching myself, "Well, it's for me, it's for me." Not "the die has been cast." [Laughs] [inaudible] And so I wasn't nervous. I wasn't nervous at all because if I get it, it's great. If not, that's fine. And so then, the chair of the panel, there were five members of the panel, the chair was from Australia, and then this guy from New Zealand, then Canada, U.S. and Filipino. And so the chair came, and then we went in, and he said, "I'm Dr. 'so-and-so' from Australia" so I said, "Oh, are you from the Outback?" And they all laughed because it's just like, "Are you from the Boondocks?" [Laughs] Well that's all I knew because I love romance books and that's all I remember from Australia, Outback. So then, he started talking about geography of Australia. [Laughs] So then, the guy from New Zealand said, "I'm Dr. 'so-and-so' from New Zealand" and I said, "Oh, are you from Christchurch [pronounces differently]” [Laughs] And so he corrected how pronounced “Christchurch.” ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And so he talk also about New Zealand. And then I asked a question when the guy from Canada and U.S. said. You know, I didn't know very much, but I was just curious. [34:56] ASMUNDSON: So we were all laughing like we were friends now. So halfway, they said to the chair, "Oh, we better ask the interview questions." So then they told the chair, "Why don't you ask your question?" The chair has been asking this question and velocity to all, and nobody's answered so far, the answer. And so it was about N (sp?) velocity and I didn't know the answer really. But then I keep thinking, "Why would he ask a complicated question in an interview? And why would the answer be five? What's the significance of five? Why would it be ten? What's the significance of ten?" So I said, "Well, of course, it's zero!" Like—[Laughs]—Like I knew! And they said, "You got it!" ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: Now, they think I'm brilliant because I was the first one to answer it right. And so then, we were all very happy. And so then, they asked me other questions, of course. I answered quite a bit, but I [inaudible] answer all of them, but now they know I'm brilliant. So two weeks later, I got letter, I got the scholarship. And so then, I was twenty-one. And so then, we had our orientation, all the Fulbrights around the world, we had our orientation in University of Hawaii for a month. And learned about American culture, about the expectations, about American life. And I was always following the director. And I would be asking him questions about how to behave, how to fit, and so I said, "Mr. Richard, you know, when I go to an event, how do I present myself, so they think that I know, I know what I'm doing, or that I belong?" And he said, "Oh, don't worry Ruth, the Americans like to talk about themselves. So, just listen and then ask a question that resonates with them and then they'll go on and on and on and on, and then ask another question and they'll go on and on and on. And then after that, they think that you're a good conversationalist." [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: And ask me a question, I go on and on -- I said, "I'm not American though." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So then I went to my first event, and when I went to Pennsylvania, I went to first event. And nobody was coming to me, and I was kind of anxious and said, "Don't they like me? Maybe they think that I'm not good and I'm Asian." I was kind of thinking. And so then I said, "Well, I'll just go around and introduce myself. If they think I'm this crazy Asian, that's okay." [Laughs] So I went and introduced myself. I found out, everybody was waiting. So from then on, whenever I go to a function, my husband and I, we go to a function, he would go that way and I would go that way, and we just go around, introduce ourselves. And so then, when you do that, they remember you, right? They remember you because they were, "Oh yeah" [reminiscent of conversing with you]. And then they start talking. So I was in Pennsylvania. I got my master there. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And that was for my Fulbright. And then I wanted to go for a PhD. And so I asked Fulbright if I could continue. And they said, "Okay." So I applied. It was so cold in Pennsylvania, I saw my first snow, November 18, 1966. And I was passing by the dormitory, and all these florisis (sp?) coming down. And I told my friend, I said, "Oh look! They're having a pillow fight." She said, "No, that's snow!" ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So anyway, it was so cold! So I wanted to go for my PhD, so I said, "Okay, I will go to Florida, Hawaii or California." So I applied to a lot of the universities in those states because I felt like, well maybe at least one of them will accept me. Well then, I was fortunate that I got all these acceptance. So in California, I applied to UCLA, Berkeley, and UC Davis. I didn't know anything about Davis. And so then I said, "where would I go?" UCLA, when I was coming from the Philippines to Pennsylvania, I stopped by LA. In that time, the smog was terrible and my allergy was bad, so I said, "No, I'm not going to go there." [40:00] ASMUNDSON: So that was 1968, so then I said, “Well, should I go to Berkeley or not?” Well, 1968, it was the height of the radical movement in Berkeley, so I said, “No, I don’t want to go there.” ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So by default, I came to UC Davis. I didn't know anything about Davis, but one of my professors just came from San Francisco and ACS, American Chemical Society Conference and he has a friend in Davis. So he said, "Oh, you should go to Davis, they have beautiful, brand new dormitories!" [Laughs] That was it. So I came to Davis, I came August 8, 1966. And it was so hot. And one of the committee member picked me up at the airport and said, "It's only twenty minutes to Davis. And so we were riding and I said--because twenty minutes in the Philippines, right? Twenty minutes, you only go a block because of the traffic [Laughs]-- I said, "I thought you said twenty minutes." And said, "Yeah!" And everything was so hot and brown, so I said, "Oh gosh,"-- and flat--I said, "It's so flat and brown." So I said, "Oh, that's not brown, that's golden." And so then I came and I was saying, "Oh my gosh..." And the street then, the main street was G street. And a friend of mine, my roommate, who became my roommate, was also coming from San Francisco. And so she took the Greyhound, the same day, she took the Greyhound and got to Davis and the driver said, "Davis," so she got down, then she went on the phone, payphone, called a taxi, then said, "I'd like a ride." So the taxi came and the taxi driver said, "Where to, lady?" And she said, "Please take me downtown." Said, "Lady, you're in downtown Davis." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So she went to the SISS office and I went there until we met. We met there and we were sitting there all these foreign students sitting at the services for international students and scholars. So we were sitting and I said, "Are you Filipino?" She said, "Yes." So I said, "Where are you staying?" She said, "Oh, I don't know. I just got here." I said, "Oh, me too, I got here. Do you want to be roommates?" And she said, "Yes." So I said, "Hi, I'm Ruth." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: And so we became roommates before we knew each other's names. [Laughs] ASUNCION: Both agreed already. ASMUNDSON: That's right. And so, we became good friends. She's in Brazil. And so now I was in chemistry and she was in food science. So I was thinking... Well, Fulbright said, they give me stipend, but they said if I get a stipend higher than what they [Fulbright] give, then I should get it, but I'm still Fulbright, and they still provide my transportation, my insurance and all those things. And they take care of my immigration, my student visa. Then I was looking for a professor, and I found Dr. Feeney (sp?) whose research was in biochemistry and enzymes and he has all the money, but his office, or his lab was at the food science. So I guess that's why my degree is in agriculture of chemistry. I don't have anything to do with agriculture, I don't have anything to do with food science, it's only chemistry, but it's okay. So anyway, I was very active and we had the international student club. I don't know if they still have it or not, but what we did then was we would have a week orientation of new foreign students and at the end of the orientation, there's the dinner. And then at the end of dinner, there's the entertainment. So the third year, I help arrange the dinners and at third year, I was the secretary of the club, I was in charge of entertainment and I couldn't get anybody to do anything, so I ended up dancing a Filipino dance, binasuan. I don't know if you know if binasuan. ASUNCION: Yeah, I did it before, it’s fun! ASMUNDSON: Right, yes, yes. And so then, I dance binasuan. Well, it so happened that the newly elected mayor came to give the welcome speech. So then he saw me dance, he said he was enchanted with my dance. He wanted to meet me and we met and then we talked and then he called me to ask me for a date. And I said yes because when I saw this guy coming, I said, "6' 2", good looking, Asmundson, with a long name that begins with 'A,' this is the guy I've been looking for since first grade." [Laughs] Remember my goal? ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: So he came, and then we went out. Well, he didn't have any girlfriend because he is now in politics, and usually in politics, you're in a glass wall, right? And so he didn't want to have a scandal or anything like that, so he didn't have any girlfriend. [45:06] ASMUNDSON: My roommate and I were living next door to my mother-in-law. We were renting a room there and she was so nice, she was always bringing us cookies, or fruits. And she would invite us over for dinner, and she would say, “Oh, the big man is coming too,” but he never came. So I never met him while I was living next door to his mother— ASUNCION: Oh, wow. ASMUNDSON: —because he knew that his mother was always looking for a girlfriend for him. And he said, "Mom, I can't come to all these dinners for your foreign student friends." So I never met him. So my mother-in-law and I were friends before I met him. ASUNCION: Mmm. ASMUNDSON: Yeah. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Yeah. So anyway, the next day, there was this rumor when we went out. There was this rumor that the mayor was marrying a Filipina. [Laughs] We had a very good conversation because he was a Republican and I am a Democrat. So we argue about everything, and I guess he liked me because he could really argue and I was intimidated by him, but he said the first time, he was always trying to be devil's advocate so I would say something. And then people would kind of argue with him, but when he got elected, he would say something, and then they write it down, so he had to be very careful with what he said. ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: After that, he asked me for another date. It's so funny because now, we were living in an apartment and I had three roommates, it was very international. I had a Korean, who's a Chinese-Korean, who grew up in Korea and was Chinese, and then we had a Japanese who grew up in Mexico, and you should see this Japanese girl speaking Spanish. And then I was Chinese from the Philippines, and the other one, she's Filipino, but we laughed that she's Filipino, but she's British because every week she'd have a new boyfriend all English men. ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: So we have this joke because every time the phone rang, we said, "Oh, the mayor is calling for a date." There was even before we met, and they would say, the phone rings and I said, "Oh, that's the mayor! Is that for me?" And so he called me, and so when he called me, my roommate answered the phone and then said, "Ruth, somebody's calling, he's very nice voice, I think it's a long distance,"he was calling from Sacramento, "It's long distance." And I said, "Oh, okay," so I answered. So then, we talked and he was asking me for a date again. And the first time he was asking for a date, so then after a hang out, they all said, "Who was that? Oh, the mayor." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: I said, "No! Who's that? Not the mayor!" They didn't believe me because we always [inaudible] the mayor. I went to the second date, and he grew up in Davis, and he said, "I want to show you my city." He always called Davis, "my city." And he took me out to the town, to the water waste treatment, to the landfill, [Laughs]... Very romantic right? But he was very proud because those were his projects when he was the mayor. So we went out, and then he asked me for another date. And so the third date was a free Christmas party of the Fire Department, and they held it in Sacramento. So then, we went and the emcee was kind of funny, he said, "Oh, we have a very 'something else' mayor in Davis." He [the emcee] said, "He comes to all these dinners for free dinner and then he brings a different date all the time." [Laughs] He [Mayor Asmundson] said, "Don't believe him!" We came back after the party at midnight. So you know the levee there (sp?) by the Yolo Causeway, where they put all the rocks? ASUNCION: Yes, yes. ASMUNDSON: Right. He had a very nice sporty BMW, a white one. We went there, and he parked at the levee at midnight. And then, here comes this police officer because it was very dark. He had one hand on his gun and a flashlight, and he came in like, "Oh, Mayor Asmundson, I'm sorry!" [Laughs] Well, we were talking about children, so he said, "You know, I really want ten children." Then said, "Oh, I only want two." So he said, "How about six?" Said, "No, I only want two." So he said, "How about four?" I said, "Okay." So I said, "Are you asking me to marry you?" [50:00] ASMUNDSON: And he said, "Yes!" So, we joke about who asked who. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: We're going to get married. So we dated for two years because I was still finishing my PhD. And then when was finishing up my PhD, when I was almost finished, I told him, "I'm sorry, I have to go back to the Philippines because I'm a Fulbright. And I have to stay there for two years before I can come back." And he didn't want us to get separated, so I said, I can't marry you after all. Besides I was twenty-eight, and I was young and idealistic. I wanted to go back to the Philippines and change the world. So he said, "Well, I guess it wasn't meant to be, but can we be friends and write each other." So I said, "Sure." So we were writing and so I went back in June and I started teaching at my alma mater. And a month later, it's also a Catholic university because the owner sold it to the Catholic congregation because there, at that time, the Philippines government was trying to nationalize a lot of the corporations owned by foreigners. They can only own forty percent, so the [inaudible] console to the Philippines who started this, Dr. Adamson started this university, sold it to the congregation of Mary, to CM (sp?), Saint Vincent de Paul. So now the president there, Father Montañanan (sp?), is also a very good friend of mine, so before I went, I wrote him, I said, "Father, I'm coming, do you have a job for me?" "So, just come, we'll give you a job." So he gave me a professorship right away, and then a month later, the chair of the graduate school in chemistry retired. Father Montañanan(sp?) said to me, "Do you want the job?" And I said, "Sure." So I was the chair of the graduate school of chemistry at twenty-eight. Again, all these, like I said, opportunities, I always say yes and then do the best I can. That was July, and then September, the Marshall Law was declared, so it was scary. It was scary. And then also, the professors of the women and men, they were all married. And I thought I was a career person, I was really a career person and I didn't think about getting married, but then I saw them and they were happy, they had children, so I kept thinking, "Yeah, I want to get married too, I want to have a family, I want to have children." So, I was kind of looking at Filipino husband. But then I was comparing everybody – [Laughs] – To my former fiancé. So then, in November after the Marshall law. Marshall law was still on. November, he visited his brother in New Zealand, so he called me and he said, "Hey, I'm in the neighborhood!" Neighborhood. – Can I come visit you?” I said sure. So then he came to Manila in November. So then he came and then my mom had a dinner, a family dinner for him. Well, when I was dating him, I told my mom, that I’m dating this American. She said, “Oh no. I don’t want you getting married to an American. He’s going to divorce you.” So my mom was against my getting married to an American. So he came to the Philippines. When we had this dinner, he asked my mom if he could talk to her, so they went the room and my mom was sitting down and he knelt in front of her, held her hand, and – I didn't know about this, my mom told me later – held her hand and said, "I'd like to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter.” ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And my mom was so surprised that she [inaudible] [Laughs] So then he asked me to marry him again and I said, "Yes! Take me away!" [Laughs] So then he applied for a visa for me, he came back to the United States, he applied for a visa for me, and then the U.S. Embassy called me. So I went there for interview and the consul said, "You know Ruth, you're a full-bred scholar, you are a full-bred scholar, and that you have to stay here for two years, so you cannot go back to the United States yet." And I said, "Yes, I know." So he said, "I'm sorry, I can't give you a visa." So I called him [her Fiancée], I said, "I'm sorry, I can't marry you after all. I can't get a visa." But you know, when he applied, we talked, that was November, and we planned on getting married in the Philippines in May the following year. And now, I didn't get a visa so we couldn't get married. [54:55] ASMUNDSON: And so then later, a month later, he called and he said, "You know I was reading the information about the Fulbright and it says here that a waiver is granted if the two countries waive the two-year residency, so why don't you work with the Philippine government and I'll work with the U.S. government." And I said okay. So he worked with his congressman. And I went to the archbishop of Manila. I asked to lobby for a waiver, so he wrote a letter to the secretary of foreign affairs, and then the secretary of foreign affairs in the Philippines wrote a letter to the Philippine ambassador in Washington D.C., and then the ambassador wrote a letter to the state department, and then a month later I was called at the embassy and it was the same consul. He had a paper and he said, "So, how did you get this?" And I said, "What's that?" So he gave it to me and he said, "Ruth, we granted waiver of congressional interest." And I said, "Well, I guess my fiance has got political connections." [Laughs] We were going to get married, but then he couldn't go to the Philippines anymore because he had a big case in Santa Barbara, he was a lawyer in a big case. And so he couldn't go outside to come here [the Philippines]. I came August 8, 1973. And the fiance visits for three months which meant that it would expire October 8, 1973. I came and he asked me, "When do you want to get married?" And you know we dated for two years, but there were still a lot of cultural differences. I said, "Well, let's talk about it." I kept putting it off, putting it off. And then finally, I said, "Okay, let's get married October 6th. Two days before it expires. [Laughs] So we got married October and I didn't have any relatives except my sister who was here already, so the two of us. But like I said, there were still a lot of cultural differences and even after we got married, I did not unpack, I had my suitcase in the closet for six months, then I got pregnant, so I had to unpack, but we were married for thirty years and it was great. It was a good marriage and I think the reason for that is I told him, "Okay, you work hard and I stay home and raise our children, our four daughters that we agreed." The best of Filipino and the best of American. And so, he said, "Okay." And I said, "I'm going to be in charge of the kids." That was our agreement. I was twenty-nine when we got married and we agreed to have four, so I said, I have to have these kids before I'm thirty-five. So I had four kids in five years. [inaudible] So the first and second girls, about thirteen months apart. It was hard. So the first five years, I was just always with the kids, and then I was always very kind of outgoing, but I was always just with the kids and the only adult I was talking to was my husband and my mother-in-law. And I felt like my world was shrinking. When I talk, my English was getting terrible. It was bad. And then, even my Filipino was getting bad. And so, finally, luckily a friend of my mother-in-law stopped by and she said she was going to be the incoming president of University of Pharmaceuticals. [1:00:03] ASMUNDSON: And so she came and she said, "Ruth, could you be my membership chair?" Said, "Yes!" So I became a membership chair of University of Pharmaceuticals, which is an organization that started in 1913. And you started with faculty wives and so I became membership chair and I was very good because I have now this PhD and everything is kind of regional research, so whenever there is a problem, I don't do "Band-aid" I just kind of look at what's the root of the problem. So I [inaudible] And I think even though I did not use my chemistry, it's my education, my PhD education that really made me – because I always feel like [inaudible] education to make a better life for you and your family and the world – I always dealt with things the way I look at problems is differently. So when I was mayor actually, then I always ask questions to the staff, and they say, "I knew you going to ask that" because my questions would be different from the other council member. And then I always ask about fiscal analysis and so then they said, "Oh, I know you're going to ask this," so I keep asking this every time we have an agenda item, "Why don't you put the analysis?" because you know I'm going to ask this. So I had to revise our agenda, the way we did agenda. There were even ordinances. There was a 1941 ordinance that prohibited the city to hire Japanese. And the ordinance was still there until 2010. And so, we had to repeal it. I did a lot of kind of housekeeping because the Davis, the council there was no growth which means they didn't want to build, but the growth in Davis actually was supposed to be 1.8%, it was growing 6%. It was growing faster than Woodland because what happened was the city council they make ordinances. Well the city council, because they didn't like growth, they didn't not discuss anything about growth, but the policies are there already. So of course the staff has to follow the policy. They were just putting their blind. And so we were growing very fast. And so when I was mayor, I would, for example, have youth – children – and senior citizens, if there's a conflict there, what comes first? So you have to talk about that. You don't just give all this policy, and then it's always controversial or scandal or whatever because you have to have a long discussion about "okay, we're doing favor first, or what's priority? The children? Or senior citizen?" And so, I did a lot of cleanup when I was mayor. So anyways, now, we're married and because I have all these children, I got involved with so many – I was PTA president the same year actually, a elementary school and a junior high school I was PTA president the same year and vice president of IOs (sp?), there was a year when I was president of three organizations – and so in 1989, I was given the "Citizen of the Year Award" because I have all these organizations, and it's funny because the University of Pharmaceuticals, I had all these – I became membership chair, the different committees – and so when I became president, they had this box of all the duties and responsibilities. It was [inaudible], so I collated them and I put guidelines there, what all these different committees are, after I think, they revise it, I think, but all these years, I was president, 1984. And they've been using that guideline until they revised recently. Because, I always do that, I try to see. Because if there's a problem, they just don't do band-aids, because the problem keeps recurring, so you have to fix it at the root of the problem. And so that's why I always kind of push things. So then, because I was very involved in this, and there was a vacancy in the school board because one of the school board ran for city council and won. So the school board appointed a replacement and the finalists were myself, Jorge Carrio (sp?) who was a administrative judge, Stanford graduate, law school, and so he has a very high education. [1:04:58] ASMUNDSON: So we were the two finalists and so we were at the school board meeting for them to decide and the Hispanic, this Hispanic, Rick Gonzalez (sp?), who was kind of the leader of the Hispanic group, he brought all the Hispanics there to the board meeting, filled the board meeting, and then, the board appointed me. And so Rick got so angry, he went to the podium and said, "You school board, you missed your chance of appointing a person of color!" And so everyone look at me. [Laughs] So after the meeting, I went to him and said, "Rick, can we have lunch tomorrow and explain to me why you think Jorge should be appointed because he's a person of color and I'm not?" And I do that because whenever there is a problem, I confront with the problem because usually we Asian, we try to go around you try to tell somebody somebody and before it gets to the person, it's a different story, right? But somehow I don't know, I've always confronted the issue directly and so I had lunch with Rick and I said, "Rick, can you explain to me why you think I'm not a person of color?" And he said, "Well, actually Ruth, they should have appointed Jorge because there are more Hispanics in Davis than Filipino. And I said, "Rick listen to yourself, if you think, if that's your logic, then they should have appointed a White because there are 72% White in Davis." And he said, "You're right." So we've been friends ever then. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And so that's always how I – like one time, there was the university and the city were kind of at its lowest because they were fighting, but I was having meeting with the Former chancellor of Vanderhoff (sp?) every month, talk about the city and the university, so we became very good friends, and we would have lunch at Cafe Vernardo (sp?). So that one day that we had lunch, there was this guy at the corner, he was just looking at me, he was very angry. So then after our breakfast, I went out, he followed me and he said, "So, you're now in the pocket of the university. They're paying your breakfast now!" And I said, "No, I paid my own breakfast." Because when I was an elected, I had a notebook and I wrote down everything when I meet with constituents, even just a can of coke, I write it down, and so I said, "No! I paid for my breakfast, look." And he said, "Oh, thank you for showing it to me." I said, "No, thank you, I'm glad that you told me, if you didn't confront me, you would have been going around telling everybody that I'm in the pocket of the university." So now, he respected me, and then one time, also, during our council meeting, and one of the guys came and said, "Do you feel intimidated because you're a woman?" And I said, "No. When I'm here, I'm the mayor. I don't think of myself as a woman. I don't think of myself as an ethnic." And Ted [inaudible] Catholic [inaudible] and I said, "If you think of me as a woman, I'm just as good as the man." And there were three men and two women in the council, so Ted said, "Actually, she's better than us. We call her a Mother Superior." [Laughs] Because we are both Catholic. Because sometimes, Ted would get angry and he would say, "Oh shit." And we are on live TV and I said, "Ted, that's unacceptable." Because when we are there, we should present ourselves, we are the role model. If we're like that, we're saying those bad words there, then it's like it's alright for people to do that. That's unacceptable. And so, he said, "Well, actually, she's better than us." And that's how I always feel. If you look at me as an ethnic, I'm just as good at the white. If you look at me as a woman, I'm just as good as the guy. And so that's what I tell my kids. I have four daughters. And that's why sometimes they're overconfident. They sometimes intimidate guys. And then when I go to a party, I go, I don't shy away, I always feel like I belong. I always go around and meet people, and I always feel like everybody's my friend and I treat them as my friend. If they don't like me, I have no control of that. [1:09:58] ASMUNDSON: When I'm walking and I say "good morning" to you, and you don't say "good morning" to me, it's okay for me because I can't control you to say "good morning" to me. Because sometimes, you say, "Oh, that person, didn't even say "goodbye" or she didn't even say "good morning" to me. For me it's okay, it's okay because I always feel like the only person I'm in control of is myself. Even my kids, I tell them, do this and that, it's up to them, I can't control them whether they do it, they might not do it. And I would be angry, but it's up to them. So I always feel that the only person I'm in control of is myself. And so I talk about it, and I'm always talking. When I was raising my kids, and whenever I say "no," I explain why. I never told them, "No because I'm your mother." I never said that. I always tell them, "No because..." I have to explain why I'm saying – and they appreciate that. And so whenever they came and talked to me, and I don't give in and I explain, so then they accept it. It's better. And the way I look at things is, when I was mayor – because I'm the same level as them, I have one vote – but because I'm the mayor, I have more power in a way because I do the agenda and I'm always talking to the city manage and we put the agenda together and he would make recommendation what we would do. And so the way I would do it is like my children when we have curfew, or bedtime. The way I would tell them is, "Do you want to go to bed at seven or eight?" ASUNCION: Eight. ASMUNDSON: Eight! Because that's when I want them to go to bed. [Laughs] So, you do it the way that you ask them, like what the choice to go to bed, right? So now, it's eight o'clock they would go, but had I said "Seven or eight?" then we had this conflict, we would be arguing right? So I would force a question. So when I was mayor, I would ask questions such that I direct it in a way, the way that I – "what do you think of this, should we do this or not?" When I was making at the beginning, they would think that I was kind of wishy-washy because the paper would always kind of get a report or article before the meeting, but I never tell them how I would vote, but I would say, sometimes, "Oh, you know, based on what I know right now, I'm inclined on this side." But then, during the meeting, because that's when we decide things, and I hear more from people, then I vote the other way, and people thought I was wishy-washy. So when I found that out, the way I would do it usually before I vote, and I'm thinking, I'm thinking aloud. So I said, "I really like this because then I'd put the pros," and then "But, I like this too because...I think." So I'm having a hard time deciding if it's a dilemma for me. But I think this has more merit because, so I'm voting on this because. So the first time, one time, one guy came and spoke at public comment, and I voted against what he wanted. And he said, "Ruth, I didn't like your vote, but I respect your vote." Because he understand why I was voting for it. Because he understood what I was saying. So that's why I was a very popular mayor. I was able to accomplish quite a bit. I brought in Target. People were so angry with me when I [inaudible] said, "Oh she just ruined Davis." But then, everybody wanted Trader Joe's. But Trader Joe's didn't want to come. So I called them, so then they came and looked, and we were trying to put them with Target because we had space there, what they wanted is there, but that time, at the same place, we had this radiology club, a clinic, and the doctor just spent one million just to calibrate their equipment, so of course they didn't want to leave. And they own it. So then Trader Joe's wanted to stay there, so what I did, I called a meeting at Trader Joe's, usually staff they [inaudible], but I was always involved because when you're the mayor, you talk to them. You know, they come. [1:15:03] ASMUNDSON: So I called Trader Joe's and the staff, the developer, the owner, the landlord, we had a meeting, so I said to the landlord and the developer, "Can you pay for the transfer?" Because if we have Trader Joe's there, it will be a big anchor, it will be more livable. It's a more upscale shopping center, people will come. So you will be getting more profit from here. So they did. So they move the doctors and the doctors agreed for the move. And so Trader Joe's came. And so that's how I usually do. I feel like I try to find a solution. One of my council members, she was always kind of a downer, she voted no in everything. And we were talking about it and one time, about something, and she said, "Ruth, why are you always so optimistic?" Because she would make – "oh yeah, we can do it this way, this way, this way." And she said, "Why are you always so optimistic?" I said, "Well, all these ideas are good, you just have to find a way how to do it." And she said, "Well, I guess I'm just a pessimistic person." For me, after I got out of the barrio, and I wanted to get out because it's a poor place there, and so, everything that I got, that I received in my life, after I got out, I feel like they are kind of a blessing, they are a bonus. And so when you have a gift, you have a bonus, a blessing, you appreciate it, right? Because it's a blessing, it's a [inaudible]. So I always look at them as a very positive thing. And I have so many passionate things [inaudible] I get so [inaudible] with a lot of things. People ask me to be involved and I see the benefit and so then I say "Yes." And so sometimes, I'm just so overwhelmed because I'm in so many organizations. [Laughs] So, luckily, my bedtime is 2:30. My husband was a lawyer and I was the office manager of his office, but I didn't go to the office, I only went on Saturdays, and he would bring the books at night. I did all the tax return and all these things. And I did his billings and things like that and the kids would go to bed at eight o'clock. And after eight o'clock, I did all my laundry and I made all my kids' clothings because my husband, being a solo practitioner, we didn't have any medical insurance, we didn't have any retirement, and we wanted our kids to go to any school they want. And I told them, "You study very hard, you go to any school you want." And so we were saving every penny we have. Life was hard in the beginning, but we survived, and the kids, they were able to go to school without having a loan. And we save every penny we can. Then the thing is, my oldest daughter went to Dartmouth. And my second daughter when to MIT. And because they're thirteen months apart, they were in college at the same time. So I was paying $60,000 a year and tuition fees alone. ASUNCION: Oh my gosh. ASMUNDSON: And then, plus board and lodging plus they have to come, so life was very, very hard. And my lawyer, he's this big lawyer, and he was in his prime earning power, but of course, because he was now in the high tax bracket, [inaudible] I would do tax return April 15th. I would be so miserable because all the money I've been saving is going to taxes. And my husband used to be, "Oh, I'm so patriotic." [Laughs] I finally told him, we have to save some money, we have to have some retirement, and he was a corporation lawyer, and he kept saying, "Oh, I should get incorporated, I should get incorporated." But he never got incorporated. So one time, November 28, 1979, he brought a book, he says, "Why not incorporate?" So I read that book that night, it was thick book until three o'clock that morning, then I woke him up, I said – we're both Catholic. [1:19:59] ASMUNDSON: And we agreed to have a 40-year trial marriage. And after 40 years, we're going to reevaluate. And then I told him, I'm Catholic, I don't believe in divorce, but if worse comes to worse, I'll be the first one to leave. Anyway, I woke him up and I discussed it. I said, "I want you to get incorporated by the end of the year. If you don't, I'm going to leave you." So the next day, he got incorporated. And because of that, there was this – the 401K is very new – so we were able to take advantage of that and so he could now put 50% of his salary in there for retirement and then the corporation will – massive 50% – so now instead of the high bracket, we are in the middle, so we are saving also. Life has become better because now we could breathe better, now we have some retirement money. And then we invested it ourselves and we were all doing this. Then, my third daughter, she was going to San Diego, but my daughters, when they were seniors in high school, they would take classes at UC Davis, so they were considered freshmen already at UC Davis. My third daughter went to San Diego, and she was there for a month, then she came back because she and the youngest, my fourth daughter, they were very, very close, and she was worried to have her sister by herself with her parents, so she came home. Now of course, the fourth one couldn't leave because her sister stayed, so she had to stay, so the two of them stayed. And I told them they can't get married until they finish college. Because I have a PhD and my husband has a law degree from Harvard – ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: – They thought they had to finish grad school before they got married. [Laughs] So they all went to grad school. That's how I got into politics. When I was on the school board, parents trusted me. Actually, I raised six children because four daughters and then my third daughter, she and her husband died very early, they died two years apart. They had two boys, so I raised the two boys the same age as my children. One went to the University of Arizona and one went to Minnesota college. They are all doing well. So I was raising all these children, and people and friends were in awe because the best of Filipino and the best of American. And my children were very respectful, they called my friends, Mr. and Mrs. And my friends would say, "Oh, just call me [inaudible]." "No, my mom won't allow it." And being the Filipino, when we're at parties and "okay, you go, you do this." And so then, my friends were always saying, I wish, you would raise my children. So when I was on the school board, I always felt that, now, all the children, the 9,000 children, are my children. So whenever I made a decision, I made it based on what I think is best for them. So the parents knew that. One time, we were doing the mathlan (sp?) and I was against it because not all of the teachers know how to teach math. And the teachers, the Davis teachers associated, they even wrote a letter to the editor saying, "Please lobby Ruth to approve this." And so it passed 3-2, but I said, "Okay it passed, so I would like an evaluation at the end of the year to see how we're doing. And then I want an evaluation at the second year." After one year, we had an evaluation, there were problems. Then we had another evaluation the second year, there were lots of problems. So the board cancelled it. From then, parents trusted my judgement. Because before we had textbooks, it's usually displayed in this school district, and parents are supposed to be able to look at it and teacher and we all need to go. And I would go and read. I would sit there and read the book. And the staff said, "You're the first one to come and read." Because I always felt that whenever I make a decision, I make a decision that is good for what I may. And I'm responsible for my boat because now I'm the top. Because once I voted, nobody's correcting it now. [1:24:55] ASMUNDSON: But if it's staff, for example, the teacher approve it, then there's still the principle, that will kind of see whether it's working or not, and it's not working, then there's the superintendent check-in, then the school board, that's the end, that's the top of the line. So whatever I voted, it has to be the best I get, the best that will be for the kids. And so I always made sure, that whenever I voted, I talk to the students because they're the ones that beneficiary of my vote. I also talk to teachers how is it, I talk to the principal, all my votes, I have to talk to these people. I don't vote expediently, I always made sure. And the thing is, before I go to the meeting, I always say my prayer, for God to guide me. And usually, when I was mayor, my house was only about five minutes, so I walked to the city council chamber. And while I'm walking, I'm saying my prayer. I always feel good about my vote, but there were three times that I kind of feel uneasy about my vote. And I could say, "Why? What happened?" I found out that I was at the city hall the whole day so I didn't have time to pray because I usually pray when I'm walking. So from then on, I always made sure I pray because I believe in prayer. And I always say to my husband, "Honey, okay, you sing to me. Sit next to me. Guide me." So I'm always saying prayer. I talk, I mentor. I feel very good because a lot of the council members, they call me, staff calls me. They're very free to call me because I always tell them, "I'm free, I'm available and accessible." And then, they're like, they're my friends. The first time I went there, the first time I got elected, I went to city hall and they felt like they were all intimidated. I was there checking on them. And I said, "No, no. I'm here to learn, so I need your help." And so we became friends, actually, they called me. And then whenever I'd go there, we're always kind of talking. And when I was mayor, usually I talk to the staff who would be giving a report. I don't vote expediently, I always made sure. And the thing is, before I go to the meeting, I always say my prayer, for God to guide me. And usually, when I was mayor, my house was only about five minutes, so I walked to the city council chamber. And while I'm walking, I'm saying my prayer. I always feel good about my vote, but there were three times that I kind of feel uneasy about my vote. And I could say, "Why? What happened?" I found out that I was at the city hall the whole day so I didn't have time to pray because I usually pray when I'm walking. So from then on, I always made sure I pray because I believe in prayer. And I always say to my husband, "Honey, okay, you sing to me. Sit next to me. Guide me." So I'm always saying prayer. I talk, I mentor. I feel very good because a lot of the council members, they call me, staff calls me. They're very free to call me because I always tell them, "I'm free, I'm available and accessible." And then, they're like, they're my friends. The first time I went there, the first time I got elected, I went to city hall and they felt like they were all intimidated. I was there checking on them. And I said, "No, no. I'm here to learn, so I need your help." And so we became friends, actually, they called me. And then whenever I'd go there, we're always kind of talking. And when I was mayor, usually I talk to the staff who would be giving a report. Because when they give a report, sometimes, they would go on and on and on. We would talk about the process and I said, "Okay, now when you're giving your report and I do this, it means 'cut it short.'" [Laughs] So we have this signal, right? We work very well together. And then whenever, people come and talk, they come, before I go to the meeting, I'd look at myself in the mirror, and look at whether I put on my poker face. I can do it, I can do like 'that' or I can shake my head or I can smile because people kind of looking at this signal whether I'm approving, denying or what. I had this poke face, but whenever they're talking to me I look at them like that. Then, I took notes, so one time, one guy said, "I really appreciate Ruth because she's listening to me, and then she's taking notes." From then on, even my [inaudible] one council member, she would be doodling, when she was doodling, she was drawing. She wasn't really writing anything. [Laughs] Whenever I do things, I do it because it's like I'm competing with myself actually. I feel like I need to do the best I can with this. And so when I'm running for city council, or when I'm running for position, and usually there's lots of candidates, right, and I love competing because I always feel like "I'm running for city council, I'm not running against anybody." That's how I always felt. One time, when I was running for reelection for a city, for school board, there were only three candidates, and one guy was always hitting me during our forum, he was always kind of putting me down, putting me down. But I never responded to him, I would just talk about my goals and what I would be doing and what we should be doing, how we were going to do. I feel very blessed and honored that people respect me. And usually when I walk around, they said, "Oh, I wish that you were still the mayor." And one time, a friend, one of my nemesis, the one, and somebody asked another council member who finished, and said, "So, what do you think of Ruth and Sue? (sp?)" [1:29:54] ASMUNDSON: And Ted said, "Well, it's like this, when I'm walking in the street, and one time, Ruth is on the other side, I said, 'Hi, Ruth!' And then I go down the side to meet her, but if Sue (sp?) is walking this way, I go on the other side –" because there are a lot of council members who she was with didn't run for reelection because she was very, I know now she just says no to everything and if you don't agree with her, she just gets upset. One time, I was telling her, and nobody supports her, so I told her, "Sue (sp?) you know you are very bright, so when you're talking, try to convince us to vote with you. What you need to do is separate the shorter goal and the long-term goal, but what you're doing is you're combining them and we can't catch up with you and so we're confused. So you tell us about this, and later about these things." And she said, “Well, that’s how I am! I talk straight, unlike you, it's your Asian thing!" And I said, "Sue (sp?)!" Because her perception of Asian is we go around, or we don't do, and I said, "That's not acceptable." That's a nasty thing to say. ASUNCION: Yes. ASMUNDSON: She said, "What did I say?" So you know people ask me, 'have you felt discriminated?' And I said, 'Well, when I am feeling that I am being discriminated, I feel that it's my responsibility to educate the other person.' Because my husband, he would say something that he didn't think anything of it and even my children would say, "Dad, that's unacceptable." And he would say, "What did I say?" He didn't even know, he didn't even think that he was saying something that was kind of not nice. I always felt that it's a two-way. There are people who are just nasty, but I always come to the decision that that person doesn't know what that person is saying, so it's now my responsibility to educate that person that that is unacceptable, to make that person aware because I am basing it from my husband. So we were always saying, "That's not acceptable." Then he'd say, "What did I say?" So then, we tell him what is it. I think people in Davis and even other, they don't think of me really as – when they look at me, they see me as an ethnic, but when they're talking to me, they're talking to me as a person. One time, we had this group of the sake (sp?) of Sacramento Council of government, and there are twenty-six mayors there, or council members, and 6 counties. So we have meetings once a month, and whenever I go, I always say hello to them, I always talk to them on a personal bases. And the mayor from Marysville, we were always seated next to each other. And I always have very nice outfits because I shop in Shanghai, Manila, and Bangkok. I don't shop here because I'm wide and I'm short, so American clothes don't fit me, but I buy in Asia. I always have this beautiful blazer and things like that. And the guy said, "I always look forward to seeing you because you are always having all this [inaudible] [Laughs] and they're always saying, when I don't see them, they said, "Hi, Ruth!" Because when I see them, I always say hello to them, so one time, usually all girls who don't have meeting, so that time, we needed to meet in August, so I said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to the Philippines in August, so can I send my alternate?" And the mayor from Roseville said, "Is your alternate the witch?" Because it's always Sue (sp?) [inaudible] she always wears the hat and long dress and she's so nasty to everybody. And so always, "Is it the witch? Never mind, don't send her!" [Laughs] So they know. And it's funny because one time, I had a meeting in Sacramento, so I told her (Sue (sp?)), "Do you want to go with me?" And so, "Yeah, I want to go." Then, I said, "Okay, I'll pick you up." So I had a Camry, the same as her, she had a Camry, so I pick her up, and she complain how uncomfortable, my Camry, my car is because she sits on her feet, like this. [1:35:04] ASMUNDSON: And I said, "Well, put your feet down." And then the next time, she always calls me, "Ruth, can you pick me up?" She never drove. Then the coordinator of the meeting, she's from Davis, she said, "Ruth, you shouldn't have invited her" because from then on, she always went. [Laughs] Yes, so then the mayor in Woodland, too, "Can take us?" We would have function and especially Chris Cabaldon, he is mayor of West Sac. He's Filipino and he's always say, "Ruth, can you tell your colleague to buy her own wine. Because there, she [Sue (sp?)] would ask them to buy her wine, she always said two glasses of wine and she would ask them to buy her wine. That's why they always said, "Ruth, can you tell your colleague –" [Laughs] Yes, but it was a very rewarding experience for me. I work very hard, Filipinos, we work very hard. Whatever I say, like for example, I said, "We start at six o'clock. I start at six o'clock." The first time she was late, but I had three council members there, so I started. She was so angry with me that I didn't wait for her. I said, "Well, if I have three council members, I start." So from then on, she always come. Because I always felt like an orchestra, you start at the same time and you end at the same time, you can miss notes in the middle, it doesn't matter, it's a good orchestra. It doesn't matter, right? So that's how I always feel like because I time my agenda, and people are there waiting for an agenda., but if you keep getting people to talk longer, then the meeting will go longer, which still a bit longer, but if you have a time, then you cut them off and I said, "Okay, this is what you're talking about." Because it's unfair for the others who just wait at the end. Just wait and wait. There are people who were upset because I told them public comment is three minutes. And sometimes, when you're talking, three minutes seems very short, so you just go on and on. But sometimes, I have ten people, or one time, I had a hundred people line up to speak. If I gave them three minutes each, that's one hundred people, that's three thousand minutes, and they will be gone up to 3:30 in the morning. So if you all gave them three minutes, then you just go on and on and on. So when I say three minutes, so the first time, that I did that, it was a teacher, at a school district. I said, at three minutes, I said, "Thank you, Debbie." She went on and on. So I turn off the microphone, she was so upset. And so then the next one, but after the meeting she came to me, "Ruth, I'm glad that you stopped me because if you were not able to stop me, you would have lost control because then the other people will just go on and on." So when I stop the microphone at three minutes, then the other one when I said thank you. And they stop. ASUNCION: They knew. ASMUNDSON: Yes, yes. So it has some pros and cons, but I've always felt that at the beginning – and ending, middle, you're kind of more relaxed – I think, the first one, you have to set your standard and kind of train people, and then they follow. That's why when I have Filipinos, we used to have potlucks, we start a little bit early, like two o'clock, and we rotate, then sometimes they come at 12:30 and so they don't come at eleven, but whenever I was hosting, they come at 11:30 because they know I'm on time. I just went out and I don't know what else you want me to talk about, but I have a lot of stories. My mom used to say, "Oh, be careful, this is a never-ending story" because I have a lot of stories about my kids too. When I talk to young people, I tell about my stories, I tell them they can pick all the little nuggets of wisdom that I've experienced. And hopefully they can look at it, they don't have to follow, but at least they would think about and see whether it will have an impact on them. [1:40:02] ASMUNDSON: I always talk about those little lessons learned, those takeaways, whenever I'm talking. I always talk about those little lessons learned, those takeaways, whenever I'm talking. One of them, I have several, I have about seven, one is "have goals" because my goal was to become a doctor, well I'm a doctor, I have a PhD, well it's not medical [Laughs] and then I wanted to marry a tall guy with a long name that begins with "A" right? And I got that because, when you're young, you have these goals and you have dreams, you forget about it, but I think once you kind of – at the back of your mind, still there, lingering there – and you kind of follow the thing, and eventually it will come. It will come if you have those goals. It's just, I always talk about the analogy here is like I want to go to Washington D.C. right? So then, I'm driving and then I got to Utah and I have a flat tire. And it's snowing or something like that, and I said, "Oh, I don't think I want to go." If you don't have this goal, to go to Washington D.C., so you'll say, "Oh, I'm going to go back." But if you have a goal going to Washington D.C., you have this flat tire, you change it because you still have to go and you overcome this obstacle, it's not as bad fixing these things, because you have this bigger goal of going to Washington D.C., but if you do not have that goal, then that flat tire, it's snowing, you'll say, "Oh, this is so hard, I don’t want to go." This picture of mine here, that was in 2007. I lost fifty pound in that. I gained, I gained again. I decided to lose weight. I didn't realize I could do it. So January, I said – 2007 – I'm gonna lose fifty pounds. And so the first day, it was so hard, I was so hungry. I was so hungry, so I kept thinking. I didn't know whether I can do this. Then, I kept going, towards the end of the day, I did one day. And so then the next day, I was hungry again and I said, [inaudible]. I said, "Well, I did one day, and I kept telling myself, "Ruth, if you stop now, you' – because I gave myself ninety days – "if you stop now, in ninety days, you'll still be fat." And so I got to third day, I was still kind of debating whether or not I can go on, but then I keep saying, "Ruth, you're on your third day, if you stop now, in ninety days, you'll still be fat." And guess what, it was less than ninety days. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: It was less than ninety days I lost fifty pounds. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Yeah. I did. So I found out that I had that determination, I have to keep talking to myself. And I did it. And so, that how me and that's [inaudible] because I was always competing to myself. So, I have to talk to myself and because, like I said, I'm the only one in control of myself. And when I talk to kids. that's what I talk about, the takeaway. The goals. You have to have goals. And then the second one is "ask and you shall receive" that's in our bible, right? And the one story – and I always told my kids – ask and you shall receive. And a big example of that is, my second daughter – so she went to MIT – and she went, her oldest sister went to Dartmouth, and I told them, that they have to finish in four years. If they go beyond that, they have to pay their own way. And so, the oldest one decided to have two majors: mechanical engineering and Asian and Women's studies. Women's studies because she went to Dartmouth and before it was a man's college. And when she got there, there were still a lot of male chauvinists. And because she has a lot of confidence, I always tell them, you're just as good as the guys, and so she decided to double major in Women's studies, and she and her friends started a sorority, women's studies sorority. Now the second one, she was always competing with herself, with her sister, and luckily, surely there were two. So she went to MIT, and she had AP credit and Alinia had thirty-five, so they finished in four years, but Irena – [1:44:59] ASMUNDSON: Well, my standard was they have to finish calculus in high school. And then, Alinia she took calculus when she was a junior. Then, she took another calculus at the university when she was a senior, and so that's why she was now a freshman at UC Davis. And so Irena did the same thing, and she said, "Okay mom, this is the last time you're going to push me to take math." I said, "Okay." After a week, she came home, she said, "Mom, don't say anything, but I'm going to major in math and I'm going to MIT." But I said, "MIT?" And she hasn't applied, yet, and luckily she got there. She finished her math in two years. And so I said, "That's great" because I'm paying $30,000 a year, "That's great, we can save money." She said, "Mom, but you promised me four years. She said she wanted economics. She has to have two degrees, so she took up economics. Well, she wanted to go for a PhD, so she applied to five universities, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford. Four of those gave her six year fellowship, except Stanford. She said, "Mom, can you pay for the first year, I'm sure they'll give me a fellowship the second year." So I said, "How much?" "$40,000." "Never mind." So she said, "Okay, that's okay, I'll go and ask them." So a month before graduation, she played rugby. She play crew the first two years and rugby the last two years, she's only 5'2", so the last month, her team went to Paris to play rugby. So one Sunday morning, three o'clock in the morning, the phone rang and she said, "Mom, don't worry if [inaudible], don't worry you'll worry," right? She said, "I'm calling from a hospital in Paris, I had an accident, I broke my nose, and I have black eye –" ASUNCION: Oh my god. ASMUNDSON: "–and I'm coming home next week." So she came and two weeks, she was like she was wearing glasses. And then she went to Stanford and talked to the chair of the economics department and some professors, and so they were looking at her apparently, they wouldn't ask what happened, so she explained what happened to her, to her black eye. So she was asking them, "I really would like to come to Stanford, I have fellowship at these universities, but I want to come to Stanford, so could you please give me money." And so then they said, "Okay, we'll look into our finances and we'll let you know." So she went back to MIT, three days later, she called them and she said, "Hi, I'm Irena Asmundson, I'm calling to see whether you've found some money for me." Said, "Oh, we're still looking, we'll let you know when we found money." And she said, "I'm the girl with the black eye." They said, "Oh yeah, we have money for you!" They didn't remember her name, they remembered her eye. They were impressed with her interview. So she went to Stanford, had she not, they gave her fellowship, if she didn't go and ask them, then she wouldn't have gotten it, right? So I always say, 'ask and you shall receive' for 50% chance yes, 50% no, but if you don't ask, 100% no. Then, she went to Stanford. She's always pushing. The second year, she was looking for a professor major advisor, so she found this guy, but then he was appointed by President Bush to the federal reserve, so he left. So she had to find another one. So she found this woman, and then she was appointed by President Bush to the White House to the council of economic advisors. And so Irena said, "Well, congratulations, I wish that I could do something like that." And the professor said, "Actually, you can because they usually get one graduate student. So why don't I recommend you?" So she recommended Irena, so the professor didn't actually go to the White House, she went to the international monetary funds, instead, but Irena went to the White House, she was twenty-two, twenty-three, and she went there and her salary was $40,000. And so she took a year off, she went there, she started on Monday, Tuesday she called me, "Mom, the government is sending me to China to the summit to represent the U.S. government." [1:50:02] ASMUNDSON: And I said, "Why is the U.S. government spending money on somebody like you who doesn't know anything?" She said, "Mom, I know a lot." [Laughs] So she went to China to represent the U.S. government, then she came back, and then the following week, they were sending her to Paris for a week. And then the following month, they were sending her to Madrid for a week. Well, 9/11 happened, and so they cancelled all travels, but they were still having conferences in Washington D.C. so she would go to the conference and at the reception, she was twenty-two, twenty-three, and they thought she was an intern, and so she would be talking to people. And then at the dinner, she would sit down with them, and she sat next to the Prime Minister of India and they'd talk about NGO and he said to her, "When you're finished, come and work for me in India." Then she talked to the President of Chile, all these high government – foreign dignitaries. So then after a year, she went back to Stanford and she was trying to write papers, [inaudible] because she wanted to become a professor. So when she was graduating, she applied to universities. And Georgetown University was the first one to accept her, but then the IMF, International Monetary Funds, called her and wanted to fly her to Washington D.C. and interview her. So she flew there, they paid for everything, they interviewed her and offered her a job. So I said, "You take it because if you work for the IMF, in four years, you still want to go into teaching, they give you either associate professorship, or professorship, but if you start at bottom, it takes seven years to have a tenure." So she went there, and she had a great time. Actually, the first year she was assigned the Asian Pacific desk, so she went to Bangkok, then Malaysia, and Brunei. So I told her Brunei, "Hey, why don't you look for a sultan for a husband?" And she said, "Mom, do you want me to be a part of a harem?" [Laughs] But she had a good time. So anyway, as a new [inaudible] the other one is like my professor said, "nothing ventured, nothing gained." So guess what, just try it. And the other one is 'take risks.' Take every opportunity you get. And then the other one is 'be different in a good way' so that they'll remember you. People remember me because – like one example is, so i was on the school board, and I found out, my passion is curriculum, that this local school board really doesn't determine the curriculum, it's the state. So I got involved with the state. And then, I also got involved on the national level. So the second year, I joined, I went to the state conferences and I joined the delegate assembly and then the delegate assemblies, they do the policies, right? And Leland Yi Hu (sp?) was the, I don't know if you remember him, he was a senator from San Francisco, but he was school board from San Francisco when I met him. He was the board of directors of California's school board association, they are 19th and all of them are directors from the regions except for member at large API, member at large Black, member at large Hispanic, and one [inaudible]. Counties. And these four members, that have to run and get elected by the whole delegate assembly, there are over 400. And then Leland (sp?) said, "Ruth, why don't you? I'm stepping down as the API member at large, why don't you run?" So I said, "Okay." That was just my second year. And there were eighteen who applied for the position. And the Asian, especially the Chinese, all the Asians, their names are all hard to pronounce, they're hard to remember. And a lot of the Asians, they're not Asian-American, they're immigrant. So we all have accents, right? [Laughs] We had our three-minute campaign speeches at one o'clock after a big luncheon. [1:55:02] ASMUNDSON: So we all have accents, right? [Laughs] We had our three-minute campaign speeches at one o'clock after a big luncheon. So then one o'clock, we're going to have our speeches, and I was number eleven. The candidates were talking about their school district and their budget. Everyone said, it was very boring and then also you can't understand them. So everybody, I could see everybody is falling asleep because it was a big luncheon and it was boring speeches. So when I got there, and my name is Ruth Asmundson, so it's easy to remember, right? So I got there, and I introduced myself and I said, "I'm Ruth Asmundson." And I started unbuttoning my blazer, they thought I was nervous, and so at the end of my three-minute speech, and I said, "Vote for Ruth Asmundson!" And I had my campaign t-shirt, that said, "Vote for Ruth Asmundson" [Laughs] and everybody laughed, everybody woke up. And everybody remembered my name. The other candidates, they tried to emulate it, but, of course, they couldn't wing-it (sp?). After the speeches, I was in the elevator, it was packed, said, "Ruth, I voted for you!" And they all said, "I voted for you." Well staff said, they've never seen it, 95% voted for me. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Because I was the only one there, they remembered the name and [inaudible.] So I was with them for nine years. I was a member at large director and the directors, they liked me because we Filipinas are all into gift, like pasalubong and things like that. Every summer, I'd make jams, jellies, and I make all these things. So I give each one of them, so they always, at the end, they feel entitled, "Where's my jelly?" [Laughs] But they all love me. And I give them, not because I want them to like me, but because I'm always very generous. And so everybody loved me. The state department, Delane (sp?), when she was the sprinten (sp?) of public instructions, she had two task force. Tax force of math and the other one, language. So I was appointed in the math, and there are fifteen members, half of them are teachers, half are professors, and I was the only school board member, and so I was always in the middle because, math is very polarized, the professors want more rigorous, more challenging, so that the students going to college, they don't have to do remedial. But then the teachers said, the students can't do much rigorous. So there's always this fight, so I said, "Well, why don't we balance it?" I understood what both the sides, that we have to have challenging, but also have to be realistic, pragmatic. We coined the word "balance-in." We have to balance in a basic skills, they have to know how to add, problem solving, they have to do problem solving and they have to understanding. And so those are the three things that they have to learn, that they have to provide basic. They have to do basic, they have to do problem solving and conceptual understanding. And so, they like and every time they ask for a board representation, I was assigned because I am a woman, I'm a scientist, and I'm ethnic. The quota is I fulfill three, three slots. [Laughs] I was in several, one time I was in five state committees. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, in math and science. And I enjoyed it, so that's why I know a lot. And so I would report to the CSBA about what we have done. And the school board members, they were not in favor of what I was recommending. And I kept saying, "What was the point of my representing them if they don't like what I'm telling them?" And so we were always having this discussion, but then I get calls from school board members from Monterey, from all over the state. And I said, "How did you get my name?" They said, "Oh, our regional representative told us to call you." So actually, even though they didn't agree with me, they thought that I knew what I was talking about, and so I knew a lot of people all over the state. When I was mayor, we would go out to conferences and I would go – and like one time in Sacramento, it was Steve Wesley (sp?) who was the treasurer then. [2:00:05] ASMUNDSON: There was this conference of all the mayors. We were all seated in round tables, and then he wanted everybody to introduce themselves, so the first three tables introduced themselves and, of course, they talk about their cities, right? About what they are doing, how much their population, all those things. Well, it's boring because everybody has the same thing right? And I'm on the third table, and I stand up and I said, "I'm Ruth Asmundson, the mayor of the city of Davis." And I stopped and everybody looked at me right? Now, at least they're waiting for me and I said, "And I'm single and available!" ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: Because my husband died and I'm already saying I'm single. [Inaudible] so then everybody laughed and Steve Wesley (sp?) said, "Okay, I'll look for a husband for you." But now, because the first two, everybody is so quiet, after I said that, then everybody said something about themselves, about their family, about their children. We are all now together. And they remember me. So that's why I am saying, kind of, be different in a good way, so that they'll remember you in a good way. So that's what I [inaudible] I tell about my experiences. And the other one is 'take risks and opportunities.' And then, the other one is, don't fix things with a Band-Aid, look at the root of the problem and solve the problem there. And... Can't remember, how many do I have now? ASUNCION: There might've been six, I think? ASMUNDSON: Six. Right. Yes, exactly, probably. Yeah. There are only three mayors in Davis, that have been mayor twice, consecutive, and I was one of them. One is Senator Wo (sp?) and the other one is John Rosenberg and I'm the third. Had I run again which everybody wanted me to run, I would have gotten the highest vote again. I would have been the first to have three consecutive one, but the problem is because of Sue (sp?) who was always kind of hating on me. The far in my bell is gone, so when the far in your gut is gone, the adrenaline is not working anymore, you're not enjoying it anymore. So get out. Get out. And it's good to get out at the height of what you're doing. Then people appreciate you, rather than you run again and you lost. Yeah and so then, they kind of look at you differently, so you have to know. So that's seven, I think, right? ASUNCION: I think so. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, so those are the takeaways that I give kids. I try to inspire the kids because as I said, I grew up in a poor barrio. If I could do it, it's like – this one in here, I showed this to Robyn. This is a book on leadership with the Filipino women that work. And my chapter here is "Barefoot in the Barrio to American Madame Mayor." In 2007, the Filipino women that were [inaudible] started in debases in San Francisco, there are lots of very accomplished Filipina in the United States, so in 2007, they started recognizing hundred most influential Filipina in the United States. And I was fortunate to be one of them, 2007. And the goal in that is that, each of the hundred has to mentor a young Filipina, so by the end of five years, we'll double it. At the end of five years, then Filipino women is [inaudible]. We need to look outward. We need to identify hundred most influential women in the world, so we started doing that. I was one, in 2014, I was one of them. And so in 2014, they decided to write a book and leadership. And I got all this email, when I was mayor, I get 80-100 emails a day. And I try to respond to them within four to eight hours. Sometimes, even just kind of acknowledging, "Thank you for your email." They know that I read their email. Because if you don't respond, then "did she get my email, did he get my email?" So it's just a courtesy. Anyways, I get so many emails. [2:04:56] ASMUNDSON: Marylee (sp?) who is spearheading this, I saw her in Manila in February, and she said, "Ruth, can you do it?" And I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah I'll do it." And I thought she was because we have this summit every year and she was always asking me to be the speaker this year. And so then, I got back and then I said, she was talking about the book, they wanted to identify thirty-five of the thousand awardees to write about their leadership, about their life. Then, the deadline for abstract was December, and it was February. And I'm into deadlines because I go to the Philippines and people are always asking me what I think of deadlines. And I said, "Well, that's why you have deadline because if you let the deadline to push, then they keep pushing you, pushing you." So you have to be strict with your deadline. "Marylee (sp?), I'm sorry. The deadline has been passed and I'm sorry I can't do it because I have something about deadline." And so she said, "Okay, well, May, the goal is to have the book by June." So, by May, they emailed me, said, "Ruth, can you write it. Can you write your chapter, because they need to add somebody in politics. And not too many are in politics." So I said, "Okay." So I had two weeks to write my chapter. And so I did. They included it in here and it's funny because I wrote it and I've been thinking about writing something and I know that I have done a lot, but once I wrote it, I was actually very impressed. I was impressed with myself how I was all these things. One of these days, I'm going to write, even everybody's telling me about writing it, my leadership, my parenting, and all those things. Because you know, I always feel that this is how I did it. And if it resonates with them, then more power to them, they will do it. I know I would be very happy to do that, but it's just sort of guidelines. It's like I have rules, I raised six kids, so I had rules and we always eat at six o'clock, and there are four words that they cannot use at home like "stupid," "damn," and all those things. And hope when their friends come, and one time their friends were there and said, "Oh, you're so stupid. Oh! I'm so sorry Ms. Asmundson." [Laughs] So they know my rules because I feel that they are my kids too. So I'm always telling them about – and I'm very, very inferable because I felt communication is key. I enjoyed talking to them about things. If you want, I can send you a copy of mine. ASUNCION: I would love to read that. ASMUNDSON: I'll send you a copy of that. Life is good and if you have more questions, sometimes I just need to sit down and kind of, put everything – it's funny because when somebody says something, then I have a story about that. And people are always, when we go to church, we have this hospital, even father ray the priest, they come to my table because every time we talk about it, I have a story and they like my story and the way I tell my story. It's so funny because I stay with my niece in Manila and she has three kids and when they were teenagers, I always stayed with them. When I was a teenager when I go there, they would sit with me and they just ask questions and so we would be sitting the whole day. One day, Bairon (sp?) their brother, they are two sisters and one brother, Bairon (sp?) came running down the stairs, and he was in a hurry to go meet his friends and he said, "Auntie Ruth, what do you think of this?" And he was just kind of running around, and Kaira (sp?), his sister said, "Bairon (sp?), you have to sit down when you ask a question to Auntie Ruth because it takes her two hours to answer your question." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: Because I have all these stories, even my kids. So my husband was a lawyer and I was a scientist, so when they come for their homework, they ask me for science and math, and then in literature, they would ask my husband. So, Irena, my second daughter again, she was taking chemistry. She was talking about balancing this equation, so she came to me and said, "Mom, I'm have hard time balancing this equation." [2:10:05] ASMUNDSON: Then I started why this one is reacting to this and I went on and on instead of just telling her how to balance it. I went on about the properties of all these chemicals, it took me about thirty minutes to explain to her, and she said, "Never mind." So from then on, they always did it before they would come to me because [Laughs], but then when they ask something that they really want, so they sit down with me, and we just talk and it was just like story telling. Yeah. What was great about my daughters, we're very close. And we talk about, we're very open, and now they are taking care of me, somebody is paying my bills, somebody is [inaudible]. Everybody has something to do and they always say, they always are grateful that we were able to send them to college without getting loans that they don't have to worry about that. We are very close and we meet here every Friday night for family dinner. ASUNCION: Oh wow. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, and there's fifteen, sixteen of us because the oldest one is married – she has two kids, the oldest one is ten and Zhane (sp?) is eight – and Sigrid, the youngest one, is married – she has three, Zach is eight, same as Zhane (sp?), and then, Zoey who is six, and Zander who just turned four – and they're all Z's because I'm into "A," I want A, so I named my oldest daughter, Alinia which is the two grandmothers' Aleen (sp?) and Virginia, so we combined them, Alinia. So she said, "When I get married, I will have children, starting from the 'Z'" going down the alphabet. So her oldest is Zypher (sp?), then the second one, Zhane (sp?), she couldn't find a 'Y' name that she likes, so it was Zhane (sp?), well Sigrid always liked the name Zachariah, so she named he oldest Zach. Now, they are 'Z,' but Zach. Well, Zoey came, well she had to have a 'Z' because if the three has 'Z's' then she has to have a 'Z.' And Zander, it was a no brainer, it was a 'Z,' so they're the, what we call them, the odd 'Z's' and the even 'Z's' because the odd Z's, Sigrid, has the odd 'Z' there because the odd is [child] one and three. Alinia has the odd 'Z' because her son is number one and her daughter is number three according to the five one. And then Zach's number two so, they're the evens. Then there are four of them, and the oldest and the youngest are both married. So, Alinia is an engineer, her husband is a computer engineer, he works for the university. And Sigrid is a lawyer, she married a lawyer, so I told Irena. Irena is the economist, she's actually the chief economist for California. Yes, she used to work for IMF and then she came on sabbatical at work for the state and then they offered her a permanent job so she took the permanent job, so she's now the Chief Economist. So she's the economist, so I said, "Irena, are you going to marry an economist, she said, "No mom, they're boring." So [inaudible] the third one, junior high school, eighth grade science teacher in Fairfield, and she said, "No mom, they don't have money." So that's why they're not married. [Laughs] Yeah, so yeah and they said that they really don't want to get married because they have five nieces and nephews that they just adore. So we have dinner here and this is a two bedroom, and this is the first furniture that I have in here. And so, that one, that's my coffee table, but that's actually a bench because it's smaller. See, my house was a six bedroom, and so I moved to a two-bedroom and it was so hard because I had forty-five year accumulation of stuff. And I had to get rid of a lot of them, but pictures are important to me, so what I did was I had the wall painted red and I have the shells put, so they're not hanged, they're just there, so I can recycle, kind of rotate them. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: It's all family pictures. ASUNCION: Aww. ASMUNDSON: And yeah. And we have it every Friday night. [2:14:57] ASUNCION: That's really nice. ASMUNDSON: And the grandkids actually, Zander is actually the one who as much as possible, if I allowed, he would sleep here every night, but he sleeps in here every other night. ASUNCION: Oh wow. ASMUNDSON: Yeah. He is 99% height. So he's very tall for his age, and he's very articulate. So, he's usually with me and he's still in his car seat, so we go out, I take him to church because he's with me, take him to church, take him to preschool, so when we're going to church, where there are the traffic light, so it's red, so we said, "Hello, Mr. Red, we're in a hurry, please send Mr. Green right away." So green light comes on, and he would say, "Hello, Mr Green, see you later!" [Laughs] We always say that. ASUNCION: That's so cute. ASMUNDSON: He says that and he said, "Hello, Mr. Green, see you later, so last Thursday I took him to preschool and we went on A street, we said the same thing, and then when it turned green, and he said, "Hello, Mr. Green, see you later." So we proceeded. Then, I went on A street and his preschool is on Anderson, so we have an A street, and then we turn to Anderson, well it was red, so I stop, and so then, there was no cars, so I turned right and he said, "But Lola! I saw Mr. Red, and Mr. Green didn't come yet and you were not supposed to do that!" ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: And I did not even realize it. I said, "Oh." So I explained to him, that turning right, it's okay and red, if there's no car coming, but he was paying attention. [Laughs] ASUNCION: Smart. ASMUNDSON: He has all these things that I should write down all these things because when he was a little kid, he was always talking about – so he sleeps with me every other night – so Friday night, he slept with me and his mother picked him up on Saturday, and before he left he said, "Lola, can I sleep here again tonight?" And I said, "Well, you know, your mommy's missing you, so you should sleep with your mommy tonight." And he said, "Okay." They went home, then they were coming back to Davis that afternoon, and he said, "Mommy, can I sleep at Lola's tonight?" She said, "Well, I don't know whether Lola will let you because you know you've been sleeping there every other night and she needs a rest." "Oh, but can you bring a pajama, just in case she says yes." [Laughs] ASUNCION: That's so cute. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, but she is always – and it's funny, his vocabulary is very – so I have the chest up there that I put my shoes or some things there, and they usually come here and they play hide and seek. So then, he discovered it, so he would go inside and so then, one time, his brother sat on it and he kept saying, "Zach! Zach!" So, Zach got him out. And he said, "Lola, I nearly suffocated!" [Laughs] Sometimes his vocabulary is – well because when they were little, we talked to them straight, we don't talk baby talk. And somehow when, they're two years old, they always say, "why, why, why?" And Zypher (sp?), the oldest one, when he started saying "Why, why, why?" So one time we went to University Village for pizza, and we were waiting, it was November, and they have that fire pit outside. Irena and he were looking at the fire pit and so then, he said, "Oh, there's so much smoke! I don't like the smoke, I don't like the smell." And so then, Irena said, "Yeah, you know, it's really polluting the air, and so that's why we're so worried about climate change." So she started talking about climate change and he was looking at her, "You're right!" [Laughs] So then, we went home, and usually in my house, we have steps in the front porch and we all like to sit there and say "hello" to everybody. And it was getting dark and then the mosquitoes were coming. So then, Alinia said, "Okay, Zypher, you better come in, it's getting dark." He said, "Why?" [2:20:00] ASMUNDSON: She said, "Well, now it's going to be nighttime." "Why?" So Alinia, his mom, said, "During the day, it's bright, but at night, it's dark, but on the other side of the earth, it's day time to them like at night time here. In the Philippines it's the other side. And it's day time there." And "why?" Then his mother kept talking about how the earth is turning around, and what the effect of the sun and the moon is. Said, "You're correct." But they [the children] listen, they listen. They're just cute. ASUNCION: That's really cute. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, they are cute. And Zander – so Picnic Day, they decided to sell lemonade and a dollar a cup, and this is fresh lemonade from our tree, from their tree also. And so the four older ones were sitting in front, and somebody made a lemonade stand for them. So there's the four of them sitting there. and Zander is the one kind of hassling people. He kept saying, "Come and buy lemonade! Come and buy lemonade!" And sometimes, they give fifty cents, and sometimes they give five dollars. So then Sheila (sp?), they just arrive, they just moved the day before, they were from Arizona, they just moved to one of the condos. And looking around and some there said, "Come and buy lemonade!" He was talking about the lemonade. And Sheila (sp?) said, "Oh, I live here, and I left my money upstairs." And Zander said, "Go get it, I'll follow you." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: And she said, "Oh, I'll go later. I'll go get it later and I'll come down later." Said, "No, go get it now!" So he was hassling Sheila (sp?). I tend to look out, and Sheila (sp?) said, "Ruth, can I borrow money from you?" [Laughs] They sold $35 worth and they were raising money for the Crisis Nursery. ASUNCION: Aww. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, and well he said, "We're raising this for –" he was telling them what they were raising, so that's why people were giving more money. He was a hassler, was cute. So, do you want to meet some more or –? ASUNCION: Yeah. I think – ASMUNDSON: And you have questions, you already have to ask me questions because sometimes I forget. ASUNCION: No, we covered a lot of good things that I wanted to go over just you telling your story. Most of the questions were "when you first arrived here," "how you got involved in politics," so I think we covered a lot of those bases. ASMUNDSON: Yeah. ASUNCION: Professor Rodriguez wanted me to ask you about juggling familial responsibilities with your mayoral position, but I think we even talked about that just in the mix of it all. I would love to meet again, if you have your campaign [inaudible]. I'll go through and transcribe all of this, are there any more points that you would like to talk a bit more about? ASMUNDSON: There's this community development class in a team. The instructor, usually he ask me every year to go and speak at the class and I talk about politics and about registration, about things like that. They always enjoy it. So then some of them, they call me and I mentored a lot of students actually. I was mentoring one Filipina, and then I mentor a Vietnamese. And then I mentor – I had several Indian women students. So I was mentoring a lot of women, there were boys too, and they said, "Could you mentor us also?" If you want to talk some more and not just this one, and just talk about things, I'm seventy-four so I have all this experience, so life is good. So anytime, you have my phone number and like I said, email is best because then I usually do my email at night and I would be happy to answer. ASUNCION: I would love that, I'm graduating in the fall, my plans after, I'm hoping I can go to law school and I'm going to get into immigration law. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. ASUNCION: A lot of the things you were talking about intersect with my interests, so this was really great. [2:24:58] ASMUNDSON: Right, that's right. Know how to apply, something, I love lawyers, you know when I came, actually my neighbors were all law students so we were all friends, so I've always been exposed. I just love, I don't know I'm just so attracted to lawyers, my husband was a lawyer. Then my daughter is a lawyer and her husband is a lawyer, so my husband was actually a classmate of Justice Kennedy. ASUNCION: Really? ASMUNDSON: Yeah, and they worked together actually in Sacramento. One time when they had the reunion at Harvard and Sigrid was thinking of going to law school, so then she and her dad went to the aranian (sp?) and met with the tonic (sp?) and the inn (sp?). Yeah. ASUNCION: That's so cool. ASMUNDSON: It's funny because when they were working, they were good friends, right? So then, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court, and so Vigfus, my husband, sent him a congratulatory letter. And the letter now is very different, very carefully worded. [Laughs] Yeah. If you want to talk, you know my daughter is Sigrid, she's my youngest. And when she was in high school, she actually interned, she hasn't graduated yet, but she was able to intern at the governor's office, with Governor Wilson. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Right. Usually, their interns are college students, university students, but she was able to do that, and they like her, so she was actually assistant to the appointment's secretary and she was actually doing all this calling. And so she actually had a lot of experience in that and because of that, then she decided to intern at the justice department in Washington D.C. and so she went there and she's kind of a social butterfly and so apparently, they were so many of them interning at the justice apartment, and every Friday, because of the high school, it was pajama day, so she would wear her pajama, and then nobody knew everybody, so when she got there, she started going around talking to all the interns. So then she started organizing this, they would have a social every Friday and so she had a wonderful experience at the justice department. That really kind of – and then, she had a study abroad program at Cambridge in England, so that kind of confirm her thing that she wanted to go into law school. So her undergraduate is actually political science and communications, so again the two. The third one is BioSci and classics. Well, she wanted to become a pediatrician, the third one, but that time I was so involved with math and I always cemented the fact that science students, science graduate students go into teaching in the public school, anyway in K-12. And so she was studying BioSci because she loves children, in high school, she already started coaching soccer, so "You love children, why don't you go into teaching instead?" So she said, "Okay, mom." So she went to teaching, she got her credentials from UC Davis. ASUNCION: Nice. ASMUNDSON: Right. So she just loves teaching. She went into the Peace Corp after graduation. ASUNCION: Oh wow. ASMUNDSON: So since she came back, she got a job at St. James, Catholic school, so she was there teaching for four years, and then she decided, that she loved Africa. So she took a year off and went to Somalia to help build schools. And there was this group from Boston, so she joined them, and she was in charge of their curriculum. They build this, and she was so happy because those kids that she started – Anderson Cooper had a program these twenty students from Africa who came and got scholarships to the United States to study. And there two that went to Harvard, two went to MIT, they went to Ivy Leagues– ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: – and they are her students. [2:30:09] ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Right, this, from this poor thing. So when they came – she still writes with them – and when they came, actually she went to see them in Boston. And then one Thanksgiving, they came to visit Davis, and so she just left, she was there for a year building this school. And at the same time, Irena was assigned, she was still IMF, she was assigned Afghanistan for two years, the hot country. And so for a year, I was praying very hard. [Laughs] But they were okay, so she was a BioSci and classics major and she just loves teaching, so she's always wanted to come and teach in Davis at the public school, so they offered her a job, but she started teaching, she went for St. James to Fairfield. And in Fairfield, they have all these kids who are very needy and they don't have very much parental guidance and also socioeconomic is lower than Davis, so, when she got offered a job to teach Davis, who she's always wanted to teach, and so she was struggling because then she realized, "Mom, I think I should stay there [Fairfield] because they need me there more than the kids did here [in Davis]. So she decided, right, to stay there, even though she has to commute thirty minutes everyday. So that shows how much – even though she doesn't have much money – all her sisters they have good paying jobs, so they kind of take care of her. ASUNCION: And she's [inaudible]. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, that about, it's really her passion. She agonized about the kids how to do this, but they like her. So she said, she doesn't want to get married, she said she has a lot of kids. So that's of my kids. The two boys, the oldest one, went to Arizona, got his degree in business, so then he was working for a computer – he loves Apple, he loves working at an Apple computer store – after a few years, he decided to resign and his parents died and he's living in his parents' house and it's big and so he decided to stay home and fix the house so he can sell it. So he hasn't had job for five years, but he just moved to Natomas, and he's planning to apply to the state and hopefully, he can find a job. But the second one, the youngest one, who is actually the same age, who is actually two weeks older than my youngest daughter, the first one is actually nine months younger than my second one, so they're all the same age. So Jonas when to Carlton (sp?) and majored in music. He played five instruments and so he graduated, he finished four years also. He got a job at the Metropolitan Opera– ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: –for two years. But he loved jazz, so he went to the Lincoln Center for two years. And then he decided he wanted to go to grad school, so he went to Harvard for grad school. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Right. And then he finished there, and then he got a job at Washington D.C., the Music America – I didn't know there was such a thing – so he was there for two years, but he loved New York, so he went back to New York, so now, you know, he wanted to do consultancies. So he's a consultant, and he travels all over the states, talking to junior high school and high school districts, talking about music. Yeah, and he's not married, and the oldest, the older brother is not married or anything. And it's funny, we laugh about it because in my family, even in the Philippines, I talk to them, I ask them questions, I found out that the girls are kind of, they're the ones that ask their husbands to marry them, and the boys, was their wives that asked them to marry them because they're kind of shy. So the two boys, is, I keep telling them, "You want me to find you a Filipino wife?" [Laughs] So when I go to the Philippines in October, I make fun of him. ASUNCION: You never know. ASMUNDSON: That's right, they're doing very well actually. ASUNCION: That's good to hear. ASMUNDSON: So anyway, give me a call. ASUNCION: Yeah, of course. I'll send you another email [inaudible] or whatever works best for you. ASMUNDSON: I just got an email from Robyn asking me, she asked me if I would speak at the symposium, and I said, "Sure." [2:35:04] ASMUNDSON: So she asked me what I want, should I start or should I end this symposium, and I said, "Either way, I'm flexible, but if I have my preference, I would like to start because usually the first speaker usually sets the tone. And I think I'd like to do that. ASUNCION: That'd be really good to see you there, I'm not sure if this is an open thing, she sent us invites to some of the events that she spearheads, but we’ll see. ASMUNDSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so anyway, yeah. The we have now a Filipino group here. ASMUNDSON: We have about eighty-three families. It's still a lot. Because Lee (sp?), Ms. Ann (sp?) and I, when I came here, there were all four of us Filipinos. ASUNCION: Mhm. ASMUNDSON: And we are in the same, agricultural department, we started the same, we finished the same. And I went into politics, Mimi (sp?) went to work for the state in the health department and Delia (sp?) – my roommate – went to Brazil, married a guy from Columbia, went to University of Brazil, the University of Campinas. She is a world-renowned expert on carotenoid, food science and she just finished, she's a member of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology, and she is the first and she was the president for two years, she just finished. She was president 2014 to 2016. She was the first Filipina president of that academy. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: And with over 350,000 members. She's the second Asian president. And she travels all over the world as a speaker. She's very, very accomplished. And she has written a lot of papers and she has written textbooks, she has written reference book, and she's the most cited in food science, I think. ASUNCION: Wow. ASMUNDSON: Right? Right? ASUNCION: Wow, that's really cool. ASMUNDSON: And she just retired as professor there. And the fourth one is Bendalumon (sp?), she became a professor at Berkeley, we haven't heard. I haven't heard much about him, but he just retired too. But there are four of us. So Mimi and I stayed in Davis, she was married to an Indian guy, and I'm married to my husband. So we started all the Filipino group, mostly graduate student, so we formed the Pinoy group and a lot of them stayed here too. So our group is getting bigger and we have the second Saturday, Saturday, we have the Pinay breakfast. ASUNCION: Hmm. ASMUNDSON: And sometimes, the husbands come and the core (sp?) is usually about fifteen to twenty. We have a big group now, but not everybody counts. But the core, we all count. And we call it, "Halaka." It's like medication, our therapy. And Marissa, who finished also agricultural chemistry, finished her PhD here, she's a professor at Sac City in chemistry, she's the entertainment because she usually researches everything. Last month, I hosted them here, they all wanted to come and see my condo, I had fifty, I was worried, "Where would I put them?" I thought I would put them [inaudible], but it fitted us. And even the two priests even came. And we laughed the whole time because Marissa, the entertainment was, so we would have American Movies, we translate the title into Filipino. And it was so funny. One was the Four Weddings and One General and the translation was – so we all guessed – but then she gives everybody a number and then read it in Filipino. And they don't know what that means. The translation was, "They got married, but they gonna die too." ASUNCION: [Laughs] ASMUNDSON: And then the step-mother, the translation was "gold-digger." [Laughs] It was just funny. ASUNCION: It was funny. ASMUNDSON: And so funny. And then another one was, she asked everybody to draw the pig, and so then, if you draw the pig, you gave them paper, if you draw it at the top, then you're an optimist, if you draw it at, you know, you're a pessimist, and in the middle, you're a realist. [2:40:07] ASMUNDSON: And then if the tail, if you have a long tail and it's crude, you have a kinky sex. [Laughs] It was just funny. ASUNCION: I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just realized it's 5:15. So – ASMUNDSON: I know! Oh, you have class? ASUNCION: Oh no, I just want to make sure you make it to your event, 5:30? ASMUNDSON: That's right, she's supposed to pick me up at 6:15. ASUNCION: Oh, oh, it's at 6? ASMUNDSON: Yeah, it's at the [inaudible]. ASUNCION: Oh, okay, that sounds nice. ASMUNDSON: Oh my gosh. ASUNCION: Maybe your ride is just running a little late. Thank you so much for meeting with me. It's a great experience. ASMUNDSON: Yeah! So, I'm supposed to be talking to this delegation, twenty students delegation from Korea (sp?). ASUNCION: Oh, today? ASMUNDSON: Yeah today, and be there, I'm supposed to inspired them through the extension. [Laughs] [2:41:05] Transcriber Dana Miranda Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Ruth Asmundson Subject The topic of the resource Davis [Calif.] Description An account of the resource Oral History Interview with former City of Davis mayor Ruth Asmundson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 14, 2018 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Bulosan Center and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio Recording Language A language of the resource English, Tagalog Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0002_orh_2018 Philippine National Day Association Sacramento [Calif.] Union of Democratic Filipinos Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Link <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a9Md_zvbWJK9Z07yLDmroA3Gg_bIKCYG/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a9Md_zvbWJK9Z07yLDmroA3Gg_bIKCYG/view?usp=sharing</a> Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Katrina Asuncion Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Tim, Nina & Ben Fenkell Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. FILIPINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Oral History Interview With BEN, TIM, NINA & FENKELL July 24, 2018 Davis, California By Katrina Asuncion Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives [July 24, 2018] [Begin Audio File] ASUNCION: When and where were you born? NINA: I was born in April 16, 1950 and Mercy Hospital in Sacramento. TIM: I was born in November 15, 1951 in the Miners Hospital in Nevada City, California. BENJAMIN [Nina and Tim’s son]: I was born in November 30, 1976 at UC Davis, here in Sacramento. ASUNCION: What are your experiences of martial law [KDP focused] and what did you think of it when it was declared? NINA: Well, I first experienced dealing with martial law in 1976. That’s why I attended a meeting in San Francisco with the KDP [Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino] and they were launching the coalition against the Marcos’ dictatorship. I had heard about it and I really didn't understand it. They actually had a conference on it, then I understood a little more. I think what people questioned me about was, as a Filipino American, why would you care? I felt that it didn't matter where I was born. I felt that people were being wronged, and there were atrocities that Marcos, all his administrations, and cohorts in the Philippines were conducting. ASUNCION: Did you feel a personal tie to people in the Philippines as a Filipino American at the time? NINA: I knew I had families out there, but I didn’t know where exactly. We haven’t had contact all through my lifetime as I was growing up. I just assumed it was going to affect them. But most of the effect was around, I think Manila, all that area, and some of the countryside too. I believed in human rights and so I was always supporting human right issues and so this was amazing to me that I could do this for my homeland. I think I was one of a few people that were Filipino American that cared about supporting that. And then I found out that in my support of that was the fact that the communist party was also fighting against the Marcos’ dictatorship, and that had made me a little bit weary but then I thought, “well, we’re fighting against the same thing and we want the people to be free and to stop the killings.” And so I wholehearted joined the KDP and the organizations. ASUNCION: Can you provide some examples of martial law activism that you were involved with with the KDP? NINA: Well, the KDP had a goal in each chapter and actually the KDP had a goal in the U.S. One was to provide support for the anti-Marcos struggle, and also to develop and open up a progressive movement in the Fil[ipino] American communities to also figure some kind of support, and then to educate us and to eventually impact the politics and the politicians in the U.S. And so, I was very proud to be a part of this. And because it was very well organized, and we had the organization had to developed a campaigns and strategies and we learned a lot of skills dealing with public relations, how to organize your community, not scare them, not be too left, and to get people to understand a broader picture and see as a human rights struggle too. [5:22 – 8:57] ASUNCION: Where were your parents born? NINA: My dad was born near Sbuna [sp?] in the Philippines. And my mom was born here in the United States, in Sacramento, and then Delta. She wasn’t born in a hospital, she was born in a fieldcamp. And she was raised with two sisters and a brother here. And my grandparents came from the Philippines, worked in Hawaii, and then came over here back in their early 1900s. ASUNCION: Can you describe your upbringings and where you grew up? NINA: My dad was a field contractor where he would get men to work and he would make a contract with farmers to pick their crops or actually plant tomatoes, the whole route, and through harvesting. He would go and get men and create a crew and I was growing in Isleton in the backside of town and mainstreet. And part of the house we had two story and the upper part of the house was where the men stayed. So it was like a camp house up there. My mom was just raising myself and my sister when we were living there. And then we moved to another camphouse later to [inaudible] and we had three more children there [laughs]. And that continued to produce that kind of work. And then we moved to Galt, brought a three acre ranch, had a one bedroom house and where the ranch we raised chickens, and pigs, and everything for our consumption. And some of the pigs we had for sell. We worked in the fields, and sometimes mom did too. But once he [dad] had his crew, mom would be the cook. And we would take the food out to the fields at lunch and then bring them back. And then sometimes when mom and dad worked together with each other, he wasn’t always contracting with farmers, but when he wasn't they were just worked picking grapes or whatever else. And I would stay--my sister and I--my older one, Becky and I would stay with the little kids in the car all day, taking care of babies. I was probably eight when we were sit in the car [inaudible] all day. Mom would make sure we had supplies for the kids to eat. And then like the Mexican kids, we just learned how to cope, being second hand mothers as little kids. How far did you want me to go like growing up? [chuckle] ASUNCION: Up until right before college. [8:57 – 15:33] NINA: So, when we moved to Galt and at the ranch, I was six and so I was starting first grade and it was a shock because the school was all white. There was only my family, and a young Mexican boy that was brown, and we were treated very badly. We weren’t allowed to play on any of the playground equipment. They wouldn't let us play with anybody. And I spend a lot of my recess time in the bathroom just doing what else to do. I was six, my elder sister was seven, and my two siblings were in the same school, in Gulf Vera Site [sp?/inaudible] school and we all had a hard time, and Betherfield [sp?] was in kindergarden at that time. I know when I was in second grade, every other day, I would be called to the office and told, “you need to go outside and get your brother, and get him to come back to the class,” he had such a hard time when he was in recess. He wouldn’t go in. He be crying out at the fence and hang on by the fence, and we had no extra car. There were no cell phones, and it was very hard because I'm just a little kid trying to figure how to get my brother back to school. Anyway, we struggled and that was how life for five years. And all through those five years, we were treated terribly much like the blacks in the south. And when we get off the bus--we had to catch the bus in the morning at seven, get to school, and the kids would be lined up, and they would called my sister and I “niggers, nigger, nigger, nigger” you just heard it and it was like I got it everyday [cries]. We made it through and I was lucky in my fourth grade when I was nine. This was this treacher. She’s an older woman, Mrs. Franklin, and I’ll never forget her. And I was a good student. She told me, “no matter what these kids do to you, you study hard, this won’t last forever. And just do your best and be the best,” and so I decided, “okay, even if I have to be told everyday to stand in line to get in the classroom, the kids would say,” “wipe my shoes, dust my shoes off,” and I was like, “no, I wouldn't do it.” It was really awful. The things they kept calling me. There were some poor white children there too that I knew had a hard time. And so I made them my friends. And [clears throat] so, I had then decided that, I don't have to feel bad that I am not white as long as I do my best, do [inaudible] my parents need me to do, and eventually get out of here. And so by the time I was eleven, I was begging mom and dad, “pleaseeee it's so hard. Can we go back to Isleton, where we knew kids and it was different?” So we moved from Galt. It wasn't easy. When we stayed at Galt there. While we were there, probably when I was nine, dad got a job with a grape farmer. And so we got a crew but he didn't have a camp house, so he fixed up our chicken house which was probably like maybe 10x12 [ten by twelve] building and moved us out of the house and we lived in there. One room house, no toilet, no bathroom, and we just had beds in there. We put our clothes in boxes and dad made us an outhouse. And there was a little pump house, not too far from our house. We took a bath in. This bucket was like a finger and this water would just be one stream and so we had to share it taking a bath and taking care of the little kids. And mom would go to the house and that she would use that for cooking and then we would eat back in our room. And we lived there for two years. I think I know it was difficult but we, I think we were just so loved and we knew how much mom and dad were trying to work for us, and we were not hateful even if the kids at school would take my lunch, take my lunch money. Sometimes I couldn’t eat because you don’t have any money, you don't eat. And it was a little hard and then, but anyway--dad finally--we had to move because the water in the well was getting so low that we weren’t able to get much water for the fields there and the ancrage to raise the animals and irrigate it, and so we moved back to Isleton and stayed with my grandmothers [inaudible]. I was probably eleven by that time and we had a brother that was born in 1960. [15:33 – 20:55] NINA: One, Michael, and by that time there was Becky, Maxi, me, Phil, Ben [laughs], Kathy, and Marshal, and then my brother, which was number eight, Michael, and he was born in January. My mom was working in the canary and my dad was still working out in the fields. So my sister Rebecca and I had stay home every other day and watched the baby, while mom worked. And then so each of us could go to school. And then for some reason, it was [inaudible] birthday and the next year January 1962, it was March, he died March 28. He got sick and we were trying to tell mom, he’s feverish … [inaudible] so they took him to the doctor to Lodi [sp?/inaudible] the doctor said he will be alright. And then he started not retained the food we fed him. And so we took him to the doctor again so she said, “go to the county hospital in Sacramento,” and that was where UC Davis became--it used to be a county hospital and they took him there one night and never came back. And it was so hard not to see him again and so, the hospital said he died of meningitis. So we got [inaudible] for a week and nobody could go to school and we’re all trying to figure out how to deal with this. And found out he died of pneumonia and he should of been able to be help, and they misdiagnosed him, so we lost him. It really affected me and mom, I mean because we were the caregivers and Becky too. And so I was just praying to God that someday if I ever have children, “will you help me out ‘cause I don't want this to happen to me” [tears] But anyway, mom had begged my dad, “let’s not go out in the camps anymore. Let’s stop and let’s just find a house.” So, they brought a [inaudible] cottage down the street from my grandmother’s on G Street. It was at the end of the road, right next to the railroad. And we had, they brought it for I think they’re only [inaudible] $1,500. There were two lots. But it was just like a living room, and two bedrooms, and some kind of little room that they probably would have made it a kitchen or something. But there was nothing in it, no bathroom, no sink, nothing. We were going to move there and dad had one more place to go to. He worked in Lo Dai [sp?], and so we went with him to camp and he was just working with grapes and he had a crew there. So we had to walk just go about half of a mile. It was an interesting school. Only seventy kids. There was a couple of Mexican kids, and mostly white. It was very interesting to have three grades in one room and just two teachers in a whole school. So everybody played with each other. It was just very amazing. [inaudible] We stayed there probably about three months and then the grape season was done and we moved back to Isleton. We moved to my grandmother’s house first. And then I think my dad didn't get along with them and we ended up moving to the house they brought, which it was a shack and had a [inaudible] tiles on the outside but it was a house and so we [were] able to have a room with a bed, a spring bed. It was probably like maybe a queen sized bed. Five of us would sleep in there, sideways. We each tried to tell mom to give us a blanket but we had to share it. Each person have to have a blanket for two people. Mom and dad slept with the little kids and he built an outhouse outside and he build a little shed where we would--I don't know how, I think he had to walk in the house, a gas walk, and so we were able to make hot water and put a tub out in the shed and... [20:55 – 24:52] NINA: I don’t know, have you ever heard of kabut [sp?/inaudible]? Okay. That’s what we used to take a bath. We had to--I was number two so I had to take two kids, and my elder sister took two kids. And we washed them, make sure everybody got cleaned up. And then at night, when we had to go to the bathroom, we had this bathroom degrade [chuckles]. So everybody had to go before bed. We were laughing all the time. The only element heating we had was kerosene heater. I don’t know if you’ve seen that. And that’s what we had. We had to heat our clothes to make a little bit of hot water and dry our clothes too after the wash [inaudible]. We wash everything by hand. There was no machine. We started to staying there when I was eleven, I remember that. In the meantime, my father was still raising animals. He rented a little bit of land and people whoever had a piece of land and we raised pigs and chickens and killed them. I learned when I was about nine, how to kill a pig, how to dress it, take out all the guts and stuff, and how we cleaned it. So we did that a couple of times a year, we shared with our aunts, uncles, my grandparents. We killed chickens, we saved the blood, make new [inaudible], and all that stuff. And we had to wash my hand until I was probably about maybe thirteen I think we got one of those washing machine that--a ring washer machine and then when I was about thirteen, dad decided, “we need to make a bigger house.” So, he decided to look at these housing projects in Lodi, which was maybe twenty-one miles away after work. I would go there once in a while and watched how they make frames, wall frames, roof frames, foundations, and everything. And then he, me, my elder sister, and my eldest brother tore down two farm houses by hand, saved all the woods, saved all the nails, and we built a three bedroom length room, an extra room for our parents, middle room with a bathroom finally, and a shower and a kitchen. And I think we did that in about two years. That was so amazing. We passed all the inspections. The window were a little crooked, but the inspector showed us how to straighten them out and pass an inspection. That was a major accomplished I think in my life. It was so fabulous. And to know that, we knew how to do things that other kids never know. We didn't have a lawn mower or anything so we had to use shovels and hose to keep the grass down and then always had gardens and everything. We continually all my life living, killed pigs and chickens, and we even raised the chickens in the backyard. [24:52 – 30:04] NINA: So, high school was a little bit difficult because in Isleton it very integrated with Chineses, Filipinos, Whites and it didn't matter. We played and Isleton was a small school. I think it was like maybe two hundred kids. But we had track, basketball, all kinds of sports for our school. When we went to Buena Vista, it was a little bit different. The boys were--most of us were minorities [inaudible] Filipinos and blacks and some Mexicans. And pretty much got discriminated against and didn’t get to play in the sports. And so, I don’t know how my brothers survived. I was struggling to be a college bound student and I thought maybe I wanted to be a nurse or teacher because my parents were encouraging that. My sister ended up doing that. When we were in the eighth grade, that’s when the Kennedy administration decided to institute the three class system where there was going to be college bound, those who were going to be--I think they called it “journeymen” [inaudible] whatever they were that which probably would be the white collar worker and the service people. So when we went to high school, those were the kinds of classes that we were forced to take and I was supposing I’m going to take college bound classes because that’s what I was going to do and I assumed my peers and I were taking the same classes. And I find out, “how come I’m not in the same classes with these people?” And then my eldest sister finally told me, “you better check it out.” And I went to my counselor, Mr. Hammer. I’ll never remember him. Mr. hammerstrom said, “No, you’re not going to college. You’re going to take typing, [inaudible], and english, and science, and all this stuff. But you’re not going to college. How are you going to college?” I was totally shocked. I thought, “well how did these people go to college? I mean I don’t understand,” And so my sister told me about finding out that we were being railroaded into taking non college bound classes, and so she told me to, “rewrite your class schedule and find a teacher that you have to go to the teachers and have them okay it.” I had gone to my counselor and he wouldn’t okay it. So I talked to my gym teacher and she said, “it’s okay you just go to these other teachers and they have to sign off. Next year, you make sure you are taking the right classes you want,” and so I was able to begin that in my second semester of my freshman year. Then I was so happy that I could at least do that, being able to know I’m going to go until I found out the catalogs the college catalog showed all the classes and the majors that you can take and what classes were required and pre college classes that were required. And was a window to the world. I couldn’t believe what was offered there and you have to take the right classes. And so then from then on I started to feel more confident about myself getting out of there. I didn’t know how I was going to get scholarships or anything. Nobody talked to us about it. Until our junior year, everybody started signing up for those SAT tests, and you got to apply to a college you wanted to go to, and all that. And I found out about that and [clears throat] and so then I just decided I’m going to city college and I don’t know how I was going to pay for it because we had no money [laughs]. [30:04 – 37:20] NINA: But, I found out after in the middle of my last semester there, there was the EOP program, which is the Education Opportunity Program that offered minority students an opportunity to go to college with scholarships and you work like a work study program with them and then you can also apply for grants and whatever kind of financial aid you can get. And so, I was able to make it through city college. I got grants and then when I went to Sac State, I was able to get grants also. So I didn’t have a lot to pay. But I had to work and so I became a counselor for students. I also helped do literacy programs so I can help people learn english, and I helped a Chinese lady hopefully of all people and some Hispanics kids. And then, while I was at City College, I met Filipino students and I was totally surprised. They weren’t very welcoming. Because when they asked me if I can speak the language I was like, “noooo,” they asked where I was from and I said, “I was born here.” Then they were like, “you’re not Filipino enough.” And that blew me away because this is the first time I met Filipinos outside of my town. And I was very surprised. There were students from the community--Sacrament community that were in dance troops already. So they knew each other. And so I just thought, “well, I don’t know how to be Filipino. I just am me. I don’t know anything about me.” And so I met my friend, Dick through one of those students. And then we met some other men through the martial arts program that they were doing outside of college. And then we started to talking about, “We are non Filipino speaking students. Why don’t we just do something?” So we just decided since we were almost out of Sac City. Let’s plan something to get into State College.” So we started there and myself, Dick, [inaudible], we were all fil-ams that didn’t speak the language, and my sister, Rebecca. And we said, “You know what? Let’s get a Filipino history class, something started.” So we were realizing that there was the Black Student Union, there was a Chicano Movement, there was a Native American groups, and we’re like what about us? There’s nobody there. I couldn’t believe it. So we petitioned to build Filipino club and then we were going to be able to sponsor a class and so we were able to find a teacher. I can’t remember his last name. But his name is Benson, and he was in a fellowship program in the United States and he was our first teacher. He did Filipino studies but it was a different point of view. It was like the classic. I guess history of Filipinos. So, I thought there should have been a little bit more. But what can you do? This is what he taught. And then we were able to at least have that class for one year. And then we formed [inaudible], which was probably about maybe fifteen, twenty of us. The whole campus that we knew, there might be about probably thirty-five Filipinos students and so we were really excited. For the second year, we found [inaudible] who was a Filipina teacher and she was teaching in the elementary school here in Sacramento to teach Tagalog. We’re like, “oh, we’re so excited!” Because at least we could have a taste of it and we would be recognize on campus. So what she really did for us, brings in the nuns and some friends and they taught us dancing. So we learned, I think about five different dances. And we danced at senior citizen centers, we danced at little fairs, festivals, some people’s weddings. And then we got into guerrilla theater where we started to talked about the Manongs, how we were growing up in the fields, how difficult it was. Growing up here, the fairytale of making money and going straight back home with lots of money was not happening. So a lot of the men who had dreamed they could come here, and sent big money home, were finding that it wasn't true, especially they were only being paid ten cents an hour to do lettuce, or even picked grapes. When we picked tomatoes, it was twenty-five cents a box, a love box [sp?/inaudible]. So in a day, I remember when I was working with my family, our goals a hundred boxes a day. And there were four, five of us that were working: the kids, and my mom. My dad was contracted and we did that for years. So it was very difficult when you portray the reality. And so we started to meet other political Filipinos and that was when I met Vince Reyes. [37:20 – 43:75] NINA: So I think what was, I’m going to stop a second and give a background on what was happening on the world at the time. So at the time, there was a huge surge in the political left of the world. So there was China with Maoist groups that all representatives on campus group, there was Social Democrats who were on campus. They were sort of socialist but they were a little leftist. They didn’t always support others’ struggle. There was the eastwind [sp?] that was also Chinese. And then there was the KDP, which was Filipino groups. And so, Vince Reyes has met my sister. And so what they were trying to inject in the college life, was a leftist ideas about, “how do you make a skit, educational? And show the injustices of what’s going on that are monos [sp?] just to be embraced and praised that we had to recognize their struggle.” They were living in bad living conditions, there was racism out there that was like in Watensville [sp?] and other places where they were getting kills, and hung, just treated badly and so that was what we injected into the skit once we joined the KDP. Then we said, “we weren’t going to be long in Sac State. You’ll only to be there a couple of year, depending on when you started. So some of us are already two years by the time KDP came. And my sister Maxine ended up teaching Fil-Am studies there for I think for a year or two. And then we started transition there into the community because you can’t stay forever on the campus. So we started to look at our Filipinx communities and say, “where can we bring our work? Our, what we want to do. How are we going to educate them? What forms are we going to use?” Sowe started to learn juggle song from the KDP, and at the time I guessed the anti-martial law was already in place and we were just slow in Sacramento [laughs]. So this was the 70s, early 70s and so we started to meet some progressive folks who were at that time so proud of being able to put on the application for state service, a check box for Filipinos. That was big because before you were just nobody now you could say, “I am a Filipino.”And then I think that started also the beginning of the trend for affirmative action, came a little bit later. But as minorities started to really to push for themselves, through their little incremental things that started that movement and then we--once that started then we started to get progressive people in state services who were being able be a voice for us. And so we met [inaudible], Jerry P[inaudible], and quite a number maybe about ten or fifteen Fil-Ams, mostly Filipino Nationals would not join us. It was very interesting. So what we didn’t know was that we were being called “reds” because of our leanings towards supporting the anti-Marcos work and we did not know until we looked later that our Filipino community was already entrenched with Marcos supporters. And that he had planned to bring his family out here and buy property and then they would really begin to--I don’t know how they were going to take over the community. But most of the organizations were supporters. So we had a very hard time trying to bring in justice work like when there were Filipino nurses in Maryland that were charged for murder of a gentleman in I think was a hospital or [inaudible] so we opened up petitions and we had educationals about that, and opened it up--also to the American community--the Sacramento political community--that we were actually here with a voice to talk about this and we started to get some supporters there from local councilman, like Dave Jones, and forget his name, and another gentlemen that became a mayor. [43:35 – 48:35] NINA: Deryll Steinberg. So in 1976, we had launched our first Filipino National day celebration. What our purpose was was to open up an event that would bring everybody together, didn’t matter what your politics were, but that we celebrate the independence of Philippines from Spain, celebrate the 1896, celebrate the contributions that Filipinos made to the U.S. through our agricultural work. There were nurses, teachers, lot of people, and filmmakers that nobody knew about, boxers, and then we introduced also the human rights issues in the Philippines. And we were very very lucky that and Andy who was the mayor supported that. She actually came and did a speech for us. She didn’t have to say what she knew. She just had to say what she supported. She was proudly did that for a couple of years. We were just very excited. We started out with just probably maybe 300-400 people over Muly park [sp?/inaudible] and we called it Filipino National Day celebration or party fiesta. So we had tents, we had vendors, and we also brought in Asian lawyers, our black Grantland [sp?] Johnson with his representation of the county, and our county supervisors came, and we had created a little dance troops in the community called Akul [inaudible], and it was about two families. There were probably six little kids. And they grew up. Been to high school with being with us throughout all that times. And then next year, people started to enjoy it. [inaudible] clubs started coming, doctors and nurses came with their groups, and more vendors started to come. They realizing, “it’s okay, you can have fun here.” And then we found people who could showed us Filipino games and then we have martial arts groups, and singing, and dancing, and even my grandmother played her [inaudible] and got to be very joyous and expanded to [inaudible]. I think when we left there it was at least fifteen hundred people who were coming there every year. And then they closed the park, and created a marina [sp?] They closed off a lot of the accessibility for parking. So we moved it to Florence Creek down here. And, we started to get people who knew how to access actors, and Filipinos actors, Filipinos singers, and--so we had Dulfie [inaudible/sp?] out here one year. I can’t remember the other gentleman. But there were a couple of actors and singers, and so we started to get groups from around maybe 3000, 3 or 4000 and more vendors. We had probably maybe in the very beginning we have five and the next year ten and then we moved out here and we have more than twenty-five now. And then in 1990, at the same time, there were still some holdouts who were pro-Marcos that were trying to rival our celebration. So they started this food fair [inaudible] center and it was very little. They didn’t do anything but have some food [chuckles] and I think that was it and some Filipino dancing. We knew a lot of people supporting them. And so [inaudible] decided one year, “we really countering each other. Why don’t we just do the same thing and combine it?” [48:35 – 53:45] NINA: It was like I don’t know 1994 something like that where they finally decided to joined us and we made one big Filipino fiesta and that really brought a lot of more people. And then we started to expand where we had parades too. So, we met friends who had a car show groups, like old cars. And so the first year, we might have maybe five, the next year we have ten. We have Filipino motorcycle groups come. Filipino salesmen brought their new cars. And it starts to get vary. Everything started to grow as more people started to bring their own ideas and things and then we had issues with gangs, but we had it so well organized and I usually let up logistics. So we had to take care, work with the sheriff, make a plan, how to deal with parking, how to do with vendors, and where they were going to park and security, and internal watching for issues with people who wanted to cause a fight just to break up the event. And so we had almost all the organizations participating. So the lions clubs, the women’s clubs, and students from Sac State, and so we had--. Students from Sac State almost always want to do children game for years, so they did that, and that was fun. And then our main dream when we opened that up, opened the Filipino National Day organization [PNDA] was to create an organization that was self-sustaining, to keep the Filipino National Day--I mean the Party Fiesta alive after we left because we knew eventually we were going to get old and then needed everybody’s flavor and a commitment to make sure that it would always go on. And so until now, there’s this Sacramento Filipino Fiesta and I think there’s a webpage for it. And it’s a little bit not as activists when we were in there. But there are still people who are committed to making that happen and it is so wonderful. And that is part of our legacy, the KDP, and then the PNDA [Philippine National Day Association], and then in that time, we also felt there needed to be a dramatic arm to our work. So Sunny el 4k [sp?/inaudible] came from San Francisco and he graduated from UP. In 1978, he joined our candy [inaudible] and then eventually KDP. And we developed the Sinag-tala theatre and performing group. And this is I think their over thirtieth year that they’ve been alive and but now they’re under reorganization but it was marvelous. There were hundreds of people who used to go through there and become singers and dancers from kids to adult. And some of them are in broadway, velea [inaudible] played The King and The King and I for the last two years, and the touring group. Angela 4k [sp?] became a professor and she is teaching Hawaii in high school in theatre. There’s a lot of continuing local theatre. Theatre groups like like Gladys Acosta [sp?] and some other folks, but that was an amazing time and I think I am so proud of the KDP and I think whoever went with through the years that we did from me from 1976 to 1987, we learned to work with the media, we learned to work with local officials, senators, congressmen, Matsui [sp?] was with us forever, and the local county supervisors. [53:45 – 58:27] NINA: So they learned that we have, how do you say it, there’s a vibrant community that lives here. And there’s a lot of youth growing, taking part in politics, and community life, and we think through some of that just because through the organizing with the event they participated in or just talking with with us, that they learned and we learned about the world about us and want to be proud of and I am so proud of my son, Benjamin, who continues to work in the PNDA, and has helping to sustain that with Chris Manteo with his wonderful board. And they’re doing things like [inaudible] and continuing to impact kids and students and people like you who are also making histories for us. And so, for me, it was a time of learning that you’re an instrument and a catalyst for change, and that means also giving that to another person to move on with it, and the direction could be whatever way but it should always be with justice in your back and knowing what is right and to taken care of the people and always imparting, teaching people to know new methods of doing things and it’s okay to be free with your idea, learn how to share, be a community. And I think the biggest thing we end up feeling was when you step back and you look at your community after all those years, you created a village. That village is growing here, and there, popping up, and there’s people there, and that’s [inaudible] you look at later too. So there’s still many of us KDP activists who are still around and I think also in the past, even when we were doing Philippine anti-Marcos work [inaudible], we were also supporting the Palestinian struggle because they’re still struggling for their freedom and their right to their land. [inaudible] struggling sanctuary of people from El Salvador and Guatemala and we still support that. And for immigrants. And then fighting to get back its balance and understand what is good and have a voice and joining with all the people out in the streets because I think what happened to me when I was in Sac City was the first I got there, we were doing anti-work, and I wasn't working. I just got there as a student. But people were fighting for their right to keep their children home from the war, and fighting against the war, and women were fighting for their rights to have equality, to have jobs like men, and be treated equally. And students to have the voice and have rights say what they need on campus. And I had realized that I could watch this on t.v. or I can be in the streets with them, and I would be a part of that. And it was big deal to put myself out there in the street and be in the middle of the protests and realized that there’s people who there don’t like you and don’t want you there. But it’s up to you to fight what you believe. [58:27 – 1:03:18] NINA: Tim and I had a big rally down in the capital and we were asked to pick up this student speaker from Berkeley. And so we said, “okay. We got a little car. We’ll go.” And it ended being a Vietnamese. TIM: North Vietnamese. He was here illegally and he was the keynote of this rally at the Capitol. There were thousands of people there. We thought we were going to get arrested. Because they would have [chuckles] arrested us if they known we were bringing him. There were a lot of times though with KDP. It wasn’t all fun and games. There were times when--we knew that our phone was tap. You could hear clicking on the phone. Because back then there weren’t cell phones. And so it would be that. And they were meeting every week. And they would--in what KDP was doing was, they had people going back and forth to the Philippines. And they were interacting with cardinals [sp?] or cardinal [sp? and inaudible] sin who was high in the catholic church which was against the Marcos’ dictatorship. And again with the new people’s army and with the communist party because they were all fighting maybe not on the same plane but they were all fighting against Marcos. And so they would come over here and their people here that not necessarily supported those groups. But they couldn’t go against him because they are afraid their families would get killed. And so that’s who was … [inaudible]. But then I just remembered one night I was coming home and it was kind of a little bit late and there was a car was following me, and really following. I could tell. So I drove around the block from where we lived. And it followed me and I went all the way around the block and came back around, and it followed me again. And so I did my Ben [inaudible] … Ben was. And they were home so I didn’t go home. I went someplace else so that they wouldn’t come to my house. But other people experienced that too. There was a lot of people here that were close to the Marcos family or part of that. There were like four big families in the Philippines that were Marcos [inaudible] and they had a lot of relatives here so people would...they would stand out. It was a real fight to get support because it wasn’t that they were supporting Marcos, they were supporting the cause of the people no matter where it was. It was scary. What was interesting about KDP is because I was not in KDP but I read everything that she brought home or I went to their meeting. It wasn’t about a bunch of people getting together. It was totally organized. They also did Historical studies to show what was going on. What happens with capitalism? What happens with communism? What happens with socialism? And what has happened in history? And I read those because it was so interesting and it pertains what’s happening with Trump in the U.S. today. I mean, this Michael Moore was just on today saying, “this could be the end of democracy as we see it,” then it happened in other nations, maybe smaller nations. But they were very focused on when you work with the community, it wasn't just to have a party, it was to educate among being forming a group together to unite together. And it was exciting. Very very exciting but it was scary too. I remember she [Nina] went to a rally. They were rallying in San Francisco and they had already determined who would going to be arrested at the rally because that was the way that they were showing--that’s how they get out there. You have to do something really radical to educate the people because these people really care about what’s going on. And when Marcos fled the Philippines, there was--people were rejoicing but they knew it wasn’t over because the people that came in. There’s been nobody since Marcos has been a whole lot better. And now Duerte in there it has got backwards so it’s crazy. But no one knew how much they did that. [1:03:18 – 1:08:07] TIM: They had the Far west convention. They did that for--gosh, years. It was every two years, I believe. And they were in LA, it was in Seattle, it was in Sacramento, Stockton, and they would come in and they would be totally organized and they usually had standing by in which was their cultural group. They would present a play that this lady I think [inaudible], she was like, she became very popular still until she just recently died of cancer. But she would do a play and it would be based on something in the Philippines. And so the first one was, [inaudible] which means the first. It was about the manong and that it had an original music. And it was staged. And then they did one on [inaudible] on the sugar cane cutters. They did one on the war bride which were the one who came over in the forties and the early fifties. And, I can't remember the other ones. But they did that as a message also to what was happening or why it happened and the political side of it. But regular people just thought it was entertainment. But then they were being educated so it was pretty exciting. They would even train like I remember once I went on with them on trip to [inaudible] or to the [inaudible] festival, and we went there to see--we saw five plays in three days. There’s [inaudible] and there’s other ones that are contemporary play or historical plays and before each one we learned politically what was happening in that time period that was reflected in that play. You don't get that anywhere. So they had really really good people. It’s just interesting that the church was so about and the big thing that impressed me is that the music you would hear from these people going to the Philippines was not what the news you heard on tv or anywhere. Because the U.S. was in such a relationship with the Philippines because they were using them. They only let the people here in the states know what they wanted them to know. But they didn’t tell them that we were taking their natural resources. They didn’t advertise that. Or we were doing sweatshops for their clothes. Or we were selling nuclear plants to them on earthquake faults [sp?] because it was easier to do it over there. Or we’re sitting pesticides that were outlawed here but we can get rid of them in Mexico and the Philippines. Things like that. So to receive the real news compared to what you saw was totally eye opening. And that was happening for the Philippines. What was happening for Vietnam, or what was happening for Cambodia, or in Guatemala, or El Salvador at the time? It was amazing. NINA: Yeah. And then the most tragic thing that happened was the murders of Silvia and Jean [sp?] and so that really showed those tenacity of his family and the KDP for ten years fighting in supreme court and finally winning and that what really puts the Marcos off the ladder, and so people who are in KDP still do human rights issues, they still organize locally where they’re at. [inaudible] They’re still alive. But we don’t use KDP organization anymore. So, do you have any other questions? ASUNCION: What KDP or PNDA meetings were like? Like day to day types of activities. You mentioned that there would be like those political and economic type of lessons. Is that usually how the meetings were structured? [1:08:07 – 1:13:50] TIM: They were actually conducted in the Bay Area. And so they would do that with other groups. I think the communist party would contribute to that. Or socialist group or whatever. Any left or progressive group would do that. They would be gone for 8-10 hours studying. NINA: So, the KDP was couched its leadership and the communist party of the Philippines. And so a lot of the theoretical information and stuff came in through written documents and then we were given that maybe a month ahead of time before they developed any organizing plans around it so that we got a kind of a philosophical understanding of why we are doing this, and then what’s the goal? So the organization always is centralist so there was communist party, headquarters here in the U.S., and then they disseminated the information to the chapters. And then, in order to do that though, we usually had a meeting and it could be hours on the phone because we had no technical stuff. It was just the phone, and we talked. There was a way where we were able to get more conference call. Or we meet in 4-5 of us, there weren’t many of us in the chapter and we just listen on the phone and have discussion with the folks at headquarters and then just so we understood what we’re trying to do. And then in the process, you learned who in the community is you’re probably going to have to deal with opposing you. You have to look at your community and know who’s there? What is their goals? And what they be contentious about? And how do you get the folks you really want into your event and then how do you do that? We had to figure out how to talk, figure out, “do we have a table meeting? Or do we have mirenda [sp?/ inaudible]...and have a ” TIM: … [inaudible] food. NINA: First and then we have representatives from the Philippines come. We had lots of nuns and priests came and even ex-political prisoners. Once in a while we can get them to come. But so it was very deliberate. In the group, you have to decide, “okay can we do this?And then if we don’t think we can accomplish it as what their expectations are in headquarters. We have to tell them” say, “well we have to scale it down.” [inaudible] a little more invisible, but not scary. Or we had a couple of rallies, we would make coffins [inaudible], and walk up the capitol, and represent the dead in the Philippines and back. And so there was a lot of, dependence on each other, to do the work correctly and then if we saw that it wasn’t working we had to say, “look, hey, why aren’t we getting outreach? Who are you outreaching? Are you sure that’s the right people? Or where should we go? Should we go North Sac? South Sac? College? Some place?” we have to know all the information before we disseminated the plan. And then internally, also, we also had to sometimes you just personally don’t get along [chuckles]. And sometimes, some people are more overloving than others just because that’s their nature. And so we had to learn to talk about that too and then also gender issues, because sometimes the guys were like, “oh no, that’s not right. We got to do it this way. And it’s like, “well hey, doesn’t mean you’re right all the time.” And so we had that kind of stuff inside too. But the main thing was always to completely write out a plan. Completely. And then, figure out who's the best person to do each task. [1:13:50 – 1:19:36] ASUNCION: So is it more fluid? Or did y’all have board position roles? Or was it each time something would come up, you would assign roles? NINA: Yeah, everytime. Every plan was different. Because it’s dependent on what we were doing. BENJAMIN: In the chapter itself, did you have like, PNDA, you had traditional board? Executive board? And somebody ran the meeting. How did it work with KDP? NINA: KDP had no board. We were just-- TIM: They had a thing where they called it the sphere [sp?] program. NINA: Not a program. But-- TIM: Spheres. So everything was spheres. So you have the center was the core and then there was--first spheres [sp?/inaudible] which would be people like in the chapters and the second sphere would be people that were supported like me or that were kind of there. And the last sphere was the general. And that’s where... NINA: The people who come to the event. TIM: And even in their little events, big events, they talked about, “oh he’s was second sphere or he’s first sphere. Or...” NINA: Because then you--what you realized is you look at the folks and say, “okay, in this organizing we’re going to make a committee for that event. So who’s going to be in the center?” Like it could be Ben instead of me this time. And it could be--so we had to break it down too: outreach, program, logistics, and security. Logistics wasn’t security. But like that and then when we assigned people. And then we say, “okay. Now, here’s our community. Where can they fit in here so that they become a part of the event?” It’s the ones that you want to bring close to your organization, and maybe eventually they’ll join you. Then you bring them in into the work like buddy up everybody in like logistic. Maybe, “I need three people. And maybe an outreach, we need four.” Because there’s so much more in the community. And then, every week we meet--or else if we have to we would talk on the phone and say, “so how’s it going? Are we going to make it?” Are we going to get the number of people that we want?” We have a timeline also so that we know if we’re behind or not. And then the event, we have to figure out, “okay. Let’s see what happens.” It was just like--if you have one or two people that are saying, “wow, what can I do for you guys? with you?” That’s such a joy because now you have a supporter. And like for us when we were beginning to develop the PNDA, and pretty much everybody in the community was pro-Marcos. There were some people that were sort of in the middle, behind [inaudible]. So Raul was one of the ones that--he was a dancer and a singer and he said, “Well, I’d like to be in program. What do you think?” And we’re like, “Sure, who do you think you could bring?” So, he’d bring people in pretty soon. [inaudible]. It was just like that. And pretty soon they just felt they enjoyed it, and their friends enjoyed it. People weren't freaked out because of the politics in it. So, like Raul [inaudible] became staunch supporter, and a worker, and he was always was in program. TIM: Organization like was never obvious because it was meant to be that--there was a goal for this event. But, no one knew that--there wasn’t like people would be offended if they thought they were being planned on, manipulated. And it wasn't like that. That people decided to say, “hey they’re okay. They’re doing good stuff.” And nobody else was doing that. Even in their conventions, I remember one time. I didn't realize there were others politically, well there was one group in Sacramento that was, didn’t like KDP, but was progressive. We were at the far west convention I think in LA, and they knew they were coming. So they had it all planned. They had security plan and everything so that if they jumped up and tried to say stuff and they’re--they just neutralize it. No, no hurt. No. But they already were planning for that, which was amazing. It was really amazing, and it was no--there weren’t. It wasn’t positive as far as what was their goals was to do. But they got a lot of flack, a lot of flack. I mean from people that really supported Marcos even till this day there’s still a lot of people that support Marcos. You can understand why, but I mean, not that you could agree with it. But look at how many people support Duterte. Look at how many people … Kim Jong-un, or including our current president, and like that, but no. I don’t know if the other groups worked like that. [1:19:36 – 1:25:01] NINA: Don’t know. So we had once a month KDP meetings in the chapter, and then because we also were doing PNDA and meeting for that, and that because other people that were involved in that organization. That as KDP, it was like this--so we had KDP as an umbrella, then we have PNDA, and then we had Sinag-tala, and sometimes other projects. So mainly, when we were meeting as KDP we’d talked to the folks that were leading these area and we have to access what’s going on, “what are we doing now? How are we going to make this effective?” And then we did have some issues of some how do people create leadership? And there were some people who didn’t want to give up leadership. And they just wanted people to work for them. And that was not our goals. Our goal was create a leadership and empower people because you're not going to be here forever, but we had big issues and that’s… BENJAMIN: Was there a liaison from your chapter to [inaudible]? Did each chapter have a liaison? NINA: It would be usually whoever was the lead of the KDP chapter. BENJAMIN: So there was no lead? NINA: Yeah. So, depending on who was. So like Maxi was initially in it and then she left and went to headquarter. And then there was Cynthia and then Sorcery [sp/inaudible]. And so also, what the headquarters would do was sent a rep to talk with us and see how we are doing, and it was good. It was just amazing. ASUNCION: No, it’s incredible [inaudible] organized that way. Is [inaudible] someone that. I was involved with like students leaderships on campus. And we have seven Fil-Am orgs but they’re all different interests and then there's one big umbrella org and that was the org that I was part of a board of and part of the executive board. But we could never ever all agree or get along with each other well enough to make big things like that happen. It’s really inspiring that you could get that many people behind the same cause and get them all to work together because I know how difficult that can be even with just meetings and events planning. BENJAMIN: Can you talk an aspect of how militant it was in a way? Because you were given orders versus like [inaudible] like you were told to go pick up or you were told to move to a next city. That kind of thing, right? NINA: Well, that was in the--that was anti-war, that was not KDP. BENJAMIN: For KDP, they didn’t tell you had to move to another city to work on [inaudible]? TIM: Well some people like Maxi or Vince, some people that were single. But anybody that had family, no or had deep ties where they were. BENJAMIN: It was important to know is that it was that kind of seriousness. NINA: Well, the real specialness of Sacramento was that all of us were married and had children. And we were involved. Our lives were not just KDP. I was working at the zoo. I had two kids. I was doing the anti-Marcos work. And then Tim was in theater and he was working. So it was like, “you have to figure out how to manage your life [sp?/inaudible],” so my poor children when we had meetings and I know they were going to be 2-3 hours long, we bring our sleeping bags, bring [inaudible] and they were with the other kids. There was never a questions of us being asked to go anywhere. And, I don’t think--I know we had some discussion about sometimes we were asked to be at a higher level of our organization. And I can’t do it. There was too much at our lives. So, sometimes I used to tell Maxi sometimes she was our liaison. I tell Maxi, “you guys have all not too much all the time in the world,” because they got to work too. But that’s all you think about. We don’t have that. We had soccer, we had whatever the kids had to do, and a lot of stuff. So amazing amazing that we did what we did and not having cell phones. [1:25:01 – 1:30:16] NINA: Every poster we made by hand...what else? All the program, things we had to do we made by hand. We learned so much. But a part of it was, we were already talented people. It’s a matter of how you harness that and make it work. And I think that we were so successful that we even got people like Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong to our Fiestas, and we were so lucky and you know where they stayed? At my sister’s apartment with Marlene. We served them adobo and regular food that we had and they were so happy. The humility of these people, the activists like that were just, “they’re just like us.” There’s no ego at all. You just have a role to play to keep people educated and understanding all the time. Even stories--you can tell when you’re talking to little kids, “Grandpa did this and all this stuff.” And that’s, I don’t know, the whole philosophy of learning to plan. That was the biggest thing. Because even when we finished that, Maxi and I did a lot of things together, and we were like, “you know we realized? You can do anything with a plan.” If you don’t have a plan you’re not going to know if you’re going to finish. Because if you have a plan you know who you’re going to work with, who you’re not going to work with, how you’re going to make it work, and you have a vision of what the end is going to be. And so that I think that was the beauty of what, the gift that KDP gave us. Even after KDP was done and the anti-Marcos work was done. We were still working with the rest of the community because they loved us. Because we can help them do all of their works [laughs]. It was so amazing and they weren’t afraid of us. We were our friends and they lived for us. So it’s just--we’re so quiet about it here. I feel like the only people that know about KDP is that it’s in the Bay Area because they’re still alive and they do events. And we don’t, we barely... TIM: What do they do now? [inaudible] said anything for a long time. BENJAMIN: They do a lot of work. They’ve been doing a lot of poll counting with Duterte and the elections on the Philippines. They sent delegations. They wrote a book. Those kinds of things. They do a lot of reunions. They love each other. TIM: And funerals. BENJAMIN: And funerals. TIM: A lot of them died. BENJAMIN: But they keep each other up to date on a lot of the politics. TIM: What’s interesting about the whole thing is, these are people, not anybody is getting paid. So there’s no incentive. They’re not working there to make a dollar. The only thing that’s driving you is the love of the work, the love of the people. That's the only thing there is for to get rewarded and it’s still evident here in Sacramento even though most of those people are old and not out now. But it’s--you can see where that came from. It’s hard with Filipinos because I noticed with Filipinas is like I was saying about the restaurants. Even from different where you’re from, where they’re from, in the Philippines, they don’t respect each other. And then there’s a joke we always laugh about that we have a friend that is Ilocano. And we always say, “Are you Ilocano or are you Filipino?” So that’s just a joke that everybody says. it's true because they don’t mix that well. Look at the Vietnamese, and the Hmong, and the Cambodian communities. They get together and their events are big. And their support for each other big. The Filipino is ... and it’s because a lot of Filipinos came what they called a “brain drain” and they were all professionals. So that’s a different set of people. And then you have the ones that are been brought here that where they petitioned by their families. So that’s another set of people. So it’s really hard. It’s a big community here but you never see … the only thing that--the biggest is the Fiesta, right? [1:30:16 – 1:35:20] TIM: It’s gotten bigger but it’s really not … [inaudible] and then when they took--now you can’t have food there that doesn’t go through the health department and all that used to be. People are sitting there selling pots of adobo, lumpia, they just made, and yeah now I think it is harder. NINA: But we’re still really really still proud of the community that keeps up with the fiesta and then the folks doing the PNDA stuff. ASUNCION: When did PNDA transitioned into non-profit organizations and what type of program are you doing right now? BENJAMIN: So they got their non-profits status in their early 90s, I believed. But they existed way before that, obviously. So they got their 501(c)(3). And but they weren’t doing a lot at that time. It was a kind of a big transition point where some of the old [inducible] have moved on but then there wasn’t any new programing happening. Only in the early 2000s I think, the only program that PNDA has sustained since the beginning is their scholarship program. It’s the longest program they have. Then they also have Sinag-tala that was part of it, and the Fiesta was one [inaudible] point and LEAD conference. So the youth conference started in the mid- to late- 90s. And that was set up a provide a forum to empower youth, have those discussions about generations kind of the constant discussion of parents wanting their--you kids to become nurses and doctors, and kids dealing with life being a Filipino American, and all of those kinds of things. And also bringing in professionals to talk to them about what they can do and empower them that way, and have those kind of discussions. Over the years, they brought in a lot of people like [inaudible], and the gentleman you mentioned, the county guy, the African American guy, Grantland Johnson came in as a speaker. Don [sp?/ inaudible] has been a presenter a couple times over the years. So we’re bringing in people from all different aspects. And each year, they pick a theme and they bring in speakers based on that. But there’s always the basis of empowerment and getting them ready for--‘cause the students that are coming in to the conference are entering high school or just leaving high school for college so we want to give them some kinds of skills as well. We then also bring in counselors that are college-aged. So they have this built-in mentorship part of the conference. And so kinds of gives the college kids experiences in working with youth and then creating this kind of buddy system that hopefully continues on after the conference. So that’s one of the project. Opia [sp?/ inaudible] is the outstanding Filipino youth award. That’s a scholarship program that was set up years ago by Cynthia and Josie Carmas [sp?/ inaudible] who were both--at least I think Cynthia was a board member. I don’t know if Josie [sp?] was at the time. But just ongoing scholarship and initially it was one pot of money that was put in and then the interest was used to be distributed. But now it’s changed to different families and organizations who put in money for scholarships each year. So we have [inaudible] puts in money for scholarship. The Pascal [sp?] families does. We just had [inaudible] family that did a scholarship, and I am hoping our families will do one maybe in a next few year in honor some of our family members. TIM: We started a long time ago and then that was when the years when they’re having trouble. And We didn't get notified the next year and the next year, so we forgot about it. BENJAMIN: So that’s one thing and we distributed up--I think the biggest scholarship we gave away this year was $3,000 to one person. It’s done through an essay and then a panel interview. So we have high school students and then we have college students going into college. Usually panel board members and community members. They asked them questions like, “What does it mean to be Filipino?” “What is--,” things like that, and talk about their experiences working in the community. ‘Cause we want to make sure that they giving back as well. So that’s what been going on. [1:35:20 – 1:40:57] BENJAMIN: Sinag-tala, there’s some history there. It continues on but it’s broken off from PNDA a number of years ago. So, they’re doing their own things. They have their own 501(c)(3) status. We just started a new one [program] last year called Filipino Fork [sp?/inaudible], which is our major fundraiser but it’s also to capitalize on the farmed work movement, and also the big Filipino food movement that’s happening, especially in the Bay Area. It’s a really big thing. It’s been written about on the news and news magazine and stuff. So we want to bring that here. So we are highlighting chefs and restaurants in those in Sacramento regions that have either Filipino influences or Filipino chefs, and they coming in and talk about what they did, what influences them. We also eventually wanted to turn it into project where we talked about how food has changed by people’s families come to the U.S. over time and how their experiences affected how they cooked their food. I always--so when we developed this project, I brought up my family where the food that my grandparents cooked, you really can’t find it anywhere else because they were kind of isolated from the rest of the community, and they used whatever they had. So the base idea of the food is Filipino but it’s really their own recipe. And that’s really because of the experience of the experience. So... But the overall idea of PNDA is really empowering the community and really focused on youth and how we can mentor them and empower them to and support what they’re doing instead of telling them how to do it. So, a lot of the high schools in the area have created [inaudible] club. So how can we support that and how can we help to add education to that? And maybe bring them in together and we can work all together, instead of having these little groups everywhere. We can really unify that kind of thing. It’s a young board so which is really unique amongst the organizations. I’m forty-two and I'm the oldest board member, which is really different than most organizations in the community. So most of them are have had people in their seventies running them and things like that. It brings a lot of questions for PNDA’s future and how we work with the community, and how we can fosters these other organizations moving forward, and help developed new leaders with them too. Because right now a lot of them don’t have that. They moved on or passed on, and things like that. So we want to help create those leaders or at least try to foster them into that leadership. It’s a quick version. ASUNCION: Can I ask what’s your board position is for PNDA? BENJAMIN: I’m a secretary. I’m a secretary and then the chair for the youth awards, the scholarship program, and then I’m co-chair for the Filipino Fork program. ASUNCION: That’s really cool. The Filipino Fork program sounds really interesting. Recently, there’s been an Ube festival and a lot of more publicity... BENJAMIN: Yeah, on weekends, or once a month I think, in San Francisco, there’s an event called “Undiscovered SF,” where they highlights different themes but there’s always this underlying [sp?/ inaudible] themes of Filipino food and they really highlight the Filipino food trucks that have been happening. So that’s happening tomorrow, actually. But our last month it was, celebrating on [inaudible]’s passing, and some of the youth program that they support. This month they’re bringing in artists from the Philippines. So alternative bands and all kinds of things. So it’s really a cool event and that’s what we’re trying to capitalize on. ASUNCION: Well, those were all the questions that I had for you all. I really appreciate the conversation that we got to have. I really learned so much. I honestly didn’t know too much about PNDA, or well, I learned about the KDP through from some of my classes. But hearing about the day-to-day activities and how things were actually run is very different, and just really interesting. BENJAMIN: I did want to add. This is something that I discussed with my parents and other folks too is that there’s definitely a conversation about learning about KDP and everything about KDP because I feel it’s just a lost part of the history, but also the effect it had on the kids of KDP, and ‘cause there’s a whole generation of us who went to rallies, and who went to protests, and we helped colored banners. And we were in the motor--[inaudible] waving. But we had no idea why we were waving and things like that. So, for future discussion, especially for the Bulosan center, that might be something they want to look into. And how it affected the kids of the movement and also what kind of work we went into as well. [1:40:57 – 1:43:22] ASUNCION: That’s a great perspective to add because I think that Professor Rodriguez has been focused on hearing your story. But that’s a whole other side that’s also extremely relevant and really important to history and creating that narrative. BENJAMIN: ‘Cause not only are their work. There’s a narrow generation, but the kids are even smaller number. And the ones at least were old enough to understand what was going on. NINA: Yeah because some of them are already in political stuff, theater, political theatre, like Rob Bonta. TIM: Rob Bonta, he was at that one we did on Fair Oaks boulevard, wasn’t he? There…? BENJAMIN: I don’t [inaudible] remember yelling at people around the corner. TIM: There was only [inaudible] and Cynthia, and [inaudible] I don’t know if Jacob [inaudible] and then I think two of Cynthia’s kids were there. And [inaudible] … And all of these little kids, “Marcos...-” with the signs in the biggest intersection going into Fair Oaks. It was funny. NINA: They were good. They even went into the...sorry...christmas event, which we used to do all the time, the Sinag-tala show. Before the Sinag-tala, I think. Anyways, they used to be part of the crew and singing and these kids would actually perform and now Wendy is doing a--she got her PhD and she was learning about how the history of the [inaudible] and politicizing that too. It was very cool. End Transcriber Linda Nguyen Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral History Interview with Tim, Nina & Ben Fenkell Subject The topic of the resource Philippine National Day Association, Union of Democratic Filipinos, Sacramento [Calif.], Ang Katipunan, KDP Description An account of the resource Oral History Interview with the Fenkell Family Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 24-Jul-18 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Bulosan Center and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio Recording Language A language of the resource English, Tagalog Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ucdw_wa006_s002_0002_orh_2018 Ang Katipunan KDP Philippine National Day Association Sacramento [Calif.] Union of Democratic Filipinos Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project Description An account of the resource The Filipino American Experiences Oral History Project contains oral history interviews from Filipino Americans and individuals who worked closely with Filipino American activists. A large portion of the interview reflects on Filipino inclusion in the United Farm workers the United Farm Workers and the Filipino American farmworker activism. Additional information in the interviews focuses on various historic sites of memory for Filipinos in California, such as the International Hotel in San Francisco and Agbayani Village in Delano. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Allan Jason Sarmiento Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Dr. Dawn Mabalon and Dr. Robyn Rodriguez Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Greg Padilla Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. Interview with Gilbert Padilla PADILLA: In Arizona, that’s the last time… Did you girls meet Larry, Philip, or Peter? MABALON: I met Philip. RODRIGUEZ: Never, not me. PADILLA: He used to go to San Francisco. He like those lefties in San Francisco. [laughter] MABALON: Well I met him because he came to UCLA when his book came out. He signed my book, and I took a picture with him, and I brought the book home to my dad. I didn’t know anything about any of this history. Its sad coming from Stockton and from a farmer worker’s family, and my dad said, “OH! Philip Vera Cruz’s book! He is a member to Delenarios del Trabajo (sp?), which is also the fraternity Larry and Peter were in. He took Philip’s book down to Fresno. They were having a big convention and he said Ben Gines borrowed the book from him. All the Manongs in Delano passed it around to see what shit Philip talked about them. I never got my book back. PADILLA: [Inaudible] had it Philip signed and loaned it to somebody [inaudible] Do you speak Spanish? MABALON: No RODRIGUEZ: No but we could kind of understand. PADILLA: But you lend your book. RODRIGUEZ: Oh, is there a saying in Spanish? MABALON: What is the saying? PADILLA: [inaudible] The one that lent the book is not dumb. The one that doesn’t return it is dumb. The go-to- Filipinos… He was nice at the book. MABALON: Philip? [Vera Cruz] PADILLA: I mean, he mean, that he didn’t… MABALON: But you thought he was, PADILLA: Yea, he was nice. He wasn’t, [laughs] MABALON: What do you think he could have said? PADILLA: He could’ve said how they treated him! MABALON: How did you feel they treated him? PADILLA: Bad! They treated him like dirt. MABALON: Why do you think they treated him that way? PADILLA: Well he that’s another story and is he’s dead but, MABALON: No, you can tell us. PADILLA: Want to hear that one? RODRIGUEZ: We want to hear them all. MABALON: Let’s hear it all. PADILLA: He married Debi Vollmer (sp?). I recruited Debi Vollmer from D.C. Debi Vollmer then came out to Philip. Debi Vollmer was a lefty. She was trying to be very democratic, but we’re [union] not democratic. Cesar [Chavez] got paranoid, that’s an old [inaudible]. Cesar always thought that Philip was going to write a book against the union because Philip took notes in every meeting. He didn’t talk a lot. Philip was never like that. But he always took notes with his book, always taking notes. Cesar thought that he was trying to write a book against him. And then he said, “Debi was giving them the information. Debi was giving them the information. That Debi was a spy.” [4:54] PADILLA: What happened in that meeting was awful arguing meeting. Its in a book. MABALON: Mac Garcia’s book and Philip Vera Cruz’s book. When he is accused that he was going to write a book. PADILLA: So what? I mean, we all were gunning on Philip. We treated him like shit. MABALON: You feel you did too? PADILLA: Because I didn’t stop it, I stood there in silence. I was ready to leave too. I was ready to go. There must have been a hundred people, maybe fifty. The room was full and everybody was picking on him. And Philip just [inaudible]. Cesar wanted him to prove that Philip was a traitor. Well he got [inaudible] to write a little [inaudible]. A statement: Whatever is said here in this meeting should not be repeated. Everybody signed the sheet. He knew Philip was never going to sign it. MABALON: So he trapped him? PADILLA: He knew because Philip was already mad at him for the Filipino trip or the Philippine trip. And he treated him pretty bad. I feel bad. Although we became very good friends. He came visiting me, and I visited him till he died. MABALON: After you both left the union? PADILLA: I cussed everybody off. I was bad [inaudible]. But we kept a good friendship. MABALON: Can you talk about why both Larry [Itliong] and Philip left. But we’ll get to Larry in a little bit. But since we are talking about Philip, can you talk about the visit that Cesar made to the Philippines, how the board felt about it, how you felt about it, how you felt Philip, Larry, and Pete felt about that? PADILLA: It’s terrible! I was angry again because he was going crazy. He was going saying crazy things. I was trying to leave [inaudible]. I don’t want to follow. This is not what I joined for. Then he said, don’t [inaudible] I’m going to resign. And he called me in. We’ve known each other since the 50’s. We’ve worked together [inaudible] He says, “Lets go to the Philippines.” “[inaudible]” He says, “Well, from Mexico, we can go the Philippines.” I asked, “But why the Philippines?” “Because Andy Limutan (sp?) was close to Marcos.” Andy Mutan (sp?) means ranging [inaudible] in the Philippines. He said, [inaudible] He said, “Yeah.” You think you can talk to a Huk? Hukbalahap? “Yeah” “Ah okay.” During that time, my wife got really sick and I already had gotten my passport, I was really broke. So the [inaudible]. He came back from a meeting. He [Chavez] endorsed Marcos’s Marshal Law. And Philip, I mean Peter, “How can you endorse Marshall law?” And I say, “How can you endorse Marshall law? That’s oppression! You’ve been fighting this and…” and he tells me, “You don’t know,” I said, “Of course I don’t know!” Nobody there in the board agreed with that. [Pause] Nobody. [9:45] PADILLA: So they do to convince people, he had a meeting in the Delano at the high school and was full of people. [inaudible] Philip sat in the front. [laughs] [inaudible] He sat in the front. Philip went up to him and said, “I told you not to go to the Philippines, didn’t I?” And he said, “Yes, you told me.” But he brought, what’s his name, secretary of labor force from the Philippines. I don’t remember the name. MABALON: He brought government officials to speak in the high school about Marshal law? PADILLA: And then he brought him in the convention when we were at the convention. This was when they kicked out Debi Vollmer from the convention. I wasn’t there, I had already left. MABALON: You had already quit by then? PADILLA: It’s crazy! MABALON: How do you think some of the old Manongs felt? How did they feel about Marcos that the rank and file (sp?) membership. So, Philip was anti-Marcos; Pete was anti-Marcos, and Pete Velasco was also anti-Marcos. How about the rank and file (sp?) PADILLA: We were all anti-Marcos except for Renley (sp?). Renley was a hulk. RODRIGUEZ: What was Larry’s reaction? PADILLA: Larry was gone by then. MABALON: How did you feel about Marcos from what you remember? PADILLA: I was against him! MABALON: So all the executive board. Why do you think Cesar was so insistent that Marshal law was good? What was that all about? PADILLA: It’s like talking to, What do you mean, Marshal law is good? How can you say that? [Chavez says,] “You guys don’t know. Marcos have done something for land reform or some crap.” But don’t you know who Marcos is…? What are we fighting here? Oppression! Right? The underserved population of people who do not have rights. [inaudible] And you endorse that?? MABALON: And even Dolores Huerta? PADILLA: Oh Dolores Huerta would agree with Cesar on everything. [laughs] MABALON: Why do you think that is? PADILLA: I am not going to say it. MABALON: So you think, for Philip, that was the last drop? PADILLA: Yes. MABALON: What are your memories? Who left first? You or Philip? PADILLA: Philip. MABALON: What were the board’s reaction after his departure? PADILLA: Well they already cussed him out! [laughs] All of us! MABALON: So you figured it was going to happen that he was going to leave anyway? PADILLA: Yes. MABALON: How did the Filipinos react to him leaving? Rank and file. PADILLA: He left quietly. He left quietly like I did. MABALON: And Pete maintained relationship with him after? PADILLA: Yes. [inaudible] MABALON: Did Larry and Philip get along? PADILLA: Larry and Philip, no. MABALON: Why is that? PADILLA: I don’t know. I never asked them, but they didn’t get along. MABALON: What were their personality difference? Was it their personality, strategy, ideology? PADILLA: Philip had talked to him Larry “You know, Larry,” Larry said, “Philip, please! No, I don’t want to hear that.” He was in the board. [laughs] He was always mad at him. I don’t know. He didn’t tell me he did this without [inaudible]. I just knew they didn’t get along. MABALON: But they were close then? PADILLA: No. RODRIGUEZ: Maybe remember like a meeting or some kind of event where they had some kind of debate, do you remember anything like that? MABALON: There was no specific issue or anything that happened, you think that you saw. Even from the beginning of the strike they weren’t getting along? Or was this something that developed later? [15:00] PADILLA: I think this was something that developed later because I never knew until years later when they used to hang around with Philip. He told me that they don’t get along with Larry. “Larry doesn’t do this, Larry doesn’t do that.” MABALON: What was it that he doesn’t do? PADILLA: I don’t know. Work with the Filipinos or does not do more. MABALON: He [Philip] felt that he [Larry] wasn’t worthy of leadership, do you think? PADILLA: Yes I think so. MABALON: Interesting. In the Farm worker documentation project, that website, we were [inaudible] in someone that does it. [inaudible] He saw a gun in Philip Vera’s glove box. He asked him why he needed it. Philip said, “In case Larry pulls something on me at a meeting.” [laughs] PADILLA: I understood that, alright, family don’t get along. Why should big groups get along? Difficult. So I understand now. I [inaudible] in the 50’s with a lot of people. If you get 5 people in a room, everyone wants a corner. [laughs] MABALON: Let’s go back to that moment again that we were talking about. You were seating on the front row and hearing all this translations. Cesar has called you from Porterville to come to Delano. You said you were close with Larry so you had a relationship with him that goes back to Stockton [inaudible]. So tell us what happens next? PADILLA: Going back to the office of [inaudible], I told him that the Filipino home was packed! [inaudible] was there…But I knew most of them. What are we going to do, we have to join. He was nervous. We were very nervous. We’re going to have to call our members. [Padilla asks,] “What do you want me to tell Larry?” “Tell him we’re going to help.” [inaudible] paper. And we have our little cranky machines at that time. So we went back to Larry, we wanted to help. But no one can help you [inaudible], we can help with picketing. We can have our meeting with our members, and we call a strike. Filipinos, they have their caps and their rural [inaudible]. Mexicanos have their gauge (sp?). Pilipinos and Mexicanos, they didn’t work together. Very few work [inaudible] that their goal, Philip, then Larry, and Peter, [inaudible] recruit the people they work with. We went on strike with the Mexicanos. We were picketing over here. We were not together right, but we were. There comes a blue cursor (sp?) [inaudible] organization at Washington D.C. who was in charge of AWOC. [inaudible] The one that ran the organization was blue cursor (sp?) They hired el Green (sp?) Smith first [Inaudible] They also hired the Chicanos. MABALON: Hector (sp?), [inaudible] [19:52] PADILLA: Hector,…,…, Aguilar, … [inaudible]. They hired Anglo people to work with Anglos and blacks and stuff like that MABALON: Arabs too, right? PADILLA: Very few. Mostly of the Arabs were girls. So that’s how they were structured. It was structured differently. We had an association. We didn’t call ourselves a union. But we had a convention in 1962, and we adapted [inaudible]. We adapted the new structure. We adapted the main (sp?) and all that. But 9 out of us were officers. Philip was elected as [inaudible] general. I had thought and waited a bunch of my guys to be on the board. Maybe board of five people. They had to be farm workers. We [inaudible] were not officers. So Cesar was the director. In this organization, we built credit union, [inaudible] service center, that sort of thing. That’s where we were. And when the strike started, we were still an association. We had ideas of how we can organize, but to mention the beginning. But we organize a member; we organize a whole family. When we have a meeting, the whole family comes. Unlike the regular union where the [inaudible]. And we had other ways of doing things other than the tradition of the unions. Even though the AWOC had opened the doors for us, [inaudible] Filipino hall, sharing food. Cursor (sp?) was the one who made the decisions. Al Green was taking orders from Cursor. MABALON: You didn’t like Al Green? PADILLA: No. MABALON: Does Cesar like Al Green? PADILLA: No. MABALON: Nobody in NFWA (sp?) trusted Al Green? PADILLA: Well, Larry like El Green. RODRIGUEZ: You were talking about how you went at the Filipino hall, you saw all the Filipinos there, then you went back to report to see Cesar, and you said, “We got to help them, I told Larry we were going to help them.” Its interesting that in the Cesar Chavez film, they don’t portray you like that. PADILLA: That film is fiction. RODRIGUEZ: How did you feel about that when you saw that part of the film? PADILLA: Its fiction. [inaudible] body’s family. The film was not about what happened. It was offensive to me because to Larry, they just showed his face. How many Filipinos did you see in the film? RODRIGUEZ: Two. Maybe you could tell us a little bit more about how people were brought together. PADILLA: [inaudible] We were two groups right. We were together. **ENDING SESION Memory card is running out. RODRIGUEZ: We will take a little break. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Padilla (Gilbert) Oral History Interview Subject The topic of the resource Filipino American migrant agricultural laborers [lcsh] Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970 [lcsh] Labor union welfare funds [lcsh] National Farm Workers Association [lcna] Mexican Americans Retirees [lcsh] United Farm Workers [lcna] United Farm Workers Organizing Committee [lcna] Description An account of the resource Oral history interview with Gilbert Padilla Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Welga! Filipino American Labor Archives and the UC Davis Asian American Studies department holds intellectual control of the oral history interview, transcript and audio recordings. Usage is restricted for educational purposes only. Language A language of the resource English