Selected interview transcript

This interview transcript has been modified for clarity and conciseness.

Esta entrevista fue conducida en inglés. Para leer versión en español de las preguntas y respuestas, haga click aquí.

What brought you to the San Joaquin Valley?

My parents brought me from Mexico. 

How long have you been living here in the San Joaquin Valley? 

Like 20 years

Can you share a little bit on how you got here?

I was 9 years old when my parents brought us from Mexico. They brought us on a van. I guess we stopped at Tijuana, and they pass us through there. They passed me and my brother separately, and my mom was waiting for us there. I don’t know the guys who brought us here. I just know that we were put in a van and then we were here. 

Do you know why your parents decided to bring you here from Mexico?

I know they wanted something better. They wanted a better life for us. My dad came here first, and I guess he liked it so he sent out for my mom, and siblings. 

Do you have any memories from Mexico and how it compares to life here?

Mexico is just hard. Houses are made out of rocks and many houses just had dirt inside or cement. I remember the main roads and I still can remember to move around the area if I were there. 

Do older generation of you family talk about life before they moved to the San Joaquin Valley?

No, I don’t think so. They do say that in Mexico is hard. The way I see it is that in Mexico the money is less, but here you need to work harder to get what you want. 

Can you describe all the different locations that you have been living in ever since you arrived?

Yes. When I first got here it was my whole family and my uncles living in one small house. It was my parents with five kids and my aunt and uncle with their kids. We were sleeping by the kitchen. That was the first place. 

Then we moved into an apartment, which we ended up sharing as well. But at the beginning it was just my parents and my siblings. From there we moved to another house, it was small, but it was better because we had a very big yard. Then we moved into another house which was bigger but that is the last I remember

Do you know what caused all these moves?

First we were very tight, and we didn’t have the money to get our own place. After the first move we were better, but the area was not that good. So, we moved to a better area. I remember my uncle moved to that house before us, and I think they were renting the house in front of us. We were also looking for something bigger because the house was small for us. 

We were in that house for a long time, after that we moved. I know that my family moved again, but I was not living with them at that time. 

Besides your home, what other place is very important to you in your community? 

School. Also, the reason why we moved to this a apartment was that there was a Church right next to it. But now since the pandemic started, we moved to a different Church. I remember I really wanted that apartment because Church was there, and my job was close. My husband’s job was like 6min away too. Everything was so close. There are two parks nearby, and a shopping center. We can walk everywhere. 

Over the past 10 years how has your quality of life improved?

I have seen a lot of improvement. 10 years ago, I was with my parents, now everyone has a better place to live, if we consider where we started. I always tell my daughter to be thankful because she has a room, and she has everything she wants and needs here.  When I was little, we shared one room for five kids and there was not enough space for everyone. There was no room for toys, we had hardly anything. But now we have so much more.  We are way better. I have my own car. I came here knowing no English, now I am trying to get my kids to speak Spanish. I think our life has improved a lot. We have put efforts in what we want and what we need. 

Where do you want your kids to be when they grow up?

I want my kids to be good in school. And in an area where there is not a lot of homeless, drugs or drinks. I have seen many gangs on the streets, so I want them to be in an area where they won’t be running into trouble. I want them in a safe place, and where they can do good for one another.

You mentioned that you go to Church, what is the role this plays in your daily life?

For me, going to Church is praising God as much as we can. My husband’s parents are the Pastors at this Church. I am involved at everything at Church, we do everything, we do classes for kids, there are singing lessons. I used to work on the kitchen area. Now since we moved to this Church, we don’t have an actual kitchen, we only have a dining area. But in the other Church we had a kitchen and we used to make food every Sunday. Now because of the pandemic we are there only for two hours, but before the pandemic we used to be there from 4:00pm to 10:00pm. It was an hour of worship, then we would eat and hang out with other people. But I go to Church three days of the week -Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday-. We do study through zoom now. My kids go to Church school, and they are taught about God. 

My kids sometimes they sing on the worship team. But my daughter serves there, she plays the piano. 

Have you have any experience, or your family has, working in the agricultural industry? 

Yes, my husband used to work in the fields. He ended up working for a year and a half in diary. Also, me, I didn’t work on the fields, but I used to work on a packing place when I was 16. It was during the summer. My brother has worked on the fields. And my dad worked for a short time. 

The work on the fields is not an easy job, it is very laborious. How would you describe the compensation of working out in the fields? Was it something that satisfied your financial needs or was it not paid enough? 

I don’t remember who much I used to get pay. But sometimes they would allow us to take fruit home. I remember I was happy with my paycheck. My mom worked there too, I remember that every time they gave us fruit, she would open the it and we would love it. But working in the fields is hard. Specially when you need to climb the trees to bring the fruit down, or check which fruit is good or which is not. Carrying those ladders to the fields are heavy, you get home very tired. 

Think back 10 years ago. How did that day look like? Where would you go? What would happened after you got home? When did you start the day?

When I was 15-16 years old, I was working in the Packing Houses, so I needed to wake up early, around 5:00am to be there at 6:00am. Sometimes I had to wake up at 4:00am to be there at 5:00am. 

Waking up and getting ready was the hardest part. Then in there during the winter months is freezing and you still have to work. We usually had a break. For example, back then I was doing peaches, and you know they have little hairs on them? I would be working with them and after a while it itches. On the job we were all around the trees and the dirt, but we usually took breaks under trees in the shade. 

In the afternoon we would go home and take a shower and remove all the peach residue because it itched. Then we would just rest. The only time we would have a break was our 30min break. They used to give us 10min breaks but we were just standing there. We would get home very tired so we would sleep after work. There were times that they would tell us to leave the fruit that was not good in the trees, but I was so tired I had a hard time differentiating between a good fruit and a bad one. It is very tiring. 

Do you rely on any family or community support or resources to get through your typical day? 

Participant 14: When I didn’t have my car, my sister would give me rides. My family has supported me.  Actually, the lady that owned the car that I own now wanted to give me the car for free. But it was under her daughter’s name. So, the daughter knew I could afford it so I ended up paying for it. It was very cheap, she let me have it for $2,000.  But before the car, my sister and the Church community would help me out with rides. Or they would help out buying groceries. 

After I got the car, they were said to give the payments whenever I was ready and to not rush it. They waited for me. And there was a time that my dad got COVID and he was in my house for a while, and the old owner of the car said to me not to worry because she knew my dad was sick and staying with me so to hold up the payments until he was ok and out of my house.  While my dad was sick with COVID I had many siblings helping with the expenses too. 

Think about a scenario where you are the Major of Visalia or elected as part of the Board of Supervisors with unlimited power to make any change you want in your community. What would the three priorities in your agenda be?

There are many issues around where I live. Maybe the police. There are shootings. Sometimes you see police cars passing by, but sometimes they are not where they need to be. 

I would pay more attention to the roads because they get very bad. Sometimes I go places and I see a lot of construction, but the roads need a lot of work.