Speaking in Bold is the interviewer: Emma

Speaking in plain font is the interviewee: Iris

Now recording on the phone drive your consort to… Do I have your consent to
record this conversation? Yes.
Do we have your consent to digitize this in the New Haven Heritage Center as well
as addition he website? Yes.
What is your full name? Blanca Iris A.
Where are you born? Yabucoa, Puerto Rico
What year? April 23, 1953
Who are your parents? My, you want names? Sure. My mother’s name was
Paula and my father's name was ______ My mother was homemaker and my father
worked for the water company. And can you tell me anymore about them? Well…
Like how did they meet? I don't know… they separated when I was five. Gotcha.
So, do you have any siblings? Yes, I have two brothers and two sisters.
Were you close with him when you were younger? Uhh, not really cause we…
We were separated so they probably with your father, or? No, actually we were
separated, and we were put up with all the relatives…
OK so do you have… did you have a lot of extended family around you in
Puerto Rico? I did and some cousins and grandparents… (Laugh) And were you very
close with them? I grew up with that my ahh mother's parent’s grandparents, my
maternal grandparents…
So, you saw a lot of your family? Uh. I was young cause I came here when I was
10 so I lost track of them while I was there… and I mean that was in the in the 50s early
‘60s so you had no way of, um, communicating with them… ahh. Yeah. (Dog barking)
What was your home like? (Dog scuffling) I mean for…. the times… it was
good, but I was young, so, you know, you appreciate what you had for your age. It is a lot
different than… here Yeah. You know, so, I grew up with my grandmother, well
actually, yes and with my brother, younger brother. And it, we… It was ok, we were
poor, and I was it was… good, with the little bit I can remember but that's all you knew…
So you have it you have it and you appreciate it until I moved here and I kind of…
(Shrug)
Sure, so, what was your favorite thing to do with a child in Puerto Rico? In
what? Puerto Rico, what was your favorite thing to do? (Laughs) Climb trees? that's
all you had… Yeah. …They were behind on the technology and back then they didn't
even have phones. Yeah. So, our favorites thing was to go to outside and climb trees
and play with….used to play with boys because I had my brother…. We used to make
our own fun… nature was fun… Yeah. …Go swimming in the river…. Try to catch fish
without… it what you call? Uhh a fish line? It was fun…
OK so we're gonna move onto questions more about America. So why did
your mother… who choose to bring you to the states? My mother. Your mother,
yeah. My mother remarried… I don't know whatever I guess my step-father and we
came here to Guilford in 1963. Ok. So, she brought four of us… My older brother, no
my younger brother stays with my father at that time he was living with my father. So,
we all came here, and we used to live on uhh, Whitfield Street, one of the oldest so
umm…. (Laughs)
Did you know any English when you came to the states? I mean, I did, just,
just basic, like down there, you have to in first grade. Yeah. Uhh, well even if it's your
basic “my name is”… so you don't know conversational, you know enough to say who
you are and where you live and... to get around? Smalltalk. Yeah, yeah, yeah…
How old were you when you came over you said you're done ten? Yes. What
do you remember about coming over? Well what do I not remember! (Laughs) I was
like shocked! Like I said, I'm talking the ‘60s where you didn't even have running water
and then then you come here and…. and it's like you just can/t get all over the fact that….
My biggest experience or whatever you wanna call it was like the lights on the
highway… Oh really? Like, when you're driving, and you have the lights, and
everything was so bright so it's like it's like a whole different world, but I say… as time
went by it… it was a whole different world because you get exposed things that, you
know, if you have a conversation with, with your parents you know… there… the way
they explain things and versus what you see is like… (sigh) It was good… I did a lot of
things at my age here that I'm sure I wouldn’t have had a chance to do there.
Experiences? I got my first bike I got it when I was maybe ten and a half, and I went out
and roam all of Guilford on my little bike versus there… You can’t afford to have a bike!
You know what I’m saying so… I did things like that… that, that you think about it and
say… you discuss things with your relatives that are there. Mhm. Like that's with you,
both this (America) are there and it was just like two worlds, what they talk about versus
what you know… is like… Yeah. That I missed out, that I missed that life… but it was
good… it was good, uhh, it was a good experience.
Do you think you had any kind of a culture shock? I can’t I don't know if at
ten, you can, you know it’s a culture shock… if you know enough to. But I, I guess you
adjust to whatever is in front of you, but I don’t know if at ten, I don't know if I can you
can. You know it's better, yeah, you know is it something that you probably would never
happen, but I did… I didn’t adjust to the school cause when I went to the school there
was nobody there… there was one person there that… that spoke Spanish (Laughs) and I
remember going to... I think it was third grade…. I can’t remember very well, and I get to
school this guy that speaks Spanish, he just doesn’t say a word. Mhm. So that to me was
not shocking but bothersome because now I'm in this huge building and I'm small… and,
um, I always remembered because I didn’t know how to get back home on the bus.
Yeah. So, I walked. I knew enough because since I came here it was July so it's summer
and have walked around enough to know and I did a dry run, so I walked home. And that
was the only thing that really stands out. That was something that at the moment… I'm
scared… But once I adjusted, I was fine. (Laughs)
What do you remember most about the process of coming over?
Probably the airplane but I… um... I was excited… The fact that I was gonna come and
live with my mom rather than with my grandmother. Mhm. But the whole process
was… Well the little bit I remember, well I remember I came here, me and my sister and
we were dressed the same and we both carried baby dolls that we… we held onto them
for years for some reason. I don’t know if it was the connection. Yeah. I remember
being thirteen and fourteen and hanging onto… It was one of those baby dolls that only
the eyes would blink. Oh yeah, like the eyes would move. And they had no hair it was
all pasted… So, I guess that was the connection to, to the change. Yeah. You know what
I’m saying? In your own mind, you even think that at ten that is a better life but, you
know. I remember we were dressed; we were dressed in blue jumpers that my aunt who
was a seamstress… Oh. …made for us. And… that’s another thing that my mother hang
onto those forever… but that part I remember cause I had never been on a plane. And
back then I think the ride was longer, like the process of coming, now I thing its three and
a half back then I think it was longer. But that process, I remember that, I remember
that, getting that dolls… I don’t remember what happened to it in the end, I think I out
grew it… (Laughs)
So um, you didn’t migrate with your father, who came with you?
No, my father didn’t come with me. Yeah, but who did? Umm, who came with all of
us? Yeah. It was all of us, it was my two sisters, my older brother, and myself. My
middle one (brother) stayed with my Father. So, is your mother already over here?
Yea she was already established here with my step-father. Umm, and the process, that
way, was hard because being separating at five we were put with different relatives.
Yeah. So, as siblings, we didn't know each other because the process was, lets see, I’m
talking, I five when they separated us and that so that's five years… Five years that we
lost… That’s a long time. Exactly, and I think we were like the ranges five years
difference the oldest to me… So, the whole process of being together in the same house
that was hard because you… you live in with strangers being that we were all like… they
were teenagers my sister, my sister was fifteen, I don’t remember… but anyways that
was… that was that processes. So it's different country, different environment with
strangers… Even though there are your blood, but you adjust, that was a hard time
because not for me like I said I was the youngest one so… I could care less what they
were doing. Ahh, it was a time where like my sister got married at 16. Oh, wow. My
oldest one I think she was the 17 or something, she eloped with her husband, so, and my
younger brother got married at 18… Who is in Puerto Rico? …No sorry my older
brother, my younger brother he never migrated with us, my older brother got married.
So, it was like you're together, but it’s not always fun… Yeah. Yeah, so… but, but back
then… that was not uncommon… for young lady to get married young, cause have the
same type of exposure to a location that you do now you learn more and women had
more rights! Right. (Laughs)… Back then, is like that's like when a man spoke, the
woman jumped. Yeah. But that’s the way it was so…but thank God you know all three
and my two sisters are still with their husbands. That's nice. I love it, but, but that's the
way it was back then so the exposure of being with the siblings… but you don't know
your siblings because you didn't actually grow up with them every day. That was an
experience. Do you think there's any reason that they married so quickly? I think it
was… I think was for the same reason, you know, that, that… what I think that they feel
like they were strangers in their home maybe they just felt like they needed more, umm,
close environment... It, it was… I don't know I mean we know we were close, yeah.
That was no part of… tearing us apart because in, in… Even with my mother, because
she lost five years you know, and she was she was she wasn't in the picture she had to
make do. So, she went from where we live, to the city when she became babysitter
maybe type of thing… So, I think the whole family unit was not really a family… I think
that that had like to do with it…
So, did any of the rest of your family come to America like extended family
or was it just you guys? I think I my side was the first… Like they come and visit here
but eventually but there would be relatives that you heard about it… (laughter) It was
like cousins of cousins, So distant, really distant. Some that eventually you heard that
they moved, married in, you know, some even came to the area. Oh. But other than that,
I think we were the first ones to come here, to, to, you know as we call it migrate.
What was your family's impression of America? Them? I think it wasn’t
probably the same as mine, because I was younger so I could see that like my… my
brother… he felt more they have more freedom… and, and when they have freedom, they
are they get the challenge... So, he thought he was a man of the house and he… He… I
don't know why it's hard to explain but if… I think about it, it was like it was like they
wanted to excel… Like my sister my older sister you know she look like seventeen days
at that she got here. Oh wow. And she had never met this guy… How did she find
him? Umm… When my mother was here. There used to at that time there was there was
three families… two or three families, Hispanic families… But there were single guys
that had come here to work for the farms like Bishops or Fonticello’s… So, what
happened was, they (local farmers) used to send them (Hispanics) airfare like early
March, and then somewhere in September, they would send them back, but then you get
to the point where these people did not go back, Yeah. So, they stayed here, and they
worked for like a foundry, so what happened was they become… they started renting
apartments and living together… OK. So, like… like… umm, so, then now they need
somebody to cook the meals and do their laundry and back then I mean they have to be
pressed. Yeah. That was my mother. Yeah. So, my mother used to be like the
homemaker, and she used to cook in shifts for this people and she used to press their
clothing so she could... she could get paid for it. So, this is how I met… that's how we
met, my first husband and married and I was 16… but… so, this is how my sister…. My
older sister her husband cause I think seventeen days. (Laughs) Wow! And I think had
to do with the environment, you know that my two sisters, I remember they didn’t get
along, so I think that was part of an easy way out, Mhm. but she still with him and is this
been, I… I can’t even tell you how many years… 63. Wow, that a long time. It is a
long time! (Laughs) If it works it works.
Ahh, so is America very different from what you expected? Well like I said,
at ten you can’t tell the difference. Umm, as you grow it’s different… because I have had
the privilege of going back-and-forth since I was young… I will visit Puerto Rico and
from my perspective… now and then… I think it was different I think it's… it's like they
say, it’s the land of opportunity. Umm, I don't think I would have had the same
opportunities to become who I am now had I not been exposed or brought here because,
because it is what it is you know? That the level of education, the exposure to the
different things that you don't have there, not that I’m putting my country down, even
though we are a commonwealth country in… we have a little bit, not 100% privileges
that everybody has here, it’s not the same… Yeah… you know what I'm saying? You
have made me a 60% of it… and if you want to take avenge of it… it good for you, but it
is still here if you have that hundred percent and there's just no excuses not to excel.
Yeah. You know, what to say it's your choice whether you want to get a head of what
you want to sit there and feel sorry for yourself and I chose not to feel sorry for myself.
But I had the opportunity to do it. Had I been in Puerto Rico, I probably would’ve, me, I
probably would've fought for it, I don't think I would get as far as I have, you know what
I mean? Yeah. It's up to you, people say you can do with what you have, but sometimes
it’s not enough… Yeah. I am, I've done what I had to do to survive, but it was there for
me to choose. But some people don't have the choices. I had them and I took advantage
of them. So yes, it's… it's America is the land opportunities so you can’t sit back and feel
sorry… to say “buts” or “I can't” you can't, you can’t unless you try. I try I get an
education; I work hard at my job; I always try to move up like… Yeah. I get bored, so I
have… I have to succeeded in my own way. Ehh, you know, people see things from their
different perspective, me, I can say I did what I had to do. I’m 66 so I can retire.
(Laughs) I ain’t gonna do much more. But yes, America is the land of opportunities for
those that want to take advantage of it.
So, where did you and your family go after you first arrived here? So like
when you first got off the plane, where did… where are you where did you go? How
long did it take for you to get to Connecticut, kind of thing? Jeez… I don't even
remember we were picked up I remember that and went straight to Guilford…Like I said,
it was nice, and the lights were so bright, and I was in the back seat, and I remember there
were no seat belts back then. (Laughs) I remember just sitting there looking up though
the back because I was so… I guess the world would be overwhelmed with all these
bright lights… I always remember getting up the next day and I used to live hear the rail
road tracks I mean the distance between our front door and the rail road tracks… it wasn’t
even… quarter of a mile. Ok. And I had never seen a train in my whole life (Laughs).
and yes, I remember… They’re loud. Well, yes, I remember waking up and it was so
close that the cabinet doors would rattle, and you could feel them and, and… I remember
first thing in the morning looking at the window cause back then, they were scary… And
I was like, those big box were moving by the house! (Laughter) But it was so close... I
always remember that was that was at eight but then it just became… Part of life,
yeah… Yeah, but I don't remember much of in-between… I know we… we were arriving
at Kennedy Oh, that’s very close! Yeah, yeah, yeah… so that I don’t remember who
picked us up or anything…it’s just the lights, the lights… (Laugh)
OK so what was the process of coming to Connecticut, you said your mother
was already here, so it was probably a little simpler. I don't know exactly; I know
them I am by mother and my step-father and they decided to come here, and then next
thing I knew…. I, we were… being packed up and shipped out… Yeah. I don't know the
whole process cause I was too young to really care or pay attention. So, when I know it's
a whole… whole… idea was to get her kids, to give her purpose. I came here in ‘63…
July ‘63 my mother was 65 and she went to the dentist, they took an x-ray and they said
that she had tumors… umm, I remember that. They said that she should come back, right
away, she came back she had cancer…. she had… uhh… leukemia… She was treated at
Yale New Haven, but so my mother died January ‘67 so I went back… Oh. There's a
little story… I was here I went to Calvin Leete, then to middle school… My mother gets
sick they did surgery but nobody…. nobody spoke…. nobody spoke Spanish in the
professionals, nobody spoke English, like my mother didn’t speak English. Yeah. So, I
used to go to New Haven with my mother, they pulled me out of school, so I used to go
to New Haven… It used to be Grace… It wasn't Yale … you know the name of that… it
was then…. (pause) anyways ,the name of the hospital was called Grace in New Haven…
So, I used to go there with her, for all of her treatments… we used to… the visiting
nurses used to take us to New Haven. So, I used to do all that, but umm, even to this day
I hate going to hospitals… Anyways, so I traveled to New Haven with my mother for
chemo for many years many, many… many months not years. There used to be two
Doctors in the town of Guilford, used to be Elizabeth Adams and Martin Fink. Elizabeth
Adams was my mother’s she was everybody’s doctor…. (Laughs) her and Dr. Fink. But
she used to come to the house, and ah, she used to come and see her… One day I went to
Dr. Fink with her and I remember cause I was so young, and he told me, “Your mother is
dying, there’s nothing we can do for you”. Oh my God. I was… what was I, I don’t think
I was even twelve? But he couldn’t tell her, cause she didn't understand! Yeah. So, I
went to… I don't know why I went to him, with her and he said, “There’s nothing we can
do for her.” So, at that point we decided to take her back to the island and I went with it
because everybody else was married. So, we put her in Puerto Rico… It used to be like a
cancer center… Gotcha. But it, it, it…. was like in the city… and I was in the country do
so she we put her there, and she died home, we took her home… That’s nice… And it
was 14, yeah, she died at 67 so I was thirteen and turned fourteen.
When did you make it back to the states? I stay with my father for a year after
that, I stayed a little bit with my aunt, I had issues cause I was stubborn and wouldn’t let
people push me around… and as an orphan, that was their motto, “No.” I was a rebel,
I’ve always been a rebel, if I don’t like it, I’ll tell you. (Laughs) So, they ended up
sending me to…. Ok. I ended up running away, packed up my stuff and back then you
had to take public transportation, so I ended up going to my Dad…. I went to my Dad and
I lived with my Dad for a year… but my father was a womanizer, and he liked his ladies,
and I was in the way! (Laughs) Anyways, I ended up, he sent me back here when I was
fifteen…. No actually it was a sixteen in April. I came here to live with my older sister…
Came here July of ‘69 and I get married December ’69… I was 16… But… but like I
said back then, that’s what you did. Full blown up wedding at umm, sixteen… The
priest said, “We didn’t know that, you were too young!” But that’s the way it was. Yeah.
And I have my two beautiful children, my older kids, so I got nothing to… it was what it
was, and that was that… So, once again that's it's, it's, it's, you make up your life like you
want, you like to feel sorry for yourself, or you move on. So that was it, I had my two
kids and moved on.
Ok… umm, ok we can skip that one, so what grade did you start in school
here? Hmm… I was ten so third grade, I went to Calvin Leete. Mhm, my mom went
there. Oh yeah? Yeah. (Laughter) Mr. Barnes was a principal, yeah, I went there, and
then I went to Adams. and then I quit cause I had to go back with my mom, I went to
Puerto Rico in… because of the schools here you were there the way you like almost to
two grades ahead of them at the time. In the US or in Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico.
You’re two grades ahead. If you go from, from here to Puerto Rico, in knowledge is
like two grades ahead like for instance, if your fifth grade over there, that is seventh grade
education here. So, when I went there, they kept, they kept pushing me, pushing me they
could give me the advanced test, so by the time I came back , when my father sent me
back, I had jumped from… When I was there, they were supposed to out me in fifth
grade and they pushed me to seventh grade. Then in seventh grade, they give me an
aptitude test at school, and I ended up… there were putting me into high school. Then
they gave me a scholarship, you know how they give them here for the technical school?
Yeah. But then I never went and when I had a 4.0 well at that point… But then my father
(points her finger behind her, referring to being sent back to America). When I came here
after, I went to Wilbur Cross so I was the great make me, but he was there, but I told you
it's a strange place to be in here… When you're a child. Like you don’t know, but it made
me stronger… definitely.
 So, did you find a difficulty because you're speaking a second language? Yep,
when I first came here? Well, yeah, cause there's nobody… (Laughs) cause there was
nobody here to…. Even though like, I didn’t know enough to know…even if we have
enough guts to go to somebody… I didn't know if I could have asked them enough for
them to understand what I was trying to get to so, I would think between the barrier
between knowing and maybe shy… That was then but, I don't know, you know. As a kid
you're adjust so fast to your environment that I think within the month I felt like one of
them (Laughs). I don't let things into my way, so I think that as a child and I make,
Mhm. You know, I like, I had good friends that they took pity on me when I was used to
talk to them, but I know I had friends, and I was outside playing so I must've done… If I
don't think of the language with them, I just pointed! (Laughs) Kids have their own…
Yeah. Language in the room so I was but with if I didn't know I put it, so I was fine with
it but. Did you feel welcome by classmates? I don't know. I mean because there wasn't
that many of Hispanics in the mix. Ok. I, I don't remember what the whole… I mean I
wasn’t miss-treated; you know? I wasn’t bullied… but I don't remember exactly how they
reacted, but I said, teachers were wonderful. Yeah. You know, so I don't remember
being uncomfortable, and like I said, it all has to do with your personality because you
know even though I kept looking at the clock! (Laugh) Cause, you know, I wanted to go
home! It’s, it's hard. Yeah. Because you see pictures and you know what you’re talking
about, but you don't when they start using big words that you don't understand... Mhm…
So, you stay in that club and that was my friends, but then you know what I said, like
within a month or so. It is what it is. It was good.
So, what was high school like? I didn't go to the high school. Ok. Because like I said,
between being pulled out of school and then go, go back to Puerto Rico. I miss time here
and I missed time, but it was like…. it wasn't normal. Yeah, if you jump from so many
grades… Jumping in, so and then the fact that I got married so young. Yeah. And also,
my goal was, I was going to get a high school diploma one way or another… So, I went
to I took the GED test in Wilbur Cross in New Haven. Ok, and how old were you?
Well, let’s see, my daughter was born, she was born on March 18, so I was nineteen or
twenty, but I was determined, I'm going to do it, and then I went to Middlesex
community college in the late 80s. Then I had to do what I had to do.
So, was school here very different from Puerto Rico? From what I can remember it
was more strict… like in Puerto Rico, what I can remember, there’s no school buses. Not
in the community that I was in… Umm, there is more freedom in it, so based on the
environment, cause its nice and warm you can go outside between the teaching… To, to
be fair I think they're a little bit slower… but then again, it's somebody that doesn't know
the difference, Yeah? can’t make that judgement call. I could, because I knew at that
point of the difference but… that was it. Yeah. I could tell (Laughs) I could tell cause
what they were teaching versus what I knew was like… I remember that, you know. But I
loved school, so when you like school, things did come easy to me, the only thing that
didn’t come easy was math. Everything else was easy to me, but math, that I had work at
it because everything else came easy to me, I could spend the time on math. So, I
remember having this, this, this… heavy set teacher, and I remember him and I going at it
because… he taught math… and like I said it wasn’t my strong suit. And I remember
him, and I remember thinking like “I learned that in fifth grade!” and I called him out
and he said, “What do you mean” and I said, “This is, this is seventh grade, you should be
teaching harder… (Laugh)” And then because I was young, I didn’t know the difference,
I couldn’t at that point, at that time. Yeah. (Whispers something). And I remember like,
he would give me the homework (makes sound imitating her fast math work) and believe
that it or not, he was one of the ones that at the end of the first semester, I would say,
that's the one that went to the principal, and said to the principal, “She needs to move on
because of her knowledge.” So later on, you know, he had, he talked to all the other
teachers to see if my behavior on their class was the same (Laugh). They said “Now that,
she's just way ahead”… Getting to the subject of the school, it is… it's more freedom,
but the rules of engagement… it is a different school. Every school, elementary, middle
school, in high school is strictly used strictly in your uniform. So, like I remember
elementary was blue and white, middle school was brown and white, and in high school,
had a choice of maroon or a gray. When there is a student out in public, the world stops.
Really? Respect, and to this day that’s the way it is. When those kids get let out of
school because there's no buses, so they're going to mingle, they going to be everywhere.
They go to get from point A to point B somehow and that's by walking. Yeah. A student
down in Puerto Rico… is like sacred. You see a student you stop. Okay. And they stand
out, so the respect, the protection, how they protect him and is different so is the school,
different… So, from that perspective, this is very different and very people look out for
them.
Do you think that's because they're there learning or do you think that's
because they're young? What do you mean? Do you think there's so much respect
for a student because they’re… in education or do you think it's because they're like
a young person? Because they’re a protector, education obviously has a lot to do with it,
because obviously that's the purpose of the uniform, so they stand out. Then you know
this kid is in school, but also cause they’re protective of their young, yeah, they protect
them. But when it comes to that, and we had talk to you about uniforms, they stand out
they protect them… and it doesn't matter who it is, it could a younger person to an older
person…and a student is sacred. And in… (Laughs) if it starts school, and you’re not in
school, somebody is gonna ask you, why are you not at school, why are you here? See
what I’m saying? Yeah. So, it goes both ways. Yeah. They're going to protected you,
but in the same token, say to you “you need to go to school you don't need to be hanging
around the streets” so that's a good part of the uniform because yeah cause you cannot get
away with just cutting school. Mhm. …and it doesn't, matter in my experience, it
doesn't matter who you are it doesn’t have to be a relative, it just best to be somebody
that cares for you schools open… what do you do? Yeah. I got caught up in…. wait
no… I got caught up and I remember this person… this, this, this elderly lady, I'm
thinking like “oh I don't have an excuse” because I was I was supposed to be school
classes well that was a lesson cause you never know who is going to tell on you, but the
education is… how would I out it, it’s put a higher level but is, once again, is, is, is, is,
what they had versus yeah what kind of, uhh, books… But I guess or you put… But I
liked it there too, cause here in the winter time, I look out and see snow, and I’m like
“Ohh, gonna get my feet cold.” (Laughs) So it’s two lives, there’s the one here, it’s the
one there. Which to me is like, what an experience, what a ride! (Laughs)
Did you go to school with many immigrants or no? Here? Yeah. No, no other
than Frank. Frank? Frank, Frank Rivera, he didn’t talk. And when I tell you he didn’t
talk, he didn’t talk. And he was one of the original families of him in it I think with some
seven boys and one girl. Ok. And then there was another family, just two others of what
you call family units in the town of Guilford, when I came here. So, no there was no…
there was no bilingual teachers there, like you had to do it you had to do… Yeah. Which
to me, from my perspective, makes you stronger. I feel that if you come here this
country, you should learn the rules. I have nothing against people being helped, but I
have a problem with people that expect it, because they’ve been handed it, you know
what it saying? So… but people say to me… we come here and no, there was no such
thing back then, there's no… no bilingual teachers. Yeah. There was one lady here in
the summer time… to give her name, Lucy, Mrs. Fairah that Lady used to live on River
Street in the town on Guilford. She was not a teacher I don’t think she was, he husband
was a teacher in the high school… That Lady took to the people, like us... like my sister
and she used to take us places. She had one of those Volkswagen busses and, like, in the
summer, she used to come pick us up and take us out to Sachem's Head (Guilford Ct.) to
some… There was like a… It was almost like a nursery school, but it had a playground,
and that lady spoke Spanish. Oh. And she did and sometimes… But back then there was
no thing about, you can’t go with strangers because doing it was gonna hurt you, it was
such a kind environment, there wasn’t like, that much… Like fear? Exactly, yeah, you
know it was like, and she is going with us in the summer, and she would take us
swimming… (Laughing) She used to take use to take us to a nursery school up in
Sachem’s Head, and she was everybody's grandmother yeah she used to go up to, even
Spanish masses and she used to go. So, she was like an icon to the Hispanic because
it's… as time went on the single guys now getting married, they bring their spouses, bring
their mothers so then we became Hispanic populations that are growing in the town of
Guilford somewhere around the early 70s. Other than that, there's no buddy reaching out
and saying… No, you suck it up then yeah you know there was no excuse. “I can't
understand it”, you know, you have to go home get the dictionary Spanish English
dictionary, that's what we did. And my sister… my sister was in high school too, so she
was she was going to the same thing, and there was no so we deal with he had to do it.
And I look at the difference between then, and the difference between the expectation, is
that… some people make me mad I don't judge them, but I don't know with… Yeah.
You know, don't come here and expect things to be what you lived before. that's how I
feel because I know that we struggle yeah, we made it, it wasn’t a freebee. So, when I
hear what people look and do, I judge him, maybe? I just disagree.
So, let's go down to… What was your first job? My first job… my first job was
when I went to live with my sister, I went to work a place in Westbrook (name of
company) they made belts on the second floor, you know, out of scratch and then we put
on the buckles… I worked in Westbrook right next to where the Westbrook outlets are...
I was… I didn’t have a Social Security because back then it wasn't required for you to
have a Social Security… until I guess my daughter was born and my sister got it for me.
Umm, so of all of your jobs, what was most important to you? Well I worked
for packaging for UPS… and I left there well so I went to work, and uhh, I did everything
possible… So, I get bored, if I get bored, I would move up so every time I would put a
bid in (for a new position). So, I ended up a supervisor, I liked the job because I liked
people, I liked helping people, and my policy was always open door, so you help people
that you work with, and you… you… you see them grow, you know? At that time I
would say 80% of my people were Hispanic because I went to the agency and they made
a point of sending me Hispanics, and I had no problem with it because, to me, I was
helping them in them because they all spoke Spanish and I don't have a problem with
that… Mhm. There were times… I was staying at that job, to me was, I look at myself as
somebody that can help other people... My relationship with my employees is one of the
better, than you if you have issues… and I can help, I was helping them with like the
scheduling… Letting me know if they come in second because they have… whatever
issues again with them and, so, they knew that that was important to me… Yeah. So, the
day that I was let go was sad, but I had to really let them go ahead to others things, but it
was a big point to me and I'm a sure that when those people… I gave them the slip… that
they will place, a different location… That was my biggest job here (UPS)…
Have you ever felt any kind of discrimination? I never felt any sort of
discrimination… because I have a big mouth and I don't tolerate to much of nonsense. I'll
tell you what I think it doesn't mean… I'm better than you… So only one time… I
remember being discriminated and it went right to my face (motions towards her face)
that I was doing a job… I think I was scheduling on the floor… and there was a certain
person… umm… Yeah? He was Italian and he was in charge the department, of the
finishing department, and there was an opening… a job opening which is a higher
position control… Which is a higher position. Ok. I put in for the job… and so did this
other lady from another country, elderly at the time… So, when I put in the bid… I ask
Charlie mind you I worked there for years. He said to me “You're Hispanic…” “Yeah?”
“…and I don't think that you can understand what it takes to do the job”… ok… “And
why is that?” “Well, because you're Hispanic and not as educated…” I said, “Ok…” I
said “You realize what you’re saying? First of all, who are you putting in that position?”
“(Last name of another employee)” and I said, “Well now what’s her experience?”
“She’s a machine operator” “You’re taking her from machine operator, and you’re
putting her in a scheduling situation, where she has no idea what she’s doing?” I said,
“I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna take your ass to the front office, and you’re going to
explain this to the big guy in the corner why you said that I can’t get this job.” Mhm…
“I said it’s called discrimination.” I said, “But then again, you're not educated enough to
know what that means” (Laugh) Good for you! And I explain to them… “Being
Hispanic, or being…” I think she was from the Netherlands or something… “Being
Hispanic has nothing to do with it…” Yeah. “It has to do with who is more qualified to
do the job.” I said, “You can't base in advancement and a person based on their ethnic
background!” Yeah. I said, “Whether you treat me like that, are you going to say the
same thing to her?” I said “That’s discrimination, and I’m gonna give punches… Don't
give me the job… because I don't want the job if I have to... to… prove myself in that
way.” And I sided, “I don’t want the job, but this is what I’m gonna do to you.” I said,
“PU her in the job, let her prove herself, and then we talk.” “Yeah as of the next time
you pull that on me,” I said, “I will take it to the labor board” I said to him. Oh, my god!
I would be sitting in that office instead of him. (Laughs) That's the only time that I have
gotten to the point where I have to fight… Yeah. Just… just… I don't care, but it's just
that kind of energy that I have experienced. Yeah. It's BS… Yeah. It’s like… it… it's
not gonna get me… getting anything out of it… how I’ve hurt other people… yeah, cause
I’ve stepped in and said that’s not right. And say, you know that's not right… Yeah…
But me personally, that was the one and only time they hit me… and if he's here to read,
and uhh... and I told him a message and he was nasty… he should treat the people that
work for him with respect. Just gotta learn to step it up. Yeah. (Shrugs)
 Were almost done. So, do you have a strong connection to Puerto Rico? How
so? In a spiritual way almost? Well yeah, because I was born there and so it's… it's…
it's my country… I believe that it could be better. The fact that, like I go visit… that…
Yeah. …They sit on their tush, and they don't make it better… It's like I told you before,
don’t expect people to hand you things, you have to work for them. I find that my
country has lost its… its… values… You know what I'm saying, because by traveling
back-and-forth all my life. Life for instance, Puerto Rico is an agriculture country…
You, you, you have the means to do it, but your too frickin’ lazy. Cause they rather sit on
their butt, cause they want to go to McDonald's and get a burger and then you crying that,
“Oh my God, I don't have food stamps” all you need to do is go within, grow some food.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying, so I'm proud to be who I am…. but that said, my
country has gone to a place where, your losing your values, losing who you are, your so
into getting things for free. They will you ask, “Do you want to be a state?” “No.” Then
what the hell do you wanna be?” Yeah. You know… You want the benefits, but you
don't want to… You know what I mean? I have a brother, and he grows the vegetables,
he grows the fruits, (Dog barking- losing some recording) Why don’t they grow, they
don’t know (how)… They have lost who they are. Yeah. Going to Puerto Rico right
now… it's like going America, its McDonald’s, its Walgreen’s, its CVS… Is it they've
lost their identity, exactly? is not the pharmacy in the corner by the mamma and papas
store though the stand in the clinic would do is selling the home-grown vegetable they
don't…. That’s what aggravates me, we lost who we are to become who were not. That's
why I lose my cookies… because he's like uhh “No, don't complain.” Then don't wait!
You have to go to Government to get your food stamps, so you know what… (sighs) I
hate the food I see that goes to waste because nobody wants to buy it… preferred to, ahh,
go to Walmart and not buy fruit from Santo Domingo… So, when I go there, because I
came from a farmer and as a kid, I enjoyed that, or going with my family and digging
holes and put seeds in it, but I remember growing food there, but they cry “Poor Me!
Poor me!” This is Home. This is my home. That's just the place that I was born.
Uhh, so just last one… With our current administration in the US, how do
you feel they're handing handling immigration? I think once again I see, I see, I see
the people who’ve come here… I think that they get a bad rap… I think that if you turn
the news on and a Spanish name, but you can't judge one by all and all by one… And I
think the separation of families… that's just beyond…. I don't think that a child should
pay for the mistakes of a parent… and no matter what, no matter what, families have to
stay together for the good of a pack. Absolutely. You take a child away from a parent,
you're not punishing the parent… here you actually punishing the child…. and then not
only did you take a child away, you're not providing the child with, with, with what they
need. Are you treating them as you want them to be? I see, I see that it would be hard to
try to go back… I don't know the situation… I've heard that the situation is bad. It is
bad… Yeah, you know it's bad… and I, I mean the administration that we have now… I
don't get it… I think that this… this…. this whole administration has to go in the trash,
but umm, I think they will regret this… Families that will never be back together in come
of the cases. So what do I think of it? It sucks, ….can you imagine looking at the face of
a child who is searching for the parent, who's hungry. They said that girls are getting
raped…. Yeah, that’s true. This is this is out of control. (Pause) Well, thank you.
You’re welcome. I am ending our recording now.