Culiacan Sinaloa Mexico

The courage and strength of a migrant

            The person I interviewed for this project is my father. It is my wish and his to not have his real name disclosed so for the purposes of this interview I will give him a different name and I will call him Joe. We met in his home for the interview and we sat alone in his living room. He was very happy to share his story with me. We spoke both English and Spanish since we are both fluent in English and Spanish. In this story you will learn about a man who came from Culiacan Sinaloa, it is a state in the far south of Mexico. You will learn about a man who fulfilled many dreams and overcame many obstacles throughout his life in the United States. Joe lives in a small three-bedroom home.  Our interview took place in his living room home. The following story is Joe, narrating his own story.

The first time I came to the United States was in the year 1949. I was 11 years old. I came from Culiacan Sinaloa, Mexico with my mother and three sisters. I was born in Culiacan Sinaloa, Mexico with my mother and three sisters. I was born in Culiacan Sinaloa, Mexico. We came on a train to Mexicali Baja California, Mexico. We stayed with an uncle and his name was Antonio Zamora. He was my grandmother’s brother. From Mexicali we took a train to Algodones called “el pachuco.” When we arrived to Algodones we waited until it was dark and then we would cross the border through a bridge. An American guy named “Suny” used to give us work and we would pick cotton for him. He would pay us 2.5 cents per cotton. We would sleep in little houses made of cachanilla. They were little shacks that migrants made to sleep in. When the cotton season was over we would go to a town called Roll. We would ride with Suny in his truck. In Roll we would pick lettuce and we would stay there until the lettuce season was over. In Roll we would sleep on the edge of a canal with our blankets. During this time I met my future boss his name was Jimmy Barcley. Jimmy was one of the guys that contracted migrants to work for him. After some time I was able to buy my first Levis jeans. I paid $3.10 for my first pair of Levis jeans. When the cotton and lettuce season was over we went back to Culiacan Sinaloa. Four years later when I was about 15 years old I came back with a contract and permit to work in the United States for 6 months. When I came back I hitchhiked back to Mexicali Baja California and then to El Centro California. I remember at the border there was a powder that was used to shower the migrants with and it was used to disinfect us and to kill lice so we wouldn’t carry any germs back to the United States. When we arrived to El Centro California there were several thousand migrants that arrived at the same time. Jimmy Barcley picked 160 braceros and I was among them. First I picked cotton for about 2 months then they needed someone to drive a tractor but at the time contracted people were not allowed to drive, the only thing we were allowed to do was labor work. Since they needed someone to drive and I knew how to drive the tractor they let me do it. After that Jimmy was very happy with me and he renewed my permit for another 6 months so I could stay and work for him. After working for him for 1 year Jimmy told me to go get a lawyer so I could get my citizenship. So I got a lawyer but I had to go back to Culiacan Sinaloa in the meantime.

I never had a problem finding a job in Mexico. I knew how to fix cars as a mechanic because I always paid attention and I watched other mechanics work on cars. I was nosy that way.  I also knew how to drive and I was a chofer for a while before I came to the United States. I didn’t have a problem finding a job the problem was finding a stable job and a job that paid enough. What we made barely paid for food to eat. There were no stable jobs in Mexico and where I come from Culiacan Sinaloa it rains a lot so on the days that it would rain there were no jobs. You need to have a good education in order to have a stable job otherwise you struggle. My mother did not have enough to send all of her kids to school she had to work in order to provide the bare minimum for us to eat. Primarily my grandmother raised me because my mom had to work so much. I had to go to work at a young age. I only had 3^rd grade education in Mexico.

I arranged my papers through the lawyer and I came back to the United States through Nogales and the U.S. gave me a Mica de Imigracion in order for me to enter the United States. When I started working again in the United Sates for Barcley I made 72.5 cents an hour. I would send my mom 10 or 15 dollars per week to Mexico. At first I picked lettuce and cotton then after some time I worked with cattle and Bill Billingsly was my boss at the time. One day one of his tractors needed to be fixed and I told him I could fix it and he didn’t believe me but I finally convinced him and he let me work on it and I fixed the tractor. When he saw the tractor was up and running again he was so happy with me that he didn’t want me to do labor any more and so I was sent to work in a shop as a mechanic. My first day on the job one of the bosses that didn’t know me gave me a broom so I would sweep the floors so on my first day I cleaned the whole shop and I was happy to do it. During this time I would go to Culiacan every year.

After I had fixed the tractor they also let me drive tractors and they didn’t want me doing labor any more. I felt very favored by my bosses. I bought books to help me learn to speak English. I have always enjoyed learning a little bit about everything. It wasn’t difficult for me to figure out what these people wanted to tell me. I always asked questions and read magazines to try and learn the language and now I am fluent in English. Jimmy Barcley was my boss again at the shop and he was very good to me. I think he favored me because I always spoke to him in English even if my English were broken I would always do my best to speak in English to him even though he spoke Spanish. I tried very hard to speak English and I really think he liked that about me and maybe that is why he favored me.

I really enjoyed the rolling stones music. The gringos here don’t like to party much but they would put together parties where dancing and drinking took place and there were also burritos and tacos for the Mexican people to enjoy this way the gringos would profit from us and we would feel more at home here in the United States.

In the year 1971 I made 25,000 a year and my boss Jimmy Barcley gave me a house to live in and he paid my electric and water for about 30 years. I really felt my boss favored me. I remember one of my dreams was to join the Marines and I actually went to boot camp but I was never called again and I really believe that my boss liked me so much that he didn’t want me to go to the Marines. I think Jimmy probably told them he wanted me to stay and work with him but I don’t know for sure.

When I came to the United States the first thing I wanted to do was to work and learn to speak English. I wanted to learn more and more that is why I bought books and magazines so that I could learn. My biggest surprise about being here in the United States was when President Kennedy was killed. I couldn’t believe that this country that is so evolved and developed would kill their President. Certainly I believed that in Mexico this could happen because they have such a dictatorship they have killed so many people by the corruption of the Pri but I never thought that could happen here. I liked President Kennedy because he favored the poor people but apparently this country doesn’t need to protect the week but the strong. President Kennedy did not want war and after they killed him Lyndon Johnson gave us the war that America wanted. He sent us to the Vietnam War.

My best experience being here in the United States was when I became a U. S. citizen in 1969. I felt very happy to know that I finally had rights here in the United States. One of my worst experiences was when I got in a fistfight with a Cocopah Indian and the police came and they told me that Indians had more rights than I did here. The police separated us and sent us away but I felt that was a racist opinion. I was very hurt by the comment the police officer made and I felt insulted.

It is true that you don’t make as much money in Mexico than you do here. The people that come to the United States are a lot of poor people that work in the country and they have no education but they are hard working people. In Mexico you need to have a decent education to have a stable job or a good connection.

I do believe that having too much can be dangerous and I think that is why my boss Jimmy was killed. I believe that working and paying your bills is good enough and it is not necessary to have 5 million dollars to be happy. It is good to sleep tired because you get a good nights sleep. If you have money you are always thinking about how to make more and how to double it. I am a fighter in life and I like to work hard and I love it.

I only plan to visit my country at this time but I never plan to live there again. The things that happen in Mexico don’t agree with me and I don’t care for the politics that exist there. There are internal wars in Mexico because when there are political campaign’s they tell the people they will give them the world but they never go through with it. The jails in Mexico have drugs and wine so whenever they send someone to jail it’s like they send them on vacation. Mexico has no way to rehabilitate its prisoners they don’t even have money for jail clothing. The people that are running around committing crime never get to see their family but when they go to jail their family comes to visit and they get free drugs and wine. There has to be someone that fixes the huge problems that exist in Mexico.

My wishes for now are just to die in peace.

Analysis of interview

In my interview with Joe not only did I learn for the first time how Joe came to the United States but I also learned specifics about his courage and strength. Joe coming to United States was not only out of necessity but it was a dream that he wanted to fulfill.  He wanted to learn English and have a stable job. He couldn’t fulfill his dream in Mexico because there were no stable jobs and had to learn many trades in order to have a job at different times. Whatever money was earned was not even enough for food most of the time. This is one of the biggest reasons people migrate is because in their own country there are no jobs or the jobs that there are don’t pay enough to support a family. In the book Voyages, which talks about Tongan Villages and the migration of Tongan families, Cathy Small makes a point about migration by telling us that migration is not about wanting to leave family, tradition or values behind and replacing them with American ways, instead migration is about securing a future and better life for their family (Ch.2, pg.32). Joe has been living in the United States now for most of his life and although he became a U.S. citizen he has kept his traditions, values and continues to visit his family in Mexico at least once a year. Joe was able to obtain a stable job in the United States and work his way into better jobs not just labor jobs and he learned to read, write and speak English fluently, Joe lives in a border town so he has the opportunity to go to Mexico as often as he wants. Sending remittances to a home country where family is, is a big part of what migrants do. Cathy Small tells us in her book Voyages that in Olunga remittances became a big part of income supplement in 1983 for local families. At least 1 in 7 families were dependent upon income from overseas (Ch.2, pg. 48). Joe has been sending remittances to his mother since he came to stay in the United States. His mother depended on Joe’s remittances to buy medication for his grandmother who was very ill at the time. Even after Joe’s grandmother passed away he had always sent his mother remittances so she could help herself and the rest of the children. Another point that Cathy Small makes in her book Voyages is that Tongans in the U.S. had more traditional Tongan events than they did in Tonga (Ch.3, pg.71). I really like this point because Joe talked about how he could make himself at home here in the United States because he could find traditional food like tacos, burritos and other food that was traditional Mexican food. He spoke about the parties that were put together by Americans but it was all Mexican people that would go to the parties were they would have Mexican music, Mexican food and drinks and this made him feel at home. Joe told me about how he thought Americans were not much for having parties but Mexican parties and American parties are completely different. Also in the book, “Crossing the blvd”, where Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan put a book together of many migrants they interviewed and wrote the book in first person. In this book they wrote about a story called, “no bulls”, where some Mexican people put together a rodeo with bulls that ran away and the police went after the bulls into the city and killed the bulls then they proceeded to blame the Mexican people for the bulls running away (Lehrer & Sloan, 2003). I think there is a big culture clash between Americans and Mexicans. The Mexicans were only trying to do something traditional so that the Mexican people would feel more at home and the American police went as far as killing the bulls in the middle of the city. In Joe’s situation he found ways of making himself feel at home and I think Americans viewed the Mexican parties as odd or too much since Joe thought that Americans didn’t know how to party to begin with. Growing up in a border town for Joe he also had the advantage of living among other migrants who came from Mexico and spoke Spanish and did all the traditional parties with their families and kept their culture intact. Another point that I find very interesting is that in Mexico Joe didn’t have to work as hard as he did when he came to the United States. When he lived in Mexico he worked as a choffer and as a Mechanic but he never had to work in the fields like he did when he came to the United States but because he made more money here in the United States he was willing to work harder in order to make enough money. In the book In and out of Morocco by David Mcmurray talks about Moroccon’s who migrate to Europe basically for the same reasons Mexican’s migrate to the United States because there isn’t any good jobs that pay well enough to provide for their families. David Mcmurray tells us about Morrocans that were willing to work harder in Europe doing labor jobs than working easier jobs in their own country because jobs in Morocco don’t pay enough to support the family (ch.2). Clearly one of the reasons people migrate is out of need and necessity. Joe and his family did not have enough to provide for food alone because the jobs didn’t pay enough in Mexico. Also in the book, lives on the line, by Miriam Davidson which talks about several different stories that take place on the border of Nogales Sonora and Nogales Arizona. One of the stories is about a woman named Yolanda a woman who migrates from Bacobampo Sonora to Nogales Sonora to make a better life for herself and her family. She has to work very hard and struggles a lot to finally make a home for herself and her children but she accomplishes what she wanted she is a fighter (ch.1). Her story also reminds me of Joe’s story because he migrates to the United States to work very hard to accomplish a better life and living for himself and family and is also a fighter.

Another point that David McMurray tells us in his book, In and out of Morocco is that Moroccan’s don’t want to change their beliefs, values or religion because they migrate. They don’t want to change their roots they want to just be able to provide a better life for their families many of them leave their country hoping to come back to it. When Joe came to the United States he didn’t change his beliefs, values or religion. He raised his children in traditional Mexican values and beliefs. He married a Mexican woman and had 6 children. He still visits his family in Mexico to this day. He loves Mexican music, food and is very proud of his heritage and accomplishments here in the United States.

References

Davidson, M. (2000). Lives on the Line: Dispatches from the U.S. Mexico border.

            The University of Arizona Press: Tucson.

Lehrer, W. & Sloan, J. (2003). Crossing the blvd: Strangers, neighbors, aliens in

a new America. WW Norton Publication.      

Mcmurray, D.A. (2001). In and out of Morocco. Minneapolis: University of

            Minnesota Press.

Small, C.A. (1997). Voyages from Tongan villages to American suburbs. United

            States of America: Cornell University Press.