Interview of Jorge Huerta
...ut all the time. At some point, because their towns were so close together, my grandfather suggested to my father that if he was ever around Guadalajara that he should go and visit him. At one point my father and grandfather were in Mexico at the same time, and there was a festival going on in Guadalajara so my dad was invited to come. During his visit in Guadalajara my dad met my mother, his friend’s daughter. They liked each other so they began to see each other more and more. It was after about eight months that they decided to get married. My father went and asked my grandpa for my mothers hand in marriage and of course he approved. Shortly after, in 1980, they got married in Mexico. Both my mom and dad did not have very much education. My father only made it to the fourth grade. The reason why he did not make it farther was that as soon as he was old enough to do manual work he was pulled out of school and was put to work in the farm. My mother only went a little farther than my dad; she made it to the sixth grade. She had to stop when her parents came to the United States because she had to help with the rest of the children that they were left behind. Like I had mentioned earlier, I was born in Monrovia, which is in the Los Angeles area. I have many memories from when I was a child but only some stand out the most. My family migrated back and forth between Mexico and the US, up until I reached the age of five. When we were in the United States we moved in between Oakland and Los Angeles several different times. It was all depending were my father was able to find a job. It was until I began to attend kindergarten that we finally settled in Monrovia. At that time my parent’s had now received their permanent residence, this was all during the amnesty laws that were passed in the early 80’s by our government. Now that my parents had obtained legal status they were able to find a place for us that we could live in more permanently. The first place that we lived in was a one bedroom studio that was of Colorado St. This place was really small, and it felt even smaller one my sister Diana, the oldest of my sisters, was born. The bedroom was really small, the kitchen was small, everything was small, and there were five of us all living in one room. I t was not the most comfortable situation ever, but we did what we could. As far as I can remember my father was the one that worked, and therefore provided the money necessary to support our family. My mother did what she could doing some house work for other women, on the side, but she mostly stayed at home and took care of us and the house. Neither my mother nor my father, from what I saw, ever objected to the situation that they were in. They were both ok with fact that my father was the only one that worked. They were both use to how things usually are in Mexico, the wife stays at home while the husband goes out and earns the big bucks. At this time my father worked as foreman in a packing company during the day. He worked with mostly recently immigrated Mexicans. This was a good situation for my father because they all spoke Spanish, So that made it easier for them to communicate with each other. My dad did not know a whole lot of English but he knew enough to be able to communicate with his bosses. My dad is a very hard worker and that is why he received the opportunities that he did. At that time he was getting paid about ten dollars an hour. That does not seem to be much now but at the time it was a good amount. He received some raises but not much. Although my dad got paid pretty well at this job it was not enough. He also worked at nights as a janitor at an office building. This job did not pay a whole lot but it was a job. He would go do this after his other job, and at time even after working a couple hours of overtime. I remember how he would come home very tired from work and my mom would have his food hot and ready for him to eat. This was one of the many reasons why my father is treated with much respect. This situation did not go on for very long, because my after a while began to see how hard it was on my father and the family for my father to work so much. Not only was he working himself out, but we did not get to see him very much. Either we were at school at he was at work, or we were asleep and he was at work. It was always something like that. It was at this time that my mother began to look for a job. She wanted something that could bring a steady flow of money in to the house, but that she would still be able to take care of us. That is when she decided that the best thing for her to do would be to baby sit. She figured that she was a good mother to us, so she would be able to manage other kids as well. She only took care of one little boy and his sister. The kid’s mother paid her every month. This income that was now coming in, on top of what my dad made, allowed us to see my dad more. We now got to talk to him and play with him. Now that the work load was distributed somewhat between both parents they were able to take us on trips to other cities and even just out to the park on the weekend. The best memories that I have are of me and my family spending the day at the park. They would take us in the morning and let us run around the playground. We would also bring a soccer ball around and we would play around with each other, sometimes for hours. Man it feels good to remember (sigh). We also took one trip to San Francisco that I remember fairly well. My dad had some cousins that lived there that point and we went up there to visit them for the weekend. This had been the first time that we took a trip this far from home, other than going to Mexico. The CITY seemed so big to me, and it seemed very different to me that Los Angeles. This was also the first time that I saw the ocean. It was the most exiting thing that I had seen. My dad’s cousins took us over the Golden Gate Bridge, and from there we were able to see the city really well. One other cool thing that we did was that they took us to pier 39 and later on they took us to Alcatraz. The boat ride there was fun, despite the fact that I got a little sick on the way there, but on the way back I okay. This had been a whole different experience that what I had been use too. I remember a lot of things from when I was young, and I also remember many things from when I first started going to school. I remember being really nervous and exited at the same time for my first day at school. Part of me was nervous because I thought that the teachers only spoke English and that I would feel left out because I only spoke Spanish. At that time bilingual classes were still allowed and it made it easier for me to learn English. Interacting with the other students allowed me to learn English very quickly. I was a fast learner and I impressed my teacher but I still remained in bilingual classes. I was at the top of my class in kinder and in the first grade too. In the first grade I was about the smartest kid in my class. I always got all my assignments done before anyone else did. Despite the fact that I was more advanced than the other students in my classes I was never moved up or to and all English class. When I was in the third grade I began to get really bored in my class because the work was really easy to me. I c...