https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-lplks/original/10530226c00bbaddc8df0802506a7ff0.pdf dcf9f9cfbbc4520f862b26b558fa5ac1 PDF Text Text Tape 25: Interview with Pedro (Pete) Romero Interviewer: Helen Krische Date of Interview: May 23, 2006 Length of Interview: 47:18 Location of Interview: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church Transcription Completion Date: 2021 Transcriptionist: Emily Raymond Pedro Romero (Interviewee): When I got more information, then – then I was able to put it down, uh, as true figures. Helen Krische (Interviewer): Okay, so you sketched all of this of the yards? PR: Yeah, so that’s – so that I would have something to kind of go by so that I could, uh, uh, relay the…the, uh…um…what I thought it looked like to the artist. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: The artist eventually, to do the painting. HK: Mm-hmm. Okay. PR: But, like I said, I – I got some pictures here, and…this – this is, uh, one of the pictures. Okay, let – let’s go back to this. HK: Okay. PR: It was – I – I got some, I forgot to bring it – I got some pictures – HK: Mm-hmm. PR: That I took with a camera. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: I forgot to bring ‘em with me. HK: Oh, those would be – PR: I tell you what, I was running late, but…um, um, you – have you seen the – the picture of the buildings, well, what they looked like? HK: The only thing I have are these that Buddy brought me. PR: Okay – �HK: And let me scan. PR: Okay, there – there – there is an artist’s picture, of – the – HK: Really? PR: This artist, a guy by the name of Frankie Chavez. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: He – he’d, uh, he’d painted the, uh, what the building looked like. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: He got – he got a lot of the – he got a lot of the information from me. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: I was able to get it to him, and…lot of the people liked it, lot of the older people said that was pretty much what – what it looked like, uh, we – we couldn’t, nobody had any pictures of it. HK: Then. PR: And I even went to the, uh, Topeka, to the Santa Fe, uh…railroad there, and they couldn’t help me out, and I went up to, uh, the…what is it, the Kansas Historic…place in Topeka. HK: Kansas Historical Society, yeah. PR: I went there and they couldn’t help me, I went to the City, here in Lawrence, uh, they – they was able to show me some maps. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Some, uh, maps back in the 1940s, but none of the maps had this, uh, Santa Fe yards in it. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: It showed the tracks, which ran – I think east and west – HK: Mm-hmm. PR: But there was never a picture of – of this…of this, uh…Santa Fe yards. HK: Yeah. That’s great. �PR: Well, and like I said, this is what I kind of showed the artist what – what, what I kind of looked at. And then – and then here, here – back in 1951, the flood. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: It’s an old, it’s an old reprint, it’s kind of bad but you can see the – the building. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: The building was under the water. And…if you can use any of these pictures I’d be glad to – HK: So was this – this building, or – ? PR: Yeah, yeah. HK: Okay, so it’s just – PR: Um, I kind of wish I could have bought the, uh, the drawing. I mean, the drawing is, it’s great, it’s all in color – HK: Mm-hmm. PR: It’s uh, but this is the – gosh, I don’t even – this was the building [murmurs]. This was kind of looking at the building like – HK: In the back of it, yeah. PR: Like this. HK: Uh-huh. PR: It was kind of looking in it. But, um, like I said, I’m – I really haven’t got too much to, uh, I just thought I’d bring you what – what I had. HK: Sure. PR: And this – this is an old picture of the old Santa Fe depot there. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: At the time of the flood. HK: The flood. �PR: Uh… [long pause, pages turning]. This picture here…this picture here, uh, was looking, uh, east about – about a quarter, about a quarter of a mile down these railroad tracks was where the – where the apartments were at. HK: Oh, okay. PR: The Santa Fe apartments. HK: Okay. PR: And…and…now, I – I’m sure you – you can look through some of these pictures, but I’m sure you’ve probably… [long pause, pages turning] HK: Well, this is a different one I haven’t seen. Now, this one I do have a copy of. PR: Yeah. HK: Yeah. Got a copy of this one. Um…this one I don’t have a copy of. [Long pause, HK murmurs, pages turning]. Now where is this looking from, or…? PR: Um, that is looking, um, east. HK: Okay. PR: Of – of the, uh, the Santa Fe, apart – this was all during the 1951 flood. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And the railroad tracks ran right up this way. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: They were up above; all that was flooded. It was funny because my parents, uh, the 1951 flood came and I remember we waited till the water went down and then we went back in, and tried to clean up the apartments. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: So we could move back in there. The Romeros, the mud [murmurs], that the water had left. HK: Mm-hmm. So did you live in – in these buildings? PR: Uh…yes. Um…I really would like to have had you see the drawing, the artist’s drawing. HK: Yeah. Formatted: French (France) �PR: [Murmurs] Um… HK: Buddy is supposed to be making a copy of something, and I don’t know if it’s that drawing or maybe it’s, is it? Okay. PR: I have, um, I have a big artist’s, uh, drawing at home. HK: Uh-huh. PR: And then the – the ones that I gave Buddy and Irene are – are the smaller – HK: Okay. PR: Are the smaller ones, but I got the big – HK: Oh, okay. PR: I got the big one and it’s beautiful; I got it all framed up and all that. It’s a real pretty picture. But, uh, if there’s any way I can help you, I’d be glad to. HK: Yeah. PR: I real – like I said, there’s not really much, too much that I got. I got a few pictures. HK: Well, I might scan these. PR: Yeah. HK: And, do you know the names of all the people in them, or – ? PR: Yeah. HK: Okay. PR: Pretty much. HK: Yeah, I think that… PR: I can’t remember – oh, I got a sinus headache. HK: I’ll bet, so this weather is really bad. PR: Yeah. �HK: Yeah. This one I already have a scan of. Yeah, I’ve been trying to get people to identify the people in the photographs for me, so [laughs] sometimes it’s been successful and sometimes it hasn’t, so… PR: I – I got a picture here; these are my brothers, here. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Uh…I – I, I really like this picture here a lot because it’s got so much detail about what – what the Santa Fe…what part of the Santa Fe buildings looked like. Um…we had to…okay…where is it, come on…there was a – this – this was the end of the building here. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: This is the end of the building right here. HK: Okay. PR: [Murmurs] And back in the back, in these two, I think it was corn, a cornfield. Now right up above here was the railroad track, the Santa Fe railroad track. HK: Okay, and there’s…the Santa Fe depot, is that – PR: No, no. HK: No? PR: The – the Santa Fe depot was farther; I believe, if my directions are right, west. HK: Okay. PR: It was farther west. I think the train runs east and west – HK: Uh-huh. PR: I think so. HK: Yeah. PR: Well, anyways, uh, this – this was kind of a – it looks like it’s corn. HK: Uh-huh. PR: And then back here, they, uh, somebody at one time had a – a corn…uh – uh, bin. HK: Mm-hmm. Formatted: Spanish (Spain) �PR: It was, I think there was about two of them. This is one of them, where they stored the popcorn. Popcorn. And then this – this was on the tracks, this one, the – the, um…I don’t remember what it was called, tank or something like that [murmurs]. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: But anyways, uh…we had a water pump. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: We had a water pump right where…there – there used to be two, there used to be two units, this one here and then there’s one right across, and – and this, the pump was right in between – HK: Middle. PR: Right between both of them. HK: Neat. Can I scan this too? PR: Yeah, yeah. You can – would you like to take the picture out of it? Take the picture out of it. HK: It would probably work better. We were trying to do one inside a frame this morning and it just didn’t – PR: Yeah, yeah. HK: So, um, Pete, if I could, this is a – this is a, uh, consent form, uh, for you to sign. Um, to do the oral history with. And it basically just says that you give all the rights to, um, the recording, to the museum, and a copy of it may go to the Kansas State Historical Society. PR: Okay. Yeah, like I said, I’m not very good. I’m – HK: Well, you know – PR: On tape and all that. HK: Yeah. We can just, you know, do an audiotape, that’s fine too. And if, you know, if you ever want to stop during the interview, just let me know and we can just stop. PR: So, what kind of questions would you ask me? HK: Okay, well, I have a list of questions here that I kind of go down. PR: Could you kind of go over them with me right now before – �HK: Sure. Do you want to look at ‘em? PR: Yeah, I’m – I’m not even properly dressed [laughs]. [Long pause] What – what if you don’t know some of the answers? HK: That’s fine. Usually I just, you know, I don’t really just ask question after question. I just kind of, we just kind of talk and, um, usually the information comes out, I don’t even have to ask, because, you know, when people start telling you their story, then it’s just kind of natural that a lot of those questions are already answered, so… But if there’s any of them that you don’t want me to ask you, that’s fine too. So… You can just tell me: “I don’t want to answer that question,” and I [laughs] – that’s fine. PR: So, I guess the purpose of me coming here was to, you know, be interviewed and all that. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: But mostly I just kind of wanted to help you out on any old pictures of something that I had. HK: Yeah, but you have – you have memories too, of – PR: Yeah. HK: Since you lived there, you know, you can, um, you have firsthand experience. PR: Do – do I have to be – because I’m being – if I’m photographed, will – will it be shown with me in my old…[laughs]. HK: We don’t – we don’t have to run the camera, that’s fine. PR: Okay. HK: We can just do it with the – I have a tape in here, so we can just do it with the audiotape. PR: You know, one of these days, like I said, I’m not very good at this, but one of these days this is kind of what I – I – I wanted to do. HK: Hmm, okay. [Long pause] PR: You know I – I’m kind of better when I’m by myself and – HK: Mm-hmm. PR: I’m just writing notes down and thoughts [murmurs] and all that. �[Long pause] HK: You have all your information down here, don’t you? PR: Well, yeah, I got some information, but like I said, I – I never did finish it. This is something that I wanted to do, and – and I never finished it. But, you know, at least I got – I got started a little bit on it, so, you know, I can pass it on to my grandkids and things like that. HK: Yeah. PR: But I – I really never, that’s as far as I got. And, I mean, there’s so much more. But like I said, sometimes, I’m – I’m better when I’m, you know, by myself and just jotting down, you know… HK: Sure. [Long pause, pages turning] Okay. So I might just, um, scan this too. Just for information about your family. Would that be okay? PR: Yeah, I guess so. Is – is everybody that’s interviewed, are they gonna be used? I mean, are they gonna be, uh, um…[murmurs] Everybody that has an interview will be, uh…in the newspaper or whatever you – HK: Well, not necessarily in the newspaper. What we’ll do is that we’ll keep a copy of the tape at the museum. And then we’ll also send a copy of the tape to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka. And, um, then eventually out of this, I hope that we can do a story, like in the, um, the Kansas magazine – that’s the publication of the Kansas State Historical Society – about Lawrence, because, I mean, things have been written about Topeka, things have been written about Kansas City in the Argentine district, but nothing has been written about Lawrence and the Mexican-American community that started here. And so I was trying to, um, get together enough information so that Lawrence, the story of Lawrence would be heard too. PR: Yeah. HK: And, um, because I went to – I went to Spencer Research Library up at KU to try to find information and they didn’t have anything. And then I went to, um, to the Kansas State Historical Society to see if they had any information about Lawrence and they didn’t, so it’s kind of, um, Lawrence has been forgotten, I think. PR: Yeah, it really has. Um – HK: And then Buddy called me and asked me if I would do something for the fiesta, because it’s the 25th anniversary. PR: Yeah. HK: So… �PR: Okay. I – I tell you what I’d like to do with this. HK: Okay. PR: Uh, I was kind of doing a project here with this person. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And…I told ‘em that I would never use this. HK: Oh, okay. That’s fine. PR: Until – until I completed this. HK: Okay, that’s fine. PR: It was kind of a project between me and the other person. HK: Okay, that’s fine. PR: Okay. But, okay, I – I would be happy to help you do this. HK: Okay. PR: Um, like I said, there’s one or two questions that I may not be able to help you with. HK: Okay. PR: But I think my brother’s getting interviewed too, so – HK: Okay, alright. PR: In the next couple of days, so – HK: Okay. PR: Yeah, so I’ll be glad to help you with this. HK: Okay. So… PR: I – so do you ask me these questions or I write ‘em down or what? HK: Okay. Did you sign the consent form already? PR: Oh, okay. �HK: ‘Cause we need to do that before we get started. For – PR: Okay. Ink? HK: Ink. Yes. I have ink. [Laughs] PR: Okay…interviewee, that’d be me? HK: Mm-hmm. PR: You know what? My name is Pete. I go by Pete, but my real name is Pedro. [Long pause] Today’s five… HK: 23rd. PR: 23rd, ‘06. I’d better put my last name down. HK: I’ll give you a copy of that before you leave. PR: Okay. [Long pause] Okay. HK: Alrighty. Fantastic. Oh, you need to put your name up here at the top. PR: Oh. HK: In that blank, there. PR: Okay. Um, print? HK: That’s fine. [Long pause] PR: Okay. HK: Alrighty. Okay. So I’ll just start out asking you a little bit – PR: Okay. HK: Um…uh, we can identify ourselves. Um, I’m Helen Krische, and… PR: Uh…Pedro Romero. HK: Okay. And, um, I’m gonna start this out by asking a question about your – your parents, where they came from, and how you happened – the family happened to end up in Lawrence. PR: Uh…my – my father was from Veracruz. And my mother was from, um, uh, Mexico City. Formatted: Spanish (Spain) �HK: Mm-hmm. And how they ended up in Lawrence. PR: Oh. Uh…they – they wanted a better jobs. And they – they knew friends that had came to the U.S. and, uh, they heard that there was jobs here in this country, so that’s – they came here to this country looking for – for jobs or work. HK: Mm-hmm. Did he start – did your father start out working on the railroad, or…? PR: Uh, yes. Yes. He, um…um…I believe that, uh, the, uh, U.S. government, uh, needed workers for the railroad, so, uh, they went down there to, uh, Mexico to find workers and they – they brought ‘em over to this country. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: I think that’s how my parents, uh, got into this country, with the help of the U.S. government. HK: Mm-hmm. Do you know what year that was, or around what time that was? PR: Um…[long pause]. I’m gonna say maybe, uh, 1917. HK: Okay. I think that’s one of the earlier families – PR: Yeah, oh, yeah. The – the first ones. HK: Yeah. PR: And – and can I tell you more? HK: Sure, yeah. Just, you know, we don’t have to set, you just tell me whatever. PR: Well, they, uh, my mother and dad both – I believe the year was 1917. And my dad was real young, and my mother was even younger. I think my mother was about 6 years younger than him. Uh, they married in, uh, 1921, I believe. Um…they raised thirteen kids. HK: Wow. PR: Thirteen kids, and that’s…I think I’m probably about the middle – about the middle child. HK: Mm-hmm. What were their names? PR: Um…Gonzalo Romero and Avelina Romero. Um…[murmurs] my dad, uh…had one sister. And…his mother, uh, I believe his – his real dad died. So he – he had a stepfather by the name of, um…what’s his name…God, I can’t remember [murmurs]. Felix. Felix Chavez. HK: Oh, okay. �PR: And that – that was his step – that was his stepdad. So, somewhere along the line, he – his real dad must have been named Romero. HK: Did they, uh, did your father speak English before he came to the United States, or was that something that he – he learned while he was here? PR: Um, it was something that he learned while he was here. He was – him and my mother were always embarrassed by – by their English. So they – they spoke to us, they spoke to us in Spanish. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: But, yeah, my – my dad learned – my dad learned English, but, you know, because he had, uh, you know, because he…his whole life centered around the English language. But, uh, he was more comfortable with the Spanish language. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: My mother – my mother never did learn, uh, to speak English very well. She would speak it, she would speak English, but, uh…she – she was never comfortable with – with speaking English, but we grew up, you know, both on, on…we grew up Spanish first of the language, then English second. HK: Mm-hmm. So were all the children born in the United States, or were some of them born in Mexico before they moved here? PR: No, we were all born in – in, we were all born in Kansas. HK: Oh. PR: Uh, we were all born in different towns, though, because my, uh, my dad, uh, would, uh, get orders from the railroad to go to different – different towns to help…with the – with the railroad tracks. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: So I think we lived, like, in Humboldt, we lived in Baldwin, we lived – I think we even lived in the Kansas City area for a short time. Um…but I guess mostly all our life was here in Lawrence. But we did – we did move around. But even though we – we did move around, my brother – my older brothers and sisters would – would tell me about some of the places we – we lived. Some of the towns we lived in, but I – I don’t remember. The only place I remember here is in Lawrence. HK: Mm-hmm. �PR: That’s the only place I remember. But they did tell me, though, that we moved wherever the railroad sent my dad, wherever they needed. HK: Mm-hmm. So did he just work exclusively for the Santa Fe railroad, or did he work for other railroads too? PR: No, no, he just worked for the Santa Fe railroad. He – he worked on the crew – on the track crew. Um, it was rough, it was rough, they worked outside all the time. I remember as a kid, that my dad, I remember Dad coming home with his rain – his rain jacket on, and I remember during the wintertime, um, when it snowed they – they…called my dad. They would go after my dad to, uh, go to work to clear the tracks out. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And it was funny because at that time, they didn’t have telephones. HK: Yeah. PR: So the only way that they could – they could get in touch with the men was somebody from in town, the depot, would go up there. And it must have been a good experience – HK: Yeah. PR: To go to these different, uh…uh…places where the men lived, because at that time I don’t think that too many Mexicans had telephones. I’m pretty sure they didn’t, so the only way they could ever get in touch was to go out there. So… HK: Huh. Did he work – did he work all year long on the railroad? PR: Yeah, he worked for 46 years. Um, there was a time, uh, probably back in the 70s or 80s, that he could have retired, but they – they lost track of his records – HK: Oh, my gosh. PR: They lost track of his records, so in – in order to, I guess get his full benefits, he had to work – he had to work 46 years. HK: Oh, geez. PR: But it – it was, it was a tough life on guys [murmurs]. I really admired my dad for – for…for working that many years. HK: Yeah. Did he – did he just, did he have any other side jobs, or any other – PR: No, no. Uh, he didn’t. The Santa Fe gave him a patch of ground right beside the tracks, and, they gave the men, and the men would go out there and plant gardens. �HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And I remember as a kid, be hot out there and we’d be out there with our dad and help him plant tomatoes and peppers and sweet potatoes and all that. And it was funny because we’d be out there helping our dad and some of our friends, our age, would come down and want us to go play. Go play with them, but we couldn’t do it because our dad wanted us there in the garden. My dad was pretty strict, a good man, a good…but he was pretty strict with us. We always – we always wanted to go play with our friends, but we couldn’t ever do it. HK: Yeah. PR: And – and that – that was about the only, that was about the only side job that – about the only thing that he did, really. He didn’t have a side job, not that I know of. HK: Mm-hmm. How did – how did he, um, make out during the Depression years? PR: Well, I – I think they did okay because they – they lived there at the apartments. HK: Uh-huh. PR: And the apartments were free. HK: Uh-huh. PR: They were free, I – they had water, but it was from the pump. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: They – their light was, I think it was from this little, uh…kerosene lamps. HK: Oh, uh-huh. PR: Kerosene lamps. Um, that was their light, um…their heat was with coal. They used to have the – the kitchen stove was, uh, coal-fed, the, uh, we had the potbelly stoves there, and that was our heat. I – I remember, I remember wintertime, boy, I don’t see how we survived. I don’t see how we survived, but we did. I remember as little kids, there was a bunch of us. Uh…as kids, we, at nighttime we’d get up there and huddle around the…that potbelly, uh, stove and stay warm, you know. Gosh I remember that potbelly stove being – being about as red as – as – that purse there. And, um…um, for…food, my parents raised pretty much everything that we ate. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Um, his job was always – I believe his job was always secure with the railroad, because they all – the railroad was the only transportation, you know, at that time – �HK: Uh-huh. PR: So his, I think his job was pretty secure. Um, food-wise, everything, we – he, uh, raised chickens, uh…I think he even had a hog or two. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Um…for meat. For vegetables, he had this big garden and they stored a lot of the stuff. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: For the – for the winter time they [murmurs]. Canned tomatoes, peaches, um…pears. But, a lot of the stuff that they – that we ate during the winter time was – was canned. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: So – so but they always, they always had something, they always had something to eat. I remember we used to eat the heck out of chicken. [Both laugh] Chicken, chicken was always, chicken was always there. HK: It’s stable. PR: Yeah, really. HK: Yeah. PR: I, uh, I’m really interested in completing this [murmurs], but like I said, I – I’m better, you know, when I’m – when I’m by myself and [murmurs] special things, certain things happened that bring me back to these memories. HK: Yeah, sure. PR: And I linger on these memories and I – I want to jot them down and to express the feelings that I had about that time, so [murmurs] complete that. HK: Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, your mom, did she – of course, she made all of her – she made tortillas for bread and, um… PR: Yeah HK: Did she do a lot of sewing for the kids, for their clothing? PR: Right, yeah. Uh…yeah, my mother, she did, um, she – she did all the cooking…she…did a lot of the clothing. HK: Mm-hmm. �PR: I remember the girls, my sisters, would always get these real pretty flour dresses, you know, made from the – HK: Flour sacks. PR: Flour sacks and things like that. And, um…my mother, well – our – our main ingredients of food was instead of bread, we used to eat tortillas. So she made tortillas all the time. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: She made tortillas all the time. I mean, she made ‘em, I think, in the morning, and she’d make ‘em again in the afternoon, so we – we’ve always had [murmurs] tortillas. We ate a lot of frijoles. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Potatoes and things like that. HK: So what would be a typical meal at your house? PR: Um, a typical meal would be, uh…then? HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Oh, tortillas and frijoles. Potatoes. For meat, it – it was usually chicken. HK: Chicken. PR: So that – that was pretty typical. HK: Did you have meat every day, or was it sort of a once or twice a week thing, or – ? PR: Um, okay, I think it was maybe…I’m gonna say, I’m gonna go back about chicken on, you know, I’ll go back, I think maybe chicken, maybe a couple of times a week. The – the rest of the time, uh, my parents bought a lot of, like, uh…bologna meat and maybe pork chops, whatever. I guess my parents would always get whenever on sale, the pork chops. But yes, we – we – we had our share of, uh…of good healthy food. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: We, I can never say we went hungry. I mean, you know, there was probably a lot of times we didn’t like what was being served, but, I mean, it was there for us to eat if we wanted to eat, so… �HK: Sure. Did you – did you as a child go downtown much; did you go, like, to different businesses and…? PR: Um…yeah, we – I tell you what, I lived there at the Santa Fe apartment till I was…I think it might have been the sixth grade. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And we all – we all decided, we all decided it was a…it was a joy to – to go into town. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And we – we’d go to the movies. Um…our, the school – the school was in town, so you know, we all went to New York School. And the Santa Fe – the Santa Fe apartment – well, we call ‘em the Santa Fe yards. We did. Somebody else might call it the Santa Fe apartments, but we called it the Santa Fe yards. We, to get to – to the town, we had to go over the tracks. Had kind of a steep little hill, and that was the first set of tracks. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And between – in between that track there and other tracks, it must have been about, I’m gonna say at least five or six sets of tracks that – that we had to cross in order to say we were in town. Once we got past the tracks, we would say we were in town. [HK laughs] But, um, there – there was a road, there was a – a road where the – where the trucks and whatever needed to get back in there used it [murmurs], but we always used the – we would always get to town by crossing the tracks, either walking across the tracks or crawling, uh, crawling underneath the track, underneath the boxcars. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And a lot of times when we did crawl under the boxcars, you know, the engine would, you could hear it start and the train would jerk and [murmurs], but we’d get out. We were so used to – to crawling underneath the – the – the train tracks. The trains – HK: Did anyone ever get hurt? PR: No, nobody ever did. We did that a lot. That was, we probably did that as much as – there was always, there was always trains there, so we – we – we did a lot of crawling underneath ‘em. And every once in a while you know the train wouldn’t be there where you could stand up and where you could walk across the tracks, but a lot of times the tracks – the – the trains would be there, so we had to crawl, you know, crawl underneath ‘em to get, you know, into town. Um, we did that as long as I can remember. Going to school, yeah, I don’t know how we did it with our schoolbooks and all that. But, uh…we used to do it, and, oh…all – all of the stores that, uh, my parents went to, um, like I said, my – my parents raised a lot of the food that they needed. We were talking about the Depression. They – they did a lot of their – their food raising. But then, uh – uh – they also did a lot of, uh, grocery shopping. �HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Um, in town. In town I’m talking about streets like, um, uh…9th and New York…9th and – let’s see – 9th and New York. At 9th and New York there used to be a little store called Johnson’s Grocery Store. And then, um, let’s see…and then there was another store, uh…another store…on 8th Street. We used to call one “The Little Store” and it was kind of a one flat deal. And then we used to call – we used to call the – the other store “The Big Store” because it was a two-story house [murmurs]. HK: So these were just little neighborhood grocery stores. PR: Right, yes. We did – we did a lot of the, uh…one of the reasons why we went in town was to go to the store, or go to school, or go to our church, St. John’s Church, which – which I think must have been, I’m gonna say, from the Santa Fe yard to the church, I’m gonna say it was about a mile. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: It might have been more, maybe a mile and a half. But we used to, we used to walk that…on Sundays. We would all walk down to – we all walked to church. And it would be cold [murmurs]. We used to go to the movies. Our parents would give us, like, what was it, fifty cents. You could – you could always see a movie and buy popcorn and all that stuff for fifty cents. And, um, other times we came into town was, well…we – we’d play baseball. We’d play baseball at the South Park. We’d play, uh baseball at the Municipal Stadium. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: It’s right there, right off – HK: Hobbs Park, yeah. PR: Yeah. But we – we – we came into town quite a bit. We always envied the – the kids in the city. Yeah, we – we’d always envy them kids ‘cause they – we were ashamed. We were ashamed to be living at the Santa Fe apartments because, you know, the Santa Fe apartments, um, uh…everybody, all our friends had – all our friends – some of our friends, now, the ones that lived in town, they had addresses. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: House addresses, and we didn’t have one like that. HK: Hmm. PR: Uh…there – there must have been – there must have been an address for that. Otherwise how could we have gotten our mail? �HK: Yeah. PR: But, um, we always envied our friends in the town because, you know, they – they, uh, they had – they had an address and all that, and all we were – we were just the, uh, the Santa Fe yards. HK: So did you experience a lot of prejudice? PR: Um… HK: In Lawrence at that time? PR: Myself…I didn’t think so then. But now, I – I – I think I did. For one thing, you know, I go by Pete, but my real name is Pedro on my birth certificate. And I had thought about it years later and I said: “Why, how come I didn’t keep my – my name Pedro?” HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And, uh…um…I – I really didn’t experience a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh…racial things like that. I did notice it, you know, that the groups all kind of stuck, you know, the kids all stuck to themselves, the white groups would stick to themselves, the Hispanics would to themselves, the blacks to themselves and all that. But, um…I guess I did experience it, because, uh, it was always us. It was always us, it wasn’t us mingling in with the other kids and all that. We – we were just…we were just as a group, like we knew we had to stay together. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: Um…[sighs, long pause] HK: Is there – was there any difference between, like, the – the kids who came from the Santa Fe yards and the kids who actually lived in houses? PR: Yes. HK: Around on Pennsylvania – and New York Streets? PR: Yeah. HK: Those Hispanic children? PR: Yes, yeah. HK: Was there a lot of difference between the two, or…? PR: Oh… �HK: Did you still hang together close? PR: Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, we – we hung around them and, um…we always thought that they were better than us. But, I mean, you know, we all got along real good and all that, so – I really don’t think there was too much, uh…difference. Only that, you know, they – they lived in houses and we lived in – in the apartment building. HK: Yeah. How did school go for you? Was it…? PR: [Sighs]. School to me was hard. School to me was hard, I was…I was pretty attached to home. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And it was hard for me when I had to go to kindergarten at the school, it was hard for me. I remember looking out the window, the school window, wishing I would go home. It was – it was, it was – it was scary for me, it was, because like I said, we’d always – we’d always pretty much, uh, um…stayed at the – the apartments. HK: Mm-hmm. PR: And then when it came time to go away, like being, uh, being home for the first time. But, I mean, you know, I guess all – all kids experience that. HK: Yeah. Did you speak any English before you started school, or – ? PR: Um…I did speak English. I – I, it’s funny because – [tape cuts off at 47:18] END OF TAPE 25 � https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-lplks/original/6272777bbcf074bd5f60309a6d94b220.pdf 49ba97d234f982b960d33c467879a4dd PDF Text Text Interview with Pedro (Pete) Romero Interviewer: Emily Raymond Date of Interview: January 29, 2021 Length of Interview: 19:03 Location of Interview: Recorded over telephone Transcription Completion Date: February 1, 2021 Transcriptionist: Emily Raymond Emily Raymond (Interviewer): Alright. For the purposes of the tape, my name is Emily Raymond. Today’s date is Friday, January 29, 2021, and I am about to call Pete Romero to interview him. [Dial tone] Pete Romero (Interviewee): Hello? ER: Hello, Pete. It’s Emily. PR: Hi, Emily! How’s it going? ER: I’m doing well, how are you? PR: Hey, okay, I just got through stepping in the house; I’m doing some chores. ER: Is this still a good time? PR: Uh…yeah. Yeah, it is a good time. Uh, yeah, go – let’s go ahead. ER: Okay. PR: Okay. ER: Well, let me introduce myself first. We – we’ve never met. And I wish we could do it in person, but unfortunately – PR: Yeah. Hey, you know what, maybe if you want to, maybe next time we get – maybe next time we can get together, and I – I can kind of show you things – things, uh, uh, pictures and – and, uh, you know, maybe there’s some things maybe that, uh, maybe nobody has seen, and maybe – maybe you – you might be able to, uh…maybe there’s something there that, you know, you might be able to use. But yes, uh, um, you know, it kind of would be kind of nice to, uh, to – to meet in person, but, ah, you know, right now with everything that’s going on and all that, it – it’s, uh, um…I’m kind of a little, uh, stay-at-home person. I’d rather do things here at home. But do you know what, Emily? If there’s a good place that we could meet, where there’s not a lot of people… ER: Would you prefer to do that? PR: Sure. �ER: Okay. That way, you can bring some of the paintings and the drawings. PR: Sure, yeah. Sure, yeah, we can do that. Uh…is there, uh, things we can discuss right now? ER: We can, if you like. I can just start by asking you a few questions. PR: Okay. Now, so, this is all being recorded, right? ER: Yes, this is being recorded. PR: Okay. Oh, okay. Okay, well, um…I’m not gonna say nothing that I shouldn’t say, so it’s all right. And I guess, what that letter was from, uh, that, uh, uh – is it Noreen? ER: It’s Nora Murphy. PR: Nora. Nora. Nora. Nora. I always call her Noreen. Nora. Okay. Yeah, so that letter that she sent me, uh, she had me fill it out and, uh, I went ahead with it. So… ER: Well, that sounds good. We just wanted to make sure we had all of the necessary forms before we did the interview. PR: Yeah. Could – could you hold on for a second, okay? The – the phone’s ringing and I’m on – ER: Yes, of course. PR: See, we’re expecting a phone call. Just a second. [Background conversation continues until 4:07] Uh, Emily, I was – we’re kind of, hoping to hear from the – from the Douglas County Health, to have my wife have her shot taken, and, uh, well, we just kind of hanging around the phone, so…when they call up, so she can get – so she can get, uh, on the list to have that shot taken. ER: Good, I hope she can. PR: I – I took my shot at the VA hospital there in Topeka, the first one. I haven’t taken the second one, that’s in a couple more weeks. That’s, uh, that’s where I’m kind of at right now. ER: Well, I hope she can get her shot, too. PR: Yeah, yeah. It just seems like the ones that need it the most aren’t getting it. Like – like me, I – I’m in pretty good health, but, you know, ‘cause being that I was a veteran, I got to – I got to go in to get my shot, so… ER: Oh, excellent. Good. �PR: Yeah. Okay – ER: Well, one of the things I was going to ask anyway was about your family. During the first interview, I – we didn’t find out whether you had a wife or kids, so could you – could you tell me a bit about your family? PR: Uh, well, yes. Uh, um, I’m married to, uh, uh…my wife is named Anna Marie Romero. ER: Anna Marie. PR: Romero. ER: Alright. PR: Her maiden name was Perez. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Uh, I have two sons, uh…Paul. Paul Romero, who is, uh, 51 years old. He lives in Kansas City. He’s a banker in, uh, that UMB Bank in Kansas City. ER: Oh, good. So, he’s close by, so you can visit him. PR: Yeah, yeah, he’s close by. Then I have my son Vince. Vince Romero, who – who is, um, uh…he’s married to, uh, Samantha. And, uh…let’s see, okay. He – he’s got – he’s got seven kids. ER: Seven, my goodness. PR: Yeah. ER: You must be proud. PR: He’s got seven kids. And – and, uh, my son Paul has two. ER: Okay. PR: Three, three. Three, three. ER: So, between all of those two, you’ve got ten grandkids? PR: Right. ER: Oh, congratulations. [PR laughs] Do you get to see them pretty often? �PR: Uh, yeah, uh, yeah…I, uh, I try to see ‘em as much as I can. Some – sometimes I think I – I can be a nuisance to – to, uh, to my, uh, two boys, ‘cause I’m always, you know, calling ‘em up and asking ‘em about the grandkids and wanting to talk to ‘em and… ER: I don’t – I don’t think that would be a nuisance. I – I enjoy talking to my grandparents. PR: Yes. ER: What do you like to do with your grandkids? PR: What do I like to do? Oh, I – oh, I – um, they’re – they’re into sports. They’re – they’re into sports, uh…uh, baseball, uh, soccer. Football. Um…them are my grandsons. My – my granddaughters, I like to just, you know, um…I like to – to, uh, they’re – one of ‘em is in ballet, and the other one is, uh, is a real good, uh, uh, street – seamstress. ER: Oh. PR: Likes to sew and things like that. Okay, so…I could, uh, my grandkids on – on my – on my son Vince’s side – side, they range in age from two to thirteen years old, and they all attend St. John’s School. ER: Oh, my goodness. I have actually never been to St. John’s School. PR: What’s that? ER: I have never been to St. John’s School. PR: Oh, it – it’s a nice church. It’s really a good church. There’s so much, uh, uh…diversity in – in the St. John’s Church. ER: Well, that’s refreshing to hear. PR: Yeah, it’s – it’s a pretty neat church. We’re – me and the wife, we’re pretty involved in it. We try to get involved in quite a bit of it. I’m, uh, I’m an usher at, uh, the 4:30 Mass, and, um…I just, yeah, so much of our life centers around the church. I think the church is our second home. ER: Is it? I’m glad. PR: Yeah. ER: My parents are very involved in their church back home. I grew up Baptist. PR: Right. Yes. ER: So they are much the same. And so, you grew up Catholic, is that correct? �PR: Right, yeah, I grew up Catholic. And all my life I’ve been – been around the church. Altar boy, just everything that, uh, everything that – that – that, uh, involved the church, I try to get involved in it. ER: Excellent. Well, how did you meet your wife? PR: Uh, well, we – we met, uh, I met my wife through a cousin of hers. Um, I met her – she’s from Topeka. ER: Okay. PR: I – I met her at a, there was a dance. Uh, we – we all liked to go to the dances. Long time ago, you know, that was one of the things, you know, people went to dances and things like that. ER: Right. PR: That’s where, uh…that – that is where a lot of our people, uh, used to – used to like to do. They used to like to, on the weekends, maybe, uh, be a dance in Topeka or Ottawa, or you know, just someplace. And we’ll all like to go out there and just meet up friends and dance and things like that. Uh, I – I met her in, uh, 1964. Uh, we got married two years later, uh, got married in 1966. Got married at, uh, Lady Guadalupe Church in Topeka. ER: Oh. That’s special. I’m glad for you. PR: Well, thank you. Thank you. ER: I – in fact, I think ‘64, yeah, that was the year that my dad was born. PR: Oh, oh really? In ‘64, really? ER: Yes. PR: Wow. ER: It’s a small world. PR: Well, yes. Uh, let’s see, uh, ‘64, so you’re – you’re, okay. Okay, so your dad is, uh, uh…how old is your dad? ER: He’s – oh, good question. 56, I believe. I’m not very good at math. PR: 56, okay, okay. Okay. ER: Yep, 56. That’s what it is. �PR: Yeah. Okay. So, Emily, you’re – you’re, Amy, you’re – you’re doing school, uh, this is a kind of a school project you’re doing? ER: Well, in part. I’m – right now I am a graduate student at the KU History Department. PR: Okay. ER: And about, uh, well, at some point last year, they sent out an e-mail asking if someone would like to help with transcription, with the Watkins History Museum. PR: Right. ER: And I – before I started my graduate career, I was a transcriptionist at a doctor’s office. PR: Uh-huh. ER: So… PR: Yes. ER: I said I would love to help, and it is definitely much more interesting than listening to medical cases. PR: [Laughs] Oh, for sure. For sure, yeah. ER: I actually get to talk to people. PR: Right. Yeah. I, um, my – my son works for, uh, a hospital there in Kansas City. He’s uh, he’s the health, um, administration department. ER: Oh, very good. I hope he’s got his vaccine, then. PR: No, no, he’s not. He – he’s, uh, he – he’s doing real good. No, he’s – so far, he hasn’t got nothing, and he’s taken shots and things like that, so everything’s okay. ER: Good, I’m glad to hear that. It’s – it’s incredible what we have available today. PR: Right, yeah. ER: What was – what was healthcare like for you? I mean, I imagine we – we’ve grown in leaps and bounds, but what was it like when you were a kid? What kind of things were available to you, healthcare-wise? PR: Oh, my – my goodness, Amy, it – it – okay, we – we grew up, uh, in, uh, La Yarda. It’s a place, uh, down there by the Santa Fe, uh, by the Santa Fe depot. Uh…um, well, it’s, uh…it – it �was – it was pretty tough. It was pretty hard, but – oh, we didn’t know it. We, to us it was just – it was just part of, uh, living, uh, where we were living. Um, gosh. Um… ER: Sure, of course. That was – it was normal for you, when you were growing up. PR: Yeah. You – you know what? Emily? Amy? Emily or Amy? ER: It’s Emily. PR: Emily. Okay, Emily. You know, Emily, I – I’d like to get together with you in person. ER: That would be wonderful. PR: Would that be okay? And – and I can show you more of what I got. ER: Yes, I would. Is there a – a place you had in mind? I will happily go wherever you’re comfortable. PR: Well, I – I’d like to get together with you where there’s not too many people. Uh, um, how about – can we get into the, uh, Watkins, uh, museum? ER: That’s a good question. I will ask Nora. She would – she would know more about that, having access to it. That would be a good idea, because there wouldn’t be too many people around. PR: No, there wouldn’t be too many people. And you know, being that it’s part of history that we’re going after, this might be a good deal. ER: That’s a good idea, Pete. I will – I will contact Nora, and I’ll ask her about availability. How’s that? PR: Yeah, and – and you might mention to Nora that I’ve been trying to get ahold of her. And her line seems to be busy all the time. ER: Oh. That’s odd. Okay, what I’ll do is send her an e-mail. That’s usually the way I communicate with her, and – PR: Right. ER: I’ll let her know you’ve been trying to get ahold of her. But yes, I’d really like to meet with you in person. PR: Sure, yeah. That would be better. You know, I got a lot of, uh, I got a lot of transcripts here, and I’d like to show ‘em to you and all that. But I – I can’t, well, we can’t do that over the phone. ER: Yeah. �PR: But, yeah, I’d like to get together with you. ER: Okay. And I – we’ll both wear masks, and we’ll – we’ll definitely be safe. So, I will – PR: Sure. ER: I’ll check with Nora, and see what might be available. PR: Yeah, check and – and see, see if there’s a place where we can – where we can get together. ER: Okay. That sounds like a good idea, Pete. PR: Yeah, okay. And I’ll bring you – I’ll bring you everything that I got, and we can go from there. ER: Wonderful. I’ll look forward to it. PR: Okay. Emily, uh, I’m – I’m anxious to meet with you, uh, um…I – I think I got an exciting childhood life that I’d like to share with you, and – ER: I agree. PR: And maybe with, uh…the people here in Lawrence. ER: Yes. I – I would like them to know about it as well. So I – I’m looking forward to our meeting. PR: Sure. I’ll be excited to do that, okay? ER: Okay. I’ll give you a call when I’ve talked to Nora. PR: Oh, for sure, yeah. Maybe we can make it next week or something like that, someplace. ER: Yes, that sounds very good. PR: That sounds great. Okay, Emily? ER: Alright. PR: I’m – I’m sorry I can’t help you. ER: No, you – you are being helpful. And we’ll talk more in person; it will be easier that way. PR: Okay, sure. So, is – is it easy for you to, you know, just kind of get away, and – �ER: I teach classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. PR: Oh, really? ER: So usually Tuesdays and Thursdays are – are more open. PR: Yeah. Oh, hey, that sounds good. Thursdays, yeah. ER: Okay. PR: That sounds – what – what building do you teach in? ER: Well, I’m doing it remotely this semester; I’m an adjunct professor. PR: Oh, okay. ER: Yeah. PR: Oh, okay. ER: But I have an office on the KU campus. PR: Sure. Yeah, I – I worked for the – I worked for KU for quite a few years, and I think I know every building on the campus there. ER: Oh, yeah. You probably know Wescoe Hall, then. PR: Oh, yeah. I been there a lot of times in Wescoe Hall, yeah. ER: Yeah, that’s where my office is. PR: Okay, okay, Emily. So, I think we can get together again? ER: Yes, I would enjoy that. PR: Okay. I – I’m sorry, like I said, I – I just, I – I had some, uh, grocery shopping and I, uh, I tried to hurry as much as I could so I could get together with you. ER: That sounds good. And no worries. PR: I – okay. ER: Okay. I’ll talk with Nora and I’ll get back with you, alright? PR: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Talk to Nora, and you might mention that I tried to get her on – on her – on her cell phone, and, uh, every time I call up, her line seems to be busy. �ER: Okay. I’ll send her an e-mail right now. PR: Okay. Thank you, Emily. ER: Thank you, Pete. Have a good day. PR: Okay, bye-bye. ER: Bye. END OF TAPE � https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-lplks/original/668a0cb9bdbd2175277cfa5e7c74989e.pdf 1c663ad92d460fe2c0fd3cfc972ec866 PDF Text Text Interview with Pedro (Pete) Romero Interviewer: Emily Raymond Date of Interview: February 4, 2021 Length of Interview: 90:46 Location of Interview: St. John’s Parish House Transcription Completion Date: February 25, 2021 Transcriptionist: Emily Raymond Pete Romero (Interviewee): I – you know, I’ve always wanted to write down a lot of notes about – about my life, and, uh, oh, you know, I like to do this here, write notes down. And then one – one day, maybe, get it all together and – and maybe…making a book out of it, you know. Emily Raymond (Interviewer): I think you should. PR: Kind of pass it on to the family. ER: You’ve gone to all this trouble to make all the notes. PR: Well, yeah. I was gonna… ER: And with the self-publishing platforms nowadays… PR: Right. ER: You can – you can publish books yourself as often as you like. PR: Here’s – here’s the history of the Romero family. ER: Oh, that’s right. I remember you said your parents were Gonzalo and Avelina. PR: Yeah, yeah. Let’s see… ER: Oh, you’re so lucky to have these pictures. PR: And there was, uh – ER: Your parents. PR: Thirteen of us and – and we’re – we’re all in that book. We’re all in that book. ER: Oh, you have a table of contents, good. PR: Yeah. ER: There are you. December 7th. Okay, so that’s – you called her Jennie. Okay. �PR: Yeah. ER: I’ll be sure to spell it with an “ie” when I do the transcript. I’ve heard the name before, but I wanted to make sure I got all the spellings right. PR: I checked it out with the family and asked ‘em if it was okay if I used this – if I could, uh…uh…take this book and let somebody look at it and – I got their permission, you know, to… ER: Oh, okay. Of course. PR: So, anything that you can use in there, you can – you’re welcome to use, and… ER: Topeka, Kansas. Okay. [Background voices for several seconds] Okay, so your mother was – your mother lived to 89 years old. PR: Yes. ER: That’s impressive. PR: Yeah. She passed away when – when she passed away, I, uh…you know, there was thirteen of us, so we all took our turns going down there every evening. Somebody went down there every – every evening to check ‘em out, to make sure they were okay, ‘cause they wanted to live in that house. ER: Oh, okay. PR: They wanted – they wanted to live in that house, so, there was thirteen of us, so everybody took their turn. Uh…in the evening; on the weekends, um, on the weekends, we stood there all day with them. And then we left them alone in the evenings, you know, because they – ER: Of course. PR: You know, they, that’s the way they wanted it, you know. They just wanted to be there in the daytime. And, well, really, they probably didn’t even want us there [laughs], but they were so – you know, they like to have their independence and all that. It was their house, and I just wanted to do things. ER: But you still want to look out for them, and just check in, make sure they’re okay. PR: Yeah, so, anyways, uh, it was, um…it was – it was on the weekend, and it was my turn. So, I went down to – went down to my parents’ house and the house…my mother was cooking. And it – she had a heart attack. Anyways, the house filled up with smoke. ER: Oh, no. �PR: So anyways, when I got there, I drove through the alley, and I seen all the smoke coming out of the house. So, I parked the car in – I parked the car in the parking lot there, and I – it was, I think it was, like, in spring. It was April or something. Anyways, anyways, I – I parked my car, and I seen, uh, a pile, looked like a pile of rags out there. Well, it was my dad. My dad was pretty – pretty much blind. Somehow, he had managed to get himself out of the house. He got out of the house, probably looking – looking for help, and I guess he just…fatigue got to him, and he was laying out there and I found him out there. And I asked him where Mom was, and he said: “She’s inside the house.” So I said: “Okay, Dad, I’m gonna put – put you” – let me see, how it was that I did it – I put him in the house that wasn’t full of smoke, and, you know, to get him out of the rain. Right inside the house, and I couldn’t see nothing. It was all full of smoke. My mom had been cooking something, and, uh…um… ER: It started burning. PR: It just, you know, started – started a smoke fire. Smoke. Anyway, I found her, she was on the floor, so I – I’m the one that found my mom. But anyways, and…she died. She – she died from a heart attack that day. ER: Oh. PR: Um, and my dad after that, he – he didn’t want to continue living. You know, he said he wanted to be with – with Avelina. Uh, so, I think he maybe lasted about a year. My – my dad really gave up on living after he lost my mom. Um… ER: How long were they married? PR: 76 years. ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: 76. ER: I think that’s a personal record for me. PR: Right, yeah, that was – that was a long time. ER: I – I don’t blame him for feeling that way, when you spend so much time with someone, it’s hard to imagine living without them. PR: Right, yeah. It was hard. ER: I like how you wrote here, he liked to fish. PR: Yeah. He liked to go fishing. �ER: And he’s got his – his birthday cake with all the candles. It sounds like you had a really close family. PR: Oh, we were close. We were big. We were a big family, but you know, we – we took care of each other and all that. And we were poor. And you know, working, my dad worked for the railroad. ER: Yeah, tell me about that a bit. I’m – I’m interested about what – what was it like, just growing up, daily living there? PR: Well, we, uh…like I said, we – we were poor, but we didn’t know it. Um…I – I think we lived – we had six rooms that…let’s see [murmurs] that fourteen of us shared. ER: Fourteen people for six rooms? Wow. PR: Yeah, uh, my parents, and my brothers and sisters. Somehow, we managed in these – in, um, to, uh, live there in La Yarda. You know, the – the rooms – the little rooms were six – I think they were, like, eight by ten. They were eight by ten rooms. And, uh, um…they were concrete. Concrete floors and all that. ER: Must have been cold. PR: Oh, it was. In the wintertime it was cold. We used to have to, in order to heat the house, we had to haul wood. Wood – we had the little wood stoves. ER: Oh, the little potbelly stoves. PR: Yeah, potbellied, to keep us warm and all that. It was cold. It was cold in there. Gosh, I remember as a little kid, in the wintertime, looking out the windows, and the windows would be all frosted with ice. ER: Oh. PR: It was that – it was that cold. We had – if we had to go to the bathroom, the bathroom was outside, like around 40 feet. ER: Oh, that’s right. PR: And, oh gosh, I remember having to go – I remember having to use the bathroom a few times, and I looked – went outside and looked up in the sky at the bright stars and all that, and went to the bathroom and came right back in. We didn’t stay out there very long. ER: No. �PR: No, and – and, well, to this day I don’t know how my parents did it. All them kids and we all had to sleep, uh, we all had to sleep together. I think it, like all the boys slept together. It was, gosh, I think two of the rooms that we used were for the boys to sleep. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: And then my sisters had a couple rooms for theirselves, and Mom and Dad in their room. Had a little kitchen. But, that was – it was pretty rough. Our – our water, our water was at the water pump outside, and – ER: Right. PR: We had to get the water and haul it from outside, inside the house. ER: Oh. PR: For drinking water and taking a bath and things like that. Um… ER: The amount of work. PR: Oh, yeah. I – I don’t know how my parents did it, but we did it – and, you know, to us, it – it must have been rough. It – it had to be tough. ER: No doubt. PR: But us guys didn’t know it. I knew, you know, we – we had something in our tummy and woke up next morning and all that. We were – we were surviving and all that. And it – it, um, it was pretty rough there at the – La Yarda. Going to school – going – little kids, little kids…there was no sidewalks or anything. ER: Oh, back then. PR: In La Yarda. It was just a path. A path that had just been worn in time by people going through that little path, and we had to, uh, to go to school we had to climb this – this little hill; on top of the hill was the railroad tracks. And, Emily, I tell you, in the wintertime, I – I don’t even think we had galoshes. I – I think it was just our regular shoes and things like that. ER: Oh, not even waterproof boots. PR: No, no waterproof, no, we didn’t know such – there was no such thing existed like that for us, you know. The – the – um, can I say “The white kids” or “Anglo kids”? ER: Yeah, absolutely. PR: Yeah, it won’t offend you? Okay. You know, you know, the – the little white kids we’d go to school with, they had their galoshes on, and big old mittens – gloves, and all that. �ER: Fluffy coats. PR: Yeah. We always thought they were – we always thought they were rich, because, you know, they – they had better stuff than us. But anyways, we went to New York School. And, um…we went to New York School, and I remember going to New York School, uh, we all had – we all had Spanish, and we were all – we were born, given Spanish names. But when we went to school, they changed our names. ER: Oh. PR: My name was Pedro. That’s what my parents got on – but I got to school, and they called me Peter, okay? ER: Oh. Okay. PR: I had a brother named Tony. Antonio. Went to school, and from Antonio, they called him Tony. Francisco, Frank. Juanita, Jennie. ER: So, they Anglicized everyone’s names. PR: Yeah, that’s – that’s what happened to us. When we went there, and it was hard for us, because… ER: I imagine it was. PR: Yeah, ‘cause we grew up on Spanish. Our parents, that’s what they talked to us, in Spanish. So, anyways, we – we’d go to school, and, uh…we were – we were – it was hard for us, because, uh, a lot of the words that they used, the teachers used, well, we didn’t know that. We were, you know, taught the – the words in Spanish. And it – it was a little tough. It was a little tough. ER: I imagine it was. And you must have done remarkably well, for not knowing any English when you arrived. PR: And you know, to us, oh, my gosh, New York School was a – it was like a palace! ER: Oh, was it? PR: Wow, in these scripts that I got, I’ll describe some of that, but gosh, we went to New York School. Beautiful building there, and we went inside and the floors were tiled, and we’d never seen – we’d never seen nothing like tiled floors and all that. And, God, we were amazed by that, and how nice and warm – how nice and warm it was. ER: Oh, the school was heated. PR: Inside the school, compared to our house – �ER: True. PR: In La Yarda. Going to New York School, gosh, bathrooms. ER: Actual bathrooms. PR: Inside bathroom, and we couldn’t get over it. Gosh. We were so used to the outhouse out there in La Yarda and all that, my gosh, that was so neat. ER: Seemed like a luxury. PR: Oh, my God. Water fountains. ER: Water fountains. PR: They had water fountains inside – inside the – inside the building. We were used to going outside and getting our water in – had little buckets, I guess that’s what we had, buckets, and whenever we wanted water, we’d just get a drink of water, but it – it was – oh, New York School was so beautiful. And it – it was funny because, um, I – I remember – I remember one time, we – to, uh, for lunch, we used to take our little lunch, uh, sacks. The – the white kids had their little, real nice. ER: Oh, the tin boxes. PR: Nice buckets and things like that. And now, today, you know, they – they eat in school and all that. They eat in the school, but… ER: So, there wasn’t a cafeteria back then? PR: No. No, there was no cafeteria. ER: Okay. PR: So, um, gosh, the kids would – us guys, we had paper sacks. ER: Yeah, like that. PR: And we’d take our little lunch and all that. And the other kids, white kids, had – had lunch buckets and nice pails and all that. I remember one time, I remember we – we grew up on – on tacos and things like that, um, burritos. You know, at – at that time, I thought, “Gosh, we’re poor.” We eat this food, ‘cause that’s all we had, you know, tortillas. Tortillas, and we’d make burritos and all that. So anyways, uh – uh, I remember one time we, uh, we – my parents, my mother made us some burritos for us. It’s a tortilla, and inside was – ER: I like burritos, yeah. �PR: So, anyways, uh, we – one time we took them and – and, uh, the white kids looked at us, checking out our little burritos, and they’d say: “What the heck is that?” And – and, uh, we – we’d tell ‘em that’s what we ate. And then I guess we must have told our mother and all that, our mother about it, you know, the kids wondering what that was. Kind of odd-looking food. So, after that my mother started making us butter and jelly sandwiches. ER: Oh, okay, with the – PR: But, yeah, you know, things like that, that happened to us, and… ER: Were you ever teased for that kind of food, or were they more curious about it? PR: I think they were more curious. ER: Okay. PR: Yeah, I – I think they were more curious about what, you know, but, you know, it was funny because, um…Um – okay, I’m gonna read some of these; is that okay? ER: Oh, yes, go ahead. PR: What was – my – my, uh…thoughts get a little, uh, um… ER: Well, and you said you have a headache, too. PR: Yeah, I’ve got – I’ve got my headache, but I – I don’t know, about school…uh, the kids – the – the – we felt different. But we felt different because we were – our features were different. The color of our skin was different. Um, our language was different. Okay, um…we – we never really had real nice clothes. ER: Right. PR: Most of our clothes were hand-me-down clothes, things like that. Um…and I don’t know, we always felt that the other kids were better than us. Um…now, we were – we had to speak – we were always kind of…scared, because we didn’t know if we were gonna say the right thing. ER: Right. PR: You know, use the right word. We were bilingual, I guess. ER: You – oh, absolutely. PR: Yeah, we were bilingual, at home Spanish, at school was English and all that, so we were always a little bit, uh, I think we were always a little scared to get up there and talk and all that. We felt so much better when we were in our group. �ER: Right. PR: When all the little Mexicans were all together. Um – we felt much better, you know, and… ER: Did you stick together at school that way? PR: Oh, yeah. For – yeah, for sure, yeah, we did. We – we stuck pretty much together. We did everything. We did everything together. Our…our best friends were the – our own MexicanAmerican – Mexican kids. We – we never did go to any of our white friends’ house. ER: No? PR: No, we never did. We always stuck around with – with our kind. Oh, gosh, we – at church, St. John’s Church, we were little kids, maybe…seven, six, seven years old. ER: Oh. PR: We were altar boys at – at the St. John’s Church here. ER: Oh, yeah, that’s right; you were an altar boy. PR: Yeah, we were altar boys. We had our own group. Uh…then, um, we had a lot of altar boys and they were all put in different – in squads, we called ‘em – they called ‘em squads. ER: Squads. PR: Squad Two, Squad… ER: Oh, okay. PR: And – and, um, um…it was – it was – it was always, always kids that, you know, they was only Mexican kids that – that, uh, that made up that group. And then – and then, when we got a little older and we all played on the same baseball team. So, we stuck together pretty much. Today – today, they’re – they’re still our best friends. ER: Oh. PR: Today they’re still our – today they’re still – ER: I’m glad. PR: Our best friends, and some of ‘em have passed away, and – and we’ve always – we always relied on each other. They – we felt so comfortable when we were with our own kind. Um… ER: So, you – you played baseball at – was it South Park, or Hobbs Park? �PR: Uh – uh, well, we played at South Park. ER: At South Park, okay. PR: We played at South Park, at South Park and the other Hobbs Park. ER: Okay. PR: Yeah. ER: I remember from your first transcript, you had mentioned playing in a park. PR: Yeah – we played there. We played for the St. John’s…uh…team. ER: Oh, they had a team? PR: Yeah – the – ER: I didn’t know that. PR: Yeah. It was St. John’s team. In fact, we got some – we got a lot of pictures of – ER: Were you good? PR: I was average. I was average [laughs]. ER: Are you being modest? PR: Yeah, I was pretty – yeah, I, uh, I had other brothers that were quite a bit better than me. But I mean, you know, I knew the game, and I knew the position to play, and I – yeah, I just, um… ER: Did you play any other sports? Um, let’s see – basketball, football? PR: Well, that was funny. That was funny, Emily, ‘cause like I said, uh, we’d always felt comfortable playing with each other. In fact, when we were, like, maybe…twenty…eighteen, nineteen, twenty, we formed our own baseball. We had our own baseball team. Softball. Fast pitch. And, uh, we – we would go, uh, on these baseball, these, uh, Mexican-American tournaments. There’d be some in Topeka, there’d be some in Kansas City, Chanute, uh… ER: I never knew about this. PR: Uh, yes, uh…Salina, it was – we had a team, um, I don’t even know what we called each other, but we had a team – we were – we were pretty good. We were pretty good. You know, Mexican-Americans, uh, there – there were some pretty good athletes. But when you got to school, it was funny because, uh, the Mexican-Americans, they – they – they, uh, they were all �smaller people, you know. For instance, uh, in junior high and high school, it seemed like the – the bigger – the American kids…they – they, uh, they were bigger kids. You know, they – the little, the Hispanic people, they’re not real tall people and then – ER: Right. PR: Yeah. So anyways, uh – um, um, the – the Mexican-American kids, they were good, but, you know, they – they, you know, in football you need the big old guys and all that. ER: Yes. PR: So that was one of the reasons why we kind of stuck together. ER: That makes sense. PR: Yeah, we kinda stuck together. Um, gosh…oh, gosh, I [murmurs] but, yeah, um, we – we stuck together pretty good. [Murmurs] ER: I like how you’re all still friends, that you still maintain that connection over the years. PR: Oh, yeah. ER: That’s special. PR: And you know what, yeah, we – we – we still – we – we still look out for each other. You know, we – we always want to know how a certain person is, you know, like I got some friends like, um, Izzy Bermudez. ER: Yes. PR: He’s a fireman, he’s – he’s not doing too good, but I – I always manage to find out how he’s doing, and we, uh, um…um, later in life, we – we – we cut grass at the cemetery. The Catholic cemetery. ER: Oh, so you were responsible for keeping that up. PR: Yeah. ER: Okay. PR: We cut – we volunteered to do that, so we did that. It was – at first it was all Mexican people, the guys that did it and all that, and slowly the, uh, the white – white guys would come out there and help us later on and all that, but we – we did – we did a lot of things together, and we were well…uh…how do I put it? We were – we looked out after each other. That was – that was the thing, looking out for each other. We always did that. �ER: A community in the true sense. PR: Yeah. Yeah, that was – that was the way our parents, um, taught us to be. To – to look out for each other, take care of yourself, you know. In the end, you’re gonna realize how important it was. And everything they said is true. You know, you care for – care for other people, and you show ‘em, and they’re gonna do the same for you, so… ER: And you must have seen them demonstrate examples of this. While you were growing up, they would take care of your neighbors, for example. PR: Oh, for sure. ER: If they were sick, or – PR: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I’m – I was told by my older sisters that when we were young and, um, my mother would have to have a doctor’s appointment or something like that, or she had to do something, well, all the neighbor ladies would, um, take care of us kids. ER: Oh. PR: And – and there’s some pictures out there where there’s a bunch of kids, and there’s a lady in the background. I guess she’s taking care of all them kids [laughs]. Yeah, it was things like that, you know. It was just – it was really something, because it’s nothing like that today. Nothing today, we – well, then, to the Hispanics, they always had big families. ER: Right. PR: They were – they were all Catholics and all that, so they all had big families. Today you got your family, maybe four, maybe three or four kids, and that’s about it. But, um…yeah, the – living at La Yarda taught us a lot. Taught us a lot. My dad – my dad was, uh, given a piece of land by the, um, by the railroad. ER: Oh, okay. PR: And – and, uh, my dad, uh, on this piece of land that they gave him, it was just not very far from where La Yarda was, maybe…two, maybe a hundred feet away. My dad would grow, uh, tomatoes, corn, radishes, things like that. Things like – things that he – we could grow that we didn’t need to go to the store. ER: Sure. That makes sense. PR: Yeah. We didn’t need to go to the store. Oh, gosh, I remember when he – I remember my dad had the garden. He – he would plant the tomato plants in the ground, and our job was to get water from – from, um, a pump, a water pump that was farther up the track. I remember them buckets full of water. By the time – by the time we got from the pump to the – the plants that were in the ground to be watered, well, we had lost half of the water, because we were young, �going along, all the water was sloshing out. Oh my gosh, Emily, I told myself, I told myself, I’ll – I’ll never have a garden, because it – it was rough, and my dad, you know, he paid pretty good attention to the garden. He made it – he made sure we did it right. ER: Yes. PR: He made sure it was right. ER: It’s a lot of work, keeping up a garden. PR: Sure. For little kids, it was – it was, like I said, it was – it was tough. ‘Course, you know, we didn’t know it, because it was expected of us. ER: Right. PR: To help do the chores and all that. So anyways, I always thought: “Man, I’m never gonna have a garden. That’s too hard.” So anyways, I got married and got a garden. ER: Yeah, of course you did. PR: Got a garden. Same thing with the fireplace. In the winter times at La Yarda, oh my gosh, them buildings got so cold. Oh, Emily, I tell you – ER: With the concrete floors. PR: Oh, the concrete floor and the windows would cake up with – with ice, I guess it was because all the – all of us being inside, these six rooms that we lived in, and all that heat. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: Hitting that glass, and just all ice. I remember we used to have to scrub the, uh – ER: Oh, to see outside. PR: The ice off to see [murmurs]. ER: My goodness. PR: My, um, we cut our own firewood. Oh, God, them days. I remember the days that little kids [murmurs] hand saws, sawing the logs. ER: Gosh, and they’re kids, too. PR: Small enough to – to put into the woodstove. Oh, gosh. I don’t know how my mother did it. Oh, gosh. All them kids and feedin’ all them kids, and – �ER: What would she make? I mean, I know you said she made burritos. What else would she make? PR: Oh, we ate beans. Frijoles. Frijoles. ER: Frijoles. PR: You know, Emily, it’s – it’s funny because today, all this food that we ate – we thought – man, this is – this is poor man’s food. Today, man, shoot, this food that we’re eating now, today, oh, it’s…probably [unintelligible, dollar’s?] business, you know. Taco Bell, and – ER: Yeah, it’s – PR: Things like that. ER: Taco Bueno. PR: All the – God, all that food that we ate, and we – we got tired of [laughter]. Got tired of eating the same food, eating our frijoles with our tortilla. And instead of using a spoon or fork, the Mexicans used, uh, the tortilla. ER: Yeah, strips of tortilla. PR: Into the strips and, like that. But anyways, gosh, we – anyways, yeah. The, uh, uh…we had stoves. My mother had stoves, and that’s the way she cooked, with a woodstove. Um…it, uh, it was very tough. ER: Did you eat vegetables from your dad’s garden? PR: Uh, yeah. ER: So a lot of tomatoes, then? PR: Yeah. Oh, yeah, we, yeah, my mother would, uh, can. She – she would can the, um, um, tomatoes. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Yeah, and – ER: So you’d have some for the winter. PR: Yeah, for the wintertime and all that, so – yeah, so, oh, gosh, you know, I – I remember too, is my – my, uh, there was – La Yarda was down here, and right across the tracks was the City. We had a lot of – we had a lot of cousins that – that lived – that – we didn’t have a lot, but we – some of our cousins lived across the tracks, which was the City. And we always thought that was �so neat. We always envied, as little kids from La Yarda, we always envied our – our relatives that lived in the City part. The City part – part – they had houses with electricity. ER: Running water. PR: Running water. Some of ‘em had bathrooms inside, latrines inside. I think there were some they had outside too. But we always envied them kids. I – I remember, I remember going to school and – and, I mean, the teacher would ask us: “Well, what does your dad do for a living?” And – and we – we didn’t know exactly what to say. We know that he worked for the railroads. His job was – my dad’s job was, and all these other people that lived at La Yarda, the men, their job was what they called a section gang. ER: Section gang. PR: Yeah. They’re the ones that cleaned up, cleaned the, uh, the – the tracks. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Yeah, they – they cleaned the tracks in the wintertime. I remember the wintertime, my dad would come home all full of snow. ER: Oh. PR: Full of snow, or a lot of times, in the winter times when it was storming real hard, they’d call out the men, and, um, tell ‘em that they had to report to work, because the railroad tracks were getting covered with snow. ER: In the middle of the night? PR: Yes, I remember that. I remember, they would – the – the – they used to call him the foreman. The foreman would get somebody and – and go – the guy would, the man would come to the yard on foot and tell the men that they were to report to work. ER: Oh, that’s right, because you didn’t have telephones. PR: Yeah, they didn’t have telephones, so…gosh, I – I remember my dad going to work and all that, on the tracks. But anyways, going back to the City, yes, going back to the City. Um, our – our City relatives, that’s what I’m gonna call ‘em, they had addresses on their house. 910 New Jersey Street. ER: Oh, that’s right. PR: Or 820 New Jersey Street, and all that. We – we didn’t even have an – we didn’t even have an address to where we lived. The teachers would ask us: “What’s your address?” ER: Oh. �PR: We didn’t know. All we knew is that – there used to be a mailbox. It was for the people that worked – that lived there at the Santa Fe apartments, La Yarda. ER: Uh-huh. PR: I – there used to be a – a mailbox. Oh, gosh. It must have been about a quarter of a mile from La Yarda. ER: Really? PR: Yes. So – so we have to walk all that ways down there. Yeah, that was one thing I remember. Our cousins that lived in the City, we always wished: “Gosh, one of these days we’ll be – we’ll live in the City.” ER: You’ll have an address. PR: Yeah, we’ll have an address. Yeah, things like that I remember. I – I too, you know, I remember the – the, um – we didn’t have no electricity. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: Uh, my parents – my parents had these, uh, kerosene lamps. ER: Oh, okay. PR: To, you know, for nighttime. That’s the – that’s the light we had. Kerosene lamps. Uh, later on – later on, we, uh, they – they, uh, installed electric. We had electric lights. But for a long time, that’s what we lived with, just, uh…gasoline lamps. ER: Did they ever get knocked over by accident, or…? It must have been a fire hazard. PR: No, not really. ER: Not really? PR: Not, not really. ER: Well, that’s good. PR: Yeah, that was good, but…I – I don’t know, I don’t know how we did it. That many people living in them little rooms? ER: I don’t know how you did it, either. �PR: It, oh, my gosh, I remember one time as a little kid, the Mexican-Americans, they were superstitious, okay? I remember, uh, when I was a kid, my dad, there was – there was always – there was sometime there’d be an owl, you know, squeaking at nighttime. And I mean, you know, when you hear something like that, I’m sure it’s – with the Anglos too, you know. Owl howling at night means that somebody’s gonna die. ER: Oh, is that what it means? PR: Well, in the Mexican-American, yes, it is. So, I remember my dad, he had a .22 rifle, and he’d go out there in the middle of the night and try to find that owl. ER: And shoot the owl? [Laughter] PR: Yeah, because really, it was. It was, uh, an old superstitious, uh, uh, tale that if an owl hooted at nighttime, somebody was gonna die. ER: I’ve never heard of that one before. PR: Yeah. Somebody was gonna die, and – ER: Do you remember other ones like that? PR: Well, yeah, like La Llorona. ER: Oh, the weeping woman. PR: Yeah, the weeping woman. ER: I heard about that in Spanish class. PR: Yeah, you heard that in Spanish. Yeah, people were scared to go out at – at night at the river, ‘cause if La Llorona was there… ER: I don’t blame them, I don’t think I’d want to, either. [Laughter] PR: Yeah, you know, things like that – that, uh, that happened, and…Christmastime. I – I remember Christmastimes. My sisters – my parents didn’t have no money. Gosh, in fact, my dad worked for the railroad, uh, when I was a kid. Summertime would come, and there used to be farmers out – out in the country, that they’d, uh, they’d grow potatoes. ER: Oh, okay. PR: And – and in the summertime, instead of my dad taking vacation time, he would spend it out there picking potatoes to earn extra money. ER: For Christmas? �PR: Well, for – ER: For everything. PR: For everything. And I – I picked potatoes for a long time, too. ER: Did you? PR: Yeah, I picked, oh gosh, I must have been maybe eleven years old. Out there – out there in the fields picking, uh, potatoes. ER: That must have been hot work, just… PR: It – it was hot, but us kids, we were ornery. ER: Oh. PR: We used to make – we used to make games out of picking – ER: Did you? PR: Throwing tomatoes – ah, throwing potatoes at – at the railroad tracks, at the railroads. Okay, the – the railroad cars. ER: That sounds about right. PR: That would pass by there on the tracks, and we’d be out there [laughs] throwing potatoes at them. ER: You made your own fun. PR: Yeah, we – we made our own fun. And my sisters, for Christmastime…they – they would – they would save their money and buy us, man, like a little truck or a little car or something like that. I remember that. We didn’t have no money. They didn’t have much money, but they always managed to – to buy something for us. ER: Get something, at least. PR: Little thing, and God, we thought, man, that was the greatest thing. The greatest thing, yeah. Gosh. We – we used to make tamales at – ER: Oh, I love tamales. PR: That – that’s a Christmas tradition. We used to make tamales. My dad would get the corn, and we had a room where we grinded up the corn kernels. �ER: By hand? PR: Yeah, by hand. ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: And – and they – they made the masa, which is the dough. And the women would, um, they, uh, the women would get in there and work – ER: Knead it? PR: Whatever you call it, yeah. That, and, uh…it was just – the process of making tamales, getting the corn husk and all that, and – ER: It’s an all-day process. PR: Oh, yeah. ER: In the town where I grew up, there were families used to make ‘em. PR: They take all day. ER: Yes, all day long. PR: You start early in the morning, and maybe by 9:00, you know, maybe you quit about that time, about 9:00 that evening you’d be, yeah, we – things like that, made tamales. My – my dad had two chicken pens. Had two chicken pens out there that we raised chicken to eat. We ate the heck out of chickens. [ER laughs] Our poor little chickens, I remember, you know, as we got older, our job was to wring the – wring the necks. ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: Yeah, so we al – we always had chicken. Sunday. Sunday as a little kid, Sunday was a big day, ‘cause my mom went out, went all out and made us a good dinner. ER: Chicken dinner. PR: Yeah, chicken dinner, we had chicken. We ate sopa, I’m sure you know sopa, and, uh, um… ER: What about eggs? Did – PR: Oh, yes. We – we had our own – we grew – my dad had all these chickens. Doggone it, I remember… ER: That’s a lot of eggs. �PR: Yeah, I remember my dad bought the little chickens. The little chicks, oh, they were so – ER: They were tiny ones. PR: Yeah, they were so beautiful little chickens, and – and, uh, they grew to be bigger, and we raised ‘em for eggs, for the eggs, for the meat. My – my dad had two chicken pens. And it was our job to go feed ‘em, oh, gosh, be – before we did anything, before we went out there and played with our friends or anything, one of our deal was to go feed the chickens. Feed them, chicken, feed the chicken, water the chickens. It was – ER: So that was one of your chores. PR: Yeah, it was a chore. We – we had to do chores. We had chores to do. And like I said, haul wood or water, but, uh, we – we’ve always, you know, we grew up learning to do things. I mean, it – it, uh, it was – it was hard work, but we – we did it, and, you know, we just thought that was part of living our life. ER: Sure. PR: Like that, so, yeah, and… ER: Did your dad ever teach you things, like when he would work on house renovation or construction? My dad used to teach us how to do that. PR: Ah… ER: When he would work on the house, we were little, and we’d watch him, and he’d show us how to do things. PR: Yeah…I tell you…my dad, he – he was – he was kind of a quiet man. He was kind of a quiet man. He’s – he’s in, uh, yeah…my mom, if us boys did something, if the boy – if any of the brothers and sisters did something, mostly the brothers, if the brothers did something wrong, well, that evening my mom would tell – would, uh, would tell my dad. ER: Oh. PR: And, uh, I remember my dad would – he – he – he’d get after us. [ER laughs]. He’d get after us. A lot of times I don’t even think that my dad knew why he was getting after us [laughter]. All he knew was that Mom said we did something wrong. We had a fight amongst each other or something like that, and, uh, we were well-disciplined. ER: I imagine you were. PR: Discipline. Discipline is a big word for us. Discipline, we – to this day, there was – my parents taught us that respect, to have for the women. To the women, especially our sisters. �Today – to this day, my sisters can get after us boys [ER laughs] and us boys won’t say nothin’ to ‘em. We would not say…you had to get after us and all that, and we just – we don’t say nothing to ‘em, and, a lot of times they’ll kid around, they’ll say: “You guys better be – you guys better behave. Today. Today. You guys better do this and that.” And: “Okay, okay.” ER: Do what you’re told. PR: Yeah, my – oh, my parents were real, real – that was one of the thumbs of rule, is to respect the women. That was one thing they always taught us. Respect the women. ER: And your friends, were they raised the same way? PR: Yeah. Yeah, yes. ER: So, this is community values, just part of it. PR: Yeah, that was – that was – that was one of the culture things. One of the culture things. Music, we – we all listened to the same type of music, and I was gonna show you…this is, you – you say you’re from Texas? ER: I am. PR: You’ve been around all the Spanish people then. ER: I have. That’s why we have the good tamales instead of having to go to Taco Bueno. PR: You know, the – the music like this. ER: Oh, you’ve got records. PR: Yeah, we – these are old. These are – these are some of my mother’s, we grew up on this type of music here. ER: [Band name] PR: Yeah. I could – I could…I wish my mind wasn’t so blank. ER: I don’t think I’ve ever actually listened to a record. I’ve never had a turntable. PR: Oh, yeah, we – oh, this kind of music we grew up on. Gosh. You know, as kids, every Saturday on the weekend, there’d be a Mexican dance. And we all went to it. ER: Oh, did you? PR: Oh, my gosh, yeah, we went to every – we all looked forward to Saturday night, when we’d go to the dances and meet – meet all the girls, and – �ER: Of course. PR: And – oh gosh, I remember going, buying a special shirt or pants. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Just going down there. That was – that was something we looked forward to, the dances on the weekends. Now, there’s no more things like that. And there’s nothing like that anymore, but that was one of the big ways the Mexican-Americans got together. ER: Sure. PR: Here in Lawrence, uh, it’s funny, ‘cause here in Lawrence, when the Mexican-Americans came to this country, my parents, they came to this – they came to Kansas. They settled here in Kansas, so they – they would tell their – their relatives in Mexico: “Hey, Kansas ain’t a bad place; come on down.” ER: Sure. PR: And – and, you know, it was different. It was cold. ER: I imagine. PR: So, some of ‘em went back, but a lot of ‘em that stayed – well, what happened was that we were all related. ER: Oh, okay. PR: At La Yarda. I think we were all related, so – so when it came time to dating and all that, well, the – the – all the girls that we knew, we were all related to [ER laughs], so I ended up getting married to a girl from Topeka – Anna, my wife Anna, Anna Perez. But she was in Topeka, that’s how I met her, because there wasn’t no girls here, here in Lawrence. ER: That you weren’t related to. PR: That we weren’t related. That, or the – the ones that we did know that weren’t related to us, well, they were like, almost sisters to us. ER: Yeah, sure. PR: Because we grew around, you know, like the Bermudezes. Uh, uh…Rachel Bermudez, she wasn’t related to us, but we knew her so good – ER: It felt like family. �PR: They felt like sisters, so… or – or – or the Chavez, um, they had a lot of daughters about my age, but, doggone it all, you grew up together. ER: Just not the same. PR: She’s like a sister, I can’t – so I, like I said, we used to go to the dances on the weekends. I met my wife at a dance. ER: And that’s where you met her. PR: Oh, my God, yeah. Oh, gosh. I remember the day I met her. ER: You do? PR: I remember the day I met her. I got – she – her cousin introduced me to her, and gosh, she was – she was dressed in a – she was dressed in a black dress. Oh, my God, she – whoo! [Laughter] Beautiful. ER: Swept off your feet. PR: Oh, my God, yeah, she was beautiful, man. So I married her, and…two boys. Got two boys, uh, Paul. ER: And Vince. PR: And Vince. And Vince – Vince’s got – Vince’s got six kids, all going to St. John’s School. He’s – they got their seventh one coming up in May. But anyway, that – that’s how – that’s how I met my wife, through the, uh, going to dances back then. ER: That’s sweet, though. PR: We were all related. You know, like I said, when the people, uh, from Kansas told the people in Mexico: “Hey, come on down up here,” it’s, you know, when they told their cousins and things like that. So, all the cousins would come to live in Kansas, and like I said, we were all related when it came to dating and all that. ER: Had to go elsewhere. PR: We had to go someplace and look. And – and at school. And at school. Let me tell you, in school, when I was in grade school, we were – we – we were – we were…us, and the Anglo kids, the white kids. We – we got along okay. We got along okay. Uh, in junior high, junior high was a little different. Junior high, the white kids would – they liked to hang around with us. We got along with them pretty good. Um…high school. High school was way different. I – I don’t know what – what – in high school, I – I think what happened was the – the white kids, um…they didn’t – they didn’t associate with us as much as they used to when we were younger. �ER: Right. ‘Cause kids will play together when they’re younger. PR: Yeah. But as we got older, you know, they – they kind of stuck to their own selves. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: They stuck to their own selves. In my time, you – you couldn’t date a white girl. ER: Oh. PR: You couldn’t date a white girl. ER: It just wasn’t done. PR: Yeah. If – if you dated a white girl, you – you know, people kind of looked – it wasn’t like today, you know. Today, interracial marriages are – ER: Are more common. PR: But then, gosh, so it – it was hard growing up for me, ‘cause I – I, well, I liked girls and all that, but I couldn’t really date. ER: Yeah. PR: Really date, so…back again, you know, it goes back to having these social events. Um, Mexican dances and all that. So, but – but I did notice, in high school. The kids sort of – it’s almost like, if – if they felt that we were different, and – and – even with the – the black kids – ER: Mm-hmm. PR: They – they kind of stuck together, in their groups. As a kid – as a young junior high school kid, high school mostly, the only really good friends I had were the Mexican friends. The kids that I grew up with. ER: The ones you played baseball with. PR: Yeah, I played baseball, altar boy, and – but that – that’s the closest I’ve – that’s…that’s why I was so close to them. High school, that’s – that’s all I ever hung around with, was the Mexican kids that I knew. I felt comfortable with them. I really felt real comfortable with them. I – I remember – I remember, um, segregation. ER: Oh, you remember that? PR: Oh, my gosh, yeah. I – I remember as a kid, um, we – we weren’t allowed in the swimming pools. �ER: Really? PR: Yeah, we weren’t allowed in the swimming pools. So, we would go down there to the swimming pools, and – and watch all these kids swimming and all that, and I remember [laughs] I remember leaning against the fence and watching the kids swimming in there. ER: Oh. PR: And they always told us: “Well, you can’t get in there because you have to pay.” ER: Oh. PR: You had to be a member. But that was their way of keeping out ER: That was, yeah, that was what they said was technically the reason. PR: They said: “You gotta be a member.” Oh, gosh, I remember so many times watching, going down there, watching all them kids, white kids, out there in the swimming pool, and…uh… ER: That seems cruel. PR: It… ER: You’re just kids, you know. PR: Gosh, I remember us guys…ten, eleven, twelve years old, going out there to the country and finding some pond out there and – and swimming in them ponds. And you know what, it was funny because [laughs] pretty soon, the farmers’ cows would [laughs] and – and, uh, drink water out of the – out of the – ER: The stock ponds, I think they call ‘em. PR: The stock pond, yeah. Them things, we’d go out there, and that was our way of getting in the water. We had to go to places like that. Or go to the river. The Kaw River. ER: That must have been dangerous, too. PR: Oh. Oh, my gosh, yeah. You know, Emily, I remember one time as little kids, we were little kids. Our – our parents…good parents, excellent parents, but a lot of the time, they – they didn’t know where we were at because, you know, at that, a long time ago, you could send your kids out there and – and they were safe. ER: Yeah. PR: You know, you didn’t have to worry about predators being out there and things like that. You – you – you send your kids out there and say: “You kids come back for lunch.” So, we’d go �out there, I remember one time we were at the river, wading in the river, and then, uh, we were getting ready to leave, and we were standing by – on the bank of the river. And we were – we’d left, and about twelve seconds later, that bank that we were standing on caved in. I mean, you could just see it – whoosh! ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: That whole section. ER: All of it? Wow. PR: Yes, if we would have been there, um, a few seconds earlier, us guys would have been in the river. But that’s things that we had to do, because we weren’t allowed in the swimming pools. I – I – I remember when me and my wife Anna got married, and, uh, in the evening we’d go out for…you know, a root beer or something like that. ER: Yeah. PR: I remember going to the – there was one stand, a root beer stand here – here in Lawrence, that, uh, all them people would get served in them, you know, glass… ER: Oh, like in the pictures that have the glass with the straws. PR: That, uh, ice and all that kind of…we – we were put in cups. ER: Just plain old cups. PR: They had paper cups. We were put in paper – they put our drinks in the paper cups. ER: What a shame. PR: And…I remember going into the service, and I was stationed in, um, in, uh, the South. I – I remember Atlanta, Georgia. I remember, uh, getting off a plane in Atlanta, Georgia. I went – I was hungry, so I stopped at this one place, this – they used to call ‘em drugstores, then. ER: Oh, okay. I gotcha. PR: And I went to this drugstore to get something to eat. When I went in there – this was in the ‘60s – went to this place to get something to eat, and they had – there was like a big old, there was a table and counter. ER: Oh, yeah. PR: A table, this is the counter. ER: Yeah, with stools. �PR: Yeah, with stools, there you go. So, I went in there, and they had for whites, this section was for whites, this section was for blacks, and I went in there, thinking to myself: “Where do I go?” ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: I’m not white. Or I’m not black. ER: What did you do? PR: I got to sit in the middle. ER: That sounds smart. PR: Even doing that, you know, they looked at me. White people would look at me. The black people would look at me. I – I didn’t know where to go. So I, like I already said, I went in the middle, in the middle of the counter there, and I was okay there. Same thing, you see the bathrooms. Using the bathrooms. ER: My gosh. PR: What bathroom do I use? Do I use the white or black? I was in between. And using the bathroom, the water fountains. Remember the water fountains too, white and black, and there was nothing for us, there wasn’t no middle person, so… ER: It must have been bewildering, just not knowing where you fit. PR: Oh, for sure, yeah. But you know what? I – I don’t know. I don’t know which I felt better with. I might have felt better with the blacks, because…I’m a little darker, closer to the blacks than I am to the whites. So, I – I was probably closer to being with the black people. Oh, gosh… ER: That’s unfathomable. I never grew up with that. PR: Yeah. ER: We grew up with smoking and nonsmoking sections, but I – never, never like that. PR: Yeah. It – it was quite, yeah. And in the South. ER: It was – it was very bad in the South. PR: Sure. ER: More pronounced, anyway. I know racism is everywhere, but in the South it was – it was very prevalent. �PR: It was tough, it was tough – it, uh, I didn’t know where, which one to go to. So, like I said, I just found the middle of the counter and went to the middle counter, I got served…oh. Bathrooms, water fountains, everything like that. Um, I was gonna show you, this – ER: Oh, you got a picture there. PR: That’s a picture of my two little brothers. ER: Oh. I love their overalls. PR: And then – that was La Yarda right, well, this is – this was La Yarda. ER: Okay, it’s right behind them. PR: This was the… ER: Which brothers are these? PR: Uh…okay, that’s my brother, uh, uh…Rick. Enrique. ER: Enrique. PR: And then my brother Omar. Gonzalo Romero. ER: Oh. On the left. PR: Yeah, this – this… ER: I see, oh, he’s got – okay, so you’ve got shoes, but they definitely weren’t the waterproof kind. PR: No, no – I, yeah, really, they weren’t. ER: That’s a cute picture. PR: Yeah, that’s a cute picture. That was back probably about 19…maybe 19, in the ‘50s, probably early ‘50s. ER: So, do you remember when the flood happened? PR: Yeah. ER: Other people have talked about that in their interviews. PR: Yeah, they talked…and – and I was – okay – do you, uh…this – this was the layout and –as I can remember. I’m no artist, okay, but I can remember. �ER: Oh, but this will do. PR: These were the La Yarda, the two buildings. Okay – walked south, and there was the railroad tracks. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Yeah, this was the railroad tracks there. You had to climb up a little s – a little hill, uh, to cross the tracks. Once you got across the tracks, that was the City. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Everything out here was in the country. But I remember as a kid, I remember this here. I remember this little – it was a dirt road, a dirt road that ran down, uh, east and west. Uh, I remember some of the buildings. There was a little pond out here. Here’s the two bathrooms. ER: And there’s your chicken pens. PR: Yeah, a chicken pen there, and another chicken pen. Gosh, I think I drew this back in 19…about 20-02. ‘Cause this is still fresh in my mind. I tell you, my – my memory is still okay, but… ER: I’d say it’s good. You have excellent recall. PR: I – I feel that, you know, this is necessary to do, because one of these days, there ain’t gonna be nobody around, you know. ER: To remember. PR: That actually lived in these places here. So, this – this is what I find, this is what I find real interesting, I – I’d like to really get involved in this, but one of my biggest drawbacks is that I’m not a very good speaker, you know? Like I can put things down on paper better than I can talk about it – I’ve always been like that. ER: I’m the same way. I like to write things down. PR: Yeah. I like to write, seem like I could express myself better. I mean, gosh, I envy the people that can get up there and speak and… ER: Oh, it’s such a gift. PR: All they do is open their mouth and these words are coming out. Me, I’m thinking about: “What am I gonna say, am I saying it right?” [Murmurs] Oh, gosh. ER: Even when I do lectures, I have to write out what I’m going to say. �PR: Yeah, I’m – I’m like that. You – you know, I was – I was…[rustling] ER: I like that magic bag. It’s like Mary Poppins. You just – PR: What’s that? ER: Like Mary Poppins’ bag, that she could just – PR: Oh! ER: Put all these things in there. PR: Yeah. [Paper rustling] ER: It’s just – it’s fascinating that these pictures here, you know, of the foundation, you know, that’s the pump. That’s where it was. PR: Right, yeah, yeah. ER: That’s amazing. PR: Did you ever see this? [paper rustling] ER: What’s this? “La Yarda: Undiscovered Oasis.” PR: Did you – you ever see it? ER: No, I haven’t. PR: Okay. ER: But this would be the kind of thing that they would – if they could restore the area, they could put this on plaques. PR: Yes. They – they have…they have, uh, the, uh, they keep telling me they got money. They keep telling me they – they got some grant money, that they could do – that they could help, uh, maybe making this possible. But… ER: I don’t see why not. PR: I tell you what, it – ER: Especially with volunteer work, I mean – �PR: It – the – the land today, the – the railroad, the Santa Fe Railroad gave, uh, um, the land to the – to the City. So, what the City doing now, is they – where La Yarda sits, right, not too far, maybe a couple hundred, maybe a hundred feet or something like that. They built – the City’s got sewers, um, City sanitation. ER: Oh, okay. PR: Plants out there. I guess that’s what you call ‘em. But I was thinking, son of a gun, if – if the City just – it belongs to the City now. If – if they could just buy a little piece of land – ER: Sure. PR: Clear that area out, and – and fence it, maybe fence it? I don’t know how long the fence would last, but – ER: Still. PR: They could do something like that. ER: Oh, I like that picture. PR: Yeah. ER: All the little kids. 1933. PR: This is the way – this is the way La Yarda looked like. ER: Oh, okay. I got you. PR: There was two of them. There was two of ‘em. ER: And there’s the pump in between the two. PR: Yeah, there’s the pump, and these were the two ends. The – the two ends were the biggest part of the…of the building there. But yeah, there was these – there was all these doors, and all these doors led to a different room. ER: I wonder who was responsible for making the drawing here. PR: Ah… ER: Do you – was that Frank Chavez? PR: Yeah, I – ER: Was it – �PR: I got the original picture of that. ER: That’s right. That’s the one you showed me on your cell phone. So, this is that. PR: I can – yeah. That is it. ER: Wow. PR: The slab is still out there. The slab is still out there, it’s – ER: I’d like to go out there and see it. PR: One of these days – ER: Yeah, when it’s not snowing. PR: No, no, one of these days – if – one of the best times might be in the springtime, because well, right now it’s all right, but it’s cold and… ER: Yeah. PR: Today is a good – um…before – while – while it’s still cold, and there’s poison ivy, and that’s not out there, it’s dead, but – ER: Oh, that’s true. That’s right. PR: Yeah, there’s…in springtime, summertime, there’s, you have to watch it, ‘cause there’s poison ivy out there. ER: Maybe at the end of February, or March, when it warms up, but the plants having started coming back yet. PR: Go out there. Man, I – I thought about how we could preserve, uh… ER: Even a small piece, like – PR: This piece of land, yes. ER: Just seems like such a shame. PR: And – and the City – the – the City could go in there and take care of it. Could – Park and Recreation. ER: Just like a park, you know, hire people to mow the lawn, and… �PR: Get, you know, clean it out, and maybe put…grass and all that, and keep it mowed and all that, and…God, it’s very interesting. Like I said, there was a German camp just right – right up the road. ER: That’s fascinating. I wouldn’t have thought that – right there, you know. PR: There’s a lot of history in there, that deal there. Lot of history. ER: Especially when you think: Lawrence is a community that’s really proud of its history – PR: Right, yeah. ER: So, why not preserve this? PR: Yeah. To me, the Hispanics are left out. ER: I would agree. PR: They – they are left out. One of the – one of the reasons was because the – the MexicanAmerican community, they all lived in La Yarda, and East Lawrence. New Jersey Street, Pennsylvania and all that. Their parents made it a goal in their life to get their kids educated. That was very important, get them kids to school, make a better life for themselves. Get out. Get something nice out there. The Mexican-American people in – in Lawrence, they’re spread all over Lawrence now. You know? Once they got a chance to get a good job… ER: They left. PR: They wanted something better. So, man, you’ll find ‘em all over now. West side, south…they’re all there. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: But not in a group anymore. The – the first, the chance that they got to get out, make something for, you know, make ‘em a better life, they – they moved away. They…different parts of Lawrence now. But at one time, they were all pretty much on the east side. ER: And that needs to be preserved, because that’s – that’s where your parents lived. They helped you… PR: Right ER: Think about something else beyond La Yarda, and that’s where you started, so I think it’s a shame that it would just go unpreserved like that. PR: Yeah, they’re – like I said, about the only time you see the Mexican-American people get together is when they go to church. �ER: Oh, when – okay. PR: You go to church or the fiesta, the fiesta that’s held in June. And you see all the Mexicans and all that. They’re all here in Lawrence. They’re all here in Lawrence, but they’re all spread out. ER: Yeah, just not in the same place. PR: No, not no more. Once they got a chance to, uh, uh, get out and…get better jobs, better jobs and…get out there, and instead of living, you know, there’s nothing wrong with the east side, but that’s where we all kind of grew up on. ER: Yeah. PR: But you know, there’s places, nice places out there that they can – they can have. ER: So, you’ve been going to St. John’s for – how long, would you say? PR: Oh, forever. I been – I was baptized here in Lawrence. I was baptized at St. John’s. ER: Oh, were you? PR: Um…we were altar boys. Little kids. ER: In the squads. PR: Yeah, in the squads. We always made fun of each other, because [ER laughs] you know, we’d be altar boys, and the altar – are you Catholic? ER: Ah, no. I have some Catholic family members, but I was raised Baptist. PR: The altar was kind of steps, and I remember we – we’d be kneeling down on the top stairs, and – and you could always see the shoes, all the little Mexican shoes all had holes in ‘em. [Laughter] ER: Oh. PR: Holes in ‘em, and maybe some cardboard, you know. ER: I believe you. PR: And they, uh, all the shoes had holes in ‘em, with cardboard. But yeah, um, like I said, you – you see all the Mexican-American community at places, at church. They’re mostly all Catholic, so…yeah, we – we – we never have gotten away from the church. This church is our second home. �ER: That’s what you said on the – on the phone, you and your wife, you know, it feels like a second home to you. PR: Oh, it is a second home. It’s, um, all the people that got baptized, got married, and got buried there. That’s – church is about – it is our second home. ER: Are you still – are you able to have in-person services over here yet, or…? PR: Um… ER: How did that change with the pandemic? PR: Okay…let’s see…you – there’s church service, but you have to sign up. ER: Oh, okay. PR: You have to sign up, and then once you get in church, and the pews – you, they’re distanced six feet. ER: Right. PR: But the first thing you gotta do is you got to, uh, uh, you got to, uh, make an appointment. Um, and then once, once you make an appointment ,you can get in, then, uh, they…have you, every six feet apart. So, at church, I – I’m gonna say there’s maybe…a couple hundred people when the church is filled up. With – with this epidemic and all that, there might be, like, thirty people in there. ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: Thirty people that, you know, signed up. A lot of people still don’t want to go, because, you know, they don’t feel safe. But it – it’s still open, and it’s – it’s different. It don’t even seem like a church hardly any more, because of the restrictions that there is. ER: That’s what I miss, I think, most about, ‘cause we’re not having in person services at church. I miss seeing people every week. PR: Yeah. ER: That I wouldn’t necessarily…it’s just not having that close community in person. They have ‘em online, but it’s not the same – it’s not the same. PR: My wife, Anna – she – she likes to watch it on – there’s a Catholic station on TV. ER: Oh, is there? �PR: Yeah, yeah, I think it’s Channel 91. Midco. I think it’s Channel 91 – she’ll watch it on – ER: I haven’t got cable. PR: So, she’ll watch it on Sunday at, uh, 7:00 Mass. But me, I…I like to come into the church, but I like to stay my distance, but it’s – it’s not – it’s not like it used to be. ER: No. PR: Yeah, used to be you could go to church and meet your friends and talk and all that. Now you go to church, you know – you’re too far away to talk to each other. ER: Can’t shake hands. PR: You can’t shake hands, or…it just – and then after church is over, you know, we used to get outside and talk and all that, but you can’t. ER: Maybe even go out to lunch, or…? PR: What’s that? ER: Maybe go out to lunch, or something like that, and… PR: Yeah. ER: Just visit. PR: Yeah. We used to do that, but not no more, no. Um… ER: It seems so strange to think that a year ago, you know, I’d just go and get some coffee, talk with people. PR: For sure. ER: We’d stand around talking, and we’d shake hands, we’d sing together, and then…nothing. That’s – it’s been difficult, adjusting to the lack of community. PR: Yeah. Hey, so, Emily, how can your project, uh, how can you help us? ER: I’d like to know that. I’d like to ask Nora how I could be involved. PR: How can you be of help to us? ER: What do you think? �PR: I – I think…I really think that this – this – this is possible. This is possible, but we have to get people involved. I’m, uh, I’m all for it. I’d like to – ER: Maybe preserving – PR: But, yes, I’d preserve, maybe do something to – to La Yarda. Uh…I’d like to preserve it, but we – we need the people, and, I don’t know, it just seems that people…it just seems like people just aren’t interested in it. I mean, you know, we – we tell our – our – our grandkids, we tell our two boys about how it was and all that, and they – they listen to us, and, you know, they can’t believe that – that, you know. We had a life there in La Yarda and all that. ER: Right. PR: But…I don’t know, I – I just, I – I wish there was a way that, uh, we could do something about this. ER: I think it is doable. PR: Yeah. ER: And I’m hoping that when Nora finishes the project, maybe she can…present it to – to a committee, maybe even to the City – PR: Right. ER: Some members of the City, and get them interested, but even something as simple as writing letters, if we could get people to inquire about what might be possible. PR: You know…I know a lot of these people. They’re – they’re, uh…they’re smart people. They’re smart people, but, and just like the Mexican-Americans, like the Mexican-Americans, they – they’re kind of, uh, quiet people. ER: Mm-hmm. PR: They’re kind of quiet. The – they’re smart, they’re smart people. But – but they’re – they’re kind of quiet, you know, they – they don’t like to get out there and – and speak up. ER: Sure. PR: I’m – I’m the same way, too, like I said, I’m…I’m pretty good at writing stuff – I don’t know if I am, but, you know. ER: I think you are. PR: Like I said, you know, writing stuff down. �ER: You’ve had years of practice. PR: Yeah, and like I said, I’m better at – ER: I got it. PR: Oh, thank you. Try and open my sinus up. I – I, yeah, I’m – I’d like to be, I’d like to help as much as I could, I can, but I – I can’t see myself speaking up there in front of the City, the City leaders. ER: And that’s just it; you shouldn’t have to. Like, there should be people that can do that, with different talents. You do the writing, and someone else can, say, do the speaking if they’re comfortable with that, they have…. PR: That – that’s me right there. ER: That’s – that’s what we need, is more people involved. PR: Right. I…I, um, I got the – I got the feelings to do it and all this stuff, my intention’s good, but like I said, I’m just, I just can’t, I’m just not that kind of a person that…that can get up and talk about this to the public, like the City and all that. ER: Someone else can do that. Look at this – all this foundational work that you’ve done. It would make an excellent book. PR: Oh, my God. That’s, well, I – I’m, well, I, living in La Yarda, it just made me appreciate…people. Caring for each other. I don’t know, it’s – it’s a good feeling, you know, to…um, caring for people. Respecting people. I think – I think we lost a lot of that respect today. ER: That’s a shame. PR: It’s a shame, because we said – like we live, we live for ourselves now. We could reach out, reach out and try to help each other, like we used to do. Like we used to do. We used to reach out and help each other and… ER: And you’ve been honest about how hard it was. You know, it wasn’t an easy life, but… PR: For sure. ER: But you’re right, you also – when you leave that behind, now we miss the community aspect. PR: Yeah, yeah. ER: Where people wouldn’t think twice about, you know, helping someone else, and of course you’d do that. �PR: Yeah. Gosh. ER: Now, it seems people are more hesitant to just reach out. PR: Right. ER: I think this – this deserves to be remembered. PR: Well, you know, if this – if this, I’ll be glad to help you any way I can. [Murmurs] I don’t know, if you’ve seen any of these pictures there. ER: I haven’t seen any pictures. PR: Okay, you haven’t seen no pictures at all? Okay, this – ER: No, all I’m doing is transcription, so I never saw any of the materials. Gosh, all those skirts. All made by hand. Oh, Mary Nunez. I did – I transcribed her interview. PR: Mary Nunez? ER: Mm-hmm. PR: Mary Nunez. You – you did an interview with her? ER: Oh, I transcribed it. I think Helen had done that. Helen Krische was the first one to start working on this. PR: Oh, okay, okay. ER: Yeah. PR: Okay, yeah. ER: But I had done…Garcia…I love the costumes. PR: That’s – that’s me right there. ER: That’s you? PR: Yeah. ER: Oh, my goodness. PR: We used to have a dance group. �ER: Do you? PR: We used to have, when we were small kids, about that age there, what, eleven years, maybe? ER: I love the gold braid on that costume. PR: Yeah, we used – we used to go around and dance for the Kiwanis Club or the Lions’ Club. ER: Oh, okay. I gotcha. PR: And the people ate all that stuff up [laughs]. Seeing us little Mexicans out there dancing. ER: It’s cute. So, here’s the railroad tracks. PR: That – that was the flood. That was the flood. ER: The ‘51 flood, is that right? PR: The ‘51 flood. Okay, this – this right here, these, um… ER: Oh, my gosh. PR: These were little buildings that the railroad men, my dad, they had all their tools in these sheds there, and every morning they’d go out there, that’s where they would meet. From there they got the orders to go wherever, wherever they had to. ER: All that water. Gosh. PR: But all that was underwater, at one time. ER: That’s unfathomable. Oh, here – wow, right up to the – PR: The railroad tracks are right here. And all that was flooded, that’s why my parents had to move. They got tired of…they got tired of cleaning up that mud, and all that. ER: I would too. Oh, my gosh. PR: This was La Yarda. Okay, this – this is the roof. That is the roof. ER: Up to the power lines. PR: That’s the roof there, and that’s that little piece that sticks out. ER: All just underwater. PR: All underwater. �ER: I can’t imagine what that was like. I’ve never lived on a coast, or even lived through a huge flood like this, so…my gosh, such destruction. PR: That’s an old picture of my… ER: Oh, that’s your mom and dad? PR: Yeah, that’s my mom. My dad. ER: You have your mom’s eyes, I think. PR: [Laughs] My grandma. ER: Is that your dad’s mom, or your mom’s mom? PR: Yeah, my dad’s mom. ER: What was her name? PR: Gregoria. ER: Okay. PR: Gregoria. ER: Okay, she had written – PR: Yeah. ER: It was in the book, there. PR: She was… ER: You’re lucky to have so many good pictures. PR: Oh, my – okay, my mom was from Mexico City, and my dad was from Veracruz. And I tell you what, as kids, boy, we – we were taught to respect our elders. Oh, my gosh. Oh, like we – we – the elders, like the women, we would call ‘em Dona Maria, Dona Rosa. Everything – well, in English, it’d be like “Ma’am” or – ER: Yeah. PR: But, everybody, all the ladies we talked to, we – we’d address ‘em by Dona. D-O-N-A. Dona Maria. Dona Rosa. �ER: My parents raised us to do that, too. You know, Mr. John or Miss Ramona. PR: Yeah, right. ER: I still – I still do that now, because it just feels odd not to call them by their first names. PR: Yeah. ER: But you’re right, I – this – it deserves to be preserved. PR: Yeah, so if there’s any way that you could help us, oh gosh, you know, we have a lot of young kids today. Young kids in their 40s, 50s, probably – intelligent Mexican Americans. But, I don’t know, I’d like to see some of them kids step up today. Step up, um, and – and take more interest in – in their roots. You know, these – my two boys, okay, Paul graduated from the, um, business, school of business. He’s, uh, he’s, um…he works at – for the UMBA, uh, bank in Kansas City. In Kansas City, Missouri. I got my son Vincent, who works at, uh… ER: Healthcare, was it? PR: He’s health administration. ER: That’s right. PR: He works at the hospital there in, um, Kansas City, Shawnee…uh, I think it’s called Advent now. ER: Oh, okay. PR: But, you know, I’d like to see our younger people step up. A lot of them, you know, are smart kids. ER: Of course they are. PR: They’re smart kids, but, I just, I don’t know, they’re just – really, you know, on – on the school board, we don’t have anybody on the school board, um, I wish we did. I – I, that’s one of the things I’d like to see happen while I’m still living, to see some of these young kids grow up, you know, and be on the school board, or be on the City commission. I – I look forward to the day – ER: To have a voice in the town. PR: Yeah, have a voice in – in Lawrence. But we don’t have nothing like that. We don’t have nothing like that. I don’t know. I don’t know why. ER: I hope that happens for you. I hope you get to see that. �PR: I do, I live for the day that I see one of these, somebody on the school board. ER: One of your grandkids, even, maybe. PR: Yeah. Like I said, the Hispanic-American community here in Lawrence…they’re – they’re – they’re there, but they’re – but they won’t – they – they just don’t stand out. ER: Right. PR: You know, to be noticed. ER: Like you said, quiet. PR: Yeah, they’re quiet. They’re – I guess we all – ER: Smart, intelligent, full of history and – and knowledge, but just not… PR: And all this history and all that, we’re keeping it to ourselves. And one of these days, all that history’s gonna die with people that actually lived in, you know, like in La Yarda and all that, so…anyways, um… ER: Well, thank you for sitting down and showing me all of this. PR: If – if I can be of any help, I’ll be glad to help you out, and, um, like I said, I wish – I wish more could be done. ER: I think it can. PR: I hope so. ER: And I’m hoping that when Nora’s carrying this project through to completion, that that will go some way to at least putting it out there, and being visible. PR: Yes. I always think of myself as being a – not a leader, but a follower. You know, I – ER: And we need both. PR: Well, yeah. ER: Just like we need the Marys and the Marthas. PR: Right, yeah. ER: That’s what keeps us going. �PR: I’ll be glad to help Nora in any way I can. But…we – we gotta do something. If we don’t, history’s gonna pass us by. ER: And that will be a shame that we can’t fix. PR: Yeah…well. ER: I’ll go ahead and turn this off. PR: Okay. Okay, well, I’ll gather up – END OF TAPE � 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 La Yarda Oral History Project Subject The topic of the resource La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.) Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence Description An account of the resource La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers in Lawrence, Kansas; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River, the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. In 2006, Helen Krische, archivist at the Watkins Community Museum, began an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. The project was resumed in 2019 by Nora Murphy and Emily Raymond. The interviews primarily feature the children of the railroad workers who migrated to Lawrence in the early 20th century; they describe daily life, social activities, and living conditions in the Mexican-American community in Lawrence from roughly the 1920s through the 1970s. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived La Yarda Oral History Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 2019 2021 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource These works are the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Raymond, Emily Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Romero, Pedro (Pete) Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data MP3 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:47:18 (2006) 00:19:03 (2021-01-29) 01:30:46 (2021-02-04) Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 84 kbps (2006)/192 kbps (2021) 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 Pedro (Pete) Romero La Yarda Interview Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Romero, Pedro (Pete) Description An account of the resource Pedro (Pete) Romero was interviewed by Helen Krische on May 23, 2006, and then by Emily Raymond on January 29 and February 4, 2021, as part of an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. Pedro lived with his parents and siblings in Lawrence's La Yarda neighborhood. La Yarda was a neighborhood of worker housing provided by the Santa Fe Railroad for Mexican-American railroad workers; located near the Kansas (Kaw) River; the neighborhood was largely destroyed by a major flood in 1951. In the 2006 interview, Pedro and Helen discuss photos and drawings of the Santa Fe depot and the La Yarda area. Pedro also describes his family's migration from Mexico to Lawrence, his father's experiences as a railroad worker, and his experiences growing up in La Yarda and East Lawrence. In the 2021 interviews, Pedro talks about how he met his wife, their involvement with St. John's Catholic Church, and their two sons. He also also describes his family's relationships with other Mexican-American families in Lawrence, their experiences attending local schools and playing sports, their family's foodways and social life, and experiences of discrimination and segregation faced by the Mexican-American community in Lawrence. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Raymond, Emily Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Lawrence (Kan.) 1920s - 1970s Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006, January and February 2021 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 (audio recording) PDF (transcription) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2006 interview: 25-PRomero-2006.mp3 (audio)/25-PRomero-2006.pdf (transcription) 2021-01-29 interview: 5-PRomero-20210129.mp3 (audio)/5-PRomero-20210129.pdf (transcription) 2021-02-04 interview: 6-PRomero-20210204.mp3 (audio)/6-PRomero-20210204.pdf (transcription) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.) Relation A related resource To access the audio recording of these interviews, go to <a href="https://archive.org/details/6-promero-202102204">https://archive.org/details/6-promero-202102204</a>. The <a href="https://www.watkinsmuseum.org/">Watkins Museum of History</a> also holds items related to this collection. <a href="https://archives.lib.ku.edu/repositories/3/resources/5295">Additional research on the La Yarda community</a> is held at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Published with the permission of Peter Romero. This work is the intellectual property of the Watkins Museum of History, Lawrence, Kansas. The public may freely copy, modify, and share this Item for noncommercial purposes if they include the original source information. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived La Yarda Oral History Project Subject The topic of the resource La Yarda (Lawrence, Kan.) Mexican Americans -- Housing -- Kansas -- Lawrence Mexican Americans -- History -- Kansas -- Lawrence Mexican Americans -- Social conditions -- Kansas -- Lawrence Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History