https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-lplks/original/ed2f3c42f36f301c8de958b8dcc5b3e6.pdf 917dd0719362c69d1bffcdb0a18af802 PDF Text Text Tape 18: Interview with Mary Nunez Interviewer: Helen Krische Date of Interview: 2006 Length of Interview: 38:20 Location of Interview: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church Transcription Completion Date: November 6, 2020 Transcriptionist: Emily Raymond Helen Krische (Interviewer): The, uh, Kansas State Historical Society, and there – it’ll be available for researchers to come in and do research with it and stuff, so…and, uh…and if you don’t, you know, if you start feeling uncomfortable and you don’t want to continue – Mary Nunez (Interviewee): Oh, I mean, I can just, I just want to answer your questions; I really don’t want to – HK: Okay. See, you can print – you can print your name up there. And then down at the bottom is information, because we’ll give you a copy of the tape that we’re making and, so I’ll contact you when it’s ready. And this part right here just – if you have any restrictions on what we’re doing with the tapes, or…any of the information, you can…okay? MN: What’s this for? HK: Oh, that was just if you had restrictions that you, if there was something that you didn’t – and then fill in your address and stuff and your name down there, sign it. [Long silence until 1:41] And we’ll give you a copy of this before you leave today, so…And, um, I’m Helen Krische, and this is Heather [Bollier?], my assistant here. She’s the camera operator. MN: Are you related to Father Krische? HK: Yes, I am. He’s a cousin. Uh-huh. Yeah. So I’ve been in St. John’s for a long time and went to school at, uh, at St. John’s School, pretty much grew up here. MN: Really? HK: So, yeah. MN: You been around here. HK: Yep, been around here a long time, so, yeah. So I was really thrilled that he asked me to do this. I thought it was a great thing. Great thing I can do for the community. MN: What is it that you want to know? HK: Okay, well, um, Sonny was here and we talked a little bit, oh yeah. Oh yeah. Some people have been bringing in pictures, so I’ve been scanning them, and, um…so, do you know any of �those people’s names? Like on this one, I don’t have any of the names of these guys here. And there’s another picture with a bunch of young girls on it. MN: [Unintelligible] Denise, Robert, Denise?? HK: I think most of them we have identified except for the little, little girls up front there. MN: [murmurs] Ramirez…Yeah, yeah. Not all of them. HK: So, you’re Sonny’s aunt? MN: Sonny? No, we’re not related. HK: Reyes? MN: Oh, Sonny Reyes. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. HK: You’re his aunt? MN: I thought you were talking about Sonny Garcia. HK: No. You’re Sonny’s aunt? MN: Uh-huh. My sister’s son. HK: Okay. And do you know a lot of information about, um…your mother? MN: Not much, like I said. Except I know she came when she was very young. HK: Uh-huh. MN: Uh, my dad was, uh, coming over here before he brought her over. HK: Uh-huh. MN: Came over about three or four years beforehand. You know, like they’re doing now. HK: Uh-huh. MN: And then he liked it, so he went back and got her. HK: Did he, what did he work? What was his job? MN: Uh, Santa Fe. HK: Santa Fe. �MN: Railroad. HK: Uh-huh. Did you live at the, uh, railroad, uh – ? MN: Santa Fe Apartments. HK: Apartments, uh-huh. MN: Uh, here in Lawrence, uh-huh, and, uh, we lived in Lecompton for a while, until I was about thirteen. HK: How old were you when you lived in the Santa Fe apartments? MN: Um, I was about seventeen or eighteen. HK: Uh-huh. So you were pretty much almost an adult when you lived there. MN: Mm-hmm. But we weren’t there very long, though. HK: Mm-hmm. What do you remember about the time that you did live there? MN: Um, we were just there about – about a year and my dad bought a home in, um, in South Lawrence. And, um, not much, except we had to draw water from the pump. And, uh, we didn’t have a telephone. We had outhouses [unintelligible] That’s about it. Went to school – oh, let’s see, when we moved there I was only, I was finishing school. Sixth grade. That was about it. And we moved out of there, I think I was about fifteen when we moved out of there. HK: Mm-hmm. Did your – did your dad come directly from Mexico, then? MN: To Lawrence? HK: Your parents? Your parents? MN: No. No, they came through Nebraska. My brother was born in Nebraska. [unintelligible] It was in Dodge City, Kansas. HK: Uh-huh. MN: And, uh, when they came over they had one daughter, three years old. And, uh…um, that was the only one they had when they came over and then the rest of us were born here in Lecompton. HK: Oh, okay. So you – you actually lived in Lecompton rather than Lawrence when you were growing up? �MN: Right. They moved into Lawrence when I was, uh, thirteen or fourteen. Around that age [’42?]. HK: How was it, what was it like growing up in Lecompton? MN: It was very nice. Quiet. Um… HK: Did you live in the town or did you live in the – MN: No, we lived at a, the um, east side of Lecompton. Close to railroad track they built some homes there. HK: Oh, okay. MN: For us. And I didn’t like it there because we didn’t have nothing to do except, you know, we – we, uh, were home most of the time, at home or school. We had a lot of fun though. Out in the country. HK: Yeah. What kind of, um, what kind of housing did they build there? Were they similar to the Santa Fe apartments, or…were they different? MN: Well, when we first got moved there it was just, like, shacks. One-room house, I guess you may say, and they’d only converted some, from what I understand, cattle cars into a four-room house. [unintelligible] They made ‘em real nice, and um, I think they finally tore ‘em down, I think they have a home there now. [murmurs] HK: So how were the houses arranged? Did they have different rooms, or – ? MN: No, their walls, like the length of the car. HK: Mm-hmm. MN: And they were all one after the other and they had, uh, they made two of ‘em. [unintelligible] Cattle cars. And we lived in one, on one side. It was pretty crowded. We stayed there until I was fourteen. HK: Did they have, like, curtains that separated the rooms, or – ? MN: Oh, no. We had doors, we had doors. It was pretty well, pretty modern. And, uh, my dad bought furniture and curtains and stuff like that. We had a living room, we had a kitchen, we had two bedrooms, which we all piled into – HK: Uh-huh. MN: And, um, they were real nice. �HK: What kind of – what did you use for heating there? MN: Pot-belly stove. And I remember there was a wood-stove in the kitchen. HK: Did you have electricity there? MN: Nope. HK: No electricity, what about running water? MN: Nope. We had well water. HK: So you just had a pump outside, which you used for water? MN: Mm-hmm. HK: Did you ever come into Lawrence when you were a child? MN: Oh, yeah. We used to visit – we used to visit Lawrence all the time. HK: Okay. MN: Yeah. And Topeka. HK: Mm-hmm. Did you meet your – where did you meet your husband, was he from Lawrence or Topeka? MN: Uh, he was from Lawrence, uh-huh, and he used to go to Lecompton and work there, with Dad. They lived in the other side. The other addition. For a while they were just, uh, just the young men helping dad I guess. HK: Mm-hmm. Did your dad, um, did he do anything else besides work for the railroad? Did he have any other kind of jobs? MN: No. He had hobbies, he had, uh, he liked to go fishing. And he liked to garden. He, uh, pretty much that’s all he did, and support us. HK: What was your dad’s name? MN: Thomas. HK: Thomas…? MN: Garcia. HK: Garcia. And your mother? �MN: Tijuana Garcia, well, she went by her maiden name. She, they didn’t use her – she didn’t use her, her, um, married name because they don’t do that in Mexico. They pretty much keep their maiden name, so she kept her maiden name. HK: What was her maiden name? MN: It was [Carrillo?]. HK: And what part of Mexico was she from? MN: Oh, gosh. I don’t know what part of Mexico or what, but I can tell you the name of the town. HK: Okay. MN: Uh, where she was from was San Juan de Los Lagos. HK: Okay. MN: And my dad I’m not so sure, but he lived real close by, like Eudora. HK: Mm-hmm. Okay. Do you know what year they came from Mexico? Or approximately? MN: Yes, around 19…[long pause] before 1920 [long pause]. Around, uh, 1919 or 1920, about that area. They were both very young. My mother probably about, she was born in 1895. She had to be about…about twenty-five years old. HK: Mm-hmm. What do you remember about your mother, growing up? MN: She was always working. Washing [laughs], cooking. She liked to work out in the garden, she had a flowerbed. She had flowerbeds all over. And she’d help Dad harvest the garden. HK: Uh-huh. And how many children were there? MN: Uh, there was eleven of us altogether, but, uh, they soon, you know, began to get – leave the house and so, uh. My oldest brothers and sisters, they left. Pretty much in the 40’s.[murmurs] they started getting married, and then my brother went into the service. And we used to go north to work. HK: Hmm. MN: Worked, um, crops. HK: In the summertime? �MN: Mm-hmm. For extra money. HK: How far north did they go? MN: Um, Minnesota. Minnesota [murmurs] that I can remember. I was still young. HK: Was that picking strawberries, or…? MN: Oh no, um, we’d do, uh…harvest the, like, onion crops HK: Uh-huh. MN: Carrots, I think, and I – I don’t know…we used to harvest corn, beets. But I didn’t, I didn’t do the beets because I was [murmurs] Big machetes or some kind of a… HK: Those knives. MN: So I didn’t do that. Just went along for the ride. HK: So the whole family – MN: We’d get back to go to school, in time for school. HK: Yeah. And how did your mom, um, what did she do for you kids and your clothes and stuff like that? MN: She used to make a lot of our clothes out of flour sacks. They were printeds, she used to sew our dresses. She was very good at it. HK: And did she do any kind of, uh, canning, [unintelligible]? MN: You know, I don’t think she did. I don’t remember if she did. I don’t think we even had time. HK: Yeah. A lot of people have memories of, um, their parents or their mother or – or whoever going to the corner grocery stores in the neighborhood. MN: Well, we had, we had, in Lecompton we only had one store, one – one, um, service station and one post office and one bank and isn’t there anymore. They don’t have a bank there anymore. HK: Yeah. MN: And, um, I remember going to the store, to get the mail and… �HK: Mm-hmm. Did you, um, did you go to high school in Lawrence, then, or…did you go to high school? MN: No, I didn’t go to high school. I just, uh, went to, uh…uh, elementary school in Lecompton up to sixth grade and then we moved to Lawrence my last semester of sixth grade. And finished it there. HK: Okay. MN: In Lawrence. I didn’t go to [unintelligible] school because I was petrified. I was so used to having such a small classroom at – when we came to Lawrence there was too many kids around. A table like this and all the kids were [unintelligible] table. It was too much for me. HK: Yeah. Yeah, I could imagine, coming from a really small town like that. That would be quite a shock [laughs]. MN: It was, for me anyway [laughs]. I didn’t like it. HK: What did you do for, um, like when you were a – a small child and you got sick, um, were there…? MN: We had a doctor. We had a nice doctor. He took care of all of us. We were all born at home. And he took care of all of us. It was Dr. Moss. That’s [murmurs] Dr. Moss. I don’t remember his face or anything, but I know he was, uh, a little bit on the chubby side, but I can’t remember, maybe not. [laughs] Hard to remember. But he was a really good doctor. He delivered all of us at home. HK: So there was an actual doctor at the delivery. MN: He used to come to see us at the house. HK: House calls. Boy, that’s a rarity today. MN: I know. But today we have more money [murmurs] anybody wants to do that any more. HK: Yeah. So they didn’t use midwives or anything like that? MN: Um, my mother probably did, but…you know, I don’t remember. I remember her having one child with my last sister. But I don’t remember who helped her. But she did have somebody there. Besides a doctor. HK: So you didn’t have any, like, extended family that lived close by, or…? MN: No. HK: Anyone like that to help her out. �MN: We were the only ones. HK: When you were growing – when you were going to school, did you experience any kind of prejudice? MN: Lecompton was very prejudiced. Very prejudiced. But we still had friends there. We had several friends. HK: Do you remember any of the things that happened, that…? MN: Well…not really. But…I don’t, don’t remember doing too much outside of certain friends that we had, you know. Uh, we didn’t have a whole lot of friends, you know, I mean, just certain country folks I guess. But Lecompton was very prejudiced. And I don’t know about today because I don’t…I have friends in Lecompton yet, but they’re not prejudiced. I suppose it’s a lot of prejudice there. HK: What about when you went to Lawrence? MN: In Lawrence I never experienced it, anything like that. I never did. HK: So, it was better here than in Lecompton…or a different…? MN: I never experienced anything like that, maybe somebody else. I hear a lot of stories, but I don’t remember experiencing anything like that. HK: Did you, um, raise your children here in Lawrence? MN: Yes, uh-huh. HK: How did they go? Did they have a good time in school? MN: Oh, yes. They got along real well [murmurs] HK: Did you grow up speaking Spanish or – ? MN: Yes, we did. I – I did not speak English when I went to school, and they held me back one year. HK: Okay. MN: And, uh, all of us were that way. But it didn’t take very long to pick it up. HK: Did you teach your children Spanish? MN: Nope. [HK laughs] I didn’t. �HK: What do you think about that? Do you think you should have? MN: I didn’t think – I didn’t think I could speak it well enough to teach it to ‘em, because I didn’t want ‘em to learn the slang way. And, uh…actually I should have went on ahead and spoken it anyway. I can – I can speak it, and I can understand it real well, but I really can’t do it…I feel like I can’t do it very well, you know. But I’m glad I – I learned it. HK: Yeah. MN: Yeah. HK: It sure is helpful, I think. Because, um, from my understanding, um…that the Spanish population is, it was really growing and there was a great demand for people who can – who can speak Spanish, and so…yeah. MN: I’m really sorry my kids didn’t learn it, because I feel like they were left out. And they missed out on a lot of nice, you know, um, understanding of our music and, you know, and converse with other people, different people that know Spanish. HK: Mm-hmm. MN: And, um…really I – I regret not [murmurs] teaching, you know, taking the time to teach ‘em. And I hope these kids today – well, I don’t know about today, because a lot of kids don’t know Spanish anymore. I mean, my – my grandchildren, they don’t know Spanish. That I know of. HK: Mm-hmm. MN: My children, some of my children understand…they say they understand somewhat, you know, some words. HK: Mm-hmm. Did you keep any, um…um, traditions alive and, uh, passing on to your children? What your parents did – did they have any special traditions that – that you passed on to your children? MN: No, I think we pretty much made our own traditions. There’s only one tradition that I know that I probably picked up. It’s, uh, on Christmas Eve my mother made tamales. Uh, that’s something we do for Christmas. I guess some people make ‘em year-round, but that’s the only time I make ‘em. And, uh, and have my family come over. But I really didn’t start doing that till they were growing up. It’s been almost 30 years now that I’ve been having – HK: Are any of your daughters doing…? MN: No, but they want to learn. They have – they all help me. The grandchildren help me. They all, they all want to learn. �HK: That’s good. MN: Whether they carry the tradition or not, I don’t know, but, uh, they want – they like them, so they wanna learn how to make ‘em. HK: Mm-hmm. Your daughters, um, how many daughters do you have? MN: Two. HK: Two. MN: And four boys. HK: Four boys. My goodness. That must have been a rowdy household. [laughs] MN: But you know what? It – it probably was, but in those days we just…had the kids and you know, whatever came along, we had to live with it. HK: Mm-hmm. So they all went through the Lawrence school district schools? Yeah? Did they all graduate from high school, or…? MN: Yes. HK: Mm-hmm. Any of them go on to college? MN: My daughter did. She finished college. And I have one grandson that – that, uh, he graduated from Free State and he, uh…he had, uh…valedictorian? HK: Mm-hmm. MN: Graduate [murmurs] and he’s still going to school. He’s continuing education. HK: Very good. What does he plan to be? MN: I don’t know. Uh, he’s in Chicago right now. HK: Oh. Long ways away then. MN: Uh-huh. He’s going to school there. He’s, uh, I don’t remember what the name of his college is, but he wanted to go to college. HK: Where was your husband from? Is he from – MN: Lawrence. �HK: From Lawrence. MN: Mm-hmm. HK: And did his family grow up in Lawrence, was he MN: Mm-hmm. HK: Did you know many of the, um, Mexican-Americans in the community? MN: I knew, I knew ‘em all, pretty much. I – I pretty much knew all of ‘em, and still associate with them. It’s not a very large community anymore because of…uh, the, uh, the older ones, all [murmurs] older are pretty much gone. HK: Yeah, it’s too bad that I couldn’t have interviewed some of the – the older ones before they passed, because that would have been really, really a nice thing to do. MN: I, uh, had pictures and things, but during the flood I lost quite a few. HK: Oh. no. MN: Pictures. The 1952 flood in Lawrence. HK: Uh-huh. I think that’s what happened to a lot of people. There’s, um, just not many pictures left around anymore. What do you think of the new, uh, immigrants that are coming in today? MN: What do I think of ‘em? I think they’re, uh…I think they’re, uh…[murmurs] I’m not against it because they’re trying to make a better life. Trying to improve their lives, and I think that, um, they should let ‘em come over because this – this country was made of people who came from other countries. We’re all immigrants, actually. Don’t you agree? HK: I agree. Wholeheartedly. MN: Now, why [unintelligible] there – Well, there is quite a few, uh, immigrants that have come from Mexico coming over, I guess. I’m not sure whether there’s more of those than any other kind of, uh, nationality. But I think, it’s not gonna hurt any, because we got plenty of space here in the United States. And they – they want to work. And people here don’t, they – they don’t want to work. [murmurs] some people don’t want to work So why not let ‘em work, why not let em’ improve their lives and bring their children up in a better environment? And I – I just, I’m not, I don’t know much about politics but I think the president in Mexico ought to be doing something about this. Or somebody over there making changes in their country so they wouldn’t be coming over here if they don’t want to, you know. I thought, you know, I think they should be able to get a chance at living or in their country if they want to, but they’re being forced out because they have to go and earn money somewhere, you know. And I understand that – that President [Fox?] is here in the United States right now. So, I don’t really care for him much. �HK: Hopefully he’ll discuss something about the issue. [laughs] MN: Well, I hope they learn. Get better for the immigrants here because – especially the ones that are already here. HK: So, do you see a big difference in, uh, when you were growing up, and the way that your grandchildren are growing up today? MN: Oh, a vast difference. It’s so much nicer and easier for them, I mean, we had it a bit harder than they have it, you know, I mean, that’s what we worked hard for, so they can, you know, have a better life. I mean, not the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. [laughs] HK: Yeah, yeah. Certainly better than when how you grew up, right? MN: Yeah. But you know what? That’s the way we were raised, that way. I don’t remember being [unintelligible] or anything like that. It was a harder life, you know? HK: Mm-hmm. Definitely. MN: I don’t – I can’t say I hated it because we had to do this or do that, or – it’s just something we had to do, all of us, we all went through it, and not just us. HK: Do you remember what a, um, I know that you said that your – your dad had vegetable gardens and stuff. Um, what would be a typical meal in your house? MN: I…I know Mom made tortillas. We didn’t buy them. HK: Yeah [laughs]. No Dillons. MN: Make them – we don’t make them anymore, we buy them. But, uh, the beans were good, and we had a lot of meat that Dad used to raise, uh…pigs. And he had a – well, of course we had milk, ‘cause we had cows, we had goats, we had chickens, you know, chickens, and, um…and the boys learned how to cook American, the American way, so we used to do a lot of cooking too. Make our meals on holidays. You know, the – the turkey and the baked pies and all that. They, the boys did that. HK: Oh, so they were quite the cooks, huh? MN: All my sisters. One sister was an excellent cook. She learned how to cook, she used to cook a lot for us, when she was home. HK: Is that the one that, um, that ran the – those restaurants? MN: Yeah, uh-huh. She used to cook for us when she, when she was home. �HK: Mm-hmm. So what would you eat, um, what would your mom fix for, like, supper every day? MN: You know what, I don’t remember. I really don’t, ‘cause for one thing I didn’t, I didn’t like to eat. HK: Oh. MN: I don’t know how I survived. I didn’t like to eat. HK: Uh-huh. MN: Uh, you know, I had, I didn’t – I don’t know what kept me alive but I must have ate something [both laugh]. I remember she used to make vegetable soup and I wanted to just drink the broth. I didn’t want to eat stuff that was in it. HK: Uh-huh. MN: Oatmeal used to make me sick. But, you know, I don’t remember even having any favorite foods. HK: Would you have, did they fix meat every day, or…? MN: Oh, I’m sure we had meat every day, ‘cause, you know, we had chickens and we had pork and I’m sure that we…I didn’t eat, so I don’t know. Really don’t remember much about that. It’s strange, but I don’t. [laughs] HK: What did, uh, what did you do for entertainment? MN: Let’s see, what did we do for entertainment? During the wintertime we had this, we had this, one of those box sleds that we – us kids used to go out and go up and down this little road we had there by our home. And in the evening, while the moon was out, we’d be out there sleigh riding, you know? And, uh, pretty much just play out in the yard, like, you know, whatever. HK: Did your parents ever have any other, um, adults over for – MN: Oh, yes. We had a lot of friends. They had friends, they’d come over on weekends, or we’d, maybe we’d go to Lawrence or go to Topeka. Oh, yes. HK: Did you, did you have a radio, or – MN: We had a radio. And it had a battery, one of those big old car batteries. HK: Mm-hmm. �MN: We had, uh, we used to listen to the radio with that battery in the radio and, uh, sometimes it would go, it would run down, I guess, and I remember at one time, we was watching – listening to, uh, one of those series, and the battery went out and “Oh my gosh”. [HK laughs] What was it, were they soap operas then? HK: Uh-huh. You didn’t know how it ended. MN: Yeah, there we’d go, we’d take the battery out and then the kids take it out to the, get it charged, you know. HK: Uh-huh. [laughs] That’s funny. MN: Yeah. We did have a radio. HK: Um, what did your parents do during the Depression years? Was it extra tough during those years, or…? MN: You know, I don’t know, but we always had food on the table. I don’t remember anything like that, suffering or maybe starvation or anything like that, you know, we…Dad took care of us pretty well. HK: Mm-hmm. How did your dad get around? Did he have, um, did he just walk, or…? MN: He used to drive, uh, guess it’s what they used to call a Ford. He used to have a car. HK: So he had a car. MN: We’ve always had a car. HK: Okay. Do you know how much he made working for the railroad? MN: Oh, I think I did see his check one time. I’m thinking, like, $3,000 a year. [murmurs] His income tax, or whatever it was, it was supposed to be around $3,000 a year, I believe. HK: That’s pretty good, for those days. MN: I’m just thinking, that’s what he might have made later on in years, but, uh, when I was little, I’m not sure they made that much. But, you know, [murmurs] today. I have no idea what it cost then, but I’m not sure, it wasn’t very much. HK: What did you all do, like, um, for holidays, like Christmastime and…other than make tamales. I know you said your mother made tamales. MN: I don’t remember very much. HK: Anything else? Did you exchange gifts, or…? �MN: No, we didn’t exchange gifts. We didn’t even have a Christmas tree because we didn’t have electricity. My mother’s washing machine, she did have a washing machine. It was a gas washing machine. HK: Oh. How did that work? MN: Gas. HK: Did they, did they have to have a gas tank on it, or…? MN: It had to be gas, ‘cause I don’t think it was battery-run. And because – because my dad converted later to electric. HK: Oh, okay. Hmm. MN: But I think it was gas. Gasoline. HK: Oh, so they’d just pour the gasoline in – MN: I don’t, I have no idea about the [unintelligible]. I don’t, I have no idea what was done, but she had a machine. Before she still had to do a lot of washing for us, washing. HK: Which she probably had to carry, you didn’t have indoor plumbing. MN: No, we had to carry water from the well, and like, it was about, like…I say, like, I say like from here to the school. HK: Mm-hmm. So wash day was really a big thing to have to fill the tub – MN: Oh, yeah. We had to hang all the clothes outside, and, you know, hang them out. And I remember in those days I used to, I guess I used to see my mother go out there and hang, and I probably [unintelligible, jeans?]. And I used to see her out there picking up all the vegetables out of the garden out in the hot sun, you know, and she had her hat on, and she’d be out there working. HK: Would she put in long, long days? MN: Oh, yes. Uh-huh. She worked pretty hard. She did. We have it easy today. We need to take the dishes out of the dishwasher. HK: Yeah, isn’t that the truth. [laughs] MN: The truth [laughs]. We’re really lazy. �HK: Yeah, yeah. So…we don’t have – we have a lot of free time compared to – to the hours that they put in, for work. MN: They were, they didn’t have time to do a whole lot, because, you know, it took time to wash and do all that. I – I really don’t see how they did it, because I don’t have time for a whole lot, you know, to do a whole lot. But we have so many of the things we do that we didn’t then. We have a television. That sometimes gets in the way. HK: That wastes a lot of time, I think. MN: Personally, I don’t watch a lot of TV myself. Um…I like to work outside in the yard and just do different things. HK: Well, is there anything else that you would like to add, that – that may have crossed your memory? MN: No. I’m surprised I said this much. [both laugh] HK: Well, we appreciate you coming and sharing with us, and like I said, we’ll be giving you a copy of the tape later on. I’ll call you – MN: I probably will hate to look at it. HK: Oh. [laughs] Well, I’m sure that your – your children and your grandchildren will appreciate it. MN: Oh, my gosh. I probably won’t show it to them. HK: No? [both laugh] Oh, but you should. I’m sure that they would like to have it. MN: They’ll probably say: “Mom, why couldn’t we just – ” [tape cuts off at 37:18] END OF TAPE 18 � 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 Krische, Helen Raymond, Emily Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Nunez, Mary Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data MP4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:38:20 (video) Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 3323 kbps 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 Mary Nunez La Yarda Interview Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nunez, Mary Description An account of the resource Mary Nunez was interviewed by Helen Krische in 2006 as part of an oral history project to document the La Yarda and Mexican-American communities in Lawrence, Kansas. 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. Mary grew up in Lecompton and then moved to Lawrence with her parents when she was a teenager. Mary's family lived in housing provided by the railroad in both Lecompton and Lawrence, and describes the living conditions in those communities. She describes her family's migration from Mexico to Kansa, and her parents' strategies, such as gardening and handsewing clothing, for providing for a large family. Mary shares her memories of her school and healthcare experiences in childhood. She discusses family foodways and childhood pasttimes. She describes her experiences of cultural assimilation, especially regarding speaking Spanish and holiday traditions. Mary also describes her experiences of discrimination and segregation as part of the Mexican-American community in Lawrence, and shares her views on immigration. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Krische, Helen 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP4 (video recording) MP3 (audio recording) PDF (transcription) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 18-MNunez-2006.mp4 (video) 18-MNunez-2006.mp3 (audio) 18-MNunez-2006.pdf (transcription) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Watkins Community Museum (Lawrence, Kan.) Relation A related resource To access the video and audio recordings of this interview, go to <a href="https://archive.org/details/18-mnunez-2006">https://archive.org/details/18-mnunez-2006</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 Dionne Chavez, on behalf of Mary Nunez. 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