by Vanessa Garcia
"My Dad's goal was for us to have options in life, to go to a better school and learn English. Since I wasn't old enough to work, that's what I did."
I was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in the year of 1954. I was the second child born to my parents and later to follow would be my four sisters and four brothers. You can say that I had a carefree life during those fifteen years that I lived in Aguascalientes. My only job was to go to school and play with my friends. My dad worked all the time for the government of Mexico and for Caltrans. My brothers, sisters, and I went to school while my mom stayed at home with my younger brothers. A typical day for me was to go to school, do homework, help my brothers and sisters do their homework, and then go grocery shopping. I also met up with my friend's to play baseball and soccer. I remember on the weekends we would go as a family to a park and have a picnic. It was fun. We'd have the whole place to run, play, and have our picnic.
We were a happy family and I had no worries. Everything changed when my mom died in 1965. There were ten of us total. The oldest, my sister, was thirteen years old and the youngest just had was only seven days old. After my mom died, my dad left us with his sister while he moved to the United States to work. Since he worked for the Mexican government as a diesel mechanic in almost every state, he had received a green card to buy supplies for Caterpillar, so it was easy for him to move and apply for our green cards. He was gone for five years. While he was gone, we still all went to school, but it wasn't the same. I tried to get a job when I was thirteen years old so that I could have a job on the side. I found a job at a mechanic shop. I remember that in six days I made thirteen pesos. We're talking about less than one dollar a week. No matter how hard I worked or what I got done, it was not worth it. It was like abuse, not getting paid for all the hard work, so I said no way.
Then one day my dad called us at my aunt’s house and told us that he had already set up an appointment for three of my siblings and I to go get our green cards in San Isidro. We flew from Guadalajara to Tijuana where my father picked us up in his car, and drove us to San Isidro, California. They gave us our green cards there and we went to go live in Oakland where my dad rented a house on 35th avenue. I had lived in a city before, so I think it was easy for me to adapt. At first I didn't like it because it was hard getting used to all the different people. In Mexico, there were puro Mexicanos and now in the United States, I saw different races.
My father's goal was for us to have options in life, go to a better school, and learn English. Since I wasn't old enough to work, that's what I did. I went to Oakland Tech High school during the day and to Alameda High school at night to take English classes to help me learn faster.
Then my Dad stopped renting the house and we moved us to Alameda to live with another aunt. I didn't want to live there because it didn't feel right. It wasn't my house. So I decided to go look for a job. It was hard finding a job in the city. It was 1973 and I was eighteen years old and the economy was bad; nobody was hiring. I heard that farms always needed people to work, so I told my Dad to take me to Stockton. He didn't want to take me at first, but he eventually did and I got a job that same day. I worked in the fields watering asparagus and pulling weeds.
My dad stopped working at Caltrans because he didn't want me to work in the fields by myself, so he took one of my brothers and I to go work in Fairfield. The three of us ended up working in the tomato fields earning good money together. My Dad then decided it was time for all of us to go move back to Aguascalientes with the rest of my brothers and sisters who were living with my father’s sister.
After two weeks of being back in Mexico, I asked my Dad what we were doing there because we weren't doing anything. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to find work in Mexico, so I told him that I was moving back to the US. He didn't want to give me my green card, but I told him I was going to go with or without it. He ended up giving it back to me as long as I took one of my brothers with me.
My brother and I went back to Stockton, Ca. on a bus to look for work again, but they didn't want to give us a job. An old man told me to go to Woodland because there were jobs over there. We stopped in Oakland to take a bus to Woodland, but my brother wanted to just stay with my aunt in Alameda, so I left him. I went on the bus not knowing if there was a place called Woodland, but since the Greyhound ticket said Woodland on it, it let me know that at least this was an actual place. When I got to Woodland I had enough money for a hamburger and a taxi to take me to the place I was looking for. I think it was 8:00pm. When I got there, they weren't hiring, so I was just going to sleep under a tree that night because I had nowhere else to go. I don't know if they felt sorry for me because they came and told me that I could work. I ended up sleeping in a barn that night. I worked there for three months until they laid me off.
I went back to Oakland to look for a friend who worked in Napa because I wanted to work there too. When I knocked on the door, the brother of the friend answered and he told me that a foundry in San Leandro was hiring. So I went there, but they weren't going to let me work because they thought I was too young and wouldn't be able to do the job. I told them to let me work for two weeks and if they didn't like my job, they could fire me without pay. After two weeks, they called me into the office. I was a helper and I thought they were going to fire me, but instead they asked if I had finished high school. I had my papers sent from Mexico to show them my education. As a result, they put me to work in Shipping and Receiving.
I noticed that welders made more money, so I went to Laney Community College to certify as a welder. Soon they gave me a job as a welder and later, they told me to train somebody else. I became a supervisor and ended up running the whole plant: training people in equipment and operating hydraulic machines. At some points while working there things got bad until one day they were going to fire me. I worked with dangerous machines that nobody wanted to operate. In order to have a small break, I started to punch out early. They found out and told me that I was fired. I went to the main boss before going to the Union and told him that they needed to pay me all of the money they owed me for the past when I didn't have breaks and had to work the whole day. They were able to back pay me, and I ended up staying at the foundry because I had insurance and I needed income to support my family. Every time I would get my check, I sent part of it to my brothers and sisters who still lived in Mexico. I only kept what was necessary to pay for my rent and car.
I lived in Oakland in a little apartment until I moved into a house because I got married in1978. We had our son in 1980. Afterwards, we started saving money to buy another house because we felt bad living in a rough area where our son couldn't go out and play. We only spent money on the necessary things, like groceries. We wouldn't go out to eat at fast food places or any restaurants. We finally decided to buy a house in 1987 in San Leandro where we still live today.
I ended up working at the foundry in San Leandro for thirty five years until I finally stopped working due to the stress. During that time, I was able to bring over the rest of my brothers. Two of them worked with me for over thirty years until they also retired. Another brother has been working here for ten years, and the youngest is now a manager at a Big Lots store. I now work part-time for Kaiser and enjoy my time off with my family.
I would not change anything that happened in my life. I think that my experiences made me learn to live better and appreciate having a job. I feel good that I was able to support my brothers and sisters with my work. When you have nothing, nobody is there to help you so you have to do everything yourself. I stayed at the foundry for so long because I couldn't risk not having anything again and I needed to support my family. It taught me a lot of life skills. Not having my mom when I was only ten years old was tough. My dad worked all the time so I had to grow up fast. It was very important for me to save money in order to survive, but I cannot complain because God has given me a very good life.
