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Vasquez, Jesus (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Joan Hotchkis, who conducted this interview, grew up in San Marino and her maternal grandparents lived nearby at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach. When she was growing up, she visited there often with her parents and siblings. In 1979, she decided to interview some of the people shoe remembered living and working at the ranch when she visited. She was studying her own family history and planning to write about it. Eventually this led her to write and perform a one woman show that she presented across the United States and in Europe. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include, background, parents, move to CA, jobs in CA, move to Rancho Los Alamitos in 1925, work on Rancho Los Alamitos and recreationTopics on this side of tape include, work on Rancho Los Alamitos, families leasing land on ranch; crops, and Japanese sent to concentration camps in WWIITopics on this side of tape include Fred Bixby's funeral, work at Rancho Los Alamitos and other people who lived at Rancho Los Alamitos 5/23/1979
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- *** File: mjhjvasquez1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-8:18)... Vasquez's parents were born in Mexico on a small ranch in a small village, but he was born on a big hacienda. He has one brother and six sisters and he was the next to youngest. When he was 19 years old, he left Mexico to come to California. His father and brother were already in California and he wanted to come up to see what their lives were like. Once here, he found a job working in concrete for which he was paid $5 a day. (8:18-16:31)... Vasquez worked at the Los Alamitos sugar factory before coming to work at Los Rancho Alamitos. The ranch formean's father lived next door to Vasquez and told him about the jobs there. Vasquez started working at the ranch in 1925; he earned $75 a month for cleaning the barn, feeding the horses and mending the fences, among other tasks Later, he started driving a newly purchased tractor. Fred Bixby, the ranch's owner, employed 4 men who continued to use horses to work on the ranch even after the tractor arrived. (16:31-19:50)... When Vasquez first started working at Rancho Los Alamitos, there were about 10 or 12 other men working and living on the ranch. He worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week. On Sundays he fed the horses and as many as 300 or 400 steers. His son remembers that he hooked up a horse to a small wagon and ground up hay while mixing it with beet pulp and barley . Then he spread it in feeding troughs and then poured molasses over it. (19:50-21:06)... Vasquez and his wife knew each other as children in Mexico. Each of their families emgrated to California, and they met again here. He was 23 years old when they married and she was 22. (21:06-26:13)... On a typical day on the ranch Vasquez got up around 6 am and ate fried eggs for breakfast. He did not really have any set hours, but after breakfast he went to the ranch and Fred Bixby, the owner of Rancho Los Alamitos, always had work that needed to be done. At lunch time, Vasquez went home to eat and often his meal was beans and potatoes, sometimes with rabbit or chicken as well. They raised thier own rabbits and chickens in the garden by the house. When any of the workers needed to go to town, they were allowed to go since they did not really have any set hours to work. (26:13-27:50)... Vasquez attended school in Mexico for only about a year when he was about eight years old. He only learned basic reading and writing. He began working when he was about 14 years old. (27:50-31:28)... Vasquez, along with other workers at Rancho Los Alamitos, made their own beer, especially during Prohibition. Fred Bixby cautioned Vasquez not to sell it. On many Sundays Vasquez' relatives from Santa Ana visited them on the ranch. They visited every year for Vasquez's wife's birthday and on Vasquez' birthday they had a barbeque. End of tape *** File: mjhjvasquez2.mp3 (0:00-7:37)... In 1925 when Vasquez came to Rancho Los Alamitos, there were three houses for workers. Over the years, more were built. And there were about five families that leased land and worked on the ranch as well as some Japanese families that worked the southern part of the ranch. Vasquez worked as a jack of all trades. He helped out where ever there was work to be done. (7:37-16:56)... At Rancho Los Alamitos, Filipinos raised vegetables which they sent to market. When there was more than they could sell, the extra vegetables were eaten on the ranch. Vasquez' son remembers going with a crate to get cabbages, for example. At this point, as Hotchkis said, the tape when "flooey" as the battery ran down. (16:56-24:59)... After the Japanese attach on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese farmers on Rancho Los Alamitos were taken away during the night and sent to concentration camps. Fred Bixby sent his workers to gather up the things they left behind and store them. A few months later, everything was sold and the workers were invited to buy what they wanted. Vasquez wanted a refrigerator but couldn't afford to buy it so Fred Bixby bought it for him. Vasquez only remembers one Japanese man coming back to the ranch after he was taken away. He heard that this man was released from the concentration camp because his son was in the US Army, but he only came back to the ranch to say hello and then went back to Japan. Vasquez remembers hearing on the radio about war being declared and the next day the Japanese farmers were gone from the ranch. (24:59-27:02)... Vasquez' family was Catholic and very religious. Every Sunday they went to mass and sometimes visited his mother in Santa Ana, but they had to come home in the afternoon so he could work. (27:02-34:56)... Vasquez believes that he was paid fairly for his work on the ranch; since he worked on Sundays, he made more money than some of the other workers. A lot of the men did not want to work on Sunday. As he worked on the ranch, he was given periodic raises. Union organizers visited the ranch in 1929 but didn't bother trying to get the workers to join the union since they were already earning more than the pay raise the union was striking to get. End of tape *** File: mjhjvasquez3.mp3 (0:00-1:56)... Sometimes on Sundays Vasquez' family came to visit him at Rancho Los Alamitos and they walked in the beautiful gardnes. Florence Bixby would come out to greet them and hear about all of the guests. Vasquez' wife was the disciplinarian of the family and she died from leukemia. (1:56-3:36)... Vasquez might have allowed boys to come visit his daughters but no one came. His son, however, remembers that his sisters dated and sometimes entertained visitors at the ranch. (3:36-5:16)... Vasquez remembers Fred Bixby's funeral. He continued to work on the ranch after his death. In fact, he worked on the ranch for 47 years until he quit in 1972. (5:16-11:50)... Since Hotchkis, the interviewer, is seeking other people who lived on the ranch to interview, Vasquez and his son give her some ideas about who she might talk to and how she might find them.
- SUBJECT BIO - Jesus Vasquez came to work at Rancho Los Alamitos in the early 1920s and lived there until 1963 but he continued to work there until 1972. He was born in 1899 in Michoacan, Mexico. He followed his father and older brother to the United States when he was 19 and he found a job paving roads and worked for a sugar company in Santa Ana. His father, however, lived next door to the foreman at Rancho Los Alamitos and he visited the ranch before he came to work and live there in 1925. When he first came to Rancho Los Alamitos, he worked as a general hand cleaning the barns, feeding the animals, mending the fences, weeding the garden and other jobs. He didn't begin driving a tractor until about 1950; before that, other workers used horses to do ranch work and Vasquez seldom worked with them. On a typical day, he'd get up, eat fried eggs from the ranch chickens for breakfast, then go to see what Fred Bixby, who owned the ranch, wanted him to do or what needed to be done that day. At lunch time, he go home to eat and then return to work. Sometimes he'd go to help out at other nearby properties Bixby owned. Joan Hotchkis conducted this interview at the home of Vasquez youngest son, Salvador, with whom he lives. Salvador sat in on the interview and often translated his father's Spanish and Hotchkis' English. In the yard of the home, Hotchkis visited the garden Vasquez still cared for including some plants that originally came from the ranch. Hotchkis conducted this interview as part of a project to collect stories about Rancho Los Alamitos. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Joan Hotchkis, who conducted this interview, grew up in San Marino and her maternal grandparents lived nearby at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach. When she was growing up, she visited there often with her parents and siblings. In 1979, she decided to interview some of the people shoe remembered living and working at the ranch when she visited. She was studying her own family history and planning to write about it. Eventually this led her to write and perform a one woman show that she presented across the United States and in Europe. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include, background, parents, move to CA, jobs in CA, move to Rancho Los Alamitos in 1925, work on Rancho Los Alamitos and recreationTopics on this side of tape include, work on Rancho Los Alamitos, families leasing land on ranch; crops, and Japanese sent to concentration camps in WWIITopics on this side of tape include Fred Bixby's funeral, work at Rancho Los Alamitos and other people who lived at Rancho Los Alamitos
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| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
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2108006121641618-mjhjvasquez1.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |
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1424334506813423-mjhjvasquez2.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |
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1301404015808765-mjhjvasquez3.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |