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Vasquez, Petra (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, father's death from tuberculosis, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, schooling, emigration to US, living at Bixby's Cojo ranch and living at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, schooling, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, father's work at Rancho Los Alamitos, food; 1933 Long Beach earthquake, meeting husband and marriageTopics on this side of tape include, living at Rancho Los Alamitos, the Depression, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos and deaths of family members;Topics on this side of tape include, Florence Bixby, her mother, Granny Green, wooden beds and health problems 5/30/1979
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- *** File: mjhpvasquez1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:42)... Petra Vasquez was the eldest child in her family. As she talks to her interviewer, she is showing pictures of her family. (1:42-5:01)... Petra's father started drinking a lot after WWI when many of his family members died in the flu epidemic that hit many people at that time. When her father drank heavily, his children were very afraid of him because he sometimes became violent. When Petra's father contracted tuberculosis, Florence Bixby kept him isolated in a small room, where her mother cared for him, for three months so the rest of the family would not catch it. Eventually, however, he died of the disease. (5:01-6:33)... Florence Bixby walked around Rancho Los Alamitos late night and, during the time Petra's father was sick, she would check to see how he was doing. Florence Bixby also tried to take care of the problems of the children who lived on the ranch. (6:33-8:35)... Florence Bixby helped Petra's family sign up for welfare and that provided them with money to buy food and a nurse came to check on her father and the children. When the children were sent to a clinic, the Bixbys made sure they got there and Fred Bixby even carried one of them in. (8:35-10:38)... Vasquez believes Fred Bixby could tell good from bad people and he helped people that he knew were good. For example, he helped the wife of a man who was accused of murder get her husband out of jail. (10:38-11:59)... When Vasquez' father caught tuberculosis, Florence Bixby was concerned that all of the Vasquez children might have it, too. Florence Bixby took Petra to a doctor in Hollywood where he had x-rays taken, but she was all right. Four of her brothers had tuberculosis and were sent to a sanitarium. (11:59-14:40)... Vasquez started working the ranch kitchen when she was 16 years old. She washed dishes and earned $50 a month working everyday from11:30 am to 2:30 pm. Before that, she attended Bixby school, but she started missing school because her mother was ill. Then she dropped out in the fifth grade. (14:40-17:47)... Vasquez was born in Mexico and when she was a year old her father, who was already working in Colorado sent for his wife and children. The family stayed in Colorado for four years. Vasquez remembers that during this time, when people crossed the border, they had to have their clothes fumigated. On their way from Mexico to Colorado, Vasquez' brother did not want to have his clothes fumigated so they crossed the border with a band of gypsies to avoid the fumigation. (17:47-22:59)... Vasquez' family moved to Bixby's ranch at Cojo, near Santa Barbara, where her father worked with horses. She remembers the Cojo ranch was a beautiful place with California poppies and rattlesnakes. Her family's house there was near trees where owls perched at night and she remembers how much noise they made. Florence Bixby thought that living there was bad for the children because it was so far from a doctor. (22:59-27:53)... Vasquez doesn't know how her father found his way to Rancho Los Alamitos. She remembers that their family lived in a old, two room house and her mother covered the walls with pictures from magazines because the previous wall covering was so ugly. Her mother made her own glue to stick the paper on the walls. Their family used a communal outhouse and bathtub. Vasquez was the eldest daughter and she had to wash all her brothers' diapers by hand. Florence Bixby got her a wooden washing machine but it did not help. Vasquez also had to do most of the family's housework because her mother always seemed to be sick. Her mother's life was very hard. (27:53-30:19)... Vasquez and all of her brothers and sisters were born at home; she had all of her children at home as well. When her children were born, she paid $10 for a doctor to come to her home. (30:19-31:37)... Vasquez was seven years old when her family moved to Rancho Los Alamitos. At meals, they ate beans, potatoes, tortillas, and cherry tomatoes. When she washed her brothers' diapers by hand, she used White King soap. End of tape *** File: mjhpvasquez2.mp3 (0:00-5:01)... When Vasquez attended the Bixby school, other children made fun of for her and her brothers for bringing tacos with beans to eat at lunch and because they were the children of tenant farmers. Her mother could not go to a market for bread to make sandwiches, so Vasquez and her brothers hid when they ate lunch. The American students at the school sometimes "beat them up" because they were Mexican. There was a lot of predjuce against the Mexican children. There were not many American children at the school, but they were very mean. When Florence Bixby visited the school, the American children stopped picking in the Mexican students for a while, but that did not last. (5:01-8:34)... When Vasquez was 15 years old her father died and she quit school the next year. Then she started working in the kitchen at Rancho Los Alamitos; she also helped with the house work including cleaning, and dusting; doing this, she earned $50 a month. Florence Bixby taught her how to set a table and do other things in the house. When Vasquez worked at the ranch, her brothers had to help their mother with the family's housework. (8:34-11:29)... Vasquez' father worked at Rancho Los Alamitos and his job was the take care of the horses; he got up at 4 am to feed them and worked until 6 pm in the evening; he earned $12 a week and worked six days a week. (11:29-13:36)... While Vasquez lived with her mother and brothers, their family attended church in Long Beach every Sunday; often her uncle gave them a ride. When Vasquez went to school, she walked. When she quit school and began working, she worked everyday, but had Wednesday and Sunday afternoons off. (13:36-14:01)... In her leisure time, Vasquez stayed home because everything was so far away from Rancho Los Alamitos. Friends and family members occasionally visited them at the ranch. (14:01-15:25)... Vasquez' family usually ate beans, pasta and chicken. They drank milk from Rancho Los Alamitos and vegetables from the ranch's garden. (15:25-20:45)... When the 1933 earthquake struck, Vasquez' mother was visiting at her house. She stayed there and they felt aftershocks for a week. Her mother went to church often and prayed every day. She always encouraged all the children at the ranch to pray and after she died, Vasquez' daughter and some other children knelt and prayed for her. (20:45-23:08)... Vasquez sister ran away to marry her husband, Joe. Before that, their father locked the door and she did not return home; she was afraid their father might beat her. Her sister's marriage to Joe was hard because he drank a lot. (23:08-25:24)... Vasquez met her husband in church and they knew each other for seven years before they married in 1926. Because of her family responsibilities, she could not get married until her brothers were old enough to work and her husband waited for her. (25:24-26:08)... Vasquez went to a brith control clinic with Florence Bixby and other women from the ranch, but her husband did not want to use it. (26:08-28:12)... Vasquez remembers Granny Green, Florence Bixby's mother; she sometimes took care of her, including helping her to the bathroom in the morning. (28:12-31:25)... Vasquez remembers Rancho Los Alamitos when the Bixby's children were still living there. She remembers Elizabeth Janeway riding horses and and bringing cattle from a train station to the ranch. She also remembers being able to see the sunrise but cannot any more because of the buildings and smog. Vasquez describes some old pictures that she shows to her interviewer. End of tape *** File: mjhpvasquez3.mp3 (0:00-4:45)... Early in Vasquez marriage, during the Depression in 1932, times were hard and they did not go to parties or have a social life but she and her husband always had enough to eat. Her husband worked at Rancho Los Alamitos and earned $12 a week. At this time many unemployed people came to the ranch looking for work but not everyone was hired. Fred Bixby hired as many people as he could during the Depression. After President Franklin Roosevelt was elected and the WPA began, everyone had food, clothing, cars and jobs. Vasquez' husband refused to take a government job because he was too proud; he wanted to work on the ranch. (4:45-8:20)... Vasquez recalls a con man who visited the workers on the ranch and tried to sell them photographs of relatives who had passed away. Fred Bixby heard what was happening and told the con man that he would put him in jail if he saw him at the ranch again. (8:20-10:04)... Vasquez was 23 years old when she married and she quit working at Rancho Los Alamitos. Her husband did not want her to work even though they were poor. She did help out at the ranch when other workers had a day off. For example, she remembers taking care of the interviewer, whose grandparents owned the ranch, when she was an infant and her nurse had a day off. (10:04-11:30)... There were grand Christmas Eve parties at Rancho Los Alamitos. The house was full of people and presents filled the room. Vasquez did not like working at the ranch around Christmas because the house was a mess. She also worked at Thanksgiving holidays and helped prepare the meal. (11:30-16:59)... Vasquez' typical work day started at 7 am. She came in the house and opened the curtains; then she washed the dishes in the men's dining room. After that she prepared breakfast trays for breakfast for whoever was in bed. After breakfast she washed more dishes and swept and cleaned the bathrooms. For lunch, she set the table and served the family. She then washed the lunch dishes and set the table for dinner. And in the afternoon, she polished silver. Then she rested in a small room from 3 pm to 5 pm where she slept or read. She got home at 8:30 pm or 9 pm at night after serving dinner and helping to clean up afterward. She worked seven days a week with two afternoons off. Each year she had two weeks paid vacation, but for those two weeks, she just stayed home with her mother. She kept this job for five years. (16:59-22:16)... Vasquez dreamed of traveling when she was younger and wanted to go to the mountains. Later in life she visited her daughter and son-in-law in South Carolina and went to the Grand Canyon with her family and her grandson. She has very fond memories of traveling with them. She also went to Utah and San Fransisco; that was her first trip on a plane. And she finally made it to the mountains near Big Bear. (22:16-26:12)... Vasquez' daughter Carmen was born when she was 40 years old. She worried about how she would be able to raise her, but she now takes care of Carmen's daughter. She also has five sons. She and the interviewer looked at family pictures as they talked. (26:12-31:34)... Vasquez lost three family members within three years of each other. Her brother died in 1967, her mother in 1968, and her husband in 1969. She says all you need to have in this world is patience and faith, and money will come some way. She became used to being poor because that's how things had always been. At the time of the interview, she was happy and she had learned to be patient. *** File: mjhpvasquez4.mp3 (0:00-1:07)... Vasquez' grandmother came to Rancho Los Alamitos from Colorado in 1920 and lived with Vasquez' family. Later in her life, her mother went back to Mexico and died there. (1:07-1:57)... There were wooden beds in the houses at Rancho Los Alamitos and there was one for everyone. Vasquez slept in a room with her mother and her brothers slept in the another room. (1:57-3:30)... When Florence Bixby was old, she became very ill and could not speak, but she gasped when she saw Vasquez. That was one time she recognized someone, but Vasquez never saw her again. (3:30-7:22)... Vasquez has diabetes like her husband and follows a restricted diet. She is afraid of insulin shots and does not have to take them yet. At the time of the interview, she was scheduled to have a cataract operation soon. (7:22-8:52)... Vasquez did not fight with her younger brothers because she was the eldest. Her brothers fought among themselves. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Petra Vasquez came to Rancho Los Alamitos in 1916 and moved away when she married in 1932. She was born in 1909 in Michoacan, Mexico and her family soon emigrated to the United States. In 1914, he father began working for Fred Bixby at a ranch he owned near Santa Barbara called the Cojo. Two years later, Florence Bixby, Fred's wife, said the Cojo wasn't a good place for children to live because it was too far away from a doctor, so Vasquez family moved to Rancho Los Alamitos, near Long Beach. Vasquez' father had tuberculosis while she was growing up. He may have contracted the disease when he started drinking heavily after many of his family members died in the 1918 flu epidemic. At Rancho Los Alamitos, Florence Bixby isolated him in a room separate from the rest of his family and arranged for his family to get public assistance and nurses to come and monitor his care. Vasquez attended a local one room school but droped out after the fifth grade because her father was sick and she had to stay home and help out. Then she did domestic work in the ranch house, helping the cook, washing dishes and helping to clean the house. She left when she got married one of the ranch workers. They moved to the town of Los Alamitos and he commuted to work. Joan Hotchkis interviewed Vasquez at her house in Los Alamitos. It was surrounded by a garden, which seemed to growing everywhere. Hotchkis noted there were plants in hanging pots, pots on tables, home made pots and pots made out of cast off materials such as a bird cage and a wooden 7Up crate. And there were eight cages of birds on the back porch. Vasquez' husband bought the land on which the house was sitting in 1921 and his family members had lived there since. 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, father's death from tuberculosis, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, schooling, emigration to US, living at Bixby's Cojo ranch and living at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, schooling, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, father's work at Rancho Los Alamitos, food; 1933 Long Beach earthquake, meeting husband and marriageTopics on this side of tape include, living at Rancho Los Alamitos, the Depression, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos and deaths of family members;Topics on this side of tape include, Florence Bixby, her mother, Granny Green, wooden beds and health problems
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