Rancho Los Alamitos - Hotchkis Collection
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/206705
2024-03-28T08:25:12ZVasquez, Petra (audio interview #1 of 1)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/224423
Vasquez, Petra (audio interview #1 of 1)
Vasquez, Petra (b. 1923 - ); Hotchkis, Joan, interviewer
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
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
2022-10-21T00:00:00ZHernandez, Miguel (audio interview #1 of 1)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/224422
Hernandez, Miguel (audio interview #1 of 1)
Hernandez, Miguel (b. 09/20/1900 - d. 07/1985); Hotchkis, Joan, interviewer
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 the tape include, family background, father coming to work at Rancho Los Alamitos, emigrating to California with his mother and siblings, father's death and move with uncle to Artesia;Topics on this tape include, education in Mexico, move to Artesia, working for flower armer in La Mirada, and coming to work at Rancho Los Alamitos as a gardenerTopics on this side of tape include, working at Rancho Los Alamitos, retirement and working part-time while living in Los Angeles;
6/19/1979
SUBJECT BIO - Miguel (Mike) Hernandez came to work at Rancho Los Alamitos in 1946 and lived there until 1961. He was born in 1900 in Michoacan, Mexico. Hernandez' father came to work at Rancho Los Alamitos in 1906 while Hernandez was still in Mexico. Hernandez and the rest of his family came to California in 1914 to live with his father. But between the time Hernandez father sent for them and the time they arrived in El Paso, Texas, his father was killed in an accident in Long Beach. When Fred Bixby, owner of Rancho Los Alamitos found out the family was stranded in El Paso, he sent for them to come to the ranch and offered them a place to stay. Instead, Hernandez mother chose to live with one of Hernandez' uncles in Artesia, but often visited friends at the ranch. When Hernandez grew older, he began working for a flower growing farm in La Mirada. In 1946, however, Bixby offered Hernandez a higher salary than the flower growers, along with a place to live, and milk, eggs and vegetables from the ranch. So he moved with his family to the ranch and lived and worked there until 1961. At the time of the interview, he still worked for the Bixbys; now he guards the building on another ranch they still own. Joan Hotchkis conducted this interview in Hernandez' apartment in Los Angeles. He lives there with his wife who doesn't speak English. Hotchkis conducted this interview as part of a project to collect stories about Rancho Los Alamitos.
TOPICS - Topics on this side of the tape include, family background, father coming to work at Rancho Los Alamitos, emigrating to California with his mother and siblings, father's death and move with uncle to Artesia;Topics on this tape include, education in Mexico, move to Artesia, working for flower armer in La Mirada, and coming to work at Rancho Los Alamitos as a gardenerTopics on this side of tape include, working at Rancho Los Alamitos, retirement and working part-time while living in Los Angeles;
2022-10-21T00:00:00ZVasquez, Jesus (audio interview #1 of 1)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/224421
Vasquez, Jesus (audio interview #1 of 1)
Vasquez, Jesus (b. unkown - d. unknown ); Hotchkis, Joan, interviewer
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
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
2022-10-21T00:00:00ZVasquez, Catalina (audio interview #1 of 1)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/224420
Vasquez, Catalina (audio interview #1 of 1)
Vasquez, Catalina (b. 8/31/1928 - d. 01/10/2008 ); Hotchkis, Joan, interviewer
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, being born and growing up at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, diet on ranch, father's work at Rancho Los Alamitos, bussed to school, discrimination at school, learned English from friend, segregation at school and domestic work at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, work in Long Beach, how bussing affected her social life, description of house where she grew up and playing on Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, Vasquez's boyfriend Ira talking about the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, growing up in Long Beach and visiting Rancho Los Alamitos
5/18/1979
SUBJECT BIO - Catalina Vasquez lived with her family at Rancho Los Alamitos while she was growing up. She moved away in 1960 and her parents continued to live there until her father retired in 1970. She remembers riding a bus to school and being discriminated again there. Although she spoke English, she was put in a class with other Mexican children who spoke only Spanish. At the ranch, however, she and the other children of the ranch workers could play anywhere on the ranch. When she was older, she helped out in the ranch house doing domestic work. Catalina remembers always having fresh milk and vegetables to eat when she was growing up on the ranch, but sometimes her mother couldn't get to a store. So she and her siblings took lunches wrapped in tortillas, which embarrassed them because other kids had sandwiches made with bread. Joan Hotchkis conduced this interview in Vasquez apartment. After about an hour and a half, Vasquez boyfriend, Ira, who also grew up in Long Beach, in came in and talks about his family and some of his experiences at the end of the interview. 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, being born and growing up at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, diet on ranch, father's work at Rancho Los Alamitos, bussed to school, discrimination at school, learned English from friend, segregation at school and domestic work at Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, domestic work at Rancho Los Alamitos, work in Long Beach, how bussing affected her social life, description of house where she grew up and playing on Rancho Los AlamitosTopics on this side of tape include, Vasquez's boyfriend Ira talking about the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, growing up in Long Beach and visiting Rancho Los Alamitos
2022-10-21T00:00:00Z