Oral History Collaborations

In this interview, originally recorded in-person, Modesto Orlando Tuzon and Rita Louise Tuzon speak with Watsonville is in the Heart team member, Dr. Kathleen "Kat" Cruz Gutierrez. Modesto Orlando and Rita discuss their father, Modesto Tuzon Sr.; his migration to the United States to pursue music education during 1926; his work as a farm laborer in central California; his experiences playing music at Filipino events, small venues, and for his family; and his marriage to their mother, Linda Ardell Craner in 1954. They provide an overview of their mother's family's migration to central California from Idaho and her career as a reading specialist at Hall School in Las Lomas, California. Modesto Orlando and Rita also speak about their extended family and friend network in Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley and reflect on their differing experiences growing up mixed-race. Finally, Modesto Orlando discusses interviewing his father about the 1930s Watsonville Race Riots and Fermin Tobera for a paper he wrote as a college student. They go onto discuss their mother, Linda Ardell Tuzon's integration into the Filipino community and culture through food and music as well as her feelings of exclusion from the Filipino community as a white woman. Modesto Orlando and Rita also discuss their father, Modesto Tuzon's band, the genres of music he played, and the Filipino songs they learned to sing as children. Additionally, they speak about Modesto Tuzon's farm labor and the families' exposure to dangerous agricultural pesticides. Finally, they reflect on community silences surrounding the 1930s Watsonville Race Riots; their fathers' and other manongs' opinions of the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement; and undocumented migrants who worked in Pajaro Valley fields alongside Filipinos.