Oral History Collaborations

In this interview, originally recorded via Zoom, Veronica Hernandez speaks with Dioscoro "Roy" Respino Recio, Jr. and Amanda Gamban who are members of the Watsonville is in the Heart project team. Hernandez gives a broad overview of her family's immigration history and experience living in the Pajaro Valley as agricultural workers. She discusses her father's immigration from the Philippines to the United States in 1928 and her mother's experience moving from Texas to California. Hernandez details memories of working in agricultural fields with her parents. She also discusses her experience growing up as mixed-race and her encounters with racism. Lastly, she discusses how working in the fields inspired her to pursue a career as an ESL teacher and her employment after leaving the fields in her 20s.