Oral History Collaborations

In this interview, originally conducted via Zoom, Erlinda Taytayon Heebner speaks with Dr. Steve McKay, a member of the Watsonville is in the Heart team. Erlinda discusses her father, Eliseo Tapia Taytayon, and her mother, Rosalinda Mendoza Taytayon and their experiences migrating to the United States from the Philippines. She shares that Eliseo migrated to the United States alongside his cousin Florencio Cawaling in 1929 and worked as a farm laborer until he retired at age 75. She explains that Eliseo and Rosalinda met and married as a result of an arrangement facilitated by the Cawaling family. After their marriage, Rosalinda migrated to Watsonville where she worked in the canneries. Erlinda discusses her experiences growing up in Watsonville including the class and racial dynamics of the various neighborhoods where her family lived and the schools she attended. Throughout the interview, she also describes the various Taytayon family homes as places where many relatives and community members congregated to enjoy her father's cooking and purchase clothing from her maternal grandmother who worked as a seamstress.