Inquiry Project Interview
On November 29, 2019 it was a cold Friday morning. In a small little town called Victorville where we live about 85 miles away from Los Angeles, we received about 2 inches of snow on Thanksgiving Day which is very rare to actually see snow, and have it stick. So, the following morning the snow is slowly starting to melt and fade away as I sit with my grandma whose name is Neva and she is 65 years old, we are at the kitchen table to interview her for my Inquiry project. We started at 10:15. There is a football game playing on the television in the background, my little cousins are chasing the dogs and we are all just getting finished with a pancake breakfast. I have my laptop opened ready to ask my grandma questions. I learned quite a lot from the limited amount of questions that I asked. At first, I believed that I am more Spaniard and White then anything else, however I have discovered that I am more Mexican and have very little Spaniard in me. I know this must have been a huge confusion to everyone as I first believed that I was half Spainard, but throughout this interview and talking to my family they made realize that I am half Mexican as well as half White and very little Spainard in me. I came to discover that my great grandmother was born in Williams, Arizona. At first, I believed that she immigrated from Spain to America, however I discovered that she was already born in the United States. My great grandmothers name originated from it being a typical Hispanic name of Cecilia. We lost our Spanish language because when my great grandmother was younger, she was bullied in high school because she did speak Spanish, so she was forced to erase the language out of her because she was embarrassed. In those times she was bullied so much and was not able to be a part of a beauty pageant because she was Mexican. So, throughout time with her being bullied it was lost within our family. I would hate to have pushed my nationality away because of others bullying you to the point of embarrassment, yet they still do it in today’s generation and it is such a shame. We continue to speak very little Spanish in my family today but not fluently. We continue to carry on the food ways in my family by continuing to cook Mexican food such as beans, rice, chile, but we did not learn how to make traditional tortillas the way my nana would make so that would be the food that we do not continue to carry on. We continue to carry on my nana’s traditions by showing well mannerisms, doing chores around the house, listening to Mexican music, eating the same food as well as being classy and professional the way she taught us to be. Her day to day lifestyle consisted of being a very good housewife. She would clean, cook, iron, and was very particular in everything she did. My nana had 6 children, so they always kept her on her toes. Through this interview I discovered that my nana was not immigrated to the United States and her parents were already in the U.S. when she was born. They originated from one part of Spain that is called Linares. My nana’s mother which would be my great great grandmother came to Williams, Arizona when she was 5 years old. Immigrants were assigned a state to live when they were being sent off and they were all assigned a specific state that way they would be evenly spread out. So, they were sent to Arizona and that is where my nana was born. In Williams they owned a ranch called the Pinecrest Dairy and they would deliver milk locally to everyone in town. When my nana was 13 years old her mother died. She ran away to the ranch and lived there for some time. A few years later she got married and her husband was a construction worker so he would travel a lot and they eventually ended up in California where my grandma was born and eventually my mother as well.
While doing this essay I have learned so much information about my nana as well as her past. I believed it was one thing to what I figured her past was like however I was very incorrect on many things. But I am glad to have been educated on my nana’s childhood as well as knowing how she was brought to California. While doing the interview with my grandma at the dinner table, my uncle and my great uncle who is also one of my nana’s sons joined us in the interview. So, I did interview more people than I anticipated but I enjoyed it. They all brought information to the questions that I was asking and even some memories that I enjoyed listening too. Doing this interview made me feel closer to my family as I learned more about our background and being educated on my nana more and how her parents immigrated to the United States. The interview ended at 10:58.
