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Robello, Helen (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This single interview with Helen Robello covers her background and work life, including her work in one of the canneries on Terminal Island, where she did organizing among the other workers. TOPICS - family background; marriage(s) and children; life and work on Terminal Island; organizing cannery workers; organizing longshoremen; Depression; later political activism;discussion of her family, her own children; housing on Terminal Island; WWII; 10/12/1979
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- SUBJECT BIO - Helen Robello was born in Montana and moved with her family to California in 1920. She is among the few Anglo Europeans who lived on Terminal Island. She worked in a cannery alongside the Issei and Nisei women, 1929 to the early 1930s, and was involved in the cannery workers union. She also was an organizer for the longshoreman, first in San Pedro and later in Hawaii. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This single interview with Helen Robello covers her background and work life, including her work in one of the canneries on Terminal Island, where she did organizing among the other workers. TOPICS - family background; marriage(s) and children; life and work on Terminal Island; organizing cannery workers; organizing longshoremen; Depression; later political activism;discussion of her family, her own children; housing on Terminal Island; WWII;
- *** File: tihrobello1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:45)... Robello's father was born in Ohio and was Pennsylvania Dutch. He learned to speak English when he was ten years old. Her maternal grandfather was English, and her maternal grandmother was Irish. They met and married in Indiana. Her father later took up a homestead in Montana and she lived on the farm when she was very young. She was born in 1906. Her father eventually bought the farm and they lived there until 1917. The family later moved to Washington, and then to California, where she eventually married. (1:45-4:50)... Robello's father belonged to the IWW. He also helped with Eugene Deb's presidential campaign in 1912. She spent much of her time with her father and did not get along well with her mother, who had six children and also raised her a granddaughter. Robello spent so much time with her father that she learned early on about economics and the ways of the world. Robello married when she was 14 years old and soon after had a son. Her children are not very politically aware. One of her sons died on his graduation day, in 1943. He broke his neck while in the surf at the beach. Her father died in a shipwreck in 1939. Her husband , with whom she had three children, was from Italy. His family moved near hers, by the San Joaquin River. Her father and husband fished for salmon and bass on the river. They lived there for ten years before moving to Southern California. (4:50-7:15)... The first jobs that her husband and father were able to get in Southern California were with the Del Monte fish cannery; her husband was the foreman of the cannery and her father worked there as a tuna cooker. She worked checking the employees' punch cards. Her hourly wage in 1929/30 was .45 cents an hour. She also worked downstairs in the cannery, cutting and cooking mackerel. Mostly Filipino men worked on the mackerel and Japanese women worked on the cutting machines for the sardines. Most of the Japanese women who worked in the cannery lived on Terminal Island. Helen lived on Terminal Island for about two years. It was when she first moved there that the workers in the cannery began to organize. Most of the people there did not speak English. There was one man who spoke English very well and the other workers would follow his lead when voting. (7:15-8:41)... Before the war, during the Depression, Helen and her family moved to Lomita, where they worked in the fields. Her father was a night watchman in a cannery at this time. She recalls many co-ops where they would trade points for food , but as conditions worsened, the co-ops began to close. She remembers selling most of their canned goods to the US government. They next moved back to San Pedro. (8:41-11:21)... Her daughter became sick with rheumatic fever. They moved to Banning for a year, then moved back to Lomita in 1933. While they lived there, they worked in the fields. Her two brothers, father, and husband later worked as longshoremen. They began to organize the longshoremen and she worked as a union organizer. Just prior to this, the cannery workers had unionized. Robello remembers working with a Japanese woman and a Mexican woman in the union. She does not remember the first president of the union, but she knew the later one, a Black man. She later moved to Channel Heights Housing Project (in San Pedro). He moved nearby and they became acquainted. (11:21-13:04)... The cannery workers did not have trouble organizing. Many of the Japanese women were initially timid about joining the union. Through time they eventually organized the cannery workers. After they had joined the union, the Japanese were very good members and attended meetings faithfully. Business was usually carried out in Japanese, although Spanish translations would sometimes be used for the Spanish speaking union members. There were a number of Mexican workers, as well as Italians. In the cannery where they cleaned, cooked and canned the tuna. (13:04-16:22)... She recalls longshoremen having good working conditions. Her second husband, brother, brother-in-law, two nephews, two sons and two step-sons were all longshoremen. There was trouble in organizing the longshoremen because there were people hired by the employers to hinder organization. She remembers scuffling and one man even being killed. These troublemakers set up tents and kept guns. Her brother and his partner managed to break into the tents and throw all the machine guns into the ocean. The partner was killed but her brother was able to escape. There was a large floodlight on a post to scan the camp and prevent any of the longshoremen from disrupting the place. The night of the raid her husband shot the light out. (16:22-18:34)... Around 1939 she separated from her first husband. She married again in 1942. Before this she had moved to Hawaii (Honolulu) to help unionize the longshoremen there. The bus drivers there held a strike and she worked on it, as well. She remembers having problems with the police, who tried to prevent them from organizing. In 1940 they voted for the union. At the time she was sick because of a miscarriage. (18:34-20:30)... In 1941 Robello moved back to California and her husband went on to New York. He shipped back and forth to and from South America. She bought a large power sewing machine and made shoulder pads for dresses. From 1930 into the 1940's she did Navy tailoring, which was her original trade. (20:30-23:40)... In 1952, Robello went to work at the RoseMarie bathing suit factory. She was paid as a utility worker with an hourly wage. Most others there received piece rate. She quit this job in 1954 and then, in 1956/7, she started driving school buses, which she continued to do for ten years. After her son became sick, she had to quit working. By this time, they had moved to Torrance after purchasing some property. When her husband left her in 1956, she had built apartments on this property. Because of her son's illness, she gave up working/managing her property. He improved with help from a doctor in Mexico and he soon began to work. She moved in with her mother for two years, then they moved to Torrance, and then back to San Pedro. Her son became sick again and they moved to Carson City, Nevada, hoping his health would improve. After about 15 months, in 1973, they returned to California. (23:40-25:18)... She talks about always working, and even at the time of the interview, she hoped to either work as a bus driver or as a real estate salesperson. Even though she had back problems, she still wanted to work. (25:18-27:01)... Going back to a discussion of her earlier years, Robello talks about some family friends. There was a Japanese family that lived near them, as well as another family from Canada. She recalls Japanese people having nice shops that sold silk, and also remembers their bath houses. (27:01-29:24)... Robello was in Hawaii when the Japanese were moved to the camps. [Editor's note: the Japanese in Hawaii were not placed in camps during the war.] Her first husband, who was Italian, ran into trouble because he did not have his papers; they had previously burned. As a result he was put into a camp. Later, after they were divorced, she helped him get his citizenship. Because she had married an alien before 1923, she had lost her citizenship. She wasn't aware of this until she tried to be a witness for someone else who was becoming a citizen. After her divorce in 1941, she regained her citizenship. (29:24-29:50)... Her oldest son has triplets, two boys and a girl; they were living in Torrance. These grandchildren were the same age as her youngest son, by her second marriage. (29:50-31:58)... Robello remembers the Japanese people lived in small houses/shacks on Terminal Island. Everything was always clean. The canneries liked the Japanese who were working there because the women were steady on the job and clean/careful. They were also very skillful at laying the fish down in the right manner. She recalls that the Japanese women would sometimes be called to work early in the morning or very late at night because otherwise the fish would spoil. (31:58-33:33)... The fishing industry was much larger in the 1930's. She recalls that San Pedro was known for its production of fertilizer at the canneries. When the AFL began to organize, the cannery union was not very involved. But, with the CIO, the cannery union became involved in the movement. The cannery union was thrown out of the CIO as a subversive group, but it just simply became the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union. She worked on defense committees for Harry Bridges when the government put him on trials, accusing him of being a communist. (33:33-35:51)... She notes that after the longshoremen were organized in Hawaii, other workers became organized as well: sugar workers, culinary workers, hotel workers. Working conditions improved dramatically, and wages went up. There were many Japanese working there, along with many other nationalities. There were Japanese schools and Japanese kids would attend them after their normal school. (35:51-37:40)... After a certain longshoreman was arrested for dealing dope, Robello went to plead with the judge for his release. In the process, they discovered that they were related; he was a fourth cousin to her father. He was known as a very fair judge. (37:40-40:01)... The longshoremen were organized in 1934, then there was a strike in 1936. That same year the women's auxiliary was also organized. All of the unions were distinct, although now they all belong to one union. There was a man helped the women's auxiliary union to get group insurance. She was involved in the union for a long time, serving as secretary for 6 years and as a legislative representative. (40:01-44:26)... In later years, she worked for an organization that opposed the Vietnam War. She had always belonged to various organizations, including the ACLU, NAACP, the UFW. She continued to be in a Democratic club as well. In her activities against war, she remembers picketing nuclear bomb testing and participating in many parades. She also worked to aid the UFW, always helping in boycotts and picket lines. At the time of the interview Robello was getting ready to move. Her mother had recently died and she wanted to get away from all the memories of her mother. end of tape *** File: tihrobello2.mp3 (0:00-1:31)... The farm in Montana which her father owned was one of the few that managed to survive. [There is a discussion about another opportunity for the interviewer to talk with her.] (1:31-5:20)... During World War II her husband was drafted and worked with the transportation corps on the island of New Guinea. Before he left, her oldest son was born. He was gone for almost three years. She and her husband wanted to have a daughter, so after the birth of their son they kept trying for a girl. Her son Larry married a Mexican woman, now separated, and has two children. Robello was planning on moving to Lake Elsinore, where her son lived in a mobile home. He works as a longshoreman. He doesn't like working the cranes, and so he drives simpler machines instead. He had to quit school and work. (5:20-9:04)... Larry's father (her husband) was a very good boxer, but she made him quit fighting because she was raised in a non-violent family. He became an alcoholic later on. Because of her belief in non-violence, she made her sons participate in dancing and music as alternatives. Her other son became really sick because of a kidney infection. The doctors said the hot chocolate that she gave her children while they were growing up led to these problems. Her third child died in 1943, on his high school graduation day. Robello helped raise her granddaughter, who at the time of the interview, had three children of her own. In all, Robello had 13 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. (9:04-12:44)... Her mother had 26 grandchildren, 67 great -grandchildren, and 3 great-great- grandchildren. She died at the age of 90. She remember taking her mother to doctors in Mexico. She was suffering from cancer for about 45 years, but the treatment in Mexico with laetrile kept her going. She eventually died of pneumonia. (12:44-13:28)... All of her brothers played football. Her oldest brother had open heart surgery recently; the youngest son, the one that died, was a track athlete. (13:28-14:46)... Terminal Island and Fish Harbor were basically the same thing. The house in which she lived was owned by a cannery. The canneries owned everything; there was no union and virtually no independence. (14:46-17:10)... The house they lived in was very small, but they lived there by choice. The other houses along the street were occupied by mainly white Anglos who were officials in the cannery. There were narrow alleys between the houses. She believes that the Japanese people were treated very well. end of tape
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