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Mulligan, Rose Echeverria (audio interview #3 of 4)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the third of four interviews with Rose Echeverria Mulligan (pseudonym) conducted in the den of her comfortable suburban home. As before, Mulligan was eager to talk and was both candid and detailed in her responses. 2/17/1981
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- 2021-08-11
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- *** File: rrrrmulligan9.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-11:40)... Mulligan talks about how she met her husband. Her family was impressed with him because he was courteous and clean cut. She liked the fact that he was a war hero with ambition. Prior to meeting him, she enjoyed meeting men and going dancing on the weekends. She stopped dating other men when she met her future husband. She did not think that their romance would last because of their different ethnic backgrounds. They talked about the issues related to their backgrounds and decided to end their relationship a few months after dating. However, he continued to pursue her and they eventually got engaged. (11:40-20:21)... Her husband's family did not approve of their engagement. They treated her nicely during their courtship, but hoped their relationship would be short lived. Mulligan discusses her husband's family background and history. (20:21-29:39)... Prior to entering the service, her husband worked at US Rubber & Tire. He was engaged to his high-school sweetheart and everyone expected them to marry. However, they got into an argument and he decided to escape his problems by joining the service. He was stationed in the South Pacific for four years. One day, he collapsed and was hospitalized. He was sent to a convalescent hospital in Riverside and received a psychiatric evaluation. He told Mulligan that he "faked" his depression so that he would receive a psychiatric discharge from the service. Mulligan was the first woman he dated steadily after he was released from the hospital. They broke off their engagement so that he could decide if he wanted to get back together with his ex-fiance. This did not work out and he begged Mulligan to take him back. She started planning for a wedding, but he was still hesitant about marrying. They broke off their engagement on more than one occasion, but finally married on August 3, 1947. (29:39-30:25)... Mulligan converted to Catholicism when she and her husband decided to marry. She reasoned that many of her Latina friends were Catholic and thought that she would end up Catholic sooner or later. She also wanted to please his family by doing things right and having a Catholic wedding. End of tape. *** File: rrrrmulligan10.mp3 (0:00-3:32)... Mulligan and her husband received marriage counseling at the Catholic Church. The priest did not approve of their marriage because he felt that her husband would not strengthen her religious beliefs. However, he agreed to marry them on the condition that she make a choice between having music or bridesmaids at the ceremony; she chose music. She planned and paid for their entire wedding and honeymoon because her husband did not have any money. She asked her husband to reserve a room at the Biltmore Hotel for their honeymoon, but he failed to do so. At the time, she attributed his ambivalence to his naivete and innocence. (3:32-5:52)... After they married, Mulligan moved into her husband's "bachelor" apartment. The apartment was furnished and they slept on a Murphy bed. They had a small kitchen and a bathroom. The rent was $25 a month, including utilities. She describes the apartment complex as a "flophouse" that was frequented by prostitutes and drunks. At the time, they were both employed and she believed it was a temporary arrangement. While on their honeymoon, her husband's mother and sister cleaned the apartment and made it presentable. She was in love with her husband and was protective whenever someone spoke ill of him. (5:52-7:54)... Her mother-in-law wanted Mulligan to marry her son. She felt that Mulligan would take good care of him and she accepted their marriage. His sister "tolerated" Mulligan and his brother was antagonistic towards her and did not attend the wedding. Mulligan's mother worshipped her husband and her siblings approved of their marriage. (7:54-10:55)... Mulligan took a two-week vacation for her honeymoon. She spent the first week honeymooning and the second week learning how to cook and play "housewife." Her husband worked as a salesman for Westinghouse and she returned to Sterling Electrical Company. A few months after they married, her husband entered a training program in the fire department and was hired as a firefighter. He worked twenty-four hours on and twenty-four hours off. She enjoyed his absence from the home because it gave her time to rest. She was not accustomed to cooking and cleaning for someone else. She never thought about quitting her job when she married and would have worked her entire life if "allowed" by her husband. (10:55-17:32)... Mulligan's first pregnancy was not planned. She did not know anything about contraceptives. Anything she learned about sex was through "loose" women. She believed that abstention was the only way to prevent pregnancy and that women got married so that they could have sexual relations with their husbands. Her husband used a condom and she occasionally used a diaphragm, but disliked the device. She was delighted at the prospect of having a child, but her husband was less than thrilled. His family was disappointed over the prospect of a "half-breed" coming into the family. During her pregnancy, she spent most of her time with her mother and sister and began to make plans to move back home because of her husband's ambivalence towards fatherhood. She quit her job soon after she became pregnant but not before she had time to gloat about her seemingly happy marriage and expected child. After she gave birth to her daughter, she moved in with her mother because she did not want to raise a child in a one-room apartment. (17:32-24:56)... After Mulligan married, she realized that her husband's behavior was unpredictable. He was prone to nervousness and occasionally woke up in the middle of the night and ran out of the house with a knife. She attributed his behavior to the war and wanted to do whatever she could to make him happy. However, she worried that her husband would harm the baby and decided to move into her mother's home after the baby was born. Mulligan lost interest in her husband because his nervous episodes and erratic behavior was unattractive. When she began losing her pregnancy weight, her husband started coming around more and showing an interest in his daughter. However, he did not want to be around the baby when she was fussy. Mulligan agreed to reconcile with her husband if he found a new place for them to live. (24:56-31:12)... When Mulligan and her husband began looking for a new apartment in 1949, there was still a housing shortage. They eventually moved into the apartment complex where her mother-in-law lived, on Eastman Avenue in East Los Angeles. The neighborhood at that time was predominantly Anglo. Mulligan was happy to return to her old stomping grounds. The other tenants in the complex were young Anglo families. They often socialized during holidays and worked out schedules to use certain amenities on the property. The segment ends just as Mulligan is discussing her plans to return to work prior to her second pregnancy. End of tape. *** File: rrrrmulligan11.mp3 (0:00-6:32)... Mulligan decided to return to work so that she could contribute to the family income. She went to an employment agency and was hired to work in the canteen at the Southern California Gas Company in Los Angeles. She hired a neighbor to baby sit her daughter while she and her husband were at work. Her job responsibilities included washing dishes, operating the cash register, serving food, and cleaning the facility. She felt qualified for this work because she was a housewife. However, she disliked the work and felt that washing dishes was a "put down." When she went home in the evenings she was responsible for cooking and taking care of her daughter. Her husband was not helpful around the house and she always came home to a dirty house and a filthy baby when he watched their daughter. Mulligan quit her job after only six weeks. She was glad to be home because she felt that she was neglecting her daughter. (6:32-8:47)... Mulligan and her husband planned her second pregnancy and were hoping to have a boy. During her pregnancy, she developed anemia and was told to keep her weight down. She was advised her to take iron and other vitamins while she was pregnant. She gave birth to a girl with dark hair and brown eyes. She worried that her husband's family would not accept her daughter because of her Mexican features. Her mother remarked, "This one looks like you" and did not seem happy about the child's appearance. Mulligan's husband was disappointed that he did not get the son he had anticipated. (8:47-15:56)... In 1951, Mulligan and her husband bought a new home in Panorama City. The down payment on their house was $500 and their monthly payment was $62. Her husband brought home $50 a week. They borrowed money for the down payment and used the rest to purchase furniture for their home. The housing tract did not have any landscape. Her first priority was taking care of her children and she spent her spare working in the yard. (15:56-24:53)... Most of her neighbors in Panorama City were from the East Coast and living on a "shoe string" like Mulligan and her husband. All of the couples were well educated and employed in various professional fields. She did not encounter any negative attitudes because she and her husband were not of the same status. Mulligan was lonely in this environment. Many of her friends were moving into suburbs south of Los Angeles and further away from her family. She made it a point to be friendly with her neighbors to cure this loneliness. She was insecure about her roles as a mother and a wife and felt that the other wives were exceeding her efforts to live "American Dream." However, they all had the same thing in common, pleasing their husbands and building a strong family life around the ideal of "goodness." (24:53-26:54)... Mulligan did not put much stock in child psychology or Dr. Spock's ideals. Her favorite handbook was Better Homes and Gardens Baby Book . She noticed that many of her neighbors were preparing their children for college when they were babies. She believed that childhood was a time to play and enjoy life. However, she realized that her daughter's peers were intellectually superior because of the tutoring they received in the home. (26:54-31:27)... Mulligan's neighbors did not display bigotry about her ethnicity. She befriended several Jewish women in her neighborhood and was shocked to find out that Mexicans were not the only group of people who were victims of racial discrimination. She could not understand why people had racist attitudes towards Jews. When news channeled in of the atrocities involving Jews during the war the Jewish women focused their social activities on Holocaust issues. Mulligan also socialized with an Irish nurse who lived on her street. Like Mulligan, most of her neighbors relied on this woman for medical advice. End of tape. *** File: rrrrmulligan12.mp3 (0:00-3:29)... Mulligan and her family lived in Panorama City for seven years, during which time she gave birth to a third child and went to work at Lockheed to help support her family. Supporting a family on her husband's income was difficult and she often had to borrow money from her mother. Mulligan got a drivers license so that she and the kids could visit her mother. She often invited family and friends to their home on the weekends, but no one really liked the valley. She argued with her husband and moving back to the city. She often thought about leaving her husband and supporting the kids on her own. She believes that many of women living in her neighborhood were unhappy and thought about leaving their husbands. (3:29-9:58)... Although Mulligan maintained her friendships with the Mexican women she grew up with, she socialized with her Anglo friends who lived in the greater Los Angeles area. She kept her friends segregated and did not introduce her Mexican friends to her husband. Her husband did not care for her sister and her brother and did not accompany her when she visited her family. Mulligan wanted to be an "Anglo wife" and bent over backwards to please her husband by emulating her Anglo neighbors. She felt that her husband was constantly evaluating how she measured up with the others and she tried to make him think that their neighbors accepted her. (9:58-16:35)... Mulligan was close with three women in her neighborhood who were of Polish, Irish, and Jewish descent, respectively. They baby sat each other's children and offered advice on the care of their homes and gardens. Mulligan's domestic responsibilities involved homemaking, child care, and gardening. The atmosphere in her neighborhood was competitive in every aspect of their lives. She discusses her Polish friend and their entertaining activities. This impressed her because not many people in the neighborhood entertained on such a grand scale. She remembers that people wondered whether she could cook Mexican food because of her ethnic background. (16:35-21:05)... When Mulligan got pregnant with her third child, the women in her neighborhood thought she was crazy. However, they helped her by giving her their maternity clothes. When she was two months pregnant, she was involved in an automobile accident and injured her back. Her pregnancy was difficult because of her back pain. Around the same time, her husband injured his back while on the job and was hospitalized. Her neighbors helped care for the exterior of her home and offered to baby sit her children when she visited her husband in the hospital. Once she gave birth to her son, her back pain eased substantially. Her husband's back condition deteriorated. (21:05-31:31)... Mulligan felt that she had to be "on" while living in her neighborhood. The house in which they lived was too small for their family and her children constantly fighting with the other children in the neighborhood. In the late 1950s, she and her husband decided it was time to move out of the neighborhood and they found a home in Sepulveda. She liked the neighborhood because it was rural and seemed peaceful. She discusses the details regarding the purchase of her new home and the sell of her old home. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Rose Echeverria Mulligan (pseudonym) worked in defense during her senior year in high school under the "4-4 Plan." She attended four hours of classes and spent the other four hours making bombay doors in the small-scale factory set up by Avion (a subsidiary of Douglas Aircraft) in the Industrial Arts shop at Garfield High School. The last of three children, Echeverria was born in Los Angeles. She worked at the dime store while attending high school, until she joined the "4-4" plan. The pay she received for this work, half of which she contributed to her family, was better than what she had been earning at Grant's. Although she did not like the factory work, she viewed it as a patriotic contribution, helping the young men she knew in the service. However, she had no intention of continuing to work in defense, after graduation. Seeking a job that was not noisy or dirty, she started working as a receptionist after graduation, and continued doing this work until after she married. A year after her marriage, in 1948, she became a full-time homemaker, returning to work briefly in 1951 before her second child was born. After that, she returned to full-time homemaking. Three interviews were held with Mulligan in her home, located on a quiet, tree-lined street in the San Fernando Valley. The furnishings reflected her husband's relatively comfortable salary. She was a willing participant and had no trouble expressing herself. Because she was so open and candid about very personal and painful events in her life, she ultimately decided to use a pseudonym, selecting a name that revealed both her family's Basque roots and her Anglo married name. TOPICS - dating; courtship; husband's background and family history; social activities; marriage; and religion;religion; wedding ceremony; living arrangements and living conditions; relationship with in-laws; domesticity and married life; pregnancy; maternity; marital relationship; and husband;work experiences; pregnancy; maternity; children; domesticity and motherhood; suburban life; housing; social values; gender roles; gender expectations; racism; and friends;suburban life; social activities and friends; gender expectations; cultural assimilation and Anglo identity; marital relationship; homemaking and gardening; children; pregnancy; disillusionment with suburban life a
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