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Fierro, Maria (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first of three interviews with Maria Fierro conducted in the kitchen of her modest postwar tract home. Reluctant to discuss personal issues, Fierro often responds to questions directly and without much elaboration. 2/18/1981
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- 2021-07-13
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- *** File: rrrmfierro1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:42)... Fierro never meet her material grandparents and has only a very vague knowledge about their lives. She believes that her grandfather was an farmer in Chihuahua, Mexico. Her mother went to school as a young girl and learned sewing as a trade. She worked as a seamstress making wedding gowns and actually made her own wedding gown. Fierro saved her mother's wedding dress and intended to wear it on her wedding day, but the fabric fell apart. (1:42-4:22)... Her paternal grandparents were from Seville, Spain and immigrated to Santa Barbara, California. Her grandfather as a small, blonde, blue-eyed man who used a lot of profanities. She recalls that he was constantly disciplining the grandchildren when she was a child. When her father moved to Chino, her grandparents followed and they all lived together on a farm. Her grandmother was responsible for the cooking and her mother sewed the clothes for the family. She discusses an aunt who lived in Santa Barbara. She toured the Santa Barbara Mission with her aunt, who told her that many of their Spanish-Indian relatives were buried at the mission. (4:22-8:48)... Her mother (Maria Lucy Vera) was a housewife and dedicated mother. She very rarely left the house and was happy caring for her family and home. She occasionally had friends who visited her because she made their clothes, for which she was compensated. Fierro's father (Frank Vera) was a kind man who assisted poor families by offering them work on his farm or providing them with a cow. Her parents met in El Paso (?) and married in 1911. They had their first child in 1912 and Fierro was born in 1913 followed by nine more children. Only seven out of the eleven children born to her parents survived. (8:48-11:31)... When Fierro's parents married, they moved from Santa Barbara to Chino and her father took up farming with a ranch owner. They eventually moved to southern California and her father and uncle purchased three acres to farm their own land. They mainly raised agricultural products and cattle on the farm. Fierro describes the large ranch house in which she lived as a child in what is now known as Fountain Valley. (11:31-16:30)... Fierro was born on a ranch in Chino. She relates the story of her birth. In general, her family was private about sex and reproduction. When her other sisters and brothers were born, she was told that the doctor brought the babies to her mother in a suitcase. She believes it is better for children to know about sex and reproduction when they are young, rather than not know at all. Whenever a child was born in the family, the other children were sent to relatives' homes. The children would notice that the older women would get "fat," but they did not understand that they were pregnant and the women did not tell them about pregnancy. (16:30-20:27)... When Fierro was a child, her parents were strict. The children were not allowed to have friends in the house and were spanked if they disobeyed this rule. However, her parents also were affectionate people, her father more than her mother. Fierro was not responsible for any chores inside the house. Her chores included milking the cows and helping her father on the farm. Her grandmother insisted that she collect large quantities of milk so that she could make cheese. Fierro discusses the process by which her grandmother made cheese, which was then sold to people in their community. Fierro was also responsible for counting the sacks of peppers that the farmhands picked because they were paid by the pound and often stuffed the sacks with weeds to earn more money. (20:27-22:33)... Her father leased the land on which he farmed from a local bank in the Fountain Valley area. She believes that the migrant farmers came from the Imperial Valley to Orange County and then traveled north to pick harvests. They traveled in families and camped on her father's farm in tents. The farmhands were typically immigrants of varying ethnicities, some of whom were Italians and Portuguese. (22:33-25:36)... When she was a young girl her family very rarely went places together. Once a year they rode their horse and buggy to a Broadway show held in Santa Ana. However, it was an ordeal to get all of the children together and go on these types of excursions. If her parents did leave the house for the evening, all of the children were left with her grandmother. Fierro's mother was not involved in any club or other types of activities outside the home. Her father was a social person and had a lot of friends in the newly developed areas of Orange County. She vaguely recalls her father's discussions about joining the military during WWI. (25:36-27:57)... Some of the childhood games she played included jump rope, hopscotch, and jacks. In school, she was active in sports such as baseball, basketball, and track. During track meets, she was required to wear bloomers, which disappointed her father. He did not like the girls to wear pants and they always wore dresses. When Fierro was an adult, she and her daughters often wore pants. Her father said that it was acceptable for her to wear pants because of her work, but not for her daughters. Fierro was not an avid reader when she was a young woman, but recalls sitting around with her family in the evenings and listening to her grandfather tell stories. (27:57-29:03)... Fierro's aunt and uncle lived within one mile of her home. Her aunt had twelve children, who were Fierro's primary playmates when she was a child. She also socialized with her immediate neighbors, a Japanese and a Portuguese family. *** File: rrrmfierro2.mp3 (0:00-3:49)... Fierro was raised in a household in which both Spanish and English were spoken. Her father was more conversant in English than her mother. By the time Fierro went to school, she knew how to speak English. Although the school she attended was racially mixed, there were only two Black children who attended her school. Her father encouraged his children to obtain an education. When Fierro graduated from eighth grade, she left school and decided not to attend high school because the school was located too far from her home. Her father did not oppose her decision. (3:49-7:06)... Fierro's mother did not talk to her about menstruation. When Fierro did start her period she was very scared. She attempted to eat lemons and soak herself in water thinking that the bleeding would stop. Her grandmother told her that it was something that would happen every month and would allow her to have babies when she got married. She was told that she could not eat anything sour or play with boys. Her grandmother made cotton "Kotex" that Fierro used when she was menstruating. (7:06-10:02)... Fierro's father was particular about the friends she played with while she was growing up. When she started dating, her father had to know the boy she liked before she could spent time with him. Fierro decided to follow her grandmother's example of marrying young. Since her grandmother married at the age of fourteen, Fierro felt she was ready to get married when she was sixteen years old. (10:02-11:20)... Fierro and her sisters were closely supervised in their activities outside the home. Although they occasionally went to the movies, their social activity was limited when they reached adolescence. (11:20-15:54)... Fierro started dating her future husband when she was fifteen years old. People warned her that he was lazy, but she agreed to marry him anyway. When she decided to marry, her father feared that her husband would be unable to support her and that she would eventually return to their home. After she gave birth to her children, it became apparent that her husband was not capable of supporting the family because of his poor work ethic. She decided to move back home with her parents and pursue a career on her own. (15:54-17:10)... Fierro and her family did not celebrate Mexican holidays. During Christmas, they did not decorate their home with traditional American fanfare, but they celebrated the holiday with food and presents. They celebrated other American holidays. She looked forward to presidents' birthdays because it meant she did not have to go to school. (17:10-17:58)... All of the decisions in Fierro's family were made by the her father and grandfather. The women did not have a voice in family matters. (17:58-19:56)... Fierro did not think she would work after she married. She and her husband moved to Santa Barbara after they married and lived with her aunt and uncle for about six months. Her husband got a job with her uncle at a packing house in Ventura. However, he did not last in that position for very long because of his laziness. They returned to Fountain Valley and moved in with her parents. (19:56-23:36)... When Fierro got pregnant with her first child, a friend told her that eating too much would damage the baby. As a result, her first child, a girl, only weighed four pounds when she was born. She was a sickly child and died when she was four years old. Fierro began working after she married. Her first job was with Gerber making baby food. She also worked for a packing house doing seasonal work. While employed at the packing house, she attended a school to learn how to read blueprints in anticipation of getting a job at Douglas Aircraft. She gave birth to her last child in 1945 when she was working at Douglas Aircraft. She spent very little time with her children while she was working. (23:36-25:15)... Fierro divorced her husband around 1941-42. While they were married, he spent very little time with his children. He eventually moved out of the area and did not pay any child support. He spent most of his time while they were married "bumming" around with his friends. Her children started spending time with their father many years later when they were adults. (25:15-28:07)... Fierro went to a job placement office where representatives suggested that she enroll in a training school to learn skills that would help her get a job at Douglas Aircraft. The training facility was operated by Douglas and it was located on Anaheim in Long Beach. She went to the training facility for a total of five hundred hours, at which time she was hired at Douglas. In addition to learning how to read blueprints, she learned how to rivet and weld materials among other skills. (28:07-28:50)... Fierro did not have a social life after she and her husband separated. When she started working for Douglas, she slept most of the day before reporting to her shift at 3:00 p.m. She had three children when she started at Douglas, and gave birth to another in 1945. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Maria Fierro had been an been an agricultural worker prior to her employment at Douglas. Fierro was the second of eleven children. After finishing grammar school, she began working in the fields of the ranch that her father and uncle leased in Fountain Valley and later did seasonal packing house work. She married when she was only sixteen and by the time she began working at Douglas in 1940, she had four children. After she was laid off from Douglas, she returned to the packing houses until 1949, when she was re-hired at Douglas. She remained there for the next thirty years until her retirement. A tall, slightly flamboyant woman, Fierro looked younger than her years. The three interview sessions with her were conducted in the kitchen, around a large booth-type table. Her modest postwar tract home, where she raised her children, is filled with family pictures. The interview process was difficult for Fierro, who was uncomfortable discussing personal matters, for instance her marriages. As a result, the interviews are all rather short and direct, with little elaboration. TOPICS - family background; parents; siblings; childhood; domestic responsibilities; family life; social activities; gender expectations; and reproduction;school; menstruation; family background; family life; childhood and adolescence; gender expectations; marriage; husband; marital relationship; work; pregnancy; children; and job training;
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