"My mother made food. I helped her because they [workers] came at midday to eat. When we grew older, my mother came with the younger ones to Morenci and I stayed with my father. Nati Sevayos and Fidelia, the Peru girls, Carmen and Chavela went with me to the ranch. The workers came to eat. Rafael Mendoza was always the first to arrive. He would say to me, “¿Eduvigen, que tienes de comer? (Eduvigen, what do you have to eat?)” Potatoes, beans, that was all I knew how to make because I was still young. That is how it always was. We got married, he got married, and we would always remember when we started talking and he would say, “¿Eduvigen, que tienes de comer? ¿Eduvigen, que tienes para el almuerzo? (Eduvigen what do have for breakfast?)” (laughs) That was all, potatoes and beans. They used to bring me verdolagas (purslane), quelites (wild spinach) but I used to tell him potatoes and beans.

My father planted everything on his ranch, yams and all that. All of it lasted because he buried it [in a food cellar]. He had a hole in the house and he saved vegetables and fruit there so that it would last us until the following year. What he sold was to bring salt and sugar and things we needed, flour. But everything [else] we got from the ranch, thank God. I do not know how many acres [there were in the ranch] but it was very large because there were two acres of alfalfa for the animals and another acre for corn, squash, and another for chili, tomatoes, peas, beans. On another part, he planted yams and potatoes. On the edges there were trees, figs, apples, quince, peaches, pears, and apricots. When the fruit was ripe, he brought fruit to sell in Morenci. We caught lots of fish from the river and he sold them to the Chinese. There was a Chinese store that sold fish. He sold fish to many people. He sold turtles to the Chinese. Her job [mother] was to milk the cows and make cheese. She sold the cheese but most of the milk went to us.

My father on the ranch

[The house in Eagle Creek] was made of blocks of mud, what do they call it? Adobe. I am not sure if my father built it. He could not have [by himself] but someone must have helped him. I never knew. They built that house then later that is where I was born in that house on that ranch. My brother, Eduardo was born up above on another ranch. My father needed much help because we were growing and we had to go to school and all. He hired a man from Morenci to build another house of wood. The house where I was born, he passed off to a man, Romulo Sanchez who lived there with his family. He got part of the ranch to work it for himself and to help my father. From then on, the sons started getting married and leaving. That is when the Chacons, Irapito Chacon and Isaias [came]. There were three brothers who came and helped on the ranch. There were some girls who came to stay with us. Elvira was one of them. I do not remember the name of the oldest, who almost drowned in the river. They would come and stay two or three weeks and they would return to Morenci. Genoveva was the name of one [of the girls]. They [the girls] prepared the food for them [the boys]. The mother did not go. She stayed with one of her daughters in the house. They liked to go to the ranch. We got together there to swim and then with other girls from the other ranches who came to visit us.

Every year there [on the ranch] my father made jaripeos (rodeos). That is when they tame the horses. That is when he killed a calf and he put it in a hole to barbecue. He made chili verde and my mother made bread because many people came at that time. Jaripeos is like when one goes somewhere where they take many animals and many people come. They have all the livestock, especially the most rebellious, so they can be tamed. Many people gather. My mother was very good with a rifle. They made bets and three or four men and women would shoot with the rifle. There was a hill where there was an opening. They had to pass a bullet through there. My mother always won in that. (laughs) My mother was very good!

She would go to the ranch to the orchard and she would take us to gather fruit to give to the pigs because in those days we had many pigs. She would kill agonices [quails], that is what she gave us for dinner. We would go to the river to clean the agonices, tortulas. A dozen and a half, two dozen. We would wash them and peel them, then my mother would put them in the oven of the wood stove then she would give them to us. In the winter she would make us gather sacks of mesquite beans. We would dry them. We would hang them up to dry and in the winter my mother made us atole. That is what she gave us, a cup of atole made from mesquite. Now you hardly ever find a mesquite tree that has mesquite beans like they used to. There was one that was very thick, very fleshy. That is what you make atole from. My mother would gather enough mesquite beans in a basin; then she would boil them. When it was tender, she would mash it with her hands then pass it through a cedazo, un colador (a colander). She would put a little bit of sugar, not much because we had to limit ourselves because the sugar was gotten with the fruit my father sold in the summer and the firewood in the winter. He made whiskey and he also took that. He only sold to people who had abonaos, like a boarding house. The women who had their houses and people came to pick up their lunches or to eat. I worked in houses like that later. The people who made corn tortillas also bought two or three gallons of whiskey. [He made it] from grapes, apricots, apples, many things that he could use. He knew how to make that and that is what he did to help himself, especially in the winter. In the summer he did not have time because of the crops, the fruit and what he planted. In the winter, he made beer. He made beer for the jaripeos. They would go and they bought it from him. He provided the food, the barbecue.

My mother’s job was to assist the pregnant women to have babies. They did not go to the hospital. They had their babies at home. My mother went to their houses to help them. After the baby was born, they would call the doctor so that he could sign the paper. Dr. Gungal was the one who came by horse or my father went and brought them by horse so that they could sign the papers. But that was what my mother did. With one of my sister-in-laws my mother did not have help. They had a wood stove. Angelita was born, the sister of Alfonso. I had to bathe her. I had to keep the fire going in the wood stove so that there was hot water. My mother helped my sister-in-law in the other room. They told me I had to be there ready so I went and bathed her because my mother was helping Asabina.

[The house in Eagle Creek had] three bedrooms and the kitchen. Outside, he burned firewood on a tin and he pulled it inside with wire and he put it inside to heat the rooms. That is how we heated the house. At the end, he would put green mesquite wood so that the coals would last. Just putting it in one place, warmed all three rooms. We did not have electricity. [There was] only petroleum for the lamps.
I helped my mother with the food and the house. My sister married when she was fifteen. She got out of school and she left. My oldest brother got out of school too and went to Phoenix. He left a woman pregnant but they brought him back and made him marry her. Asabina Chacon Navarrette. She had nine children. She was the mother of Alfonoso. They married him off and I was the only older one left. My other brothers, Sebino, Conrado, and Lencho went to the service [World War II]. Me, Concha, y Carmina stayed. Concha also left school and left home. She married very young.

There were nine of us [in the Navarette family]. Almost all of them had nine in their family, except me, four. My children had few in their family but Carmina did not have any. She adopted three, a girl and two boys. Martina had nine, Eduardo nine, Sabino nine. All of them come to the reunion. Of my sister, the oldest, she has had three children die. All of Sabino’s children are alive. Their mother died, Sabino died. Now all of their children come to the reunion.

[When we were young] all of us got together and we were very united, all of us. My mother left a letter when she died. We found a letter where she said to continue [the reunions] because that way as more are born, they get to know each other. There have been some who have gotten married during the reunion and they have their fiesta at the reunion. They make the dance there because always there is a band of musicians who come to play. Sometimes there are musicians who come from Tucson. Sometimes musicians come from Las Cruces because my sister’s son has a band. They ask him to come and if he cannot, others [come]. They dance there on the dirt. We all get together.

[For Christmas] we used to get together with my mother and made many tamales and all kinds of food, turkey. We got together and helped her because my father died very early. All of us [would visit each other] until more recently since my mother died. There is one who is very rebellious, Carmina. My brother wanted to take my father out of the cemetery in Morenci and she was the only one who would not sign. All of us signed, but she did not want to sign. She was upset over a disagreement. My mother had the house in Max’s name in case she died because she was always in the hospital, she was always sick of her heart. In Tucson we had her in the hospital a lot. Because she [Carmina] was the youngest daughter and the last one to get married, she would get angry because Sabino, my brother said she had been given [in marriage] like a piece of tortilla to a dog. Because they asked for her [hand in marriage] and right away they wanted to have her that instant and go to get married. For me, they [my parents] gave fifteen days and I was the only one that they asked for. The other two left, eloped.

I remember that my mother always went to look for jobs for my cousins who came and wanted to work with the company with Alvidrez. My mother would go to talk to Alvidrez to see if he would give them work. Then my mother would send Alvidrez and the other brother food. They would buy tamales from my mother and food she prepared. There is a man who comes from California, he was looking for work and he met my brother Max. He became good friends with Max and he started working. Max used to take him with my mother to eat. Now when Max died, he came to the wake and the funeral. Now for the reunions [Navarrette family], he comes all the way from California. He made a book about Max and my mother and of all of us from when he met us. He comes to the Navarrette reunions and takes pictures, talks to all of us, and visits. He comes to visit Max’s daughters. That is where he comes, with them."