"My name is Emma Ruiz Pando. [I was born] May 31, 1915. I was born in Chihuahua, la Cuidad de Chihuahua [Mexico]. My mother and my father came from Chihuahua and brought me to Metcalf when I was six months old. We moved to Morenci in 1934 when the company closed Metcalf. My father’s name was Primitivo Ruiz and my mother’s name was Leonor Chavez. As far as I can think or assume, we lived, como les diré, no tenian calles ni tenian direciones, pero es muy problemente que viviamos cercas de lo que fué el hospital viejo de Morenci. (how can I say it, there were no streets or addresses but it’s probable that we lived close to what used to be the old Morenci hospital.) De seguro, no se (I don’t know for sure.) Pues I think it was up the hill. Vaguely do I remember there was a bridge there. A railroad train used to come from Clifton.

My father

What did my father do for living? Everybody was a miner. (laughs) My mother was always a home person. I don’t think my father ever did [talk about his work]. I know probably because it was dangerous. I don’t remember my father discussing the mine at all. I assume that because he was such a dangerous job. Of course he didn’t like it. See those people that came at that time, as far as I know, did not know mining. They were farmers from villages of Chihuahua. My father was a business person, he worked in an office. They came running from Mexico during the revolution. Therefore, he was not a happy person, working where he was, where he didn’t know anything about it. It was a sad time. Lawyers, doctors, everybody came down in their status and they didn’t know any English. Not a word. My mother didn’t either.

My mother

My father was ahead of his time and so was my mother. [They were] very, very liberal and cultured people that were ahead of their days. I remember my mother saying the story when she came first to Metcalf, she went to the PD Store, the only store of course, and the man behind the counter treated her de tu, estás, que quieres. [Used the familiar words in Spanish instead of the formal] That blew my mother’s mind. That was just not the thing to do to a lady. She didn’t like it. She was not pleased. That’s a true story.

Sure, of course [my father was involved with the labor union]. Strikes and all of this. I don’t remember too much about that but yes. My father said towards education: he was all for it. He always had his eyes on educating his children, absolutely.

I had three brothers and one sister. [Their names are] Alberto and Juan. Juan was the only one that had a middle name so he had two names. My mother gave him her name as a middle name, Chavez. Arnulfo [is next and] he still lives in Clifton with his wife. My sister was Otila. Everybody called her Tillie. We didn’t. We called her Tilla all her life. I was the first one, the oldest."