"[I went to school] in Morenci. I went first to Fairplay. The frame building, they used to call it. And then they moved me from there. I guess I only went for a couple of weeks there. That was the first grade. Then they moved me to the grade school section in Morenci High School. They had a separate section for the little kids, to the side. There I went to first grade and that was with a Miss Flores. Second grade, I went to that same section, no, I went back to the Fairplay School in second grade. Then third grade, I went to the brick building and fourth grade I went back to the high school, the grade school section of Morenci High School. Then fifth grade I went back to the brick building. Sixth grade, I went to the brick building and then from there I went back to Morenci High School. They had us separated. The high school was on one side and the Junior High was to the other side so we couldn't cross to the high school side. We had to stay in our section. The little ones were down below. [The playground was] up by Fairplay. They had that bridge [to cross the road]. There was a little playground down below and the big playground. We could play on both. I guess they built a new one [when they tore down the old high school]. This one [wasn't covered] it was just a bridge, [open].

My teacher when I first started school, I went with a Miss Candor but I didn't last long there. I guess that was first low, cause we used to go to first low then first high. So they moved me in a couple of weeks, they moved me to first high and that was Miss Flores. Then I went to second grade with Miss Merino, whom I loved, cause she loved me. (laughs) Third grade, I went to Miss Fride. Then fourth grade I went back to Miss Merino, then fifth grade I had Miss Randol. Sixth grade, I had Mr. Cislaughi then seventh we had a whole bunch of teachers. Mr. Cislaughi again, Mr. Anderson, Miss Shuesen. In high school, Mr. Bannenger didn't like Mexicans.

I was smart [that's why I was changed from the first low to the first high]. (laughs) I was smarter than some of the other kids. They moved a few of us from there. We were all mixed [Mexicanos and Americanos]. They had A and B classes. The A classes were mixed, they had some Mexicans in them, but the B classes were all Mexican. That's where I went. They went one year, first low, then the second year they went to first high. [First high was like first grade and first low was like kindergarten.] I didn't get to go too much to that first low. [I] probably [knew my numbers and alphabet] cause I learned from Chelino and Carmen.

I graduated from 12th grade, that's as far as I got. In high school, in the ninth grade we had algebra with Mr. Gurtis, English that was Miss Kettle, Spanish Miss Kettle. We had glee club that was Miss Lutz, that was Mr. Lutz's daughter, he was the superintendent of the high school, of the schools the whole area. In tenth grade we had Economics that was Miss Valentine, then Miss Valentine, I think she quit or she retired cause she was an elderly lady. We had Home Ec, that was Miss Levitt and then we had Science that was Mr. Knudsen. I took Chemistry in my senior year. That was required, two years of Science. Biology, then my senior year I took Chemistry. Spanish, two years with Miss Mosqueto, first and second Spanish. Then I took extra courses with Mr. Bannenger, that was business courses, typing, bookkeeping, and shorthand. Mr. Gurtis was our math teacher, geometry. [My favorite course was] English. I liked to read and I liked to diagram my sentences.

It [the high school] was pretty nice. It had ramps instead of stairways. We'd go up the ramps [inside]. We had study hall and we had different teachers for study hall. [No A and B classes in the high school] we were all mixed. I remember that most of the boys would go to wood shop with Mr. Gurtis I think. They stayed there most of the time. They took the courses that were required [but not the more advanced courses like Chemistry]. There wasn't that many gringos [when I was in school]. In fact, I think there was nine in my class that graduated with me. There was 34 of us [in my class]. I can name all of them. You want me to? Veronica Aguallo, Ramona Aragon, Jugina Beck, Manuel Benavidez, Manuel Bustamante, Emilio Cervantez, Jose Cobo, Manuela Cobo, me, Betty Lee Dixson, Eloisa Estrada, Juan Fierro, Isabel Gonzalez, Betty Kelly, Ricardo Macias, Rachel Maloqui, Charlie Martinez, Teresa Medina, Rueben Montoya, Dick Markham, FrancesNaccarati, Bernice Norris, Petra Onate, Ossi Osborn, Ruth Pena, Kenneth Piper, Adolfo Rodriguez, Abel Sabedra, Jack ?, Richard Velasquez, Tila Villareal, Carmen Zamaripa, Neal Zimmerman. (laughs) I know the ones that are alive and the ones that have passed away. Most of them were [a year older]. There was some that were even older than daddy. Some of them, the ones that worked with daddy, thought that I was older than daddy because they were older than him.

They [my parents] just wanted for us to go and learn but they didn't push us or anything. We had to go to school. They knew that we had to go to school. No, [I didn't go to any other kind of school after I graduated]. Now I do [wish I had gone], now that I'm old. At least go to Junior college to be a teacher for small children but no way. I taught Catechism, but in Spanish. I taught the little kids."