Nati Seventeen Years Old

"The Royal was just a hall, the seating and then the screen. It had an upstairs and that was a balcony. [The wooden chairs] they folded. They were all a big row, it had a separate seating. No, [it wasn't segregated] everybody went. The Morenci Club was [segregated]. It was there in the same building but it was in another section. You couldn't go in there [if you were Mexican]. It never bothered us, we just went to the movies. My favorite kind of movie was Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, the dancing and the singing. (laughs)

Feeber McGee and Molly and Jack and Mary [were my favorite radio programs]. Jack Benny and Mary Livingston, they were. I liked the comedies. I think [it was] '36 or '37. It went on for years. I liked all kinds of music but I think it was the swing [that was my favorite]. We danced by ourselves at home [with my sisters] and with Chelado. He started taking us to the dance to the Spanish American [Hall]. We'd go to dances. That was the Imperio. They changed it to the Spanish American [Hall]. It was a theater in the 1920's. As you go in was where they sold the tickets. They used to call it the Imperio, the Empire. We went to the movies there too but that was the silent movies. My dad would take us. That was when we lived in our gray house, down below by the tunnel. [Now I listen to music] mostly what comes out of the TV. I don't turn on the radio no more. I don't even know where our radios are.

Not that I know of [did Mexicanos date Americanos]. That was after the war. Besides going to the movies, we'd get together with my closest friends and my cousins. We'd go walking. We walked all around Morenci. We discovered all the tunnels that we could go through. Just walk all over Morenci. [The tunnels were open] because they had to cross from one neighborhood to another. There was another one down below the old hospital, by the Longfellow Inn. We used to cross that one. It went to where the open pit was, where they built the open pit. It went to Longfellow. It went straight.

Another time when we were already teenagers, it was at night. We used to go walking. They were having some sort of reunion at the church at the basement and they all wanted to know what was going on. So we couldn't go by the window so we went through this big pipe and we all crawled through the pipe. I was the one that got hurt, my shin. I hit it right there and blood was coming out. I had to go see the doctor and then I don't know what happened cause the doctor didn't let me go to school for a month. It must have got infected. He was checking my blood, testing. One time my mother sent Josie with me and he said, "Let's draw some blood from your little sister." And then she [said], "¡Aye, me quiere matar, me quiere matar!" (Ay, he wants to kill me, he wants to kill me!) She ran all the way home. (laughs) Yeah, I missed school for a month. I had a big hole, see right there, the scar. I think it got the bone.

Then one time there was this bridge that crossed the road from the PD Store to go to the other side of the General Building. Where the Employment Office was. It was high. There was some garages down below. Then she said, "Vamos a brincar." (Let's jump.) "Vamos a brincar. Ya saben lo que es la que no brinca." (You know what the person is who doesn't jump.) All of them jumped. I wasn't going to, but then I said, "I don't want to be whatever she said." Nothing happened, thank God. It was high! [It was] from the bridge to the garage roof. [Josie had no fear but she got] everybody else in trouble. She was younger than Pepita. She was younger than me. She was younger than Jessie. She and Lina were the youngest. Lina was a tattle tale. She'd go tell my grandma and then we all got after her, "Vas y lambies. Ya sabes lo que te vamos hacer." (You go and tell. You know what we'll do to you.) But she'd still go and tell. We got into a lot trouble but it was just mischief, you know, innocent. We weren't what they call teenagers now. We went all over town and nobody bothered us.

We went to la tardeada. Anybody could go. We'd go with Chelado. We didn't go to dances, not late at night. [They were afternoon dances] from 3 to 9, I think. Then later we did go at night after Daddy and I got married. (laughs) I don't know who sponsored them. El Mocho ese tocaba (El Mocho used to play) y el Chapo Oñate. [They played] jitterbug and all kinds, Mexican."