"I was born in Morenci, Arizona in 1922. It was October the 7th. I lived in Morenci until 1949. I got married with a Clifton boy and moved to Clifton. My mother was Carlotta Limón Martinez and my father, Isidro Martinez. They were both from Jalisco, Mexico but they met in Morenci. They didn't know each; they met in Morenci. My mother was fourteen. I don't know the date [they came to Morenci]. I know they got married when my mother was fourteen.

My father worked for Phelps Dodge underground mine for a while and he got sick with that miner's consumption. Then he made his living [by] getting a lot of firewood and cut it up and he would sell it. He would also work in the ranches. He would bring us a lot of fruit and vegetables so we never went hungry. [He got the fruit and vegetables] from the little ranches that were close by. I can't remember the names. My padrino used to have a ranch over there. Eagle Creek!

My mother was a housewife. She would tend for her six children. She would cook and do all those things. She had six children. My brother, Jim [Santiago], I was next in line, and then there was Chelo [Isidro] and Neto [Ernesto] and Sam [Samuel] and Sara. Sara was our baby. My father died during the Depression. Then my mother had to work. She would work making dresses. The government would have a person there and they would make the dresses to give to the people. She also would clean the school cafeteria so they would give us lunches at school. We were all very poor. It was a government project but I don't know what it was.

We were very poor but everybody was poor (laughs) so we didn't feel sad about being poor, we had a lot of fun. We didn't have no radios or TV's or even electricity; we didn't have for a long time. I remember we used to have a lot of games. We played games, [like] kick the bucket, hide and seek, and all those things. We would have a lot of fun with our neighbors.

My grandma was a real good storyteller; she would tell us a lot of stories. All the kids together and she would tell us a lot of stories. She would make real good red chili with chicken or rabbit. (laughs) Oh, the best rice! She would make such good rice. We would all gather down at her house, under the giant fig trees that she had. [She was a tall woman] with a strong voice, almost like a man's, a very strong lady. And work! She would make tortillas, corn tortillas and then put them in those lard cans and she would send us out to sell the tortillas all over town. We even went way over there, they called it la Arizona, way over there to A Hill with cans of tortillas. (laughs) [We were] real young and [it was] during the Depression."