"I got married in '29. I was just getting my household going when Morenci stopped in '32. It was just my wife and me. In '32 we had a family, a girl but in forty days she died. She got pneumonia and died. So all of the Depression, my wife and I spent alone. My wife was a native of Metcalf. Her mother also was a native of Metcalf. Rodolfo [Villarreal} was a brother of my wife. He was born in Metcalf. He had a brother that they used to call Lula. He died. There was Rodolfo, there was Lula, and there was Steve.

My wife Marina and me.

(Courtesy of Gomez Family)

I did not know my wife. I was a strange person in that way because I was young and in school, I heard my friends, "Oh, I got a girlfriend!" They would last two or three months and then, "You know what? My girlfriend kicked me out!" It did not matter. In a few days, "I got another girlfriend." I heard from all my friends about girlfriends. I was very different. I never had an interest. I had friends in school but for me to be interested in girlfriends like the others, there was nothing like that for me. My pleasure was to go to the hills. I enjoyed walking very much. But that of the women, no; they did not get my attention.

My wife was from Metcalf. Her mother was from Metcalf. I did not know her, in spite of the fact that at one time she was coming to high school in Morenci. There were very few high schoolers in Metcalf so they brought them to Morenci. She was one of them. They brought them every day. I did not know her then.

One day I went to a dance. There were two clubs in those days. Since before there was no place to go because there were no cars, there were two or three dances a month. The dances were very elegant, very beautiful dances. Some belonged to one club and others to the other. So each one made a dance each month. We formed a club called La Estrella (The Star) and that club was made up of all young people. There was a club called Obrero (Worker) that was mixed young people and married people. A dance did not cost very much. Like for us in the Club Estrella, it cost us $2 each for a dance. We got all perfumed, all of us were young, and we went to the dance with fresh haircuts and dressed in suits. All the people did not earn very much money; everybody was poor. But they all liked to dress well and present themselves at every occasion in dresses and suit coats with a tie. Not like today when they go to dances in Levis; and the Levis are dirty and wrinkled. They are showing off. (laughs) I see them and I laugh at them. That would never have happened in my time. They would have fought with them and thrown them out.

This time my wife came from Metcalf. They came one Saturday to visit Morenci. They came on foot five or six miles over the hills from Metcalf to Morenci. They came to visit some people that had moved from Metcalf to Morenci. They came that morning. That day we of La Estrella had a dance. When we had a dance, we sent invitations to all the families from Morenci. So the whole family received the invitation for the dance. When people came to visit friends in Morenci, they also received the invitation. So it was that my wife and her mother came to visit those people that Saturday. They came very early in the morning before the sun was out. They got there and stayed the whole day. They were to return on Sunday. That night they went to the dance with the other people. In the dance, I had no interest in anyone. I danced. I knew all the girls but I was not promised to one of them.

At that time the girls did not go alone with their boyfriends to the dances. They could only hope! They had to go with the mother. The mother took them and the father. No, it is not like today where they let them go alone. No, not at that time, no. They would go and the fathers would go only to the door and there they would stay outside the hall. The girls would go in and there was a committee [to greet them]. They formed a committee the week before at a meeting of those making the dance. They would name a committee of six for that day. Those were in charge for when the family arrived. Each family that arrived, they [committee members] were at the door all perfumed, well dressed in a suit with a vest and a tie. They would get the women and the girls by the arm and take them to their seats. The man would stay outside. They did not allow a man inside, not even in the middle of the hall. So there were all women around the hall, seated, the mothers and the daughters. The men were outside. When the music started, all the men would come in and invite the women to dance.

I learned when I used to go to the houses to little dances that people made. They called them charassas. That is where I learned to dance. Then there at the hall, one invited a girl and said, "¿Me regala usted esta piesa? (May I have this dance?)" She would say, "Me siento mucho, pero ya la tengo regalada. Pero venga la otra piesa, la otra piesa se la regalo. (I am very sorry but I have already promised this dance to another. But when the next one comes, I will dance with you.)" I would go from there to another and ask her to dance until I found one who had not yet been invited to dance. She would stand up and dance with me.

That time, it was about 10:30 at night. The dance was full, and as I told you, they would not let a man in to stand in the middle. If you went in, you would see all women all around and in the middle no one. All the men were outside. When the music started, everybody came in and I saw her sitting with her mother. She was seventeen years old. As soon as I saw her there, I went straight [to her]. I did not know her. I had never seen her before. I went and invited her to dance. "¿Me regala esta piesa? (May I have this dance?)" She stood up to dance with me. How they say, there is love at first sight, see. When she stood up and we began to dance, from that moment, something hit me. I said, "This is the one." I had never had that feeling. We danced that number then I went to dance with her again another number. Then we started to talk and we became a couple that night. (laughs)

I already had a car. I would go to Metcalf in my car alone. I would see her there. We were engaged for four years. Her mother did not like me. There was a family that were very good friends, the Loyas. They were all girls, daughters of Trinidad Loya. I used to go often to Trinidad Loya's house. The girls would always say, "Pete, give us a ride in the car." I would take them out and give them a ride. So we lasted four years as a couple. At the end of four years, I was going to work when . . .well, I cannot remember how it was that she let me know to meet her at 11:00 in the morning in Metcalf. I did not go to work; instead I got dressed in my dress up clothes. At 11:00 sharp I arrived in Metcalf and I was going through the center.

I have a picture there that I could show you where I met her. She was on foot. She had an aunt, a half sister of her mother by the name of Valentina who lived near her. She loved my wife very much. My wife paid her a lot of attention. That morning, her mother went to work at a house and she went [to her aunt] and said, "Tía, ya me voy a ir. (Aunt, I am leaving.)" "A donde te vas a ir? (Where are you going?)" "Ya le mande hablar a Pedro, me voy ir con el y me voy a casar con el ahora. (I have already sent for Pedo and I am going with him and we are getting married today.)" When I encountered her, she was on foot on the street of Metcalf. As soon as I arrived, I turned the car around and she got in. We did not say even half a word. She got on and we left for Lordsburg.

We arrived in Lordsburg and there, there were some compadres that my mother and father had. Don Monico Reynon, he was a barber and the lady was named Lupita or something. Anyway, we arrived there with them and I told them what we were there for. I wanted them to go with us to get a license so we could get married. So went to the courthouse and got the license and right there we went to the judge and the same day we were married by the judge by law. Then we went to the house and from there we went to Douglas. We spent a week going from Douglas to Tucson, Phoenix and Superior before going back to Morenci.

When we came back to Morenci, we went to my [parent's] house. Later, we rented a house and moved. We did not have furniture; we did not have anything. The only thing we had was a bureau I had in my house where I put my clothes, it had a mirror, and my bed. That is all we had. And some chairs. Then we got a table and more chairs. That is how we started. That is how we met. She was [Marina] Lopez.

When her mother [Marina's] got married, she had a daughter [that] died. It was like what happened to me. From there she had my wife and six months later her father, his name was Luciano Lopez, he was from Mexico, got injured in the mine. He got a blow and he fell into a puddle of water in a faint. Since he fell face down, he drowned in the water. He was killed. So it was that she [Marina] at six months [was an orphan]. The mother moved to her parents, Marina's grandparents. So Marina was raised by her grandparents.

In a short time, maybe three years later, [her mother] met a man from Monterrey, Mexico. She married him and there is where she had the family Villarreal. She married and went to live in Coronado up on the hill. Coronado belonged to the company also. There were houses there. That is where they went to live. Marina stayed with her grandparents so it was the grandparents that raised her. Then Don Luis, the grandfather, was a shoe repairman; he did not work [at the mine]. At that time the people used to have soles put on their shoes. A shoe repairman made a good life. She was small and he would get her and go to Coronado up on the hill to visit the mother. They would go on foot. On the road, he would put her on his shoulders and go up the paths in the hills to visit her mother, so she could see her. They would stay all day then in the afternoon, they would return to Metcalf. Since there were no cars, everybody walked. There were no roads; the only roads were for horses. So her grandfather, Don Luis would take her.

Velia was born in 1935 [to my wife and me) and she was the only one [child] that survived. [She is] the only child but she had four children. She has three sons and one daughter. They all have a college education. I gave all of them advice that there was nothing like an education. Since I did not get an education, I never had the opportunity because of poverty and all, I felt that if I had children they should get an education. Ramiro graduated from the University of Arizona. The other one, Reynaldo went to Tempe, ASU. Ronaldo, Ronnie, that one also went to college in Phoenix. Becky studied accounting and went four years to college. For me there is nothing like education. All four are doing well so I am very happy.

But not one of them speaks Spanish. It is not because we did not teach them. We did not urge them. Since they were little they spoke English. The first one spoke to the second in English. As they grew that is how it was. In the house, all of us spoke Spanish, Velia and Simon, but not them [the children]. They got together and spoke only English. That is how they became educated and never learned Spanish. There have been times when the family gets together and I tell them that the four do not speak Spanish and they already are older. There are some that say to me, "What a shame they do not speak Spanish." I say to them, "In one way, I can say that it is not a shame, but in another way, we here do not speak Spanish either. To speak as we do, no, better that they speak only English and that they speak it correctly, that they distinguish themselves with their education because we are in the United States."

We [Mexican Americans] do not speak Spanish. We speak part in Spanish and part in English. When we are conversing, we speak partly Spanish and partly English. When we forget Spanish, we put in words in English. Then we put in words in Spanish again and there we go. There are words in English that we speak correctly then we want to translate into English and when we translate them, we do not speak either English or Spanish. I will give you an example. Look, we have a word. We have been talking in English about automobiles and trucks. We say "truck," a correct word. Then we translate it into Spanish and it is no longer "truck." It is "troca." There is no such word in Spanish that is "troca." So it is that we no longer speak either Spanish or English. (laughs) There are many words like that. So it is that we do not use [either language]. Someone comes from Mexico and the Spanish they speak is beautiful. I can speak with someone from Mexico because I studied Spanish until third grade. I am more comfortable in Spanish. I also speak English but I am not as advanced because I only went to sixth grade."

Marina and me.