"My father bought a truck in 1921. He decided that he would take the truck from the little town of Metcalf to California. San Gabriel, that was the place where he passed away. The decision to go was made by my mother and my father. I didn't like it very well [to go] because I was used to Metcalf. We came back after my father passed away. When the people left in the trains from Metcalf, I didn't know nobody at all.

In the 30's my mother decided to stay there in Morenci. Our lives stayed exactly the same. Since my mother was working for the school system we had different kinds of tortillas. She had a job. She wasn't getting as much but she was working. She was getting enough money to get along. My brother and I had jobs so that helped. That was the only job she had.

They used to call it relief. Food and by working she used to get money. She felt fine [about getting relief] because everybody was doing that. All the people in that town used to get assistance. My mother took in the three Lopez children. Their parents had passed away, they were orphans. My mother took them in. The relief program they put out she would get food for me and my sister and food for them. Nobody else told her to take them in. It was from her heart.

I was in the CCC. I was sent to Safford. The camp was in Graham Mountains. My job was building roads, trails. At that time there weren't very many cars. People used to go up there and enjoy the scenery of the Graham Mountains. I was there two hitches. One hitch was for six months. I stayed two.

Being away from home, I missed my mother's cooking. Then after graduating from high school, especially there where there was a depression there in Morenci, nobody was working at all. People had no jobs. They sent me to the CC camps. That was where I met your uncle. We stayed two enlistments. Each enlistment was for six months. I remember that I stayed two. They used to pay us one dollar a day (laughs). Everything was sent home and they let us keep so much of the $30. We used to keep $10 month of the $30 that they give us. I liked it. We had fun. There used to be dances like when they sent us to Safford. There were dances in different places. They would make dances for the people that were under the CCC.

We liked FDR because at that time FDR was the savior of our livelihood (laughs). At that time we had pictures [of FDR] but after a time we just forgot about them.

Living in Morenci we bought groceries at the PD Store which was managed by these people who were Italianos. They gave us pretty good deals there. They would give us credit. They were nice people these Italianos.They have just a book. They would write there whatever we bought. Their name was Berra. They managed the store during the depression. At that time there were tienditas <little stores> like Don Manuel. Don Manuel would make deals like that. We went with the book and he would write there whatever we bought. Madero was there. The other one was el hierbero (the herbalist). During the depression there was this fellow that used to sell items like books. He was an Italiano with a little store there on main street. Just before they throw down the burro alley. The chinitos (Chinese) were part of the town. They lived by Naccarati's; the service station. They used to sell food."

"My wife, I met her when we were in school, junior high. While I was in high school, I never did date; not until I came back from California and start going around there with different girls that I had known while I was in school. I would say that she was a very quiet woman, a very quiet girl, and that's one thing that I liked a girl that I would go around with; be quiet. Since I was a young one. That's how I like it. Her name was Consuelo Polomo. We got married in 1939 in the church; the old church there in Morenci. We got married at the church and then right after the church, we decided that we were gonna spend our honeymoon in Nogales. [We had] just breakfast. No baile. In Nogales there was just a town, we wanted to leave Morenci for a couple of days so we decided to go to Nogales.

I was working in the mines. During the depression everything was about the same, everybody was getting the same. I had a little more money in my pocket. [My wife]never did work. Those days they weren't hiring for the girls. First they hired the men. They didn't hire no women. We still had wood when we got married. Later we changed to gas. The stove was partly wood and partly gas. We had to buy the big tank of gas and every time we ran out of gas, we had to go and order it.

[We had] five kids altogether. Their names [were] Rudy in 1940, Ruben in 1942, Steve in 1946, and Ross and Rosalinda in 1953. They're still alive. My daily life was just I wanted to grow up in around Morenci. I had in mind to be there until I died. Because I had seen how life was outside. I like it [Morenci] because by that time I already had quite a few years working for Phelps Dodge. That was the reason why I picked a mining place. I always thought that a mining town was the right place for me to be.

I spent my time visiting different families, different friends. My wife's family was very kind people with me. I had no trouble with them. I had so much respect. She <wife> made the decisions to buy the furniture and I made the decisions to buy a car. At that time I had quite a few friends. I had a best friend. We had known each other since we were in school. His name was Fermin Arrieta. He was my friend when I was going to high school in Morenci.

I had a few compadres. They baptized mine <children>. I remember in Morenci there was Manuel Oñate. He was my compadre. He baptized one of my boys. I picked him when I was living in San Diego.

I had thoughts all my life that I would like to send them [children] to school. Whatever they picked up in school. Whatever they wanted. And that's what they did, all of them. <I didn't want them to work in the mine> because the mines were for a different kind of people. Like me. I didn't have the education.

When she [wife] was pregnant she would go to the doctor in Morenci. They were born in the company hospital. It was up there in the Morenci Hospital."