Eric Torres
12/14/2011
Oral History Paper
My grandfather’s name is Ismael Quintana Torres. He is a very good subject for my
research because he knows exactly what the Mexican culture is all about. He obviously knows
Mexican history because he grew up in a state called Chuahua, Mexico. He was born in 1933 and
is 78 years old. He was born to his parents Jose Torres and Elarlia Quintana. Growing up, he was
a really good, well-mannered, and well respected individual. His friends and his family loved
him because he did everything in his power to make himself a better person. Ismael was born in
Chuahua, Mexico but he grew up in Juarez with is another state in Mexico. His family decided to
move because as my grandpa said “it was less violent, and calmer than Juarez.” He moved to
Juarez when he was 10 years old. His parents decided to move to the United States from Juarez
along with his brothers and sisters because they wanted a better life for their kids. They thought
that you would have a much better life as well as a great future with limitless opportunities by
moving to the U.S. His father Jose was a farmer who picked lettuce and cotton in the fields and
his mother was a stay at home mom whose only job was to cook and clean for the family. He
was poor growing up that is why his father worked sun up to sun down in the fields so he can
have money to support his family.
As far as his childhood, my grandpa loved to hang out with all his friends. He also loved
to attend school so he could be well educated. He loved to play baseball and softball with all his
buddies and loved going to the park and exercising on the nice sunny days. Playing and watching
sports was a huge thing with all his friends and family. Some hobbies include riding bikes,
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hanging out with all his friends and being with family members as well. It was important that he
stays fit with all of his neighborhood buddies as well as listening to football and baseball games
on the radio with his family. One of his fondest memories as a young boy was going to the store
with his mom and dad, going grocery shopping. Another one of his memories was doing all of
his schoolwork and his classwork in the night time. If ever had any problems than he would ask
his mom and dad to help him out and would then be there to solve his problems. My grandpa’s
grandparents’ names were Dolores and Jose and they were both born and raised in Mexico along
with some of his other family members. Both of his grandparents were born and raised in
Chuahua, Mexico. They really struggled with their lives growing up because they did not make a
lot of money to support their family and Jose was a field worker who had a lot of struggles
growing up and raising the family. My grandpa’s teenage years were pretty good for the most
part. He enjoyed the simple things in life. He loved to play baseball, then he would come home
for supper and then he would go play baseball again at night. My grandpa’s family life was great.
His family would visit each other and his grandma would cook for the whole family. Everybody
would sit down and enjoy a nice, warm meal together. During his mid 20’s my grandfather
Ismael would go to the farm and work from sun up to sun down every single day. He worked
anywhere between a 12 hour to 15 hour shift all in one day picking tomatoes, chili peppers,
cotton, lettuce on some man’s farm over by a huge factory plant.
As you can probably tell growing up in the local fields and becoming a field worker is a
very hard life. Not only do you work your butt off, but pay is not that great. Back then, you
would make way less than minimum wage in the U.S. My grandpa made about $6 per hour and
that was not nearly enough to support himself and his family. The main responsibilities for his
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grandma were to cook, clean and take care of the kids. Meanwhile all his grandfather did was
work all day and night sometimes even work two jobs and be the provider and the protector for
the family. My grandpa had one brother and two sisters. His brother was Humberto and his
sisters were Edelia and Elbita, four kids all together. Only two of his siblings are still alive and
both of them live in San Diego, California. My grandpa has four kids: Steven, Martha, Mary and
Fernando Torres. My tia Martha is the oldest one and my dad Fernando is second oldest,
meanwhile my aunt Mary is third oldest and then my uncle Steve is the youngest of all the four
children. My grandpa was married in 1957 in New Mexico and that was one of the major
highlights in his life because he married a great women and her name was Alicia. His marriage
was very good. He got married to a nice woman who was a very good mother to their kids. One
of his biggest accomplishments besides getting married was moving to the United States. During
the 1950’s, my grandfather moved to the U.S because he wanted a better life not only for himself
but for his family as well. In Mexico, there is an awful lot of poverty as well as poor people
everywhere. The sanitation level and the hygiene is not that well over there. The cleanliness in
Mexico compared to the U.S is a major difference and he figured he would move since there are
limitless opportunities in America. According to my grandfather, he works better in groups than
by himself because it is much easier to talk to people when you are in groups whereas being by
yourself and not only that but your work will get done in a much quicker pace if you work in
teams. For example: When my grandpa used to work in the fields, it was much easier to pick
cotton, corn, etc. when you’re working together. If you are working by yourself then you might
not get the job done.
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Some of the strengths that he has include the following: playing sports, he loved to go out
to the movies with all his friends, also he was a very friendly person. Some weaknesses that he
has include: learning how to speak better English, and also having a better education. One
difficult obstacle in which my grandpa overcame was moving to the United States because it was
very hard on the family, moving to another country was definitely hard work by itself but felt
like it was in the family’s best interest to move forward and another obstacle was receiving a U.S
citizenship. Finally getting that citizenship was one of the best experiences that he could ever
have because now he can legally vote for the president as well as the different laws and
propositions. My grandpa’s greatest success is having a family and getting married. Growing up
those were two of his main priorities in his life and now that that he has achieved both of those
things he now feels like his life is complete and therefore is a happy man.
Working in the fields in both Mexico and the United States was very challenging because
he would work many long and countless hours. A lot of times, he would work for the entire day
and put his blood, sweat and tears into doing what he did best, and that was picking cotton, chili
peppers, tomatoes, etc. He was a supervisor in a field that was located by a factory plant. He
would manage his time out there on the fields by telling people what to do, he would give them
directions on what to do next because he was one of the lead men in charge. There was lot of
stress because if anything were to happen then all of the blame would be put on you and people
were always looking up to you as a leader, that was one of the positive things that he loved about
being a farmer. My grandpa worked better under pressure because it seemed like you learned
more about yourself as well as your job. Some of the downsides to being a farmer include that
you have no choice but to learn how to multitask and sometimes you would see people do 3-4
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things at one time, which is why farming was a very difficult job to do. If he could change his
job, then he would definitely consider it because he did not get to spend quality time with his
family and that was a regret because his wife would get frustrated and his kids felt depressed a
lot because their father was not there when they needed him the most and also he would have
changed his job if he could for the better pay. His only two regrets that he has in life is not
getting to spend a lot of time with his family and working too much.
His family life NOW is going great because he finally has his citizenship and is alive and
healthy. For breakfast he love to eat bacon & eggs, for lunch he would eat tamales, and usually
for dinner he would eat beans & rice, sometimes even pizza. He was alive during that one
important historical event and that was when John F. Kennedy was shot and killed also some of
the wars like Vietnam and Korean War. He never thought of going to college because his family
could not afford it, and back then all they cared about was working and making that money, “No
money = no honey” that is how my grandpa sees it.
My grandpa discusses Cesar Chavez and how much of a great leader this man was. His
main goal was to help out his family as well as the field workers and my grandpa felt like they
deserve much better pay then what they were getting at the time. Chavez did involve himself
with the United Field Workers and was an inspiration to many. He was a good man who cared
for his fellow workers. My grandpa considers Cesar Chavez as a role model with a lot of goals,
dreams, and ambitions. My grandpa talked about immigration laws because until 10 years ago he
got his U.S citizenship. He married his wife Alicia in the 50’s, and then he received his green
card, and later on became a U.S citizen. The last topic history that my grandpa discussed was
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growing up in Mexico. He thought it was a good country & there was not that much work
available for the Mexican citizens. He loved the food and sports in Mexico and to this day still
visits his family in Mexico. Dia De Los Muertos was a holiday that was celebrated all over
Mexico and in certain places in the United States and it was to honor dead loved ones. My
grandpa remembers people would dress up and pray for their families/friends and visit them in
the cemetery and the people would dress up in costumes, than would come home to a nice get
together with the family.
What I learned from my grandpa that has been of value to me as a Californian is that how
he feels like California is the best state in the world to live in. I also am very grateful to have
grown up in the U.S whereas my grandpa grew up in Mexico where he experienced nothing but
hard work. His experiences have made me a better person. I know that I won’t ever go through
the things that he has gone through in his life. My grandpa Ismael is by far one of the hardest
working individuals that I have ever met and I’m thankful to call him my grandpa. He has taught
me that hard work always pays off in the end.