Interviewee: Placido Garcia

Interviewers: Brissa Gomez and Samantha Solano

May 9, 2024

Brissa Gomez: Hello, we are Brissa Gomez and Samantha Solano, we are here with Plácido García at St. Helena High School and we are doing an oral history for the St. Helena Historical Society. At this moment it is 4:08 in the afternoon and it is May ninth and we are going to begin our interview. First we would like to know where you grew up and what that experience was like?

Placido Garcia: Originally I am from Mexico. Chihuahua, Mexico. I was born in 1941, on July fourth, 1941 in Chihuahua, Mexico.

It was in Parral, Chihuahua. Parral, Chihuahua is a mining area, pure mines and at that time my father worked in the mine and I went to school. My mother's name was Dolores Hernandez and in those days it was when the woman would be a housewife. Now she is at home and at work, everything. Now the woman works anyway.

BG: Very good and we wanted to know, what were your relationships with your family like when you first came here to the United States?

PG: Well with my immediate family, when I came here I was already married and I already had a son in Mexico. I came and I based my life off the economic situation that was a little more advantageous here than there back then. So, I pushed myself into the work and for the pay, as we all come as immigrants. Possibly your parents may have not come the same way or your grandparents.

Samantha Solano: Yes.

PG: Well, we came looking for a better life and as always looking for what we all call the American dream.

BG: And how often did you communicate with your family?

PG: Well, quite a bit.

BG: Yes?

PG: I went quite a bit at the beginning.

I would go to spend six months in Mexico, then six months I stayed here until the harvest. This is when people earned enough money for six months and then I would go to Mexico and stay in Mexico for six months. I would go and return. But then it became more difficult because more immigrants started, well, we started coming. At that time I am going to tell you that it was not something like now. People didn't want to come here and whoever came, came because it was simple, like me. Forced by the situation.

But many colleagues told me, “Don't go, what are you going to do there?” But I came anyway, but as I said, I was going to Mexico for six months, six months here. And what would happen, when more people arrived where I would arrive, at a company that was the Christian Brothers vineyards.

I remember that at first I came and went for six months, I had a job. I went away the other years and had a job. But over time, more people began arriving and what happened was that later I would come and come again to look for work, and they told me “Plácido, you have to wait a week to two weeks because right now there is no work”.

Then I understood that the place where I liked to work, I already worked there all the time.

I saw that it was more difficult to go back and forth to get the job again.

But, well I said, I better go a little more. Relaxed and for less time, then I started to remember those times. Sometimes a year I didn't go completely because there was a lot of work and I felt the responsibility that there was work and it was leaving me. They were going to grab someone else. When I came I wasn't going to have a job. Those were the changes that occurred.

BG: Would you say that you tried to assimilate into the culture of the valley or did you try to highlight or represent your own culture when you came?

PG: Well, both things.

BG: Both?

PG: Both. When I arrived here, I tried to maintain my principles and instill some things in those who didn't know, I explained and told them. I tried to guide them a little, those who were newer because they arrived as I arrived. Completely ignorant of this culture, not knowing, not speaking the language, not knowing the system, nothing. So for me it was very difficult without a car, without anything. So at that time, I would look at the others who we call country men who would come from Mexico. And I looked at them the same way I arrived, so I tried to guide them as well. Help them.

But at the same time I had to take note of the culture of where I was living. I couldn't live in isolation without knowing the American culture.

I had to hang out with the men and women who are Americans. Be with them, so that they saw me as part of them because I'm going to tell you one thing, there was a lot of discrimination, yes. And there still is, but not as much anymore, but there is. But the detail was that, let's say, part of what still causes the very bad discrimination is that we don't communicate, we don't know each other. So there it begins when you meet your neighbor, and become friends, but until we do, we are just keeping our eyes peeled. [laughter]

BG: Very good, can you tell us about your first experience here in the valley or what you remember from that experience?

PG: Well, first of all, as I would say for me, I didn't have any bad experiences. When I had bad experiences, it was before arriving in the valley. Before I arrived here as an immigrant, an immigrant worker, I worked throughout Northern California. The whole Sacramento Valley, Marysville, Wheatland, Turlock, Yuba City, Woodland, Davis, all those areas in different types of agriculture. Pears, grains, tomatoes, melons, whatever there was, we had to work wherever they put us and in my experience it was that they would [indiscernible ], there was still more discrimination upon ourselves.

Those who were butlers at that time and spoke English confused themselves with the boss very well. And one didn't know anything and I remember that they abused us.

Abused us in the way they would treat you and they took hours or even days from our work and they wouldn’t pay you and one would want to complain and well, no. If they don't pay me, they don't pay me, if I make the report they will deport me to Mexico. That was their threat but, as I was telling you and many people would tell you, “What are you doing here, go to Mexico, ''-- many people. It's already ended but not one hundred percent, but it's ending anyway because we're getting to know each other better.

We are getting more involved with each other as students are improving within this culture. Whether they were born here or not born here it’s the same. They mix, they mix because it is the way that one can communicate more and know more about one's neighbor and the neighbor can know more about oneself. And that is what opens the doors for a better, friendly relationship.

BG: Well, we now understand that there was discrimination here... or around here

But we wanted to know the conditions of the workers or like their living situation, what they would eat and their health while working?

PG: Oh yes, see that is a big thing. [laughs] I'm going to tell you why, because actually when I arrived here, especially in farming, in the countryside. In the countryside there was usually no protection compared to what there is now. Before there was nothing. Now it has improved one hundred percent but at that time there was not any. One sprayed, they sprayed strong chemicals and they were not declaring them as strong, because neither those who sold it nor those who produced it knew. And if they knew better, they kept quiet and they ordered one to spray, without protection, when they knew that they would harm oneself. And thank God that I didn't get sick, but many did. I knew many people that fell ill that way.

Well, I got involved with Chavez's union.

At that time I was working with the union and I learned a lot from Cesar because he talked to us about the need for protection for the workers. Things that we were unaware of and how we should protect ourselves, what we should do and to put pressure on the ranchers and we began to unify. We became more unified with him and began to work organizing the farm workers and from there.

For me it was a school because I learned a lot and I realized that I had rights.

Those that were given to one because one considers because we are in a land that is not ours, a country in which we do not speak a language, nor do we know anything. We felt like intruders like we didn't belong on this land and we couldn't claim a single right but, no. Cesar opened our eyes and taught us that we have to claim our rights no matter where we are. We have to claim them as rights as human beings, not so much as workers, but as human beings who are all equal. So from there we learned a lot. I learned a lot and many colleagues with Cesar began to boycott the companies. Attacking the companies that manufacture pesticides so that they would give more protection and they would pay. There were many women who worked in the field as always, right?

And they were expecting a baby and the babies were born deformed because of the use of pesticides where they worked. There were women who died too, over from Fresno. They died due to pesticides. And there are people that I knew who were here but they would get sicker and sicker, then they went to Mexico.

They didn't come back. Later I learned that they had died, because of his fellow countrymen. “No, well he died over there in Mexico but he went there sick from here.” Who paid for him? But as I tell you, yes, there was no protection for the field worker at that time, zero. Now there is. After the union, the pressure increased and the companies began to move. Now there are training programs for workers.

There are classes where they send you to prepare on how to protect yourself and how to protect your colleagues and O.S.H.A, which is the organization that takes care of the protection of workers here in the state. Those go and like once a year possibly, right now I don't know if they are authorizing or if they are still alive. Once a year they give you information about the records of the meetings and what they talked about and they show you the equipment that is used to protect. Now it is more careful, before no, now yes. I think there is a lot of protection, just that sometimes some of us don't use it too. Many people are a little hard-headed and they are given the tools and we don't even use them to protect ourselves.

BG: Very good and we also wanted to know what made you decide to stay in Calistoga compared to coming to St. Helena or Napa?

PG: Well no, I arrived in Calistoga directly. When I came here to this country I landed in Calistoga at the Christian Brothers company that has since disappeared, which was where the Culinary Institute of America is. That castle was the Christian Brothers winery. I worked for that company but in the fields. And I remember that I arrived here to pick grapes. First time there was a place where I was treated more or less like a human being.

In total, I stayed there and worked for almost ten years with that company.

Then I moved and went to work for another company but not in the field because I had an illness that I got and I couldn't. I couldn't walk. So after that illness the doctor told me “you know it's better to stop working in the fields for a while because of humidity: this is when it rains and you are in the water. It's not going to be good for you. And I stopped working for about three years, almost four years in the field and I was working in other jobs. But as I say, I was there for quite a while, and I stayed in Calistoga because that's where I landed. There I found that they would give me a house, and they would give us housing, food and everything for a certain amount.

At that time it was about $1.25 for a day. Would you look at that! Three meals and a room. [laughs]

BG: Do you see any big changes in St. Helena and Calistoga since then or not?

PG: Well, when I arrived in Calistoga, it had approximately [1,200] people living there. Now it has around 6,000 people living here, it’s small though. I don’t know how much St. Helena has, do you know?

BG: They are around the same.

PG: Really?

SS: A little more.

PG: Yes, a bit more I think. Well, there are about 6,000 there. When I arrived, there were 1,200 people living there. You know how many Mexican families lived there? But back in the time of the revolution it was where the parents were here and had their children here. Their children were born here. Just three families, in all of Calistoga. That spoke Spanish [laughs]. The parents and children and many of them did not speak Spanish yet, they spoke English. But at that time I remember Calistoga.

St. Helena because I can't say, I can't even say how many people there were, I can't even say more or less how many families there were. But when I came to meet families from here in St. Helena there were more, here, there were. Well, it was much later, but there were families from here, dedicated for years here as well, but there were already more families here in St. Helena than in Calistoga. Calistoga was there, it was the tail of the county [laughter].

BG: If you ever had to come to St. Helena while you lived in Calistoga, what was it for?

PG: Well, when my family came, we lived in St. Helena with my family.

I took my wife, my three daughters and my son and we lived here by Charter Oak. In a little house, we lived in a little room. No, this is very big [laughter] but it was small, I had to buy those little beds, bunk beds. So that in a little room, that was almost like a closet, we could put them there. My daughters slept there. My son slept in the living room, in a small room on a sofa, and later in those little rooms. Well, for a while we were there, but you know what, very happy. Because we were finally together, do you know after how many years?

BG: No.

PG: You don’t know do you?

SS: No.

PG: Almost fifteen years. Living separated.

SS: Without seeing them?

PG: Without seeing them, it's not like now, everyone has a phone. I can be talking to family from everywhere. You get on WhatsApp and then you start talking on the phone with your children, or with your wife. At that time, what phone?

We didn't even have a telephone in the house, and letters we did but the letters took a week to arrive.

And in an emergency, when it arrived for an emergency and one would go, one was already going to go put a little dirt on the dead, or one couldn't even see them anymore. But as I say, well, we were tight but very happy. Very happy that we were finally together. I saw my children growing up because before I only saw them being born and I missed watching them grow up because when I returned they were already a year, or a year and a half, two years old already. And they were there, at that time when I only went for a short time, I was there for almost a month and I came and I never saw them again. They went to school, thanks to my wife, she took care of all the work of educating my children.

I didn't educate them, it’s better to say that she was the one who did all the work. But, like I told you, that was when we came to live here in St. Helena and when they went to school. At that time it was around ‘75 already.

There was still no bilingual program in the school throughout the state because then, you had to speak English or bring an interpreter to the DMV because there were no interpreters there.

Later, interpreters were more common and then when it was made law, with affirmative action and with the schools. They attracted a lot of people who were Hispanic and who spoke English and Spanish. And then as it is right now, you see that right now at the DMV almost everyone speaks Spanish and is American or Latino. Likewise, they are in the doctor's offices or in the hospital wherever they speak Spanish. That 's it. [laughs]

BG & SS: Yeah.

BG: We wanted to know, how was your life when you had to live in the fields and after you bought a house?

PG: Well, I continued working in the fields. Well, I got a job in Napa and tried to go to school for a year. Then, I got a job at Kaiser Steel, a pipe company, with the pine mill. You know Napa right?

BG: Yes.

PG: Do you know where the DMV is?

BG: Yes.

PG: At the time, we had to be down there, it was a very large foundation, and they were building some tunnels because they were going to take the water supply over there to Alaska. They used to hire a lot of people to work at the time. I worked there for eight months after leaving the fields, and then the job ended.

After that, I got a job in a food program distributing meals to farm workers.

I was always involved during that time working in that program. The program ended, and then I had to look for another place where… I went back to the fields again for harvesting. Another thing is that at those times in St. Helena, well Napa County, grapes weren’t as big as they are now.

In Calistoga, there wasn’t even one winery, here we had Christian Brothers, Behringer, Martini, Cru, now there are lots of wineries.

But at the time, what mattered the most was not just grapes but plums, walnuts, and pears as well. You see Yountville, it used to be pure pear orchards, now it is only grapes. But as I said, then it wasn’t just about picking grapes, there were many other fruits and plenty of work because people came here. Here, following and in front of Charter Oak, there is a bodega for wine now. Right where the machines are to wash wash, at that side there is a plum dehydrator that's very big. A lot of people work there and at that time it looked like a winery, right? But there were a lot of people who worked there and they would take the plums to dehydrate and put them into the ovens. Though, there was a lot of work, as I was telling you it wasn’t just grapes at the time. Right now the grape is what there is… What other thing?

BG: We learned that you worked in Chateau Montelena.

PG: Mhm.

BG: We just wanted to know, how did you come to your position in the wine industry after working in the vineyards?

PG: Yes, well as I was saying, after that, once I brought my family here, I didn’t work in the fields as much. When the field work ended, I was involved in a food program distributing meals in the fields.

Then I heard about a job opportunity. Mike Grgich who passed away, may he rest in peace.

He was a winemaker there and he was looking for contractors. Since I had experience with tractors, I went to apply for the job and they hired me. That was back in ‘74, I only retired this year after working there for fifty years at Montelena.

BG: Congratulations.

PG: No, and thank you. I also want to give my thanks to the Montelena company because thanks to them, I was able to buy a house and make sure that my children were able to go to school wherever they wanted and were capable of doing so.

I got a much better job there as well, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s all about hard work [laughs]. That’s how I managed to stay in Montelena for so long. During that time, I was also involved in an organization called the Latin American Economic Liberation Organization. It was aimed at working with young people, guiding them, counseling them, helping them improve themselves because back then it was very necessary. More than it is now.

There wasn’t any support for students, there weren’t any counselors who spoke Spanish. How could they communicate better?

They would drop out of school without proper guidance. Very few graduated from school. Calistoga had none when I looked back then. Nowadays if you look at the newspaper pages on graduation day, there are two full pages dedicated to graduates like Sanchez, Gonzales, Perez [indiscernible], the majority! There are about four or five dragons, the rest are pure Latinos! So it makes me happy. Before you wouldn't even see one. It's like there wasn’t any because many dropped out of school early. Their parents would arrive.

So, they went to start working alongside their parents once they reached sixteen or seventeen years old. Their parents would say, “come help me,” and off they went into the fields. Those kids stopped studying while growing up, they bought a car and worked less, and then they found a girlfriend and worked even less! Eventually not working at all. [laughs]

This is one aspect of reality where Clinic Ole comes in, founded by myself along Aurelia Hurtado, Louis Flores, Lupe Hugo from St. Helena.

Aurelio is from St. Helena too. Me during that time I was in Calistoga. Since everything was in St. Helena but I was already in Calistoga and stayed here. And Louis Flores is from Napa. We started the clinic together which has grown and grown over time becoming a large clinic today. We have major facilities in Napa besides others that are expanding rapidly. There is also one here in St. Helena. Though, I did recently see a van from the Clinic right outside here at the school.

BG: Yes it comes every now and then for the students.

PG: Oh, that’s good.

BG: Mhm and we wanted to know, what is the meaning of OLE Health in your opinion?

PG: The meaning?

BG: Mhm.

PG: The meaning of the name or?

BG: Well yes, of the whole company and the name or how.

PG: Well, it started due to the lack of medical attention for, as I mentioned, there were colleagues who worked with me and would get sick. They wouldn't go to the doctor. Why? Because they weren't understood. "My stomach hurts," and the doctor, nurses, and receptionists, "I don't speak Spanish, do you speak English?" “No.”

It was a problem going to the doctor because one wasn't understood; it happened to me personally too.

So I thought it's better if I just leave and buy over-the-counter medications to relax but I remember many would go to Mexico instead. They'd go to see a doctor in Mexico. Imagine, if they had a problem here and their condition worsened day by day here and were here for three or four months before going to Mexico; when they arrived in Mexico, they were already incurable. So that was one of the reasons why I asked that a bilingual clinic be established through the Latin American Economic Liberation Organization. For people with low incomes or those who couldn’t afford anything. If they didn't have insurance or money they shouldn’t have to pay but should still receive care. That became our creed, what we followed like a bible and it's still working now. It has benefited many people and for me personally, it was something significant because there was nothing like that before. I witnessed a case where a young man went to the doctor’s office on Main Street; he stood at reception while she said “Wait a moment.”

The receptionist left her office and she would walk on Main Street, to almost in front of the cinema and where Vasconi’s was then walked towards where there used to be a pharmacy next door to Safeway. She walked all that way then some of those working at this pharmacy were bilingual, Chicana, so she brought them back into the clinic for interpretation [laughs]. Just imagine! A disastrous situation at that time, but you really can’t blame businesses nor do I blame them.

The fact is they weren’t prepared but now they are prepared. Oh yes they are. Because they see that we economically benefit businesses. Go visit stores or go to Costco. How many Mexicans do you see shopping there? Have you been to Costco in Napa or Santa Rosa? In the stores tell me how many Mexicans have their carts full with food? [laughs] The majority is us. We still are consumers, the Mexicans. Look at their lemons, a little bit of eggs, even 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, and I just say “add more.” And their twelve pack of beers. [laughs]

BG: What were some obstacles you faced while trying to start OLE Health?

PG: There were several, but primarily at that time when the Cesar Chavez union was very active. Ranchers usually did not want the union. Why? Because they didn't want to give rights to their workers. They didn't want to pay them better, provide vacations or rest time, nothing and especially not insurance. So they opposed it because if people joined they would say, not all but most of them said it was a tactic of the union working with the clinic together to bring union members in. No, it wasn't like that; it was completely false and it was clarified.

The health department also wasn't against it but said they couldn’t believe there could be a clinic like that: providing care for low-income individuals and being fully bilingual. I don't blame them either because they weren’t prepared for these changes that needed to be made since the community had become predominantly Hispanic over time.

We were growing year by year; more people kept coming in each year.

Initially, only single men arrived when I came here; families weren’t here yet. Then things started getting tougher in Mexico too and we found more facilities here so we brought our families over as well. Then there were children who needed special education because they didn’t know English and went to school. I heard about a school where kids who didn’t understand English were falling behind in their classes naturally, right? They wouldn’t know, they wouldn’t understand and they would gather in one classroom with someone who spoke little Spanish just so there was someone there for them.

In terms of classifying them, some were considered slightly mentally challenged which is wrong. Simply because they didn’t understand. But you see how things have changed now, very positive changes right? I see them as very positive because now it's a different world. A mix of races and languages where we can understand each other better and progress slowly but surely. I'm not the only one who has come this far; many colleagues have achieved great success too which makes me happy seeing others excel. It doesn't make me feel left behind but rather shows progress happening around us which is good. Unfortunately back then such progress wasn't visible but now yes! Bilingual education has been crucially important as you can see even though you are born here right? I imagine if you're already born here correct?

BG & SS: Yes.

PG: You guys are Americanitas! [laughter]. No, but I mean, in reality, it's one of those things where you should strive to learn about your culture. Don't forget it because he who does not know where he comes from also does not know where he is going. We must know our beginnings to understand our end and where we are going.

BG: We wanted to know how you got leadership positions in the valley?

PG: No, look, honestly I don't consider myself a leader. I think that "leader" is a very big word. So huge and I am so small. [laughs] A leader is this huge and I am not. No, no, I have rather been an activist with the groups. Stirring up towns. Just stirring up towns. No, I haven't been a leader. I don't consider myself a leader or compare myself to any leaders because I'm not one. I just consider myself as someone interested in benefiting others more than benefiting myself or whether it benefits me or not anyway, right?

And if like I told someone at that time, if they have a better opportunity, then good for them; it makes me happy. But anyway even if they don’t take advantage of it because that's what it's all about. Not just overcoming by playing soccer and winning games or baseball and winning games right?

You see, personal growth is the most important thing because it’s the foundation of our humanity

It allows us to continue progressing as human beings and that's the main thing. And what I've done is try to improve as a human being. Not be part of the problem but be part of the solution without considering 'give me credit: "I did this", "I'm doing this". No, no, no! That doesn't appeal to me because I think that the word "leader" is something that deserves great respect from me and there are few leaders in the world but I do not consider myself one. Just an activist, all I do is stir up towns. Not stirring people up.

BG: Do you know about Latinos who are in public positions in the Napa Valley or who know about St. Helena? Like if there were a lot or not many?

PG: Well, you see, speaking of that. I was also on the city council of Calistoga for four years. I was elected to the council for four years. At that time, Leon Garcia, who lives in American Canyon. I’m not sure if he was already mayor or not; he was coinciding with being Hispanic from American Canyon. No, well, he was born here but of Mexican origin and spoke English. Like Portuguese. [laughter] When I entered there, I had no fear because I didn't see language as a handicap where I would say "I can't do it because I don't speak English." No. If they offered me something and asked if I could do it in English, my response wouldn’t be “no” just because I don’t speak it. No I do speak it! If they understood me well then great; if not what matters is that I understand them even though they may not understand me. But like I said before, after four years when I left the council Catalina Sanchez came into Calistoga and St. Helena which lasted for a period of four years too.

Then Alfredo Pedrasta took over along with another lady in American Canyon whose name escapes me at times... Avelia? No, no, no something like that but her name escapes my memory right now. They are currently involved in politics here. Pedrasta might have come from Mexico when he was young while this other lady…sorry but her name doesn’t come to mind.

She might have been born there or had some background whereas myself did not have any such foundation. Like I told you I just got in by hitting it and running. [laughs] But like I mentioned earlier I served for some time like that. However, I think more political participation is needed especially since Catalina Sanchez has been serving in St.Helena.

After her term ended nobody else followed suit particularly those from Latino origins, right? If one isn't Latino or from Mexico then so be it but we need someone who speaks Spanish yet none has shown up neither in St. Helena or Napa. During my time here we were supporting Louis Flores to become supervisor however back then things were tough due to a lack of enough Latin or Mexican voters who could cast their votes making it difficult to elect a candidate from these backgrounds. Other than that, we also needed to win the dragons’ vote. I did win in Calistoga… I was [indiscernible] over there are very few Latino votes there but-

SS: I’m sorry.

BG: Still.

SS: Yes, continue. [laugh]

PG: Over there, there were few people, they were there to vote, very few Latinos.

But I won a lot of the dragon votes. I worked a lot with them also to win votes. That way I was elected and I came out with the majority of votes too. Bigger than everyone else. And that, well, for me, winning the dragon votes too, that is very good because well, it is not bad. That's why I tell you that racism is changing, it is ending. I am seeing the changes but as I say, well I see them as very positive because we are doing well.

We are doing well. Now with you who are achieving it and how you leave your school and go to college, imagine! That's what is happening, there are many Latino teachers now, they are from Mexico and many are improving themselves and I say, well, for you guys it is the best. Overcome yourselves because life from here on... How old are you now?

BG: Sixteen.

PG: Just look, when you are out of high school and go to college, you will be around twenty-something, thirty years old, and have a career, right? A career. Good for your parents!

SS: Of course.

PG: No, it's clear that your parents will feel even better and prouder of you.

BG: We know that you faced discrimination, how did you deal with it?

PG: Ahh [laughs] for me let me tell you about one night. Look, discrimination as I tell you is something that is expressed in different ways. I remember once we were in the camps, and we were going to Mexico.

We went to look for a store in the town to get what we called Mexican belizes, a cardboard box where we put the clothes and tied it with a rope to go to Mexico. We only took clothes for the family and for everything. And my friend and I went to a store, and when we got to the town, we noticed that a patrol was parked in front of us and he saw us pass. And he went stopping behind the store before we came out with the boxes. We left the boxes in the car we brought and went to the Bank of America to get the money we had there to go to Mexico.

The police noticed us and started taking close care of us and the police were watching us, making sure nothing happened to us. [laughs] And we went to the bank, and the cart stopped on the side. Then I go out behind him and my buddy opens the bank door, but the door was closed because they had opened at 9:30, and at that time, it was 9:00, and when he did it to open, the police shouted at him. He told him something in English, and I don’t remember if he said “nigger” or if he said “wet backs” and what would I do?

He had the gun in his hand, and we were scared, we only looked at each other and said, “What happened? What do we do?” He kicked us out of there when he did that, and later in the afternoon, we went back to get our money out of the bank like I was telling you. One other time, we went to Lodi, California we were on the road, going to Mexico. I was carrying my money in a little thing I had, my belt, a belt we had to not lose it. With that they wouldn’t rob oneself. Well, we arrived there in Blight to buy coffee, to eat something, and the bus would for twenty minutes. So that everyone on the bus could get down, go to the bathroom, wash up, whatever they needed and ate as well.

I also went to the bathroom. I washed up, and I went to get a coffee, and I saw a man who came out after me. I saw him walking, and I wasn’t paying attention to him, and then I saw him talking to the chauffeur. Then, I saw that he pointed at me. He would turn at me, and he was looking at me too. And then he called police on the phone. He talked to the chauffeur, and a police patrol came. One of the police men was Latino, they arrived and talked to them, and they asked me where I was. I looked at them. Well, I said, so what artist do I look like? That they already knew me! What movie did they see me in? [laughs]

No, and he comes closer, and as soon as he arrived, and then he tells me, “You know this man over here says that you stole his wallet.” “What? What?” “That you stole his wallet and took it out of his pocket” “He’s crazy! When?” “He says that in the bathroom” “Just go! Until just now I saw that he passed here.” “No, that he left his coat hanging in the bathroom, and he said that you grabbed the wallet.” “No, no, no, I don’t do that kind of thing.” He says, “No, well he’s accusing you.” I say, “Well, search me. The only thing I have is my money.” He says “No well, he has nothing.” And we were there, and the bus and the passengers and everyone was waiting for almost an hour to see if they would let us go. The chauffeur was being a good person with me and he didn’t go, and he could have gone, right? And no, that’s how it happened. So then later, the people who cleaned the bathrooms after all the people are gone arrived to clean the bathrooms and it was two black people. Later, one of the black men came out with a wallet that he says was on the bathroom floor. He dropped it. Was it possible that it fell out of his pocket? Possibly. So then he was sitting on the grass and they gave it to him and I said “Phew!” Well the police told me “look” in Spanish he says,

“You can lift a lawsuit against this man, he’s accusing you of taking the wallet, and you can sue him!” And I said, “No, let him go, I’m going to Mexico I don't want to.” And he would told me, “For a lawsuit you have to wait for when the court date is here.” And I told him, “No, it dies there. I’m going to Mexico. I don’t want to.”

But as I was telling you, another time I fell from the tree near Sacramento, and I was pruning a tree and the ladder was super tall right? It was summertime and when I was going to fall I threw the big scissors and I was going down and I grabbed a branch. To see if I wouldn’t fall and the branch fell, it was about this big. So I fell down with the branch.

I fell on my back, oh my god, I felt very sore, even suffocating, that is, I was running out of air. And the butler looked at me, and he saw me fall and who knows what else and he got me in trouble. He goes and he brings the boss. He lived there on the farm, he was German American. Mr. Noreen, they called him and they told him. Then a man who understood a little bit of Spanish and English was telling me, “What hurts him is the branch you broke.” “And what about me?” He says, “no.” He says “Why did you break that branch?” “Because I didn’t want to fall.”

No, he says, “Why did you break that branch?” “Because I didn’t want to fall.” Well he cared more about the branch and they just left me there on the floor till I got myself up. [laughter] All I said was “Look at where this whole thing ended up.” But as I tell you, at that time I said, well, too bad, that’s how life is here for one. It was like that because one made changes, and now there are many changes. The changes that I like are in education too, I have seen many changes in education. And you guys are a product of those changes. Yes, it is true. So educate yourself and move forward and excel because lets just do it. Lets do it!

BG: And for our last question we wanted to know, what was something impactful that you learned about our community?

PG: Impactful, well, right now everything. In those times, nothing was seen, as I said, because there were no changes. So here in this time, if I had arrived at this time without knowing how it was before, I would be like, oh my goodness, how wonderful all this is. How beautiful the landscape, the jobs, the people, friendly, the Americans love us a lot, and I would see myself very differently.

So the impactful thing I see now is this: that there are many changes and more in education, and hopefully, it continues to be helpful, the more changes. Because in reality, we need them, you need them because in reality, it has been work. These changes didn’t happen on their own. They didn’t just happen because it rained, and the grass grew. No, no.

These changes have come because there are people who work very hard to lift communities, to obtain rights for people, for workers, for students.

So [clears throat] like affirmative action is a very big thing that involved giving rights. If you know what it is, now there is a mix of so many students that there has to be a certain percentage of minorities, and before there wasn’t. They were kept aside. So those are the changes that I see in education. But as I said, they didn’t happen on their own, it wasn’t by magic.

Many people, not just me, many people worked one hundred percent in education.

I worked when I was there, and I was pushing for bilingual education, right. But I saw that there were people I knew who worked with them. I worked for them, and oh my goodness, people from Sacramento, leaders from Sacramento, from Blythe who came here, and I met them. Seeing a man crowned, a son, how amazing. I saw him and still see him. He died, but as a very prepared man who knew about laws, and that was the base in Sacramento, and he represented people, yes. Those were the changes, and I am glad that people were active, but as I say, I consider myself a friend. Because there are people who graduated and have done a lot, no, no. I haven’t done anything; there are people who have done much more, and those are the people I look at and learn from, and hopefully, just like them, they won’t be exactly like me. Be like them.

Because we are moving forward, and if I see problems, little by little they have been overcome.

Just look at the number of Latino students. The numbers that graduate, the numbers of students that go to college, and in colleges. In colleges, there is a lot of help for Latino students too, before there wasn’t. There were no Latino counselors, counselors to help them. They guided them to colleges and universities and you have gone too, but as I say, that is something very new.

And that is what impacts me, education, because I see that there is a lot of education, and young Latinos are moving forward.

What I say has happened in my life. I put it in a little bag and throw it in the trash because in reality, there are people who do much more, and especially with what you are doing. You are part of the evolution to move forward, and do not forget that the road is long, and if you follow a good path and good direction, you move forward, and you succeed, right? And don’t be an example for others; be an example for yourselves. Don’t try to be like that person, right? Be as you are, but get better every day, and every day be better as students, as human beings, as children, as friends, as nephews, as grandchildren, whatever, be better. Because there is much future, and there will be more, but with a good government too, that is another thing [laughter].

BG: Thank you very much, Mr. García, for joining us today and offering your time as a volunteer to talk about your journey from Mexico to the United States, here in the Napa Valley. We appreciate all you have contributed to our community and the differences you have made.

PG: No, thank you very much. I am grateful that you have invited me and thought of me, right? Because in reality, I consider that if anything of the little I contribute is useful, it means a lot to me.

SS: Yes, it is a lot.

PG: It means a lot to me, and I hope you use and practice something from what I have told you because you truly deserve it in life ahead. Because things were very different before. You didn’t have these opportunities that you have now. They didn’t exist, and you have them.

Don’t waste them. Like how you have the ball in your hand, don’t drop it. Don’t drop it! [laughs]

SS: Yes, of course.

PG: Okay.