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This is Irene Ruiz interviewing Mrs. Lydia Rocha Estevez. At Penn Valley Community College on January 30th, 1978. Mrs. Estevez, I would like for you to tell me something about the place of your birth and the date of your birth, if you care to. I was born

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in Broadwater, Nebraska, November 7th of 1919. I, I lived there as a child, a baby, so I don't remember anything about Nebraska. Mhm. In other words, you moved away and lived elsewhere. Now, would you tell me about the names of your parents and uh if they

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resided at one place or moved around, you might briefly mention those and maybe the area or the city that you remember more as a youngster, having spent a number of years there. Um, my mother's name was Maria. Delgado Rocha. My father's name was Elpidio. Gotcha. Um,

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They probab I understand from the conversations that they moved around a lot from Texas, but the only place that I ever recall is Kansas City. I don't remember any of the other places. You were fairly young, in other words, when you came here. You were born

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in Nebraska and you came here. Now, so then you, you lived in one, house in one specific area for a certain number of years. You probably remember that. So then I would like for you to give me a little description. Of whatever you recall the most,

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if you did move, uh, the only time that I can recall is that we lived at 2405. From there we lived to moved to 2322 Holly. And uh then we moved to 2324 Holly, which is still the family home so we really didn't move around a

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lot. We stayed between the area we lived on Mercer and. A Mercer is one block. West of Holly, so we've lived in the same area for over 50 years. All right. So then you ought to have some good recollection of what. The general composition of the

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neighborhood was generally speaking, the majority of the people worked, were they working people? What, what would they be low income, medium, or was there a variety of, well, um, we lived in an area where we were, they contained the Mexican families in one area. Which was

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the west side and you mean by by containing you mean this was they they were not yes they they just didn't sell homes. To Mexicans everywhere we had to keep, we had to stay within an area. Uh, it wasn't written, but it wasn't encouraged, yeah. So

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how did your, uh, father earn his living? Uh, most of the people in that area, from what I can recall, they either worked for the Santa Fe or the packing house. My father worked for the packing house. He worked for Cuddy's. And then he and uh

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then he worked at Swifts and those are the only two places that I can remember that he did work. Was this then typical you said since the Mexican American people were contained there, the majority of them worked in those two areas, more or less. And so

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what school did you or schools did you attend? I attended Adam Adams School and, uh, as a grade school up through the 6th grade, and then we went to West High School, which is on 18th and Summit. From there we completed the it was a 2

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year school then and then we went on to manual high school if we went to a 4 year high school or um. At that time it was encouraged. That The majority, uh, not, not the majority, but a great number of the Mexican boys and girls, they

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either went to a trade school or the boys went to a trade school which was at Jane Hayes Gates for the girls and, uh, Lathrop for the boys. And then the ones did not go to trade school or did not go on to school, uh, the

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rest of them would go to Manuel High School, which is a senior high school. And so you, you followed that route. You went to West, and then did you graduate from Manuel? I, I went to West and then I graduated from Manuel, yes. Alright, were you,

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uh, was, were you and all your family, were you members of the church in Guadalupe or some other church in the neighborhood? Uh, yes, we were members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Lady Guadalupe. So would you say that generally speaking most of your neighbors and belong

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to the yes church mhm uh I would say that the majority the large the the majority of them that did belong to to Our Lady of Guadalupe um Although there are two other churches in the neighborhood. Uh, which is a Baptist and the Christian church, but

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the majority of them did go to the Our Lady of Guadalupe. Did you, as you recall those years, did you belong to any organization, probably within the church or school affiliated? Thinking of either scouting or some other girls which at that time I know those organizations

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would have either girls or boys' names probably attached to them. We may not. No, I belonged to the, to the Girl Scouts and um. And then I belonged to a social club all there at um there in the neighborhood. What was this called? um. Gosh, I

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can't remember. Was this predominantly girls again or was this a social club for a predominantly females. And how about the uh but there was also a club for the young men and then we would have activities together like dancing or we'd go roller skating or we

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would go on hayrides or things like that. You did have some joint affairs that you participated in. How about um the Central Guadalupe Center was, wasn't that active then? It was very active, but it was very active, but, uh. Our family didn't participate too much. We

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were, uh, I come from a family of, um, 10, 8 of us are still 7 of us are still living, and, uh. You said 10. That would, excuse me, that would be 10, uh, children. Um-hum. You say you were one of 10. And, uh, I guess

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and my father always felt it was her belief that there were plenty of us at home that we didn't have to have too much of this other outside activity and I, I was um. I was very active in swimming and roller skating and uh my hobbies

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were were roller skating and swimming which we had some days they had some days up at West that they let us go swimming and. The, um, I did a lot of reading and I guess that's about the way that and then we played every time you

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had that's some of the other questions I was going to get to that in other words, your free time, if you had some, you, you devoted to reading and all that. Now you said swimming and where exactly you means they did have the pool there inside.

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Because I've heard that. OK, so you were saying you enjoyed reading and swimming. And roller skating and as I said, uh, swimming was at West High School at, uh, there was a swimming pool, a public swimming pool. And did you go to the swimming, the public

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swimming? This was at the, at the Penn Valley. And um they had what they would have uh days for just the Mexicans. Oh, I see. In other words, you could not participate when the general public, but this was supposed to be a public like under the

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auspices of the city recreation department, right, but we were not allowed to swim there on the days we would the days that they would let us swim would be just the days before they cleaned out the pool and that was our day for swimming. Then the

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uh the city uh built a uh the soul park swimming pool and again they wouldn't let the Mexicans in it and then uh on uh. With the. Not every day, so far. No. But did you have that. We had certain, certain days, but, uh, Uh, when

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they did open that pool, a friend of my, a friend of. Myself and a friend, we went out to Park, and they told us that they couldn't let us in to swim. So this friend of, uh, and myself, we stood and I wouldn't let people in.

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We just stood there and, uh, nobody, you just held the place, in other words, to block, right? And you were staging your own, yeah, at that time I didn't know that what it wasn't a sit in. It was standing. It was a standing, of course I

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didn't do it because we thought it was a stand-in. It was just, it just infuriated me that we couldn't go in to swim. And we just stood there and, uh. In other words, you had not known this before you went up there. No. It was just

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a sort of a shock. Right. And, uh, then, um, We stood there and the gentleman couldn't make us move from there. We weren't making any racket or any ruckus or anything, so he must have called somebody at City Hall because they did let us in. And

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from then on they let the Mexicans in. Oh, is that right? Uh-huh. And the girl that was with me was Hilda Puente. She was very athletic too they Irene sister uh-huh. Oh, very well. Are, are there any other, um, events such as that or some other

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activity that from that period that stands out in your mind? Yes, what stands out in my mind was that the education that they had for the Mexican Americans at that time. We went to a school which was Adams, and it was really a condemned school. Adams,

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you're speaking of the elementary school, uh-huh, it no longer exists, right? Uh, it was, where was it located? It was located at 24th and Mercer. And the reason I say that must have been condemned because we could not use the upstairs because the water would come

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in. And, uh. The leaking, I mean the roof was leaking could have health hazard as well as that the roof could have collapsed. But that's finally, finally, I guess it was condemned because, uh, then it was made into apartments. And tore down and made into apartments.

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Now was this Adams school then predominantly uh attended by Mexican Americans and Mhm. And this was from the 1st grade or 6 to 6th grade and there I remember also that the teachers didn't want us to speak Spanish. Spanish then the language you spoke at home

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and at school you couldn't. Were you punished? We, we were, we were punished for speaking Spanish, like for instance, stay after school or stand in the corner. Did you have to write lines or do anything like that? I can't remember that we did that, but I

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know that we were always reprimanded because we spoke Spanish. Was this done with uh any sort of tact where you were told teachers weren't tactful. Just told that you couldn't speak Spanish. How do we expect to learn English if we were here in the United States

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and we should speak English. How did your parents react to that? Of course, maybe you were lucky and maybe they spoke English and that might have helped you, but did they speak both just speak Spanish didn't speak English. My father taught himself went to night school

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to learn English and to write English. So did you find that difficult then when you were very little, uh, annoying. It annoyed me that they wouldn't let us speak it because I felt that. Uh, It was an advantage to be able to speak two languages. But,

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uh, of course you can't but city hall. All right. And looking on, uh, a little bit beyond that, Then when you were in in junior school or rather in high school, were the, uh, were there activities there that you were excluded from again because you were

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Mexican American or because I wasn't aware of it there when I was attending school because I belonged to the hockey team and the baseball team and all the teams that I would want sports. I was very active in sports and I didn't notice anything then, but

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looking back now. Uh, we had some excellent teachers, but then we also had some teachers that weren't. Very Excellent. Well, uh, you still have it now. I mean. We're not all over. You didn't feel we're as well qualified, I mean, in. Some of the back. Uh-huh.

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And, well, and then I worked there, later on, I worked there in the library and I could see the reaction some of those teachers had towards the minorities and, Uh, some of the The some of the teachers I felt. That they had there and this is

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what I when I was working there at the library but this was a number of years later, right? I, I, I could see that some of the teachers that they had, I'm not saying this is true about all the teachers, but some of the teachers that

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they had, I didn't really feel that they were qualified to be teaching there in my opinions, excuse me, were some of these teachers that you were speaking of, were they any that had been there when you had been there as a student? No, this would have

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been quite a number of years later, I see. But, um What I'm trying to get at too is then when you were at West for instance were the children or the students predominantly Mexican American or would you say there was a mixture by then right I

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think there was a mixture because what what number would you say of of Mexican American students were there attending then when you attended? I would say that it was about um. Um, It was about when I was attending. When you were attending when I was attending

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the majority were white. We're Anglos, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Were there any, uh, any black children? Very few. Very few. Uh-huh. Not until I started working there much later. That's when I, I would say that it was divided about 30, 30, 30 because of the housing project. And

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we had quite a few uh blacks and quite a few Mexican Americans. Were you encouraged then, say I'm speaking at home but particularly at school for instance, were you encouraged then by the. Counselors, if you had them or by your teachers, did they encourage you then

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to go on to high school, would you believe that all the time that I was in school, I didn't even know what a counselor was a counselor never did you have counselors there then? As far as far as you know, um, I, I don't know. You

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mean you never were, went to a counselor for any advice on on or orientation into what career you might follow or any sort of thing. Did you know of any other students went for counseling? Did you find out later. We were encouraged for uh to obtain

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more education because of our parents. Our parents emphasized the importance of education. In other words, uh, you're saying that because of your parents, but not because the school did anything as far as you could tell then or maybe you in thinking back now you realize that

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the school did not encourage, but what I, I would also like to clarify is, um. Do you, you feel then was there a, a sort of a concerted effort on the part of the school or administration then to discourage, but nothing to encourage, maybe not discouraged,

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but you, they did encourage you said it so like you said, very often the boys went to a certain type of school and the girls, would you say a large number then of the girls, uh, the Mexican American girls then did not go on? Did many

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of them with your group, did they go on to high school? From there, did they go to the manual? Many that you know? Um, what would you say? At, at, at my time. I think about as many went. On to um redemptor is went to Cat

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Catholic school. But would you say there was a large number then that still, in other words, did they start falling off like after they finished elementary school, after they finished, uh, junior high school? Well, I mean, I really couldn't really say honestly because as I, as

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I've told you before, we really weren't, we didn't have, we didn't go out and with groups of friends and uh-huh and uh. But I would say that the girls that I went to school with. I guess almost most of them went on to manual High School.

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Either to manual or to, to redemption. So, in spite of the lack of encouragement. Um-hum. If we can say it that way, from the, from the school, there were still. Um-hum. Some of you who went on to. Um-hum. Finish high school and maybe beyond that. Um-hum.

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Did you have any other responsibilities at home too? I know you said you came from a large family, so I imagine, did you have to help at home? Not. At home. Not anymore than. Not any more than was expected of, you know, of a large family.

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You know, to learn how to, Just no. No, we never, we were never, uh, we, it was encouraged that we do our homework. That was the most important thing. And, um, But no, we didn't have to hold any outside jobs or anything. My father was the

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sole support of the family. Hm. But at home, I mean, you did, you did help at home. Oh, yes. Just duties at home. When I'm saying, not outside the home. I mean. Um-hum. At home you had. Oh, yeah. Cleaning up or kitchen or. Right. Since you

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were a large family. Alright, in, in, uh, thinking back to, were there any other, um, not any other, I'm sorry, I don't think we had talked about any other, any major event that happened while you were still living there, uh, were you living there then during

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World War II? How it affected. Well, maybe your immediate family, maybe uncles or cousins or somebody who had to go to the war. Were there any changes that you could, as you think back, that occurred because of the of the war? Or at least how did

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the war then affect you? Were there people I was many, many people, you don't remember I was at home then. I had. Oh, you were already I Awake. Uh-huh. So I couldn't tell you I wasn't there for the flood. I was living in Washington DC. Well,

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that was a little bit later, but I was thinking in 45 you were already gone then not at 45, but 45, the war ended, but in the early 40s. You were not there or you don't recall? I just know that part of the few boys went

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away to service, but, uh, I really wasn't there because I, I moved away from home. In about 40 43, I guess. I got, that's when I was married, so I just, and I moved out, I moved out of town. And you moved. Immediately afterwards. All right.

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Um, so then did you, um, you said you, you moved away, but that was when you were married. Did you secure a job right after graduation from high school or did you, were you still living at home? What, what did you do? When I graduated it

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was during the Depression. And, um, My, my parents were very proud people. And um of course during the Depression, a lot of people lost their jobs. A lot of people went back to Mexico. But my father lost his job and um but instead of going on

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welfare, which we would have we would have qualified because of the number of children. Uh Instead, we went to the beat fields. Oh, so this is my father, my father and and my brother and myself. And, uh, so that we would not go on welfare. You

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couldn't starve and you didn't want to go on welfare, so you did the next. Uh-huh, so we went to B fields and uh we went there for three summers. For at least 3 summers while the rest of the family went to. To school I graduated, so

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I was the logical one to go in my work and and to work well to help with the family to know to uh to do the cooking. And my father and my brother would work in the fields, but of course I helped. And, uh, So that

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because Siesta had not graduated. So Esther stayed home. To take care of the children, the ones that were going to school, which were, they were younger ones, and we went there for 3 years. By that time, then my father found a job. And then we didn't

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go to big fields anymore. You were able to stay and then of course then the war broke out and I started working. I worked at the. North American. And right after that I worked there about a year and a half. American aviation? Oh, aviation bomber flight

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B-25s. What kind of work did you do there? I did, uh, I was, I was a waiter. Mhm. A, a what? Riveter. Oh, this was, would have been then in the, in the, I did, I was a riveter and I also did wiring. Did you learn

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there on the um no but I mean did you learn the no I took classes for you took classes uh for on your own you mean or I signed up for them. No, I signed up for them at um they had classes in uh at the

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uh Lathrop of the Lathrop school. And I took that. But was this, were these evening classes or day classes or. Uh, they were day classes. Day classes. I, I took the class. And you didn't have to pay? Uh. No. These were, Uh, and the uh. Well,

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was this part of your course load, um, while you were in school. Oh, no, no, no, no, this was later. That's what I was trying to determine. This was later. Um-hum. So you could qualify or feel that you were able to Qualify for one of the

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jobs. For one of those jobs. Uh-huh, I took, uh, blueprint reading and, uh, riveting and, uh, wiring. Then I got a job and I worked there for about a year and a half. Then I got married. And moved away from Kansas City. Yes. And about, about,

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uh, what time was this? This was probably, you said, in the early 50s, right? No, no, this was, uh, no. The work got no work for about a year and a half. Yes, but when you got married, was it still in the 40s then? Oh, yes.

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40s. Uh-huh. Then you went to Washington, DC? Uh where did you, did you, uh, we went, uh, went to Florida first. Now, was this because your husband was in the military service or was he working for the government? No, he was, um, He was in the

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Navy Air Corps. And then And then we came back from Florida. You returned here. Um-hum. And then my husband, uh, went to school, uh, went to college to Saint Benedict's one year and came to Penn, uh went to Penn City Junior College one year and then

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he went to Georgetown. University of Washington DC. And uh we moved to Washington DC and we lived there and we lived there for about 6 years. And, uh, My second son was born there. And your first son was born here in Kansas City. And then your

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second son was born in Washington DC Washington. And then. When her husband graduated, then he got a job with the government. Um-hum. What, what is his field, Then? Well, what, what, what did, was his field of specialization? Oh, foreign service. Foreign Service, because then you went

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to. To Germany. Germany. For a while. Um-hum. And we were in Germany about a year and a half. Um-hum. And my daughter was born there. Uh-huh. Now, this was about what, what year? Let's see. Well, you were saying your husband got an assignment in Europe and

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then he was, you were stationed in Germany, is that correct? Frankfurt, Germany, Frankfurt, and then you were there about a year and a half and then you returned to the United States and he came to Kansas City and he got a job at City Hall and.

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He obtained a job with City Hall. What kind of work was that? The administrative assistant in, um, I think he was with, No, I don't. You don't remember, but he was working for City Hall and, and you came back, and by this time, where were you

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residing? You were no longer at the Holly address, were you? No. Uh, we got an apartment on the, on the west side, but not with my parent, with my mother, because by that time, my mother was, uh, very ill. So, I got an apartment, we got

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an apartment as close as possible to her house so that I could go see her, look over, look after her because everybody else was working. Were you working outside the home then or were you staying at home? I was staying at home looking after the children.

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Um-hum. And, uh, I stayed at home until my daughter was, um. Well, she's the youngest of the children, right? Uh-huh. So you waited until she was about, uh, two years old. And then by that time, of course, I was also, as I say, looking after my

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mother, and she passed away. And, uh, by that time my daughter was about two years old, I guess, and I put her in the nursery and I started working. Um-hum. What is this when you went to work for the library? Right. Uh-huh. For the And I

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was there. Kansas City, Missouri. Right. And I was library, and I was there for 11 years. Were you at one location for 11 years? I was at, uh, at West for about 8 and at the main library for about 3 years. 3 years. 3 years. Um.

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And then what did you do after that? I left because I felt there was discrimination. At the library the library. I felt that there was, uh, discrimination. It's, it was very subtle that it was there. And, um, did you get any additional training or did you

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go to school on your own? I was going to school on my own to junior college at night. And, um, Then I, I, I, I resigned. Excuse me, I'm going to interrupt here. I don't want to run out of tape and then I'll, we'll go over

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this last question again. So I'll press both here now. This is a continuation of an interview with Mrs. Lydia Estevez. Mrs. Estevez, you were saying. That you left your position with the library because you felt there was some discrimination there, subtle as it might be, and

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then you decided to go into further training to continue with your career or with seeking another job. Well, all along I was going to off and on. I was going to junior college while you were working. Well, I was working because if you, I had 3

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children that were young. They were going to school and I was working full time, so going nights. Was pretty hard, so I would go in and I'd drop off and then I'd go back, but when I left the library, I went to work for ICS. And

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I did interviewing and, uh, secretarial work. And, uh, I worked there for ICS Institute for Community Services. Um-hum. And I was there for approximately 2 to 3 years. And I left there, uh. Simply because it was a, uh, All the work was, uh, funded by through

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grants. And, uh, it was very important for me. Uh, to work Because, uh, since I had had such a bad experience with a public school. I didn't want my children to go through the same thing, and I put them all in in private parochial schools. And

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they were already in high school, and they also went to parochial. Uh, high school, my two sons went to Rockhurst High School. My girl went to Loretta. And so it was very important that I, that I work. I could not. In other words, you needed that

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additional financial help that you could get if you were working to be able to keep him in school. And so, uh, And that was the reason I left ICS because they, we did work on grants, and it was always dependent whether they would be funded. And

00:29:12.709 - 00:29:25.520

uh it was not a very, not a very sure. No. Thing. And by that time. But I enjoyed that work very much. Then I, by that time, I, Found a job here at Penn Valley and I've been here since. So you've been working for Penn Valley

00:29:25.520 - 00:29:43.300

Community College since 19? I've been here 8 years, 1970. Um-hum. Yeah, it'll be 7 years. And how did, what, uh, type of position did you start? I started out as as secretary to the president of the college. Here at Penn Valley. At Penn Valley. And, uh,

00:29:43.310 - 00:30:04.319

you were, you were a secretary to Doctor Gerard T. Gerard T. Bryant. And then to Doctor Law and, uh, know that I was, I went to work for Mr. Creakle. And uh-huh secretary for Mr. Creakle, who was then the assistant dean to academic affairs. And then

00:30:04.319 - 00:30:23.680

what have you. And now I, uh, I work, I'm, uh, community services assistant. And I worked Uh, out of the, the academic affairs office. And I work well. So, what does your position entail now? Obviously, you've gone on from one position to another. Um-hum. But always,

00:30:24.189 - 00:30:48.250

with more responsibility. Um-hum. Added to your load. So, what are, what are some of your duties now? I work, uh, in, uh, the scheduling of classes and, uh, with, uh, With all the full time part time faculty also to to uh. To work with the community.

00:30:49.270 - 00:31:05.199

For it, uh, to use, uh, to encourage the community to use our facility in so you have to set up further schedules, say for the use of an auditorium or use of film or space or whatever so you have quite a bit of contact with students,

00:31:05.209 - 00:31:25.270

but more so with faculty, faculty members, and with the public and the community, which is a responsible position. In the meantime, somewhere along the line, you were divorced, so you still had the. The responsibility of your children, or were your children fairly grown when this came

00:31:25.270 - 00:31:48.719

about? They were fully, they were, they were pretty much. Oh. They were almost out of the house. So, um, I didn't have, uh, I still had the responsibility of my, the last one at home, my daughter. Uh, but, uh, she's has since married and, uh, has

00:31:48.719 - 00:32:04.930

finished her school and is teaching now. Um-hum. So now you're out of your three children, two have gone on, excuse me. You were saying, uh, your 3 children, and I know you mentioned earlier your daughter attended Loretto Academy or was graduated from the high school there,

00:32:04.939 - 00:32:21.319

and your two sons went to Rockhurst, and I know that at least 2 of them have gone into professional work. So would you say just a little bit about that, uh, Richard Estevez, and then your other children, uh, Richard, uh. Who, who's the, uh, the eldest

00:32:21.319 - 00:32:38.670

of the of the of my children, uh, is presently a principal at Douglas Elementary School. Uh, Ronald, who is my middle child, is, uh, I'm very happy to say that after dropping out of 2 years, he went to school 2 years to K State and moved

00:32:38.670 - 00:32:56.410

to California in San Diego, uh, I spoke to him, um. Uh, last weekend, and, uh, he is enrolling at Berkeley. And to complete his, so he'll be, uh, hopefully he will be completing his college education. So he has lived in California for some time, a year

00:32:56.410 - 00:33:12.390

ago August, he's been there a year in August. he did live here for a while, right, and he just moved over there and my youngest, uh, uh, my daughter is your daughter is my daughter, and, uh, she went to KU and graduated, got her bachelor's and

00:33:12.390 - 00:33:31.400

her master's. In special education and she teaches presently teaching at Topeka. Teaching. She's teaching in Topeka, Kansas for private or public for public the Topeka public school system. What, what level? Uh, it's special education there, special education in the, in the district, right? Mhm. There is

00:33:31.400 - 00:33:51.869

no grade level. They send children there from 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, or whoever they need them in the grade school. Oh, right at the elementary level. All right. Um, As you look back and then look ahead, you feel like you've done fairly well in spite of

00:33:51.869 - 00:34:09.639

all the obstacles, particularly with your children. Um, but along the way, have, do you feel that you've ever received any recognition for some of your work outside of your family or you? Immediate, any recognition anywhere? I'm sure that I must have somewhere along the line. Received

00:34:09.639 - 00:34:27.319

it and you can't recall. Well, I was thinking of something that would be. I, I think I I may have because, uh, I feel that, um, just being promoted, you know, from one job to the other is some kind of a recognition. Uh, So, yeah, I

00:34:27.319 - 00:34:44.949

think I have, have received some recognition. What about your, your plans for the future? Well. And what you would like to accomplish as you look ahead. Um-hum. Well, I'm sure you, you, you strike me as the type of person who has worked very hard to. Well.

00:34:45.070 - 00:35:04.340

To get these promotions. Obviously they haven't come just because you are who you are or whatever but, uh, you've prepared yourself and you've worked. Well, what I'm hoping to do is that, um, I'm still going to school and, uh, um, I really don't have any, any

00:35:04.350 - 00:35:34.469

degree in mind. But um I'm taking courses so that when I retire. I would like to volunteer. In the elementary school. With Mexican American children. Um, And and the reason I say volunteer is because I want to be able to go into the school where I

00:35:34.469 - 00:35:47.330

would like to go and really what I would like to be able to is to work in the schools where my children would be teaching because then I could give them all the time that they would need because they really need help. Now, are you, are

00:35:47.330 - 00:36:03.949

you interested in doing this because of your own experiences that you had and children that you know that have encountered problems you feel you would not only know something about it but have an understanding and be able to help them and, and that the children could

00:36:03.949 - 00:36:22.159

identify, identify with you. And you said you weren't certain what degree you might pursue, but, uh, where are you taking courses now, where have you been taking courses recently? At different places? No, I'm still, I'm taking courses here because, uh. In Penn Valley. Uh, in the

00:36:22.159 - 00:36:37.229

last 223 years, it's, it's when I've thought, well, that's what I want to do when I retire. And so. You want to devote your time and do what you really want to do. Right, because I have taken enough courses that I could have had my, My,

00:36:37.250 - 00:36:53.780

uh, associate in business and also my associate in secretarial, but that isn't what I want. In other words, you don't want to stay with that after you get through working, you just want to do something you, you will enjoy. Um-hum. But feel that it's, it's profiting

00:36:53.780 - 00:37:13.370

or that it, it would help somebody. Um-hum. All right. Is there anything else that you would like to, And as you look back, is there one person or persons that you feel influenced you or encouraged you tremendously to have this drive and energy? My father and

00:37:13.370 - 00:37:31.120

my mother. So you credit both your parents. With um instilling this right because Looking back when I come from a family of 8 and when you feel that as hard as times were then in the discrimination and the obstacles that were put in our way that

00:37:31.120 - 00:37:49.870

uh. I would say that in spite of all of the of all the 8. There are only 2 of us that have not, do not have degrees. Because all the others are professionals. And I think that's good. And I think this was instilled by our parents.

00:37:51.459 - 00:38:02.060

I feel that they were the strongest influence in my life. All right, thank you very much, Mrs. Estevez, and this concludes our interview.