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Interview with Manuel Martinez and Ofelia (Martinez) Silva
Manuel Martinez and Ofelia Silva, brother and sister who have spent most of their lives in El Monte. They lived in La Mission and have seen events in the LA area from the 1920’s to the present, their lives included World war II, segregation, the…
Interview of Vernon Wickstorm
Summary: Vernon Wickstorm is a lifelong resident of El Monte and has been a teacher for four decades. Here he recounts his life growing up in the city in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Interview of Dr Mary Louise Labrucherie
Summary: Dr Mary Labrucherie, long time superintendent of the Valley Lindo School District talks with SEMAP about the history of the school district and El Monte. Her career as Superintendent and remaking of the district curriculum and teachers.
Interview with Donna Crippen
Summary: Donna Crippen is the curator of the El Monte History Museum and has lived in El Monte her whole life. Wife of the former mayor of the city, she raised two daughters while working alongside her husband in their ambulance dispatch company.…
Interview with Vincent Rojas
Summary: Vincent Rojas grew up in Hicks Camp. His family was from Sonora and Guanajuato Mexico, agriculture migrants. Descriptions of life in Hicks Camp and El Monte from the post-war period. Was one of few Mexican students to graduate high school,…
Interview with Lilian Aparicio
Summary: Born in 1921, Lilian Aparicio still maintains an active life at 93. She was born in Italy and met her husband, Felix Aparicio, during World War II at a dance for American GI’s. He was Mexican-American from EL Paso and while the war kept them…
Interview with Ernie Gutierrez
Summary: Ernie Gutierrez has spent a lifetime navigating the politics of El Monte. In this three-part interview he talks about segregation, the school system, problems of discrimination that Mexicans have faced through the generations in the city. He…
Oral History with Eulalia Ramos
Summary: Eulalia Ramos grew up in Medina Court. After her parents eloped they settled in El Monte, in Medina Court just behind Lady of Guadalupe Church. She recounts growing up in a town that was primarily rural and people worked in the fields. She…
Oral History of the Ramos Family
The Ramos family arrived in El Monte’s Medina Court in the early 20th century. The family patriarch, Nicolas Cervantes built a successful walnut business and became the richest person in El Monte and was greatly respected in the community and out.…
Oral History with Lilian Rey
Raised in La Puente California, Lilian Rey has lived in El Monte for several decades. She recounts the history of the city and raising her family here. For the past three decades Lilian Rey has headed El Monte and South El Monte Emergency Services.…
Oral History with Lily Laredo
Summary: Lily Laredo has lived her entire life in El Monte. Daughter of Vincent and Concha Rojas, she grew up in Hicks camp in the 1940’s and 50’s. In this interview she recounts life in Hicks Camp, the youth culture of the 1950’s, and her life.…
Interview with Felix Ramos
Summary: Felix Ramos has living in El Monte his entire life. Growing up in Hicks Camp in the 1940’s and 50’s he remembers the conditions of the Mexican workers who made their lives there. He was raised by his God-parents who owned a convenience store…
Interview with Jesus Garcia, Ignacio Garcia, & Ylnda Nunez
Summary: The brothers Jesus and Ignacio have spent their live times between Mexico and the United States. From Jalisco they were braceros before coming across undocumented and later fixing their papers. Jesus spend most of his life in the Mariachi…
Oral History with Toni Plummer
Abstract:
Toni Plummer grew up with mixed heritage in South El Monte. This interview notes the impact of a childhood spent with Plummer’s divorced, Latina mother and the ways it shaped her concepts of ethnicity and culture. Plummer explores the…
Toni Plummer grew up with mixed heritage in South El Monte. This interview notes the impact of a childhood spent with Plummer’s divorced, Latina mother and the ways it shaped her concepts of ethnicity and culture. Plummer explores the…
Interview with Dana Law
Abstract: Dana’s father (originally from Montana, came to Southern California during WWII) moved his family to South El Monte to a two-acre lot on Potrero south of Rush that housed his business, Ababa Demolition, which employed many Mexican-American…
Interview with Alfred Mendoza
Alfred was born at LA/USC Hospital to Mexican immigrant parents and raised on the south side of El Monte. Mother and father and were from Tijuana, father had been laid off from a metalwork plant before he was born and sought earnings from narcotic…
Interview with Angie Godina
Abstract: Born in California, came to El Monte as a young girl, lived in Medina Court and then moved to South El Monte, leaving at age 14, returning at age 28. Mother was daughter of landholding Mexican-American in Riverside who married a Native…