Dwayne Anthony Cardoza Interview
Item
Title
Dwayne Anthony Cardoza Interview
Interviewee, Interviewer
Cardoza, Dwayne Anthony
Gonzalez, Ruth
Relation
Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
Date
11/19/2019
Identifier
SCUAD_pbbi_00019
extracted text
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Speaker 1: What is your level of Portuguese?Okay, what is your full birth
name?
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Speaker 2: Dwayne d-w-a-y-n-e Anthony Cardoza.
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Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? is there a story behind your
name?
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Speaker 2: All the Anthony's go back about five generations. So all the
all my family all the males are all have their middle name Anthony. Just
because so we Yes we do.
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Speaker 1: When were you born?
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Speaker 2: I was born in 1952.
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Speaker 1: And where were you born?
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Speaker 2: in Hanford, California.
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Speaker 1: What early memories do you have of a child in the Portuguese
American community or Portugal?
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Speaker 2: Well, I was never. I went to Portugal. I went the Azores first
time this past summer. The Fresno State group.
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Speaker 1: How was that?
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Speaker 2: Excellent. Ready to go back again.
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How long we were there? I think we there 10 days, I think. Not long
enough.
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Speaker 1: And you went with internship program?
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Speaker 2: we went with the we went with Joe Castro and that group. There
was it was a tour that we went on. It was a tour we went on and went to
about three or four different islands and stuff. So it
was kind of fun. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: When did your family immigrate to the United States?
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Speaker 2: But my grandfather's well, I've done my grandfather on my
father's side now and to do my grandfather on my mother's side. My
grandfather, my mother's side got here in 1925, I think. Yeah.
1925 I believe he got here.
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Speaker 1: Why did your family leave?
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Speaker 2: Because there was no work on the Azore islands.
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Speaker 1: And where did your family settle in Hanford or?
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Speaker 2: my grandfather on my mother's side settled in San Jose with
his brothers, and then his cousins, all moved to Hanford. So my
grandfather, he saved money up. And then he came to Fresno.
Actually he came to Hanford and started milking cows. And then he got
enough money and then he bought his own little dairy and then he set up
his own little dairy and he had his own little grocery
store for the Portuguese people in the area for everybody but for the
Portuguese people do in the area, and gas station and everything so
that's that's how that's where I grew up. I grew up at on the
dairy on my grandpa Gonzales dairy
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Speaker 1: and do they is the dairy still going?
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Speaker 2: No, it's down here on highway 41 and Central Avenue. There's
Tarleton and sons. It's construction company. That's where my grandpa's
dairy was at. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: how long was it going on for?
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Speaker 2: my grandpa's dairy went from probably 1940, probably 35 or
1935 1940 to 1960. Something like that. I was young, seven or eight years
old when we get when my grandpa got out of the dairy
business.
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Speaker 1: Your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was like to
adjust to life in a new country? What stories were passed down to you
regarding their experiences?
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Speaker 2: Well, my grandfather and my grandma mother, on my mom's side,
they had a few hardships. And you know you what they always do and if you
know the Portuguese people, they'll always They are
very good savers and because they want to, you know, they want to succeed
and and they had the opportunity here to succeed. And they didn't do a
lot of things. You know, the big thing was going to a
Festa which like this hall, we have festivals, we have Festa Festa's four
times a year here at the hall. Then we have all kinds of other functions
on top of that. So when my grandparents grew up, that
was a big thing is when you had a Festa, that was what they did. That was
the big deal. Or if they had a matança, which is a pig killing, that they
would make linguisa and resellas and all that kind
of stuff. They play music, dance, make home a wine, they did all that
kind of stuff. They'd have big party, family, I mean, deal Portuguese
family parties. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: And you are a member of the first generation of your family
and be born in United States. How important was it to your parents to be
raised with a stronger Portuguese identity?
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Speaker 2: Okay. My family my grandfather's both were in the Portuguese
organizations, you know, and it's all it's all religious organizations.
And it was all always handed down. And we like this hall
here, this Portuguese Hall here in Easton. My family started the
Portuguese Hall in 19. They were involved in the Portuguese Hall in 192728. When my grandpa got here, my mother was queen, the whole
thing. So we were very we've been very involved in the Portuguese
community our whole lives. Yeah. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: How is the identity expressed through language, traditions and
beside that?
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Speaker 2: well we we would as kids, we'd always be around Portuguese
people. And then they would tell us what, what was going on. And, you
know, my grandparents would, you know, we're always we were
always in church, you know, we have very high religious background. So if
we weren't doing something for the festival or something like that we
were always doing something involved with the church.
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Speaker 1: Were you guys Catholic?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all Catholic.
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Speaker 1: And what cultural traditions have you maintained? Why has it
been important to you to maintain them?
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Speaker 2: Okay, the biggest Portuguese tradition that we maintain is
here at the Portuguese Hall here in Easton, we maintain the tradition of
our festas than our parades and our queens and how the,
how we pick how we feed people and doesn't cost them it's free. And we
have big, old Portuguese organizations here at the hall. You can come
when we have our Festas you eat for free, and what that
goes back to when Queen Isabel took her rings and jewels and all that
stuff because people in Portugal were starving to death. She She cocked
all of her rings and jewels and sold them all and just
went out every day and fed the poor people. So that's kind of what the
that's how the tradition started.
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Speaker 1: And how often are those things at the hall?
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Speaker 2: you can here in California, you can probably the last week of
April, you can eat for free, all over the state of California all the way
through the end of October, every weekend. If you
want to travel, there's a festa everywhere. You name the town and they're
pretty much where there's community where there's Portuguese communities
Atwater, Gustine, you know, crowsland in Monterey,
all the way up north down south Chino down in Los Angeles, and San Diego
and Festa is everywhere.
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Speaker 1: The hall here in Easton a lot been able to go to other cities
are like how often are you able to go?
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Speaker 2: We I go once in a while I'm always at the one in Pismo or all
the council's from all over the California. We all they all kind of
that's kind of the deal. Everybody goes to the Festa in
Pismo Beach, and you'll see probably 40 or 50 different councils from the
around the state representative representative Pismo.
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Speaker 1: Generally, how old are all those people that are involved in
that?
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Speaker 2: Well, a lot of them are old and a lot of them are losing
identity. Because they don't they haven't done kind of what we've we've
done. We've we're lucky that we have a group. We have a lot
of young people that have come from Azores in the last 10 or 15 20 years
and brought their families and stuff and they got involved in our clubs.
And we brought them in there on our boards now and
everything so we have a we have probably one of the youngest groups of
Portuguese kids, Portuguese people involved in all of our different org
are for different organizations here at the hall. So, you
know, it's going to go on for a while because they have still they're
more they're not as Americanized as as, you know, as my children are and,
and all that my children will participate. But once they
should take that back, they do once in a while, but they're not really
involved.
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Speaker 1: Do they think what you think?
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Speaker 2: My children? No, no.
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Speaker 1: Did you grow up speaking Portuguese at all or with them? Or
did they kind of losen at some point? Or it was just really not talking?
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Speaker 2: my grandfather and my grandmother spoke Portuguese to me. But
my grandfather that I grew up with my grandfather Gonzales. He wanted to
identify as an American, he didn't want to identify,
as, you know, a Portuguese person that didn't speak English. So he
studied, and he he was very well educated. In fact, he tried he he
worked. I was an altar boy, at the Catholic Church from when I was
a kindergartener all the way till I was in ninth grade. And my
grandfather was really, he almost became a priest. He tried to get me to
become a priest. In fact, I went to the seminary to become a
priest, but it didn't work out. So, but he also believed in the American
dream, that's why he, you know, he brought a bunch, a little bit of cash,
but some cows, started his little dairy and just went
from there then, he did and all the Portuguese people around the
community wanted a place for different Portuguese foods. So my grandpa
would he built a little market. And first he started just you
know, like doing out of the trunk of his of his car. And then he just set
up a market, little market and a little service station and the Richfield
oil company came and said, Hey, you know what, you
got a nice little market here. How about putting some gas pumps and we'll
put them in for you for free. So he did that anything to make $1 That was
my grandpa. He was very..
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Speaker 1: Hardworking.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he he liked opportunity. So and he instilled that
in me, he just that's kind of where my back. I mean, I take a lot of
stuff from both of my grandfather's because they were both
my other grandfather on the Cardoza side, had four dairies. So and he was
really ambitious, but you know, we already talked about that with I
talked about that with Gladys one time. It's like he
interviewed me one time about my grandfather on the Cardoza side, But my
grandpa on the Gonzalez side was my grandfather on the Cardoza side was
very more educated and very religious, super religious.
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Speaker 1: Did that in anyway, since he had more of the American dream,
did that change the way you like procedure identity or like, Did it
change throughout your life And likewise, your children as
well?
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Speaker 2: My children, I always believe that all three, all three of my
natural children, all three of them were baptized Catholics, and they all
three of them received First Holy Communion. And then
they went Renegade. They did whatever they wanted to do. I just wanted to
make sure that they had at least a sacrament in them are a couple of
sacraments baptism and communion that they and then after
that, they were they, as they grew older than that they did their own
thing and I just okay, fine, that's fine. But at least when they were
young, I had control of them and, and I wanted them to at
least have some kind of a, you know, some kind of a spiritual enrichment.
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Speaker 1: So trace, if you will some of the experiences growing up in
the Portuguese American community in the valley throughout your life?
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Speaker 2: and the what?
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Speaker 1: throughout your life?
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Speaker 2: Well, we've always worked I was grew up on the dairy and we
always had people around us because of the grocery store and stuff there
were a Portuguese and everybody is kind of like my
grandfather's grocery store was kind of like the morning meeting place.
And a lot of the Portuguese people would come and talk and you know, when
when you were growing up and you were young Every
Portuguese woman was your mother, and every Portuguese man was your
father and they all told you what to do. So that's kind of experience
that I had, but they always would take care of you. You never
were hungry. And if you went over any of, I mean, sometimes my parents
would drop me off at friends houses or something like that. You never
went hungry. Believe me. They couldn't feed you enough.
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Speaker 1: And did you work in the Dairy?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I grew up on the dairy. And I can recall back when I was
six, seven years old. My grandpa used to milk cows. They, what was kind
of a neat experience is my grandpa and we had another
he had another guy that lived there on the dairy and they would milk all
the cows. My grandpa would my grandma every morning. Every morning she
would make a breakfast to die for and everything. I mean
the boys, eggs, pancakes, everything. I mean You had every morning it was
like a going to a big smorgasbord, because that was she that's what she
did she cook, and we'd all eat. We work hard. We'd be
milking the cows and it was dark. And my grandpa would try to get me to
hold the big old five gallon buckets of milk. And I was I was young man,
but then we had chickens. We had turkeys. We had pigs.
We had a lot going on. We had cows. We had cows. And we butchered all of
our own meat. When I was a kid, we had rabbits. And, you know, I can
recall back. You know, my grandpa used to hang in the
chickens and turkeys on the fence. And he had one of those old stone
wheels that he would sharpen the knives on. He would pedal the stone
wheel and sharpen his knives. Then he would get up and you
want to talk about a six year old or seven year old kid and my grandpa
would go along the fence to go cut all the throats of all the chickens or
turkeys that Yeah, kind of freak you out a little bit,
but that's always Yeah, well, you hungry? that's what my grandpa used to
say, you hungry? you need to learn Okay.
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Speaker 1: That's interesting that you got used to when it might be
weird, like you said stuff.
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Speaker 2: It happens every day, but people don't see it all they go to
the grocery store and they see what's in there to buy. They don't see
what it takes to get it there. And, you know, it's it's
just the nature of what has transpired all through human life. I mean,
that's just what it is. And we, you know, we I had a great I had a great
childhood because my grandpa was very close very, he was
very, he was like a teacher instead of a grandfather. He would sit in the
evenings, because I learned because I, all the masters were in Latin at
the time. So I was fluent in Latin. And he would teach
me every night before he went to bed. He went to bed about eight o'clock.
So between 6:30 and eight o'clock somewhere in that after we had dinner.
And he would always cook for me, he would cook for
me, she would make breakfast, but he would cook, he would cook me
whatever I wanted for dinner when I stayed with him. And then but part of
the deal was I had to sit at the table with him, and he
would teach me Latin. So I used, you know, to learn mass and stuff like
that. So I was eight or nine years old, I was fluent in Latin, and I
could say, I could work with any priest in any of the
churches, as an altar boy, in any of the masses, because each one like
weddings, funerals, I do all the Latin for all those masses and weddings
and all that stuff. So it was.
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Speaker 1: What is your level of Portuguese?
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Speaker 2: level as for?
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Speaker 1: like fluency?
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Speaker 2: I understand. I speak the thing about it is what I do. What I
do is I farm we farm organic raisin grape. And our family does my family
does. I started that. But I have a lot of Hispanic
workers. Mexican workers work for me so I speak a lot better Spanish than
I do Portuguese I can muddle through on Portuguese but Spanish I'm okay
with.
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Speaker 1: Of all that you have accomplished. What are you most proud of?
What proud moments do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
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Speaker 2: Well, the biggest. This is kind of funny because I had here
recently, we had a lobster feed. And I had some friends come from Atwater
that we were on the trip to the Azores, didn't know
didn't know the people from Adam, and they become very good friends. They
came down for our lobster feed here. And they were asking questions,
because all my family's history is on the wall. You come
into the hall, you'll see my dad, you'll see my brother, you'll see
myself, you know, pictures of us all up on the wall with all the rest of
the community members and stuff. So, you know, our roots go
deep here. My father was instrumental in the construction of this hall.
He was a president of the hall at the time that that we finished building
this hall. And, you know, the tradition. You know, my
family's always kind of been around my grandchildren right now. They love
Portuguese food. I mean, if we if we have a function here, I either have
to take floss tomb, sweet bread, whatever. And, and
one thing that that we do, we go, like I had said about going to the
celebration in Pismo Beach. Well, I have a I make that a family vacation
and every year I make homemade floss, which are I don't
know if you know floss, are the Portuguese doughnuts. So and they're to
die for.
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Speaker 1: what's the difference in normal?
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Speaker 2: What's the difference? It's it's the flavor and the how its
prepared donuts are donuts or just put floss or you can ask Gladys her or
Dennis Borges floss is 10 times better than that than a
doughnut. But my children, my grandchildren help me make the floss. So
they look forward to that experience. Because on Saturday night, my
children make dinner I go to church, come back, my have a
dinner and then my grandkids and I with my grandchildren and I make floss
for everybody. And last year, I mean this last summer, we had a bunch of
friends come over, Gladys was there and everything we
fed. I made two batches of floss. We had Like 30 people there. So.
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Speaker 1: that's great being able to share the experience of having the
grandchildren
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Speaker 2: Yeah, my grandchild. Yeah. And they're excited. They mean they
love floss anyway. And, you know, they, they get to the point where
they'll sneak and grab a plate of them, cover them up, and
then go hide them someplace so that they've got them the next day.
Because they don't last. So it's, yeah, it's just something that we do.
And, you know, it's kind of handing the tradition down. And I
keep telling my grandson's, I said, you guys learn how to do this learn
how to do. I know grandpa, I know, we got to care we're gonna carry on
the tradition. So that's right. And we like him anyway.
Okay, cool.
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Speaker 1: So to what extent do you believe being Portuguese American has
shaped the way you have moved through life both professionally and
personally.
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Speaker 2: If you deal with Portuguese people They're very direct, very
honest. And when they make a deal, a deal's a deal. And when you as I, as
I've grown up, my grandfather's, both of them on both
sides have made deals, big deals with on a handshake. And, and I try to
pass the same thing on to my that my grandfather's passed on to me. Your
integrity is the only thing that you have. If you don't
have integrity, if you can't honor your word, then you're never going to
be a good man. And I pass it on to my children. And my children are that
way my children, you know, they, they, your integrity
is only thing you got, if you don't have that nobody will respect you. So
that's one big rule that I pass on to my my children. And I, in fact, we
had a birthday party for me last night. At my
daughter, she made a big dinner and I had all my family there. And we
were talk we were very open family. And we talked about things and, and
some of the things that you know, my my grandsons, one of
them 15, my granddaughter is 15 and the other one is 11 to 12. And, you
know, they sit there and they take it all in. So, you know, it's what we
do. Family is all if you every one of these interviews
that your people, the people here are going to do. Every one of these
people will say the most what's the most important thing to you? It's not
money. It's not fancy houses, it's your family. And the
hall here is like a ginormous family. That's three different four
different segments of it. But at the end of the day, we're all trying to
work for the same thing. And we're very that was really neat
is when you go the experience I had In the Azores was probably
most magnificent experiences because being brought up Catholic
heavy duty the Catholic religion is on the Azores
islands, and there's churches around every corner, and there's
rooms where they put the crown for the Queen for the festa and
there's little crown rooms and every little town, every
one of the
and how
crown
stuff,
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little village has a church and as a So, that creates me back to my
roots. And, and then, you know, there was things while I was there, that
my grandfather would talk about. And I was able to see it
and experience it myself. And it was it was moving very moving. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: What does Portuguese American mean to you?
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Speaker 2: Portuguese American means to me That the Portuguese people
have are very proud. We are very we we are very forthright and we are
very giving, very honest, and we try everyone here. When you
commit to something, that's what you know, that's what it is. And, you
know, it takes a village to run this establishment and what we do, and
everybody has a part and everybody does what they're
supposed to do. The ladies are hard super hard workers. You've never seen
ladies work. As hard as these ladies work are just phenomenal. So having
to be and being experienced in with the people that
have recently in the last 20 to 30 years to come from the Azores. Growing
up with my grandfather's that came from the Azores And being able to
cross over and see what these guys you know, even like
the young kids that came that have come and listen to what they then I
was able to put all the pieces together when I went to the Azores, so
everything kind of came together. It was it was, it was
super super. I mean, greatest experience I've had in my life.
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Speaker 1: That's great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
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Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community today?
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Speaker 2: The Portuguese American community today is becoming more
American because they have to survive we're getting dissolved the pure
you know I'm a purebred all my my all my roots everybody that
I'm that I'm from it's all I'm 100% Portuguese, purebred. There's not so
many more many of those, there's kids here they're hundred percent
purebred. But like my children or not, my grandchildren are
not you know, that's it's getting now these kids here they'll probably be
three or four generations and they'll start maybe sooner than that maybe
two generations, they'll start some of the Portuguese
will be going away. So they're gonna have to try to keep their traditions
also, but we got some good things going with, you know, our exchange
things with Fresno State and the Azores university. We
went to some of those and visited with some of the students and people
over there. So what they have there is easily translated over here. And
they want to know what they want to know more about us
over there and they want to come over here and learn about some things we
do. So I think it's great stuff. I think it's great stuff. You got to
keep it you got to keep alive somehow.
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Speaker 1: And are you planning on going to the Azores anytime soon?
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Speaker 2: Maybe well, Richard Machado is going to put, he told me, he
told me recently him and I got together and and he, he's kind of the one
that does kind of coordinates some of these trips with,
with the travel people that we use. And he said Dwayne, he says, you
know, I've been doing this and doing this is I'm tired looking at
volcanoes. He says, I'm going to do I'm going to do here's what
we're going to do you in for this. I said, Okay, what are you going to do
is I'm going to put a culinary tour together. So we're going to go to
four islands or three islands or five islands, is I know
all the people that are on all the restaurants, and we're going to teach
the people that are on the tour, how to cook Portuguese food at each one
of the restaurants. They're going to have classes,
you'll have culinary classes on four or five of these different items and
how they cook and how they prepare some of the things they do. I said I'm
in. Absolutely. I cook Portuguese food I make. I've
done a bunch of stuff. In fact, my father before he passed away, I make
what they call soup cloves, which is a kale soup. And my father and I and
I did it. And I kind of changed a little bit in the
recipe and tweaked it a little bit and stuff like that. And my father
goes, he started crying. He goes, I've never had so close since my mom
like this since my mom was alive. He goes, I'm telling you,
he says this is just like my mom cooked, just identical. And then we ate
a little bit out of I made a huge, ginormous pot, and we didn't eat that
much out of it. The kids and family didn't eat that
much. My father says, put that in. I'm taking that home and my father ate
that. Every night for about a week and a half. So you know, it's
important stuff.
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Speaker 1: If you could look back, what was the part of going back to the
Azores that just made you that kind of hit you like, wow, I'm in the
Azores and what was that moment that like your favorite
moment?
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Speaker 2: I had a lot of favorite favorite moments. We one of the ladies
Anna Borba. She's from Azores and she was with us, but she's married to a
Portuguese guy down in Porterville. And we went to
San Jonah's, which is a festival starts at 11 o'clock at night. And it
goes all night. There's 40 bands, there's like 120 dancing groups with
like 100 people in each group. And it goes on all night
long. 4:35 o'clock in the morning, we go and My family My grandma my
grandfather's side is from a village called robohenya. And Anna's family
and Anna's family came from the next village over and we
went because we were having a good time. So it was 4:35 o'clock in the
morning they had these little food booths and they had a food booth
Robohenya food booth from every village has their own little
food booth there. And her my village was making floss. And I went over
there and I grabbed floss for all of us. And then her village was right
next in the booth next door and they make homemade
linguisa and pop sec which is this homemade like a French bread but it's
really good with and then they homemade butter on top a sec and then put
linguisa on it. And we had floss and then I go this is
like heaven. This is you know an hour. We're about ready to ball because
it was just like and those ladies were just like my aunt's when I grew up
is this, you know, and they started talking. And my
grandfather Oh, your candlos? I said candols Are those peers? Oh yeah.
And so and and we were she was because they were starting to talk faster
than I could understand what they were saying. And they
were trying to talk a little bit English too. And she was helping to
translate because she's really, you know, she was from their, her village
and stuff and the ladies were there and she knew the
ladies and it was just, it was, it was quite an experience.
81
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Speaker 1: That's great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
83
00:32:34,710 --> 00:33:56,910
Speaker 1: Is there anything else we didn't cover that you'd like to
share?
84
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:08,890
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay, very good.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,900
Speaker 1: What is your level of Portuguese?Okay, what is your full birth
name?
2
00:00:04,170 --> 00:00:12,480
Speaker 2: Dwayne d-w-a-y-n-e Anthony Cardoza.
3
00:00:14,970 --> 00:00:18,240
Speaker 1: Were you named after anyone? is there a story behind your
name?
4
00:00:18,780 --> 00:00:33,810
Speaker 2: All the Anthony's go back about five generations. So all the
all my family all the males are all have their middle name Anthony. Just
because so we Yes we do.
5
00:00:36,030 --> 00:00:37,290
Speaker 1: When were you born?
6
00:00:37,470 --> 00:00:39,480
Speaker 2: I was born in 1952.
7
00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:41,970
Speaker 1: And where were you born?
8
00:00:41,970 --> 00:00:43,290
Speaker 2: in Hanford, California.
9
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,310
Speaker 1: What early memories do you have of a child in the Portuguese
American community or Portugal?
10
00:00:51,060 --> 00:00:57,840
Speaker 2: Well, I was never. I went to Portugal. I went the Azores first
time this past summer. The Fresno State group.
11
00:00:58,320 --> 00:00:58,980
Speaker 1: How was that?
12
00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,830
Speaker 2: Excellent. Ready to go back again.
13
00:01:02,550 --> 00:01:06,660
How long we were there? I think we there 10 days, I think. Not long
enough.
14
00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:08,730
Speaker 1: And you went with internship program?
15
00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:27,450
Speaker 2: we went with the we went with Joe Castro and that group. There
was it was a tour that we went on. It was a tour we went on and went to
about three or four different islands and stuff. So it
was kind of fun. Yeah.
16
00:01:28,260 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 1: When did your family immigrate to the United States?
17
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:50,880
Speaker 2: But my grandfather's well, I've done my grandfather on my
father's side now and to do my grandfather on my mother's side. My
grandfather, my mother's side got here in 1925, I think. Yeah.
1925 I believe he got here.
18
00:01:53,940 --> 00:01:56,400
Speaker 1: Why did your family leave?
19
00:01:57,210 --> 00:01:59,790
Speaker 2: Because there was no work on the Azore islands.
20
00:02:01,380 --> 00:02:05,640
Speaker 1: And where did your family settle in Hanford or?
21
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:54,330
Speaker 2: my grandfather on my mother's side settled in San Jose with
his brothers, and then his cousins, all moved to Hanford. So my
grandfather, he saved money up. And then he came to Fresno.
Actually he came to Hanford and started milking cows. And then he got
enough money and then he bought his own little dairy and then he set up
his own little dairy and he had his own little grocery
store for the Portuguese people in the area for everybody but for the
Portuguese people do in the area, and gas station and everything so
that's that's how that's where I grew up. I grew up at on the
dairy on my grandpa Gonzales dairy
22
00:02:54,900 --> 00:02:57,540
Speaker 1: and do they is the dairy still going?
23
00:02:57,570 --> 00:03:09,150
Speaker 2: No, it's down here on highway 41 and Central Avenue. There's
Tarleton and sons. It's construction company. That's where my grandpa's
dairy was at. Yeah.
24
00:03:09,210 --> 00:03:10,920
Speaker 1: how long was it going on for?
25
00:03:10,980 --> 00:03:31,710
Speaker 2: my grandpa's dairy went from probably 1940, probably 35 or
1935 1940 to 1960. Something like that. I was young, seven or eight years
old when we get when my grandpa got out of the dairy
business.
26
00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:44,610
Speaker 1: Your parents or grandparents ever tell you what it was like to
adjust to life in a new country? What stories were passed down to you
regarding their experiences?
27
00:03:44,640 --> 00:04:49,140
Speaker 2: Well, my grandfather and my grandma mother, on my mom's side,
they had a few hardships. And you know you what they always do and if you
know the Portuguese people, they'll always They are
very good savers and because they want to, you know, they want to succeed
and and they had the opportunity here to succeed. And they didn't do a
lot of things. You know, the big thing was going to a
Festa which like this hall, we have festivals, we have Festa Festa's four
times a year here at the hall. Then we have all kinds of other functions
on top of that. So when my grandparents grew up, that
was a big thing is when you had a Festa, that was what they did. That was
the big deal. Or if they had a matança, which is a pig killing, that they
would make linguisa and resellas and all that kind
of stuff. They play music, dance, make home a wine, they did all that
kind of stuff. They'd have big party, family, I mean, deal Portuguese
family parties. Yeah.
28
00:04:50,280 --> 00:05:00,900
Speaker 1: And you are a member of the first generation of your family
and be born in United States. How important was it to your parents to be
raised with a stronger Portuguese identity?
29
00:05:01,500 --> 00:05:44,250
Speaker 2: Okay. My family my grandfather's both were in the Portuguese
organizations, you know, and it's all it's all religious organizations.
And it was all always handed down. And we like this hall
here, this Portuguese Hall here in Easton. My family started the
Portuguese Hall in 19. They were involved in the Portuguese Hall in 192728. When my grandpa got here, my mother was queen, the whole
thing. So we were very we've been very involved in the Portuguese
community our whole lives. Yeah. Yeah.
30
00:05:47,490 --> 00:05:54,000
Speaker 1: How is the identity expressed through language, traditions and
beside that?
31
00:05:55,770 --> 00:06:23,310
Speaker 2: well we we would as kids, we'd always be around Portuguese
people. And then they would tell us what, what was going on. And, you
know, my grandparents would, you know, we're always we were
always in church, you know, we have very high religious background. So if
we weren't doing something for the festival or something like that we
were always doing something involved with the church.
32
00:06:25,020 --> 00:06:25,950
Speaker 1: Were you guys Catholic?
33
00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:27,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all Catholic.
34
00:06:29,070 --> 00:06:35,160
Speaker 1: And what cultural traditions have you maintained? Why has it
been important to you to maintain them?
35
00:06:35,250 --> 00:07:22,770
Speaker 2: Okay, the biggest Portuguese tradition that we maintain is
here at the Portuguese Hall here in Easton, we maintain the tradition of
our festas than our parades and our queens and how the,
how we pick how we feed people and doesn't cost them it's free. And we
have big, old Portuguese organizations here at the hall. You can come
when we have our Festas you eat for free, and what that
goes back to when Queen Isabel took her rings and jewels and all that
stuff because people in Portugal were starving to death. She She cocked
all of her rings and jewels and sold them all and just
went out every day and fed the poor people. So that's kind of what the
that's how the tradition started.
36
00:07:23,370 --> 00:07:25,620
Speaker 1: And how often are those things at the hall?
37
00:07:26,200 --> 00:08:02,320
Speaker 2: you can here in California, you can probably the last week of
April, you can eat for free, all over the state of California all the way
through the end of October, every weekend. If you
want to travel, there's a festa everywhere. You name the town and they're
pretty much where there's community where there's Portuguese communities
Atwater, Gustine, you know, crowsland in Monterey,
all the way up north down south Chino down in Los Angeles, and San Diego
and Festa is everywhere.
38
00:08:04,500 --> 00:08:10,530
Speaker 1: The hall here in Easton a lot been able to go to other cities
are like how often are you able to go?
39
00:08:10,860 --> 00:08:34,050
Speaker 2: We I go once in a while I'm always at the one in Pismo or all
the council's from all over the California. We all they all kind of
that's kind of the deal. Everybody goes to the Festa in
Pismo Beach, and you'll see probably 40 or 50 different councils from the
around the state representative representative Pismo.
40
00:08:34,770 --> 00:08:38,100
Speaker 1: Generally, how old are all those people that are involved in
that?
41
00:08:38,640 --> 00:09:40,770
Speaker 2: Well, a lot of them are old and a lot of them are losing
identity. Because they don't they haven't done kind of what we've we've
done. We've we're lucky that we have a group. We have a lot
of young people that have come from Azores in the last 10 or 15 20 years
and brought their families and stuff and they got involved in our clubs.
And we brought them in there on our boards now and
everything so we have a we have probably one of the youngest groups of
Portuguese kids, Portuguese people involved in all of our different org
are for different organizations here at the hall. So, you
know, it's going to go on for a while because they have still they're
more they're not as Americanized as as, you know, as my children are and,
and all that my children will participate. But once they
should take that back, they do once in a while, but they're not really
involved.
42
00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:42,570
Speaker 1: Do they think what you think?
43
00:09:42,990 --> 00:09:45,120
Speaker 2: My children? No, no.
44
00:09:47,220 --> 00:09:56,250
Speaker 1: Did you grow up speaking Portuguese at all or with them? Or
did they kind of losen at some point? Or it was just really not talking?
45
00:09:56,520 --> 00:11:27,360
Speaker 2: my grandfather and my grandmother spoke Portuguese to me. But
my grandfather that I grew up with my grandfather Gonzales. He wanted to
identify as an American, he didn't want to identify,
as, you know, a Portuguese person that didn't speak English. So he
studied, and he he was very well educated. In fact, he tried he he
worked. I was an altar boy, at the Catholic Church from when I was
a kindergartener all the way till I was in ninth grade. And my
grandfather was really, he almost became a priest. He tried to get me to
become a priest. In fact, I went to the seminary to become a
priest, but it didn't work out. So, but he also believed in the American
dream, that's why he, you know, he brought a bunch, a little bit of cash,
but some cows, started his little dairy and just went
from there then, he did and all the Portuguese people around the
community wanted a place for different Portuguese foods. So my grandpa
would he built a little market. And first he started just you
know, like doing out of the trunk of his of his car. And then he just set
up a market, little market and a little service station and the Richfield
oil company came and said, Hey, you know what, you
got a nice little market here. How about putting some gas pumps and we'll
put them in for you for free. So he did that anything to make $1 That was
my grandpa. He was very..
46
00:11:27,870 --> 00:11:28,740
Speaker 1: Hardworking.
47
00:11:29,340 --> 00:12:10,470
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he he liked opportunity. So and he instilled that
in me, he just that's kind of where my back. I mean, I take a lot of
stuff from both of my grandfather's because they were both
my other grandfather on the Cardoza side, had four dairies. So and he was
really ambitious, but you know, we already talked about that with I
talked about that with Gladys one time. It's like he
interviewed me one time about my grandfather on the Cardoza side, But my
grandpa on the Gonzalez side was my grandfather on the Cardoza side was
very more educated and very religious, super religious.
48
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:28,380
Speaker 1: Did that in anyway, since he had more of the American dream,
did that change the way you like procedure identity or like, Did it
change throughout your life And likewise, your children as
well?
49
00:12:28,770 --> 00:13:18,780
Speaker 2: My children, I always believe that all three, all three of my
natural children, all three of them were baptized Catholics, and they all
three of them received First Holy Communion. And then
they went Renegade. They did whatever they wanted to do. I just wanted to
make sure that they had at least a sacrament in them are a couple of
sacraments baptism and communion that they and then after
that, they were they, as they grew older than that they did their own
thing and I just okay, fine, that's fine. But at least when they were
young, I had control of them and, and I wanted them to at
least have some kind of a, you know, some kind of a spiritual enrichment.
50
00:13:24,060 --> 00:13:31,770
Speaker 1: So trace, if you will some of the experiences growing up in
the Portuguese American community in the valley throughout your life?
51
00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:32,910
Speaker 2: and the what?
52
00:13:32,940 --> 00:13:33,750
Speaker 1: throughout your life?
53
00:13:35,370 --> 00:14:24,270
Speaker 2: Well, we've always worked I was grew up on the dairy and we
always had people around us because of the grocery store and stuff there
were a Portuguese and everybody is kind of like my
grandfather's grocery store was kind of like the morning meeting place.
And a lot of the Portuguese people would come and talk and you know, when
when you were growing up and you were young Every
Portuguese woman was your mother, and every Portuguese man was your
father and they all told you what to do. So that's kind of experience
that I had, but they always would take care of you. You never
were hungry. And if you went over any of, I mean, sometimes my parents
would drop me off at friends houses or something like that. You never
went hungry. Believe me. They couldn't feed you enough.
54
00:14:25,620 --> 00:14:28,530
Speaker 1: And did you work in the Dairy?
55
00:14:28,590 --> 00:16:12,660
Speaker 2: Yeah, I grew up on the dairy. And I can recall back when I was
six, seven years old. My grandpa used to milk cows. They, what was kind
of a neat experience is my grandpa and we had another
he had another guy that lived there on the dairy and they would milk all
the cows. My grandpa would my grandma every morning. Every morning she
would make a breakfast to die for and everything. I mean
the boys, eggs, pancakes, everything. I mean You had every morning it was
like a going to a big smorgasbord, because that was she that's what she
did she cook, and we'd all eat. We work hard. We'd be
milking the cows and it was dark. And my grandpa would try to get me to
hold the big old five gallon buckets of milk. And I was I was young man,
but then we had chickens. We had turkeys. We had pigs.
We had a lot going on. We had cows. We had cows. And we butchered all of
our own meat. When I was a kid, we had rabbits. And, you know, I can
recall back. You know, my grandpa used to hang in the
chickens and turkeys on the fence. And he had one of those old stone
wheels that he would sharpen the knives on. He would pedal the stone
wheel and sharpen his knives. Then he would get up and you
want to talk about a six year old or seven year old kid and my grandpa
would go along the fence to go cut all the throats of all the chickens or
turkeys that Yeah, kind of freak you out a little bit,
but that's always Yeah, well, you hungry? that's what my grandpa used to
say, you hungry? you need to learn Okay.
56
00:16:14,250 --> 00:16:19,170
Speaker 1: That's interesting that you got used to when it might be
weird, like you said stuff.
57
00:16:22,140 --> 00:17:50,730
Speaker 2: It happens every day, but people don't see it all they go to
the grocery store and they see what's in there to buy. They don't see
what it takes to get it there. And, you know, it's it's
just the nature of what has transpired all through human life. I mean,
that's just what it is. And we, you know, we I had a great I had a great
childhood because my grandpa was very close very, he was
very, he was like a teacher instead of a grandfather. He would sit in the
evenings, because I learned because I, all the masters were in Latin at
the time. So I was fluent in Latin. And he would teach
me every night before he went to bed. He went to bed about eight o'clock.
So between 6:30 and eight o'clock somewhere in that after we had dinner.
And he would always cook for me, he would cook for
me, she would make breakfast, but he would cook, he would cook me
whatever I wanted for dinner when I stayed with him. And then but part of
the deal was I had to sit at the table with him, and he
would teach me Latin. So I used, you know, to learn mass and stuff like
that. So I was eight or nine years old, I was fluent in Latin, and I
could say, I could work with any priest in any of the
churches, as an altar boy, in any of the masses, because each one like
weddings, funerals, I do all the Latin for all those masses and weddings
and all that stuff. So it was.
58
00:17:50,850 --> 00:17:52,200
Speaker 1: What is your level of Portuguese?
59
00:17:52,770 --> 00:17:53,730
Speaker 2: level as for?
60
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:55,840
Speaker 1: like fluency?
61
00:17:55,480 --> 00:18:22,840
Speaker 2: I understand. I speak the thing about it is what I do. What I
do is I farm we farm organic raisin grape. And our family does my family
does. I started that. But I have a lot of Hispanic
workers. Mexican workers work for me so I speak a lot better Spanish than
I do Portuguese I can muddle through on Portuguese but Spanish I'm okay
with.
62
00:18:22,870 --> 00:18:35,140
Speaker 1: Of all that you have accomplished. What are you most proud of?
What proud moments do you remember in the Portuguese American community?
63
00:18:35,780 --> 00:20:08,180
Speaker 2: Well, the biggest. This is kind of funny because I had here
recently, we had a lobster feed. And I had some friends come from Atwater
that we were on the trip to the Azores, didn't know
didn't know the people from Adam, and they become very good friends. They
came down for our lobster feed here. And they were asking questions,
because all my family's history is on the wall. You come
into the hall, you'll see my dad, you'll see my brother, you'll see
myself, you know, pictures of us all up on the wall with all the rest of
the community members and stuff. So, you know, our roots go
deep here. My father was instrumental in the construction of this hall.
He was a president of the hall at the time that that we finished building
this hall. And, you know, the tradition. You know, my
family's always kind of been around my grandchildren right now. They love
Portuguese food. I mean, if we if we have a function here, I either have
to take floss tomb, sweet bread, whatever. And, and
one thing that that we do, we go, like I had said about going to the
celebration in Pismo Beach. Well, I have a I make that a family vacation
and every year I make homemade floss, which are I don't
know if you know floss, are the Portuguese doughnuts. So and they're to
die for.
64
00:20:08,420 --> 00:20:10,130
Speaker 1: what's the difference in normal?
65
00:20:10,750 --> 00:21:02,920
Speaker 2: What's the difference? It's it's the flavor and the how its
prepared donuts are donuts or just put floss or you can ask Gladys her or
Dennis Borges floss is 10 times better than that than a
doughnut. But my children, my grandchildren help me make the floss. So
they look forward to that experience. Because on Saturday night, my
children make dinner I go to church, come back, my have a
dinner and then my grandkids and I with my grandchildren and I make floss
for everybody. And last year, I mean this last summer, we had a bunch of
friends come over, Gladys was there and everything we
fed. I made two batches of floss. We had Like 30 people there. So.
66
00:21:02,950 --> 00:21:06,310
Speaker 1: that's great being able to share the experience of having the
grandchildren
67
00:21:06,930 --> 00:21:46,110
Speaker 2: Yeah, my grandchild. Yeah. And they're excited. They mean they
love floss anyway. And, you know, they, they get to the point where
they'll sneak and grab a plate of them, cover them up, and
then go hide them someplace so that they've got them the next day.
Because they don't last. So it's, yeah, it's just something that we do.
And, you know, it's kind of handing the tradition down. And I
keep telling my grandson's, I said, you guys learn how to do this learn
how to do. I know grandpa, I know, we got to care we're gonna carry on
the tradition. So that's right. And we like him anyway.
Okay, cool.
68
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:55,950
Speaker 1: So to what extent do you believe being Portuguese American has
shaped the way you have moved through life both professionally and
personally.
69
00:21:58,180 --> 00:24:29,230
Speaker 2: If you deal with Portuguese people They're very direct, very
honest. And when they make a deal, a deal's a deal. And when you as I, as
I've grown up, my grandfather's, both of them on both
sides have made deals, big deals with on a handshake. And, and I try to
pass the same thing on to my that my grandfather's passed on to me. Your
integrity is the only thing that you have. If you don't
have integrity, if you can't honor your word, then you're never going to
be a good man. And I pass it on to my children. And my children are that
way my children, you know, they, they, your integrity
is only thing you got, if you don't have that nobody will respect you. So
that's one big rule that I pass on to my my children. And I, in fact, we
had a birthday party for me last night. At my
daughter, she made a big dinner and I had all my family there. And we
were talk we were very open family. And we talked about things and, and
some of the things that you know, my my grandsons, one of
them 15, my granddaughter is 15 and the other one is 11 to 12. And, you
know, they sit there and they take it all in. So, you know, it's what we
do. Family is all if you every one of these interviews
that your people, the people here are going to do. Every one of these
people will say the most what's the most important thing to you? It's not
money. It's not fancy houses, it's your family. And the
hall here is like a ginormous family. That's three different four
different segments of it. But at the end of the day, we're all trying to
work for the same thing. And we're very that was really neat
is when you go the experience I had In the Azores was probably
most magnificent experiences because being brought up Catholic
heavy duty the Catholic religion is on the Azores
islands, and there's churches around every corner, and there's
rooms where they put the crown for the Queen for the festa and
there's little crown rooms and every little town, every
one of the
and how
crown
stuff,
70
00:24:29,230 --> 00:24:51,610
little village has a church and as a So, that creates me back to my
roots. And, and then, you know, there was things while I was there, that
my grandfather would talk about. And I was able to see it
and experience it myself. And it was it was moving very moving. Yeah.
71
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:57,190
Speaker 1: What does Portuguese American mean to you?
72
00:24:58,170 --> 00:26:22,380
Speaker 2: Portuguese American means to me That the Portuguese people
have are very proud. We are very we we are very forthright and we are
very giving, very honest, and we try everyone here. When you
commit to something, that's what you know, that's what it is. And, you
know, it takes a village to run this establishment and what we do, and
everybody has a part and everybody does what they're
supposed to do. The ladies are hard super hard workers. You've never seen
ladies work. As hard as these ladies work are just phenomenal. So having
to be and being experienced in with the people that
have recently in the last 20 to 30 years to come from the Azores. Growing
up with my grandfather's that came from the Azores And being able to
cross over and see what these guys you know, even like
the young kids that came that have come and listen to what they then I
was able to put all the pieces together when I went to the Azores, so
everything kind of came together. It was it was, it was
super super. I mean, greatest experience I've had in my life.
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Speaker 1: That's great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
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Speaker 1: How do you see the Portuguese American community today?
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Speaker 2: The Portuguese American community today is becoming more
American because they have to survive we're getting dissolved the pure
you know I'm a purebred all my my all my roots everybody that
I'm that I'm from it's all I'm 100% Portuguese, purebred. There's not so
many more many of those, there's kids here they're hundred percent
purebred. But like my children or not, my grandchildren are
not you know, that's it's getting now these kids here they'll probably be
three or four generations and they'll start maybe sooner than that maybe
two generations, they'll start some of the Portuguese
will be going away. So they're gonna have to try to keep their traditions
also, but we got some good things going with, you know, our exchange
things with Fresno State and the Azores university. We
went to some of those and visited with some of the students and people
over there. So what they have there is easily translated over here. And
they want to know what they want to know more about us
over there and they want to come over here and learn about some things we
do. So I think it's great stuff. I think it's great stuff. You got to
keep it you got to keep alive somehow.
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Speaker 1: And are you planning on going to the Azores anytime soon?
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Speaker 2: Maybe well, Richard Machado is going to put, he told me, he
told me recently him and I got together and and he, he's kind of the one
that does kind of coordinates some of these trips with,
with the travel people that we use. And he said Dwayne, he says, you
know, I've been doing this and doing this is I'm tired looking at
volcanoes. He says, I'm going to do I'm going to do here's what
we're going to do you in for this. I said, Okay, what are you going to do
is I'm going to put a culinary tour together. So we're going to go to
four islands or three islands or five islands, is I know
all the people that are on all the restaurants, and we're going to teach
the people that are on the tour, how to cook Portuguese food at each one
of the restaurants. They're going to have classes,
you'll have culinary classes on four or five of these different items and
how they cook and how they prepare some of the things they do. I said I'm
in. Absolutely. I cook Portuguese food I make. I've
done a bunch of stuff. In fact, my father before he passed away, I make
what they call soup cloves, which is a kale soup. And my father and I and
I did it. And I kind of changed a little bit in the
recipe and tweaked it a little bit and stuff like that. And my father
goes, he started crying. He goes, I've never had so close since my mom
like this since my mom was alive. He goes, I'm telling you,
he says this is just like my mom cooked, just identical. And then we ate
a little bit out of I made a huge, ginormous pot, and we didn't eat that
much out of it. The kids and family didn't eat that
much. My father says, put that in. I'm taking that home and my father ate
that. Every night for about a week and a half. So you know, it's
important stuff.
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Speaker 1: If you could look back, what was the part of going back to the
Azores that just made you that kind of hit you like, wow, I'm in the
Azores and what was that moment that like your favorite
moment?
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Speaker 2: I had a lot of favorite favorite moments. We one of the ladies
Anna Borba. She's from Azores and she was with us, but she's married to a
Portuguese guy down in Porterville. And we went to
San Jonah's, which is a festival starts at 11 o'clock at night. And it
goes all night. There's 40 bands, there's like 120 dancing groups with
like 100 people in each group. And it goes on all night
long. 4:35 o'clock in the morning, we go and My family My grandma my
grandfather's side is from a village called robohenya. And Anna's family
and Anna's family came from the next village over and we
went because we were having a good time. So it was 4:35 o'clock in the
morning they had these little food booths and they had a food booth
Robohenya food booth from every village has their own little
food booth there. And her my village was making floss. And I went over
there and I grabbed floss for all of us. And then her village was right
next in the booth next door and they make homemade
linguisa and pop sec which is this homemade like a French bread but it's
really good with and then they homemade butter on top a sec and then put
linguisa on it. And we had floss and then I go this is
like heaven. This is you know an hour. We're about ready to ball because
it was just like and those ladies were just like my aunt's when I grew up
is this, you know, and they started talking. And my
grandfather Oh, your candlos? I said candols Are those peers? Oh yeah.
And so and and we were she was because they were starting to talk faster
than I could understand what they were saying. And they
were trying to talk a little bit English too. And she was helping to
translate because she's really, you know, she was from their, her village
and stuff and the ladies were there and she knew the
ladies and it was just, it was, it was quite an experience.
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Speaker 1: That's great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Is there anything else we didn't cover that you'd like to
share?
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Speaker 2: Okay. Okay, very good.