Richard Machado Interview
Item
Title
Richard Machado Interview
Description
Richard Machado was born on the island of Flores, Azores and emigrated with his family as a young child to Central California. A leader in the field of agriculture, Richard Machado has contributed to the Valley and the Portuguese-American community in a multitude of ways and keeps his heritage to the Azores by visiting his native island and promoting it locally.
Creator
Machado, Richard
McCoy, Kelley
Relation
Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
Date
12-17-2019
Identifier
SCUAD_pbbi_00011
extracted text
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Richard Machado: Richard, middle name Corvelo, Machado
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Kelley McCoy: Were you named after anyone, Richard?
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Richard Machado: No, although
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middle name Corvelo is given generally from my,
you know, mother's maiden name. That was kind
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of the naming schema then, that you always took
on your maiden name. So with all my siblings,
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we're all Corvelos for the middle names. Later,
when you do your baptism, you get an additional
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saint's name. But birth name is that.
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Kelley McCoy: When were you born?
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Richard Machado: Born? January
the 28th of 1947.
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Kelley McCoy: And where were you born?
Richard Machado: Born on the beautiful Island of
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Flores, Azores in the village of Fajazinha.
Kelley McCoy: When did your family
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immigrate to the United States?
Richard Machado: We came in about 1949. We entered
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the U.S. in January, in fact. January the 22nd of
1949. We came from Flores to the Island of Santa
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Maria. And then from there, we went there by boat.
From there, we flew to Nova Scotia, spent a night
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in Nova Scotia. And then by plane to New York
and a night in New York and then by train from
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New York to California, my mother, and seven of
children. So myself and my six siblings. My twin
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sister and I were only 23 months old at the time.
My oldest brother was 16. So, there was a 15-year
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difference between our families. My parents had
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a row, and then a big gap and the
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set of twins. So we -- and so my older brothers
and sisters tended to be a lot like second
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fathers and mothers took good care of us.
Kelley McCoy: So did your mother and you and
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your siblings meet your father over here?
Richard Machado: Yeah, my father was already here.
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So my father had come actually -- have a pretty
long history of an association. My grandfather,
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actually my father's father, received his American
citizenship papers in Shasta County, California
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in the city of Redding in 1883. And I have those
original documents, I didn’t bring with me today.
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But I have those original documents. And he did
what a lot of early some Azoreans did was to come
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here earn money, and with the intent of going
back, buy more property, making a better life in
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the Azores. Many of them stayed. Some did go back.
In my father -- grandfather's case, he went back.
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And when my -- and my father was born there and
because my grandfather had been a naturalized
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American citizen, my father became naturalized.
But not naturalized but natural-born American
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citizen. And so, my grandfather wanted to return
back to the U.S. He was there. He went back. So
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now, I think things are better. So he came back to
the U.S., but my grandmother did not want to come.
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She did not want to leave her family into the
unknown. So my grandfather came back by himself,
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made a life here by himself and my
father stayed as a young boy with his
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mother until he became of age. And around age 23,
my father decided to come to the U.S. And he came
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with some friends of his, whose fathers had done
the same thing, had come and they had citizenship.
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So he had no problem. He had an American passport.
Came over. And he was single at the time, although
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he knew, he knew my mother. He -- he went back and
forth. Worked here for a while in the Bay Area,
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and went back, married my mother. And then
the first family -- five children were born.
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And after, after the birth of that -- the
last of the five, which was my brother, Tony,
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in late 1939 -- my dad decides to come back
to the U.S. again, leaving my mother and the
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siblings there to come earn money, do what his
father originally was going to do, which was to
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come back, buy more land. Now, you got five
children. You know, you need more land to,
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you know, to, to create a better
life and to feed them basically.
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And so he -- he came here and was here all during
the year-- the war years, and then returned.
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And that's when my -- my twin sister and I were
born. He was gone almost five years. So, I said
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he had a lot of romance for mom when he got back.
So they got a set of twins side of the deal. And
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so -- but I think he soon found that having been
here that -- now we have seven children. I think,
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you know, I'm an American citizen. I see what's
going on in the U.S. Life is -- life is still
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pretty hard in the Azores at that time. So it was
time to bring everybody here. Plus, my father had
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a sister already, an older sister, already living
here in Fresno County. I really think that if-- it
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had been my father and maybe only two children,
and maybe if he hadn't had so many children, he
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would have gone back to the Bay Area. He liked the
Bay Area. And there are a lot of Portuguese around
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the Bay Area, San Leandro … Other areas, San
Jose, have a lot of Portuguese immigrants from the
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Azores that were there. But he wanted to be close
to family. So he had his sister and some other
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family members here. And although -- and so we
were kind of in a rural area, you know, of this
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which in everything was agriculturally based. So
the Valley was agriculture, which was just kind
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of a natural tie end. So we came here.
Kelley McCoy: So when you and your mother
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and your siblings came over to join your
father you settled in Fresno County?
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Richard Machado: We settled in Fresno County
initially, made a couple of moves. We were there
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on a dairy, I think, in Hanford for awhile but
initially settled in Fresno County. My dad bought
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a little ranch. And then at that time, there
were the -- there were the -- the five of us
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or the seven of us, the children. And so, we -we settled in there and in the eastern area of
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Fresno, and pretty much remained. My sister,
twin sister, still lives in the house that
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we -- that we first moved into. We were there.
It's been remodeled and updated, of course, but
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she still lives on that property.
Kelley McCoy: So then, was your family
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then an agriculture family in terms of
[inaudible]. You mentioned a ranch.
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Richard Machado: Yeah. We -- we-- yes and
no. Well, my dad was not a full-time farmer,
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more of a part-time farmer. He never really
liked agriculture a lot. But my brothers
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and myself all had, you know, an
affinity for the, you know, for the land.
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And my dad actually because in his early days in
the Bay Area, he had worked on the ferries. You
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know, before the Golden Gate Bridge and before
the Bay Bridge, you know, the ferries were big,
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the only methods of transportation from the
East Bay to San Francisco. And so, he worked
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in-- he worked in the ferries and around, you
know, and around some steel mills. And then later,
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on his second trip during the war, he was
all there during World War II. He worked
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in Richmond on delivery ships and became a
certified welder. And -- and so that was work
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that he'd had. And so, when -- when we brought the
family, he went to work for a company here called
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[inaudible] Company, a steel company later became
Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel that he worked as a
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certified welder there. And then he had the ranch,
small ranch, you know, and what we grew up on. But
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my older brother, Fred, who went in the Navy for
four years, when he returned, he started farming
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and grew really a piece of rental property into
a major farm operation. It was one of the -- one
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of the great farms of Fresno County.
Kelley McCoy: You've mentioned how your brothers
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and you had an affinity for the land.
Richard Machado: Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: Can you explain a
little bit how that worked?
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Richard Machado: Well, I, I think,
you know, growing up, then, you know-85
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growing up on a farm of any size, when you see
things that grow, put a seed in the ground and
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something comes up and, you know, you can, you
can benefit from that com-- crop or commodity,
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you know, whether it's simply a backyard garden
with vegetables, which we had. I think we had
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virtually everything in the back-- in the
backyard garden. Although I didn't start,
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you know, my affinity for agriculture was from an
early age. I knew I wanted to be a farmer. When
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you go to the -- you know, you're in the 8th
grade, they ask you what you want to be, I want
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to be a farmer. And my mother would say, no, you
don't want to be a farmer. It's too hard of work.
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And then -- and then as we progressed and, and
went on to college, my brothers were discouraging
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me from -- from farming. You know, it was still
back and, you know, in the '60s, late '60s. And
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farming was -- was -- was coming about it, yeah,
but it was still a little hard, hard work. And,
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you know, their advice was go in where you can
work in an office in an air conditioned facility.
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You don't want to be out here on this hot, dry,
you know, hot farming operation. But -- And so,
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to some degree, I took their advice. But it's one
of those things about you. Can't ever take the boy
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off the farm. So my affinity for agriculture came
back. It -- it came out as full circle where now,
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you know, I do a lot in -- My whole life is
based on agriculture. So, I like the symbol that,
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you know, my job depends on AG. And so
agriculture is still a big part of my life.
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Kelley McCoy: But tell me a little bit,
you know. When you came to this country,
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you weren't even two years old yet. So
do you have any memory at all -103
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Richard Machado: No.
Kelley McCoy: -- of what
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your life used to be?
Richard Machado: Life there did
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not other than, you know, countless
stories and growing up. I mean,
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we were in a household where we, you know, we
spoke Portuguese every day at home. I attended
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Madison Elementary. As a kindergartner with my
sister, we didn't speak one word of English.
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We went to school and there were no, you
know, no special programs. Total immersion.
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And which I think today is still the best way to
do that. There’s too many crutches I think that
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are being provided today and people do not immerse
as quickly. But -- And, and there was always,
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you know, either as there have been, you know,
always helpful, friendly people. Neighbors.
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I can recall my parents, you know, going to
parent-teacher conference, right? Well, you know,
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my dad spoke pretty good English, but broken. And
those early days, my mother, you know, did not.
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But there was someone that went with, with them,
and we got it all done. And so, you know, there's
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ways to work through all of those things. So,
those were things that I remember. But growing up,
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you know, we had -- I have a very loving family,
you know. And we had a lot of relatives. It
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was -- there was always Sunday visits. And there
were those visits where, you know, you didn't call
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someone and ask them. If they're home, just go
over there. If they were there, fine. If not, you
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went on to the next house, you know. And if you
did show up there, there was always something to
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eat, drink, and, and story. So my parents visited
a lot of their friends from these doors that were,
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you know, in different parts of the community. And
because my older brothers and sisters were almost,
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you know, on their way developing their
own lives, it was my twin sister and I
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went with mom and dad. And then we had to sit
there in many places and just for hours and listen
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to people telling stories of the old country. Some
of my best recollections now, even as a teenager,
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was sitting at the Portuguese festivals
underneath the shade tree, and my dad talking
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with his friends, you know, about things that they
missed in the old country. And I'll never forget
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the -- my dad's recollection of missing a thing
called lapas. Anybody who's watching this,
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and who's been to the Azores, knows lapas. They
were lipids. They're the kind of indigenous to the
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Azores. But they're -- the -- they are sea urchins
that attaches to the rock. They're small. And
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they're generally grilled with garlic and olive
oil and just wonderful to eat. And you can't find
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them anywhere else or you can't find them in the
quality you find them in the Azores. They'd always
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talk about missing eating those. Well, you know,
we didn't have them here. And I never -- I never
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had a chance to eat those until, until such time
as I made my, my first return trip to the Azores.
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And that's the first thing that I wanted to eat.
And it was -- it was really good [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: Well, you're talking
about the lapas. Were there any
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other things that you recall, especially
of your mother? What was it like adjusting
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to life in the United States for her?
Richard Machado: Well, for her it was -- it was
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more challenging. She didn't speak English. And
she was not an American citizen, unlike my father,
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who was, you know, a natural-born because my
grandfather had become naturalized. And so,
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it made all of the children same way. We had
a natural U.S. citizenship, but my mother had
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to actually go through citizenship classes and
-- and become an American citizen. And she was
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a very bright woman. She worked hard. She studied
and she did really well. And we were really proud
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of her when she got her citizenship.
Kelley McCoy: So you mentioned growing up
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speaking Portuguese.
Richard Machado: Mmm-hmm.
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Kelley McCoy: What other traditions did you
maintain from the Azores growing up?
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Richard Machado: Well, I've-- we've-- I mean-- I
think sometimes simplicity of food, you know, it-147
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it's hard to believe that in my lifetime,
although, because I was as young as I was, I don't
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recall it directly. But countless witnesses
and stories from my siblings and my parents,
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when we left our Island of Flores,
there was no -- no electricity at all
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on the island. There was no running water in any
house. There was -- there were no roads, no cars.
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My brothers and sisters grew up reading and
learning to read by an oil lamp, you know,
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that -- and this is in my lifetime. And so life
was -- was very difficult and challenging. And
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it was almost a subsistence life. You work very
hard just basically to survive. And so, when
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opportunities came like to come to the U.S., we
did that. So that was, that was one of the, one of
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the changes, but the maintaining cha-- traditions
were the -- because everything was so simple. The
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garden in the back, where you ate, because there
weren't -- there weren't grocery stores to go buy
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things, you know. You -- you slaughter an animal
once a year and -- and you render it in the fat.
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You keep the, you know, the meat that you caught
or maybe a fresh chicken every once in a while,
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but out of the gardens were the vegetables. And
so, one of the first things we always had from day
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one, when we arrived here, we had great gardens.
And my mother used to make a soup that I love and
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it's very -- it's one of -- one of the national
dishes of -- still of Portugal Azores
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Caldo Verde, green soup. And that was
made from -- that made from any variety of greens,
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from turnip greens to mustard greens to water
crest to whatever the green that was available.
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So that was, that was something that I recall.
Just a simplicity of it. I love it today. I just
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had it two weeks ago in Azores, so.
Kelley McCoy: What new traditions did
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your family adopt when they got here?
Richard Machado: Well, I think, of course, new
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traditions were American. I know a lot of people
refer to themselves as Portuguese-Americans. I
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like to reverse the thing: I'm an American of
Portuguese descent. I mean, I live in the U.S.
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of A. I'm an American citizen. I'm proud of
it. It's the greatest country that God ever,
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ever created. And even though there's wonderful
things about Portugal--I love it dearly--I
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always like to refer as an American of
Portuguese descent. But we, we ended up
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adopting, of course, the traditional things. The
Fourth of July, The Thanksgiving. You know, Christmas
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and those religious holidays were all part of
the Portuguese culture, as well. But those,
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those kinds of traditions were things that -that we, you know, that we embraced. We started,
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of course, as I got into school. And we played
football and baseball. Those were things that went
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down there, you know, and my -- my parents came
to, to watch me play and my sister, as well, we
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participated in, in some of those things. So those
are kind of I would think the things that they
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brought about always -- but always with, you know,
the -- the Portuguese heritage all these going,
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you know, in line of parallel track.
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Kelley McCoy: Do you have children of your own?
Richard Machado: I do. I have three.
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Three daughters. And -- and their mother is
100% Italian. So my daughters are half-Italian
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and half-Portuguese, which couldn't be a
pretty good combination [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: So of your -- with your three
daughters, how important is it to you that they
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maintain some sense of Portuguese identity?
Richard Machado: Oh, it's very important.
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And they -- they all are -- they have
all bought into that totally. In fact,
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my oldest daughter, Gina, and her husband
Matt live in Visalia.
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And I have two grand-- grand-- I have two grand-I have two granddaughters, Chloe and Alexis. And
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they both have been in the last two years down
in Tulare, taking Portuguese classes and learning
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Portuguese. And although Matt, my son-in-law
is, you know, not an ounce of Portuguese in him
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but they -- the traditions have always been strong
with the girls going to festivals and being around
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our family all the time. And my mother, we have
an annual Machado linguica party that we made. I
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think last year we made about 1,200 pounds of
linguica with 150 people and it turns into a
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big feast day. But they've been doing that since
they were young child-- when my mother was still
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alive. They would help my mother mix, you know,
the ingredients for the linguica. The spices.
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And she never had a recipe. It was always
by smell she put in. She could -- she
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knew exactly what was right. And so, they were
rounded. And they do that. And they have lived
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in the Azores. All -- all of them. My daughter
Lisa, who's a teacher, school teacher went with us
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last year. She's -- she's single and-- but teaches
-- loves-- and she went last year again with us.
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And next year, we're -- all of the girls are
going along with our grandchildren. So we expect
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to have a wonderful family vacation in the Azores,
which I go to -- I've been going since my -- that
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first initial trip about 25 years ago when I first
savored the lapas, I'll never forget that, to just
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about every year going there. And in the last four
consecutive years, I've gone twice. And this year,
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I'll be going twice. I just returned in June. I'll
be going back in -- in August again. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So do you still
have family there?
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Richard Machado: I have a lot of family.
My mother had three sisters who never left
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the island. So their children basically
all stayed there. So I have a lot of first
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cousins. I'm in contact with them all the time.
And -- and today, it's amazing when I mentioned
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that there were no -- there was no electricity,
there was no running water in the house, no cars,
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no roads when I left there. I can go back there
today and sit in my village at Fajazinha in, in my
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cousin's little grocery store. And I have a faster
internet connection than I do here. So, I'm -- I-211
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we're texting all the time. I get, you know,
we get a Messenger where we're -- where we're
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talking visually. So it's a pretty dramatic change
in what's happened in the Azores. Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: So it sounds like, if I may say,
that you -- you not only have a family connection
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to your island, but a soul connection?
Richard Machado: Absolutely.
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Kelley McCoy: And is it important to you because
-- it sounds like your daughters have inherited
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that, that you've raised them with that.
Richard Machado: Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: Why is it important to you
that they're carrying on that tradition,
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which sounds like it's going to be
cultivated in your grandchildren?
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Richard Machado: Yeah. I-- Well, I think it's
a sense. I mean, obviously I have an Italian
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side as well. And my wife -- I visited Italy
several times. We were there last year for our
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45th wedding anniversary. And-- and so, they have
their Italian side, as well. And then this year,
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there's -- next coming year, when we visit the
Azores in Portugal, they're all going to go to
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Italy, as well. So they're -- they're going to
taste a little bit of their mother’s side. But
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I think having some rich connection, you know,
to culture and some of the traditions -- and,
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of course, those traditions are, you know, the
importance of family and friends, the culinary,
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you know, things of the wonderful foods of both,
of both Italy and Portugal. And Portugal has a
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wonderful -- I watched a program last night, Alan
Zimmerman on Portugal and some of the great foods,
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you know, that -- and there are a lot of the
similarities between mainland Portugal and
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the Azores and stuff. But there are
some things indigenous to the Azores.
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A lot of cookbooks, you know, that -- that
have Portuguese recipes that come both from
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the mainland Portugal and from the Azores.
And Caldo Verde is among the best. It's
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still one of my favorite things.
Kelley McCoy: So let's talk a little bit
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about what brought you to what you're
doing now professionally.
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Richard Machado: Yeah.
Kelley McCoy: You say that
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agriculture--being with the land--has
always kind of been in you. Where did you
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go to college and what did you major in?
Richard Machado: Well, I -- I -- in the days of
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the '60s, we went there with not a lot of -- a lot
of people went off to college. You know, I mean,
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not the college but didn't go away to college a
lot. And I'm a Fresno boy. And so Fresno State
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was, you know, my right direction. And so, I
went there. I majored in -- I had a math -- minor
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in mathematics and then a major in economics, in
ag-economics. And I just thought that was a good
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overall -- you know, you're never quite sure when
you go to college these days. I think today, if
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I were giving a young person advice, I’d tell them
to go off into the military for, you know, for a
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couple of years, get a sense of what he wants
-- come back. And then you kind of know -- who
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knows what they want to be when they're -- you're
18, right? But -- but what that direction and I
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mentioned the coaching from my brothers, that
you don't want to be on these hot farm summers,
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you know, working on a ranch and doing it. There's
better ways to make a -- make a living. Go off and
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work in an office. So I did. I was recruited
right out of college into an insurance field.
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And I spent a few years there, but my heart was
never really in that. It was always -- But the
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other thing that I had a great affinity
for was politics. And so I had the good
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fortune of being able to serve a couple of
governors of California. And so I served in
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the Wilson administration for years
as director of the California Trade and Commerce
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Agency. I got to travel a lot and go out around
the world and travel to Portugal several times
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representing California. So it was a wonderful
experience for me. And so it was -- after that
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experience that the emerging of these, you know,
technology was really exploding, you know. We had
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kind of the vision that the 21st century was
going to be an information-based economy. And so,
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that became, I think, a foresight on what, you
know, what directions were possible, and then
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coming back and trying to tie that to agriculture,
which was still in a very paper mode in terms of
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doing everything that it did. And you compound
that in with governmental regulations that require
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lots of documentation. It was cumbersome. It was
repetitive. And we just knew that there was a
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better way. And so, with the help of a good
partner, we formed and founded our company,
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basically to make agriculture, to give agriculture
a better method for complying with -- with a
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lot of the regulations -- that later expanded
into things like food, safety and others. And
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so our little company grew from a very humble
start in a basement, basically, to a very nice
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international enterprise right now
with about 160 employees.
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Kelley McCoy: Congratulations! How
did you come up with a name?
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Richard Machado: It's funny. It was not our name
originally. We formed our company under -267
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doing what we were doing. We were doing electronic
reporting services. So ERS was kind of our
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company. Let's -- let's -- you know, we're
just kind of call it as it is. And we -- we
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branded our product as Chem File. And so that's
-- we initially were doing regulatory chemical
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finding applications as the state of California
required that. And so -- but it didn't take long.
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We're dealing with some topic within
AG in the food area. They said, nah,
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I don't think you want chemical. No one wants
to hear about chemicals, you know, you
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find. So we've actually found a marketing person
and looking for somebody with the word “AG” in it,
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and “Agrian” was a registered website that nobody
was using. So we found it. We liked the name. It
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was catchy. My partner is Armenian. I like to
sometimes think that he thought that maybe the
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Agrian was more Armenian! But it was a -- it was
just a -- when that -- So that changed our name
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and changed our whole focus.
Kelley McCoy: So what are you most
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proud of in terms of what you've
accomplished professionally?
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Richard Machado: Well, I think -- I think I
-- I -- I liked my years in public service. I
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think it was something. I think we -- we helped
a lot of communities in California-- part of my
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job description here was in the-- surrounded
a lot around agriculture. And again, it was a
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lot-- it was the lynch into-- to the enterprise
we have today. But we started with the idea that
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I was recruiting companies to do value-added
agricultural processing in the Valley, whether
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it was one out of the state to the other. So
that meant when you had tomatoes, that you grew,
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that those tomatoes did not leave California
unless you did everything you could to them.
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You put them in a can, in a mug, and you cook
them and you made sauce, and you didn't ship them
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off somewhere else. It was so -- it was helping
to vertically integrate California agriculture
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into the food processing. And that's -- again,
that was a -- that was kind of a forerunner of
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watching and seeing a need for data and, and
that led to that. So that was a very -- that
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was very important time in my life. I think
it gave me not only the relationships and the
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connections but it gave me the knowledge, I think,
to look at what opportunities were coming. That's,
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you know, that term that we pulled out
of the 21st century, really being an
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information knowledge-based economy came from
those -- those days and that vision. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So I only have
a couple more questions.
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Richard Machado: Sure.
Kelley McCoy: So they're kind of identity
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questions, so to speak. And they aren't things
that we often think about. But then when we do,
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we're kind of amazed by what
we discover about ourselves.
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To what extent do you believe that being an
American of Portuguese descent has shaped the
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way that you've moved through the world, Richard,
both professionally as well as personally?
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Richard Machado: I think I am part of it. I
think there's a couple of things. But one,
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I think was--and I attributed a lot of this,
of course, to my -- my parents, my mother in
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particular, but even to my siblings--who gave me a
great sense of self-confidence. I think, you know,
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always encouragement and -- and -- and promotion
that you can do things. And so I -- I got engaged
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from the time I was in grammar school until
-- everything I can do in a high school and to
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college and politics. I mean I just-- and that,
and that was-- I think that that was part of that
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family culture, Portuguese family culture,
encouraging. My mother and my father were both
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big believers in education. And even though we
came from a very small rural village in Fajazinha,
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Flores, they had wonderful schools. Great,
great books. My mother was -- was just
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an expert on writing and wrote beautifully and
could read everything. I get -- my one regret was
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that I -- I read Portuguese now, but it's
challenging but I -- I -- I get several
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newspapers. I'm-- I listened to the Portuguese
station RTP, always trying to perfect, you know,
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my, my language skills. When not practicing
every day. It's -- it's a challenge. I know that
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spending just by the time I spend two weeks there,
the old country I'm -- I'm, I'm on my way. I just
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wish I could spend more time. But the -- so that
kind -- that kind of shaped, you know, the thing
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for knowledge and the encouragement. And I think
it -- it just guided me and then the sense of hard
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work. I mean, work was always something that you
needed to do and responsibility, honesty. And I
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think you incorporate that last one was faith that
you get, you know, that you -- your faith comes
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to you. But I mean, it starts with the family
introducing it. My mother was very religious.
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We went to church many times where my ears were
turned off. I -- my -- if I made too much noise or
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I got poked, you know, it was-- you know, it was-and it was-- and it just helps build all of your,
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you know, your personality and character.
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Kelley McCoy: So last question
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what does being an American of
Portuguese descent mean to you?
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Richard Machado: It means that I
have a clear identity to the history,
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you know, a direct path to where ancestry
came from. I mean, people today I think
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long for that. You see the growth of these DNA
tests, you see Ancestry, 23andMe, all of these.
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There’s longing, I think, for people to have an
understanding of, you know, who I am and where
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did I come from and how will I expand. What are
the things that make up, make that up for me?
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I think I'm fortunate and that I have, you
know, that clear lineage back to, you know,
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my grandfather and great grandfather's days.
Exactly where I was at. And many of them were in
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that very same village, and that very same island
in the Azores. So you, you know, you were tied
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there for hundreds and hundreds of years. And -and I've -- I'm a participant in both Ancestry and
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23andMe. I'm surprised to see linka-- you know,
some of these linkages that go back even further,
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but they're directly tied to that. So it means
to me, I think that the spirit -- I'm a traveler.
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I love to travel. I like to think that a lot
of my traveling around the world -- I've been
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to a lot of other places, and always eager to go
at the drop of a hat is part of that spirit of
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the Portuguese during the years of the discoveries
when they got on ships, when everyone thought that
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the end of the Earth was flat, took courageous
people to get on a ship to go out there and
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prove that it wasn't flat, right? You had to keep
going. And so, I hope that, you know, that part
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of what I have as -- as an American of Portuguese
descent, is that I got that spirit, you know, that
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the Portuguese were well-known for in the great
days of the discoveries running in my blood.
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Kelley McCoy: Thank you so much for your time.
Is there anything that I didn't ask of it?
00:00:06,855 --> 00:00:11,094
Richard Machado: Richard, middle name Corvelo, Machado
2
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Kelley McCoy: Were you named after anyone, Richard?
3
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Richard Machado: No, although
4
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middle name Corvelo is given generally from my,
you know, mother's maiden name. That was kind
5
00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:26,320
of the naming schema then, that you always took
on your maiden name. So with all my siblings,
6
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we're all Corvelos for the middle names. Later,
when you do your baptism, you get an additional
7
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:36,926
saint's name. But birth name is that.
8
00:00:37,594 --> 00:00:38,880
Kelley McCoy: When were you born?
9
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:43,840
Richard Machado: Born? January
the 28th of 1947.
10
00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:48,480
Kelley McCoy: And where were you born?
Richard Machado: Born on the beautiful Island of
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Flores, Azores in the village of Fajazinha.
Kelley McCoy: When did your family
12
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immigrate to the United States?
Richard Machado: We came in about 1949. We entered
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the U.S. in January, in fact. January the 22nd of
1949. We came from Flores to the Island of Santa
14
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Maria. And then from there, we went there by boat.
From there, we flew to Nova Scotia, spent a night
15
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in Nova Scotia. And then by plane to New York
and a night in New York and then by train from
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00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:34,960
New York to California, my mother, and seven of
children. So myself and my six siblings. My twin
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sister and I were only 23 months old at the time.
My oldest brother was 16. So, there was a 15-year
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difference between our families. My parents had
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a row, and then a big gap and the
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set of twins. So we -- and so my older brothers
and sisters tended to be a lot like second
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fathers and mothers took good care of us.
Kelley McCoy: So did your mother and you and
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your siblings meet your father over here?
Richard Machado: Yeah, my father was already here.
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So my father had come actually -- have a pretty
long history of an association. My grandfather,
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actually my father's father, received his American
citizenship papers in Shasta County, California
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in the city of Redding in 1883. And I have those
original documents, I didn’t bring with me today.
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But I have those original documents. And he did
what a lot of early some Azoreans did was to come
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here earn money, and with the intent of going
back, buy more property, making a better life in
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the Azores. Many of them stayed. Some did go back.
In my father -- grandfather's case, he went back.
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And when my -- and my father was born there and
because my grandfather had been a naturalized
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American citizen, my father became naturalized.
But not naturalized but natural-born American
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citizen. And so, my grandfather wanted to return
back to the U.S. He was there. He went back. So
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now, I think things are better. So he came back to
the U.S., but my grandmother did not want to come.
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She did not want to leave her family into the
unknown. So my grandfather came back by himself,
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made a life here by himself and my
father stayed as a young boy with his
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mother until he became of age. And around age 23,
my father decided to come to the U.S. And he came
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with some friends of his, whose fathers had done
the same thing, had come and they had citizenship.
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So he had no problem. He had an American passport.
Came over. And he was single at the time, although
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he knew, he knew my mother. He -- he went back and
forth. Worked here for a while in the Bay Area,
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and went back, married my mother. And then
the first family -- five children were born.
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And after, after the birth of that -- the
last of the five, which was my brother, Tony,
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in late 1939 -- my dad decides to come back
to the U.S. again, leaving my mother and the
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siblings there to come earn money, do what his
father originally was going to do, which was to
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come back, buy more land. Now, you got five
children. You know, you need more land to,
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you know, to, to create a better
life and to feed them basically.
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And so he -- he came here and was here all during
the year-- the war years, and then returned.
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And that's when my -- my twin sister and I were
born. He was gone almost five years. So, I said
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he had a lot of romance for mom when he got back.
So they got a set of twins side of the deal. And
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so -- but I think he soon found that having been
here that -- now we have seven children. I think,
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you know, I'm an American citizen. I see what's
going on in the U.S. Life is -- life is still
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pretty hard in the Azores at that time. So it was
time to bring everybody here. Plus, my father had
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a sister already, an older sister, already living
here in Fresno County. I really think that if-- it
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had been my father and maybe only two children,
and maybe if he hadn't had so many children, he
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would have gone back to the Bay Area. He liked the
Bay Area. And there are a lot of Portuguese around
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the Bay Area, San Leandro … Other areas, San
Jose, have a lot of Portuguese immigrants from the
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Azores that were there. But he wanted to be close
to family. So he had his sister and some other
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family members here. And although -- and so we
were kind of in a rural area, you know, of this
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which in everything was agriculturally based. So
the Valley was agriculture, which was just kind
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of a natural tie end. So we came here.
Kelley McCoy: So when you and your mother
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and your siblings came over to join your
father you settled in Fresno County?
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Richard Machado: We settled in Fresno County
initially, made a couple of moves. We were there
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on a dairy, I think, in Hanford for awhile but
initially settled in Fresno County. My dad bought
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a little ranch. And then at that time, there
were the -- there were the -- the five of us
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or the seven of us, the children. And so, we -we settled in there and in the eastern area of
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Fresno, and pretty much remained. My sister,
twin sister, still lives in the house that
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we -- that we first moved into. We were there.
It's been remodeled and updated, of course, but
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she still lives on that property.
Kelley McCoy: So then, was your family
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then an agriculture family in terms of
[inaudible]. You mentioned a ranch.
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Richard Machado: Yeah. We -- we-- yes and
no. Well, my dad was not a full-time farmer,
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more of a part-time farmer. He never really
liked agriculture a lot. But my brothers
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and myself all had, you know, an
affinity for the, you know, for the land.
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And my dad actually because in his early days in
the Bay Area, he had worked on the ferries. You
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know, before the Golden Gate Bridge and before
the Bay Bridge, you know, the ferries were big,
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the only methods of transportation from the
East Bay to San Francisco. And so, he worked
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in-- he worked in the ferries and around, you
know, and around some steel mills. And then later,
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on his second trip during the war, he was
all there during World War II. He worked
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in Richmond on delivery ships and became a
certified welder. And -- and so that was work
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that he'd had. And so, when -- when we brought the
family, he went to work for a company here called
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[inaudible] Company, a steel company later became
Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel that he worked as a
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certified welder there. And then he had the ranch,
small ranch, you know, and what we grew up on. But
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my older brother, Fred, who went in the Navy for
four years, when he returned, he started farming
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and grew really a piece of rental property into
a major farm operation. It was one of the -- one
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of the great farms of Fresno County.
Kelley McCoy: You've mentioned how your brothers
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and you had an affinity for the land.
Richard Machado: Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: Can you explain a
little bit how that worked?
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Richard Machado: Well, I, I think,
you know, growing up, then, you know-85
00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:31,200
growing up on a farm of any size, when you see
things that grow, put a seed in the ground and
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something comes up and, you know, you can, you
can benefit from that com-- crop or commodity,
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you know, whether it's simply a backyard garden
with vegetables, which we had. I think we had
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virtually everything in the back-- in the
backyard garden. Although I didn't start,
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you know, my affinity for agriculture was from an
early age. I knew I wanted to be a farmer. When
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you go to the -- you know, you're in the 8th
grade, they ask you what you want to be, I want
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to be a farmer. And my mother would say, no, you
don't want to be a farmer. It's too hard of work.
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And then -- and then as we progressed and, and
went on to college, my brothers were discouraging
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me from -- from farming. You know, it was still
back and, you know, in the '60s, late '60s. And
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farming was -- was -- was coming about it, yeah,
but it was still a little hard, hard work. And,
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you know, their advice was go in where you can
work in an office in an air conditioned facility.
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You don't want to be out here on this hot, dry,
you know, hot farming operation. But -- And so,
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to some degree, I took their advice. But it's one
of those things about you. Can't ever take the boy
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off the farm. So my affinity for agriculture came
back. It -- it came out as full circle where now,
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you know, I do a lot in -- My whole life is
based on agriculture. So, I like the symbol that,
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you know, my job depends on AG. And so
agriculture is still a big part of my life.
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Kelley McCoy: But tell me a little bit,
you know. When you came to this country,
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you weren't even two years old yet. So
do you have any memory at all -103
00:10:04,073 --> 00:10:04,945
Richard Machado: No.
Kelley McCoy: -- of what
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your life used to be?
Richard Machado: Life there did
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not other than, you know, countless
stories and growing up. I mean,
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we were in a household where we, you know, we
spoke Portuguese every day at home. I attended
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Madison Elementary. As a kindergartner with my
sister, we didn't speak one word of English.
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We went to school and there were no, you
know, no special programs. Total immersion.
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And which I think today is still the best way to
do that. There’s too many crutches I think that
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are being provided today and people do not immerse
as quickly. But -- And, and there was always,
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you know, either as there have been, you know,
always helpful, friendly people. Neighbors.
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I can recall my parents, you know, going to
parent-teacher conference, right? Well, you know,
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my dad spoke pretty good English, but broken. And
those early days, my mother, you know, did not.
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But there was someone that went with, with them,
and we got it all done. And so, you know, there's
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ways to work through all of those things. So,
those were things that I remember. But growing up,
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you know, we had -- I have a very loving family,
you know. And we had a lot of relatives. It
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was -- there was always Sunday visits. And there
were those visits where, you know, you didn't call
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someone and ask them. If they're home, just go
over there. If they were there, fine. If not, you
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went on to the next house, you know. And if you
did show up there, there was always something to
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eat, drink, and, and story. So my parents visited
a lot of their friends from these doors that were,
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you know, in different parts of the community. And
because my older brothers and sisters were almost,
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you know, on their way developing their
own lives, it was my twin sister and I
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went with mom and dad. And then we had to sit
there in many places and just for hours and listen
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to people telling stories of the old country. Some
of my best recollections now, even as a teenager,
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was sitting at the Portuguese festivals
underneath the shade tree, and my dad talking
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with his friends, you know, about things that they
missed in the old country. And I'll never forget
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the -- my dad's recollection of missing a thing
called lapas. Anybody who's watching this,
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and who's been to the Azores, knows lapas. They
were lipids. They're the kind of indigenous to the
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Azores. But they're -- the -- they are sea urchins
that attaches to the rock. They're small. And
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they're generally grilled with garlic and olive
oil and just wonderful to eat. And you can't find
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them anywhere else or you can't find them in the
quality you find them in the Azores. They'd always
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talk about missing eating those. Well, you know,
we didn't have them here. And I never -- I never
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had a chance to eat those until, until such time
as I made my, my first return trip to the Azores.
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And that's the first thing that I wanted to eat.
And it was -- it was really good [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: Well, you're talking
about the lapas. Were there any
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other things that you recall, especially
of your mother? What was it like adjusting
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to life in the United States for her?
Richard Machado: Well, for her it was -- it was
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more challenging. She didn't speak English. And
she was not an American citizen, unlike my father,
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who was, you know, a natural-born because my
grandfather had become naturalized. And so,
140
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it made all of the children same way. We had
a natural U.S. citizenship, but my mother had
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to actually go through citizenship classes and
-- and become an American citizen. And she was
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a very bright woman. She worked hard. She studied
and she did really well. And we were really proud
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of her when she got her citizenship.
Kelley McCoy: So you mentioned growing up
144
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speaking Portuguese.
Richard Machado: Mmm-hmm.
145
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Kelley McCoy: What other traditions did you
maintain from the Azores growing up?
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Richard Machado: Well, I've-- we've-- I mean-- I
think sometimes simplicity of food, you know, it-147
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:22,320
it's hard to believe that in my lifetime,
although, because I was as young as I was, I don't
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recall it directly. But countless witnesses
and stories from my siblings and my parents,
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when we left our Island of Flores,
there was no -- no electricity at all
150
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on the island. There was no running water in any
house. There was -- there were no roads, no cars.
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My brothers and sisters grew up reading and
learning to read by an oil lamp, you know,
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that -- and this is in my lifetime. And so life
was -- was very difficult and challenging. And
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it was almost a subsistence life. You work very
hard just basically to survive. And so, when
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opportunities came like to come to the U.S., we
did that. So that was, that was one of the, one of
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the changes, but the maintaining cha-- traditions
were the -- because everything was so simple. The
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garden in the back, where you ate, because there
weren't -- there weren't grocery stores to go buy
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things, you know. You -- you slaughter an animal
once a year and -- and you render it in the fat.
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You keep the, you know, the meat that you caught
or maybe a fresh chicken every once in a while,
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but out of the gardens were the vegetables. And
so, one of the first things we always had from day
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one, when we arrived here, we had great gardens.
And my mother used to make a soup that I love and
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it's very -- it's one of -- one of the national
dishes of -- still of Portugal Azores
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Caldo Verde, green soup. And that was
made from -- that made from any variety of greens,
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from turnip greens to mustard greens to water
crest to whatever the green that was available.
164
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So that was, that was something that I recall.
Just a simplicity of it. I love it today. I just
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had it two weeks ago in Azores, so.
Kelley McCoy: What new traditions did
166
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your family adopt when they got here?
Richard Machado: Well, I think, of course, new
167
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:21,440
traditions were American. I know a lot of people
refer to themselves as Portuguese-Americans. I
168
00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:26,160
like to reverse the thing: I'm an American of
Portuguese descent. I mean, I live in the U.S.
169
00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:31,440
of A. I'm an American citizen. I'm proud of
it. It's the greatest country that God ever,
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ever created. And even though there's wonderful
things about Portugal--I love it dearly--I
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00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:42,480
always like to refer as an American of
Portuguese descent. But we, we ended up
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adopting, of course, the traditional things. The
Fourth of July, The Thanksgiving. You know, Christmas
173
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and those religious holidays were all part of
the Portuguese culture, as well. But those,
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those kinds of traditions were things that -that we, you know, that we embraced. We started,
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of course, as I got into school. And we played
football and baseball. Those were things that went
176
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down there, you know, and my -- my parents came
to, to watch me play and my sister, as well, we
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participated in, in some of those things. So those
are kind of I would think the things that they
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brought about always -- but always with, you know,
the -- the Portuguese heritage all these going,
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you know, in line of parallel track.
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Kelley McCoy: Do you have children of your own?
Richard Machado: I do. I have three.
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Three daughters. And -- and their mother is
100% Italian. So my daughters are half-Italian
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and half-Portuguese, which couldn't be a
pretty good combination [laughs].
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Kelley McCoy: So of your -- with your three
daughters, how important is it to you that they
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maintain some sense of Portuguese identity?
Richard Machado: Oh, it's very important.
185
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And they -- they all are -- they have
all bought into that totally. In fact,
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my oldest daughter, Gina, and her husband
Matt live in Visalia.
187
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And I have two grand-- grand-- I have two grand-I have two granddaughters, Chloe and Alexis. And
188
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they both have been in the last two years down
in Tulare, taking Portuguese classes and learning
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Portuguese. And although Matt, my son-in-law
is, you know, not an ounce of Portuguese in him
190
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but they -- the traditions have always been strong
with the girls going to festivals and being around
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our family all the time. And my mother, we have
an annual Machado linguica party that we made. I
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00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:39,840
think last year we made about 1,200 pounds of
linguica with 150 people and it turns into a
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00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,160
big feast day. But they've been doing that since
they were young child-- when my mother was still
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alive. They would help my mother mix, you know,
the ingredients for the linguica. The spices.
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And she never had a recipe. It was always
by smell she put in. She could -- she
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knew exactly what was right. And so, they were
rounded. And they do that. And they have lived
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in the Azores. All -- all of them. My daughter
Lisa, who's a teacher, school teacher went with us
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last year. She's -- she's single and-- but teaches
-- loves-- and she went last year again with us.
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And next year, we're -- all of the girls are
going along with our grandchildren. So we expect
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to have a wonderful family vacation in the Azores,
which I go to -- I've been going since my -- that
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first initial trip about 25 years ago when I first
savored the lapas, I'll never forget that, to just
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about every year going there. And in the last four
consecutive years, I've gone twice. And this year,
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I'll be going twice. I just returned in June. I'll
be going back in -- in August again. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So do you still
have family there?
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Richard Machado: I have a lot of family.
My mother had three sisters who never left
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the island. So their children basically
all stayed there. So I have a lot of first
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cousins. I'm in contact with them all the time.
And -- and today, it's amazing when I mentioned
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that there were no -- there was no electricity,
there was no running water in the house, no cars,
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no roads when I left there. I can go back there
today and sit in my village at Fajazinha in, in my
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cousin's little grocery store. And I have a faster
internet connection than I do here. So, I'm -- I-211
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we're texting all the time. I get, you know,
we get a Messenger where we're -- where we're
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talking visually. So it's a pretty dramatic change
in what's happened in the Azores. Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: So it sounds like, if I may say,
that you -- you not only have a family connection
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to your island, but a soul connection?
Richard Machado: Absolutely.
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Kelley McCoy: And is it important to you because
-- it sounds like your daughters have inherited
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that, that you've raised them with that.
Richard Machado: Yes.
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Kelley McCoy: Why is it important to you
that they're carrying on that tradition,
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which sounds like it's going to be
cultivated in your grandchildren?
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Richard Machado: Yeah. I-- Well, I think it's
a sense. I mean, obviously I have an Italian
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side as well. And my wife -- I visited Italy
several times. We were there last year for our
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45th wedding anniversary. And-- and so, they have
their Italian side, as well. And then this year,
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there's -- next coming year, when we visit the
Azores in Portugal, they're all going to go to
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Italy, as well. So they're -- they're going to
taste a little bit of their mother’s side. But
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I think having some rich connection, you know,
to culture and some of the traditions -- and,
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of course, those traditions are, you know, the
importance of family and friends, the culinary,
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you know, things of the wonderful foods of both,
of both Italy and Portugal. And Portugal has a
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wonderful -- I watched a program last night, Alan
Zimmerman on Portugal and some of the great foods,
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you know, that -- and there are a lot of the
similarities between mainland Portugal and
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the Azores and stuff. But there are
some things indigenous to the Azores.
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A lot of cookbooks, you know, that -- that
have Portuguese recipes that come both from
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the mainland Portugal and from the Azores.
And Caldo Verde is among the best. It's
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still one of my favorite things.
Kelley McCoy: So let's talk a little bit
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about what brought you to what you're
doing now professionally.
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Richard Machado: Yeah.
Kelley McCoy: You say that
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agriculture--being with the land--has
always kind of been in you. Where did you
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go to college and what did you major in?
Richard Machado: Well, I -- I -- in the days of
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the '60s, we went there with not a lot of -- a lot
of people went off to college. You know, I mean,
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not the college but didn't go away to college a
lot. And I'm a Fresno boy. And so Fresno State
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was, you know, my right direction. And so, I
went there. I majored in -- I had a math -- minor
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in mathematics and then a major in economics, in
ag-economics. And I just thought that was a good
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overall -- you know, you're never quite sure when
you go to college these days. I think today, if
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I were giving a young person advice, I’d tell them
to go off into the military for, you know, for a
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couple of years, get a sense of what he wants
-- come back. And then you kind of know -- who
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knows what they want to be when they're -- you're
18, right? But -- but what that direction and I
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mentioned the coaching from my brothers, that
you don't want to be on these hot farm summers,
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you know, working on a ranch and doing it. There's
better ways to make a -- make a living. Go off and
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work in an office. So I did. I was recruited
right out of college into an insurance field.
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And I spent a few years there, but my heart was
never really in that. It was always -- But the
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other thing that I had a great affinity
for was politics. And so I had the good
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fortune of being able to serve a couple of
governors of California. And so I served in
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the Wilson administration for years
as director of the California Trade and Commerce
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Agency. I got to travel a lot and go out around
the world and travel to Portugal several times
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representing California. So it was a wonderful
experience for me. And so it was -- after that
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experience that the emerging of these, you know,
technology was really exploding, you know. We had
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kind of the vision that the 21st century was
going to be an information-based economy. And so,
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that became, I think, a foresight on what, you
know, what directions were possible, and then
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coming back and trying to tie that to agriculture,
which was still in a very paper mode in terms of
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doing everything that it did. And you compound
that in with governmental regulations that require
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lots of documentation. It was cumbersome. It was
repetitive. And we just knew that there was a
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better way. And so, with the help of a good
partner, we formed and founded our company,
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basically to make agriculture, to give agriculture
a better method for complying with -- with a
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lot of the regulations -- that later expanded
into things like food, safety and others. And
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so our little company grew from a very humble
start in a basement, basically, to a very nice
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international enterprise right now
with about 160 employees.
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Kelley McCoy: Congratulations! How
did you come up with a name?
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Richard Machado: It's funny. It was not our name
originally. We formed our company under -267
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doing what we were doing. We were doing electronic
reporting services. So ERS was kind of our
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company. Let's -- let's -- you know, we're
just kind of call it as it is. And we -- we
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branded our product as Chem File. And so that's
-- we initially were doing regulatory chemical
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finding applications as the state of California
required that. And so -- but it didn't take long.
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We're dealing with some topic within
AG in the food area. They said, nah,
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I don't think you want chemical. No one wants
to hear about chemicals, you know, you
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find. So we've actually found a marketing person
and looking for somebody with the word “AG” in it,
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and “Agrian” was a registered website that nobody
was using. So we found it. We liked the name. It
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was catchy. My partner is Armenian. I like to
sometimes think that he thought that maybe the
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Agrian was more Armenian! But it was a -- it was
just a -- when that -- So that changed our name
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and changed our whole focus.
Kelley McCoy: So what are you most
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proud of in terms of what you've
accomplished professionally?
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Richard Machado: Well, I think -- I think I
-- I -- I liked my years in public service. I
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think it was something. I think we -- we helped
a lot of communities in California-- part of my
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job description here was in the-- surrounded
a lot around agriculture. And again, it was a
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lot-- it was the lynch into-- to the enterprise
we have today. But we started with the idea that
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I was recruiting companies to do value-added
agricultural processing in the Valley, whether
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it was one out of the state to the other. So
that meant when you had tomatoes, that you grew,
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that those tomatoes did not leave California
unless you did everything you could to them.
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You put them in a can, in a mug, and you cook
them and you made sauce, and you didn't ship them
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off somewhere else. It was so -- it was helping
to vertically integrate California agriculture
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into the food processing. And that's -- again,
that was a -- that was kind of a forerunner of
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watching and seeing a need for data and, and
that led to that. So that was a very -- that
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was very important time in my life. I think
it gave me not only the relationships and the
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connections but it gave me the knowledge, I think,
to look at what opportunities were coming. That's,
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you know, that term that we pulled out
of the 21st century, really being an
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information knowledge-based economy came from
those -- those days and that vision. So.
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Kelley McCoy: So I only have
a couple more questions.
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Richard Machado: Sure.
Kelley McCoy: So they're kind of identity
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questions, so to speak. And they aren't things
that we often think about. But then when we do,
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we're kind of amazed by what
we discover about ourselves.
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To what extent do you believe that being an
American of Portuguese descent has shaped the
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way that you've moved through the world, Richard,
both professionally as well as personally?
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Richard Machado: I think I am part of it. I
think there's a couple of things. But one,
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I think was--and I attributed a lot of this,
of course, to my -- my parents, my mother in
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particular, but even to my siblings--who gave me a
great sense of self-confidence. I think, you know,
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always encouragement and -- and -- and promotion
that you can do things. And so I -- I got engaged
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from the time I was in grammar school until
-- everything I can do in a high school and to
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college and politics. I mean I just-- and that,
and that was-- I think that that was part of that
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family culture, Portuguese family culture,
encouraging. My mother and my father were both
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big believers in education. And even though we
came from a very small rural village in Fajazinha,
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Flores, they had wonderful schools. Great,
great books. My mother was -- was just
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an expert on writing and wrote beautifully and
could read everything. I get -- my one regret was
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that I -- I read Portuguese now, but it's
challenging but I -- I -- I get several
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newspapers. I'm-- I listened to the Portuguese
station RTP, always trying to perfect, you know,
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my, my language skills. When not practicing
every day. It's -- it's a challenge. I know that
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spending just by the time I spend two weeks there,
the old country I'm -- I'm, I'm on my way. I just
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wish I could spend more time. But the -- so that
kind -- that kind of shaped, you know, the thing
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for knowledge and the encouragement. And I think
it -- it just guided me and then the sense of hard
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work. I mean, work was always something that you
needed to do and responsibility, honesty. And I
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think you incorporate that last one was faith that
you get, you know, that you -- your faith comes
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to you. But I mean, it starts with the family
introducing it. My mother was very religious.
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We went to church many times where my ears were
turned off. I -- my -- if I made too much noise or
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I got poked, you know, it was-- you know, it was-and it was-- and it just helps build all of your,
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you know, your personality and character.
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Kelley McCoy: So last question
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what does being an American of
Portuguese descent mean to you?
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Richard Machado: It means that I
have a clear identity to the history,
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you know, a direct path to where ancestry
came from. I mean, people today I think
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long for that. You see the growth of these DNA
tests, you see Ancestry, 23andMe, all of these.
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There’s longing, I think, for people to have an
understanding of, you know, who I am and where
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did I come from and how will I expand. What are
the things that make up, make that up for me?
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I think I'm fortunate and that I have, you
know, that clear lineage back to, you know,
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my grandfather and great grandfather's days.
Exactly where I was at. And many of them were in
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that very same village, and that very same island
in the Azores. So you, you know, you were tied
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there for hundreds and hundreds of years. And -and I've -- I'm a participant in both Ancestry and
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23andMe. I'm surprised to see linka-- you know,
some of these linkages that go back even further,
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but they're directly tied to that. So it means
to me, I think that the spirit -- I'm a traveler.
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I love to travel. I like to think that a lot
of my traveling around the world -- I've been
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to a lot of other places, and always eager to go
at the drop of a hat is part of that spirit of
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the Portuguese during the years of the discoveries
when they got on ships, when everyone thought that
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the end of the Earth was flat, took courageous
people to get on a ship to go out there and
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prove that it wasn't flat, right? You had to keep
going. And so, I hope that, you know, that part
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of what I have as -- as an American of Portuguese
descent, is that I got that spirit, you know, that
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the Portuguese were well-known for in the great
days of the discoveries running in my blood.
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Kelley McCoy: Thank you so much for your time.
Is there anything that I didn't ask of it?