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Title
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William Silveira Jr Interview
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Description
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William Silveira Jr. was born in the Central Valley. His grandparents were immigrants from the island of São Jorge in the Azores. For several years he was a very successful attorney, he became a judge in the Tulare County Superior Court where he did groundbreaking work in the juvenile sector and was instrumental in continuing with the sister-city relationship between the city of Tulare and Angra do Heroísmo in the Azores. He has researched and written about the Portuguese-American presence in Tulare County.
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Creator
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Silveira Jr., William
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McCoy, Kelley
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Relation
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Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute
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Identifier
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SCUAD_pbbi_00006
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Date
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07-10-2019
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extracted text
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William Silveira: William Silveira Junior.
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Kelley McCoy: So you say junior.
Were you named after anyone?
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William Silveira: My father, William Silveira.
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Kelley McCoy: And when were you born?
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William Silveira: April 7, 1942.
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Kelley McCoy: Where were you born?
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William Silveira: I was born in Hanford,
California. Our attending physician was my uncle
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Raldy Campus [phonetic]. He maintained a medical
practice in Hanford. So we lived in Tulare, but
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I was born in Hanford, as were my brother and
sister, at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Hanford.
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Kelley McCoy: When did your family
immigrate to the United States?
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William Silveira: They came at various times.
My mother's father, [inaudible] or John
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Tashara, came in about 1884.
My grandfather, my paternal grandfather, Williams
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Sil -- Correction. My paternal grandfather Joe
Silveira, Joe Sovey Silveira,
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came in 1895. My grandmother, Lavinia
Tashara, came in 1907. And
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I believe my maternal grandmother
came around 1910 or 1911.
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Kelley McCoy: Why did they leave the Azores?
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William Silveira: Well, they left because there
was no future there. The economy in Azores was
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very backward. They were overpopulated.
And there just was no future for anyone.
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Kelley McCoy: And did they settle here,
all of them, in the Central Valley?
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William Silveira: They did. They were already
-- Azoreans had started settling here in the
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Central Valley in the 1870s. They started out as
sheepherders. They developed a good reputation
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for being steady and willing to stay out in
the field with sheep. And so, they were hired
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first in these large ranches out by Lemoore.
And then, of course, they sent letters home
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and told of the opportunities here. And more
of them came and started settling in the area.
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Kelley McCoy: Did your grandparents ever tell
you what life was like in the United States
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when they first got here?
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William Silveira: Well, I had some ideas.
I knew it was hard. My paternal grandfather
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had started milking cows when he arrived in
Benicia. And he recalled that milking cows
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and the Sacramento Valley all had to be done by
hand. Lots of mosquitoes. Life was difficult.
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The31
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My maternal grandmother came, and she was- accompanied
an uncle, who had been living in Portland, Oregon,
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had actually participated in the Gold Rush. And
he decided to go back to the Azores one last time.
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And he told my maternal grandmother that
she shouldn't be wasting her life there,
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to come to the United States. So she did.
And he placed her with some relatives
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in the San Francisco Bay Area. And then another
relative was pregnant and going to have birth of
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a child down here in Tulare on the dairy. They
owned their own dairy. So my grandmother came
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down here to look after her. She was one of my
grandfather’s, paternal grandfather's sisters.
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And my grandmother remembered having to pump
water for the dairy cattle when the wind would
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not turn the windmills. There's no wind here in
the summertime. So the water had to be pumped by
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hand. This was before they had electricity.
She remembered it was a hot, hard job.
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Kelley McCoy: So it sounds like those who came
over worked primarily in agriculture. Was that
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also true of their lives in the Azores?
Were they working in agriculture there?
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William Silveira: Well, the agriculture in
the Azores that's practiced then was a very
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different affair from now. In the Azores, their
families might have small parcels of land.
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My maternal grandmother's family -- I think
it was just two and a half acres. My paternal
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grandparents had -- my paternal grandfather's
family had more land and a bigger dairy.
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[Unknown Speaker]: That's one of those
warning [inaudible] alerts. Sorry.
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William Silveira: So -49
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[Unknown Speaker]: Which
mean [inaudible] everybody.
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[Unknown Speaker]: I turned my phone off.
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[Unknown Speaker]: Okay. I'm willing
to turn my phone all the way off.
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[Unknown Speaker]: That's OK.
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[Unknown Speaker]: Why didn't you just
turn the sound down? But I didn't know.
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[Unknown Speaker]: If there was an opportunity
to help this little girl or little boy's family.
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William Silveira: Okay.
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[Unknown Speaker]: I was
wondering is it [inaudible].
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[Unknown Speaker]: I was going to
say, did you feel something? Harold,
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did you feel something? Sorry. All right.
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William Silveira:
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Anyway. The agriculture practice there is very
different from the United States. On very small
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parcels of land. My paternal grandfather's family
actually had what was viewed as a big dairy
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in St. Jorge or Sao Jorge Island. And
they had like, maybe 30 cows. And they
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would take the milk from the cows and make
cheese and export to continental Portugal.
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And so he actually engaged in that business
here in the United States for a period of time.
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Kelley McCoy: So it sounds like they came
to this country seeking opportunities.
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What they found was hardship. Did anyone ever
go back, or did they decide, “This is where
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we're going to cast our lot. We're going to stay”?
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William Silveira: No. They
didn't want to come back.
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They -- My grandfather, like I told
you, my paternal grandfather came
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in 1895. By 1912, he was well established
with a farm and a dairy of his own.
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On my mother's side of the family, her
father had saved money being a sheepherder.
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They purchased land northeast of
Hanford and lived there from 1907 until
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he died. And then my grandmother died in the
early '80s. Lived there the rest of their lives.
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Kelley McCoy: As we know, anti-immigrant sentiment
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is something that all immigrant groups
have faced at one time or another.
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Do you recall your grandparents ever telling
you about anything that they encountered?
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William Silveira: Well, there was obviously
some bigotry about Portuguese immigrants.
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I don't think my father was ever bothered by
it, nor do I recall my mother being bothered by
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it. But you asked about the immigration issues. My
father had an aunt who was, in fact, his godmother
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Rose. And her husband did not like it here in
the United States. And he wanted to return to
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the Azores and did so about 1920. He subsequently
committed suicide there. And she wanted to return
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to the United States and she couldn't. Immigration
laws had changed and she wasn't allowed to return.
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Kelley McCoy: I'm really sorry to
hear about that. [Music]
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You're a member
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of the second generation of your family to
be born in the United States. How important
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was it to your parents that you be raised
with a strong Portuguese sense of [inaudible]?
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Candace Egan: Wait till the
clock stops before you start.
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Kelley McCoy: Do I need to rephrase the question?
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Candace Egan: I think we can understand. Well, if you want to, you can.
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[Unknown Speaker]: We can
understand what you said.
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Kelley McCoy: OK.
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Candace Egan: But we
don't want the clock over you.
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William Silveira: My parents thought it was
important for me to maintain some Portuguese
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identity. I had learned to speak Portuguese in
my grandmother's-- paternal grandmother's--home.
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She spoke Portuguese in the home. And we would
attend Portuguese Holy Ghost celebrations,
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that sort of thing. As we grew
older, we participated in fraternal
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society organizations that
promoted the Portuguese culture.
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Kelley McCoy: As you got older and
established a family of your own,
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what traditions and customs have
you made an effort to preserve?
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William Silveira: Well, I must confess, very
few. As a judge, I became very caught up in
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the public life here. Our children attended
parochial school in Tulare and had some
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involvement in Portuguese culture there through
the Catholic Church. But that was about it.
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I think, once, my son was an escort
at a Portuguese Holy Ghost Festival
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in Tipton, an escort to one of
the queens, but that was about it.
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Kelley McCoy: What kind of stories -- You know,
a lot of times what binds families together,
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immigrant families together are the stories
that are passed down through generations.
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What kind of stories have come down to
you about your parents and grandparents?
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William Silveira: Well, mostly, with
just family history, talking about the
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difficulties they faced in their lives.
As I said, in the paper I wrote for you,
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my paternal grandfather had a lot of difficulties
with the onset of the Great Depression.
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So I remember hearing many stories about
the hardship of the Depression days.
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He had to give up his farm on a location
that's now part of the city of Tulare.
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They moved out to Goshen, and my grandmother
remembered, to a place with no electricity and
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no amenities at all. So she had to go back
to using coal oil lamps and cooking on
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kerosene stoves.
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Kelley McCoy: If I remember correctly, many
Portuguese boys were not able to continue going
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to high school because they had to stay and work
on the farms, but your father was an exception.
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William Silveira: Yes, he was. My father had been
an excellent student in grade school. He attended
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city schools, which was an advantage because
many young Portuguese people that attended
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rural schools, and I think the quality of
education was better in the city schools.
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My father excelled and, in fact, skipped a
grade and went on to excel in high school.
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He was an Eagle Scout. He became an Eagle
Scout. He developed a prize-winning pig herd
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and went on to win prizes. He later became a
Future Farmer of the Year an American Farmer
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of the Year. The award is only given once a year
for participation in future farmer activities.
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Kelley McCoy: So tell me
what your childhood was like.
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William Silveira: Well, my childhood wasconsisted mainly of -- early childhood of just
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playing in the dirt out on this large ranch.
We moved to a very large ranch that belonged
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to my uncle, Raldy Campus, in 1945.
And there were permanent workers on the ranch
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that lived in houses down the road from ours. So
they had children and we played -- played cowboys
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and indians of all sorts of games. By the time
I was in the sixth grade, we moved to our own
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farm. And I started working about that time in
the farm, had regular chores to do and help out.
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Kelley McCoy: You were a little boy,
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weren't you, when you were doing
that work? Did you say you were 13?
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William Silveira: Yeah, 13. Yeah.
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Kelley McCoy: So you received your bachelor's
degree from Cal and your law degree from UCLA.
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What attracted you, a young farm boy from
the Central Valley, to the field of law?
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William Silveira: Well, my parents had admiration
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for Joseph Soares, an attorney in Tulare.
I later became his partner. And also,
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I had admired a grade school teacher I had who
was studying law. Man by the name of Jack Luck.
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And then I think, maybe in high school, one
or more may have suggested that I consider
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taking up the study of law after I graduated
from college. So follow those suggestions, I did.
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Kelley McCoy: Was there anything in particular,
though, about the field that appealed to you?
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William Silveira: No.
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Kelley McCoy: It was a suggestion.
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William Silveira: It was a suggestion. I
decided I would give it a try, and I did.
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Kelley McCoy: It sounds like a lot
of people were all the better for it,
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as I get into my next question.
So there is some narrative here.
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William Silveira: All right.
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Kelley McCoy: I think it's important to have the background on the video.
So for more than three
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decades then, you were a judge in Tulare County.
And I did some research on you, as I said. And you
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gained both local and national attention for your
work on family and youth issues. I read that you
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instituted one of the country's first juvenile
drug courts and that your drug court program
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was designated a model youth drug court by
the National Association of Drug Courts.
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I also learned that you were a key figure
in getting a new juvenile detention center
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built here in Tulare County and that, away
from the bench, you served as a board member
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for a number of youth-oriented organizations.
So, you know, as I was reading this,
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beyond being impressed to be completely frank, why
did you choose to devote so much of your career
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to juvenile justice and issues
affecting young people more generally?
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William Silveira: Well, I can't really pinpoint
any specific reason. But I enjoyed working with
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young people. And the reason I enjoyed it is that
there was hope to turn their lives around. By the
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time you get into the adult criminal justice
system, you are dealing with people who have
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involved themselves in very serious--some
of them, very serious--criminal acts,
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and there's no hope of change there. And besides
that, the sentencing laws don't allow for it,
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so. But I enjoyed working with young people
and making the system better for them.
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When I started work as the juvenile court
judge in the early '90s here in Tulare County,
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the juvenile justice system was a stepchild of the
court system. And I set around to changing that.
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Kelley McCoy: So of all the things that
you accomplished professionally then,
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what are you most proud of?
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William Silveira: Well, I think the thing
I'm most proud of was the juvenile drug
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court program I had. We changed the lives
significantly for a number of young people.
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Some of them had -- When I put them into the
drug court, they had dropped out of school.
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They were attending continuation school or probation school. And they
were
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getting very poor grades because they
were skipping school and using drugs.
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And we turned their lives around. And some of
them went on to have very successful careers as
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adults. I was later thanked by their parents and
by some of them for what we did in that program.
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Kelley McCoy: That must have
been immensely rewarding.
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William Silveira: Yes, it was.
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Kelley McCoy: So to what extent, I know this
isn’t necessarily something we think very much
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about when we think about our ethnicity and our
backgrounds. -- But to what extent do you believe
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that being Portuguese-American
has shaped the way that you've
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moved through this lifetime, both
professional as well as personally?
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William Silveira: Well, I think, principally,
it instilled in me a strong work ethic.
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And I worked many long, hard hours. When I was the
juvenile court judge -- Well, let me start back.
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When I became judge of the combined Clarion
Pixlee justice court in Tulare,
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I did all the work of that court by myself from
1976 to 1980. When I left in 1980, my successor,
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Walt Derelict, said,
“this is too much” and asked the county
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to get another judge out there to help them.
Similarly, when I became juvenile court judge,
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we had one commissioner doing the work full-time
and I. And when I left, my successor, Judge Cramp,
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said it was far too much and asked the county to
give another commissioner to assist. So I think
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the work ethic that I had growing up on the
farm and from my family led me to do the hours
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that I put in. I would read innumerable social
reports and probation reports at home, at night.
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And Marilyn, as I was preparing for this,
Marilyn reminded me that she spoke to
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some judge's wife who said, “You mean your
husband actually reads through all those?”
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Kelley McCoy: Do you maintain strong ties
to the Azores? Do you go back very often?
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William Silveira: No. I haven't been to the
Azores since 1989. I would like to go back,
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and maybe one day we will. But I had
some distant cousins that live there.
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But they moved from there to Lisbon, and that's
where they live. And they're very distant.
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I had become acquainted with this distant
cousin and her husband when they were here in
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the early '60s relating to the settlement of the
state. And we kept company with them on our trip
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to the Azores in 1980, in a trip we took
to the Azores in 1978. At the time, no.
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Kelley McCoy: So I have one final
question for you. What does being
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Portuguese-American mean to you?
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William Silveira: Well, I think it means
identity with a specific ethnic group that
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has contributed greatly to life in the San
Joaquin Valley and continues to contribute
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in a business sense and a social sense.
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Kelley McCoy: Is there anything I didn't
touch on that you'd like to share?
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William Silveira: No.
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209
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