Carlos Mendoza interview
Item
Title
Carlos Mendoza interview
Description
Microsoft Word document, 11 pages
Creator
Mendoza, Carlos
Mendoza, Erika
Relation
StoryCorps Interviews
Coverage
California State University, Fresno
Date
4/16/2016
Identifier
SCMS_stcp_00004
extracted text
>> Erika Mendoza: My name is Erika Mendoza. I am 30 years old. Today is April the six -- seventeenth,
2016. We are at the Madden Library on Fresno State, and Carolos Mendoza is my dad.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And my name is Carlos G. Mendoza. I'm 65 years old. Today's date is April 17, 1916.
We're at Fresno State University, and my daughter is going to be interviewing me.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Dad, can you tell us about your early
beginnings?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I was born 65 years ago to a Hispanic farm worker family. While I was born in
Merced, California, I could have very easily been born in the many cities that my father, you know,
followed picking the crops. So I could have been born in Lodi, Huron, El Centro, or Yuma, which are all
cities of the path my father followed. The interesting told, the interesting story is that this being migrant
really had a toll on my family, following the crops, because it uprooted my family that I was born into
every couple months. I don't remember that, but that's what, you know, my mother, tells me. Well,
after following crops for about seven years, my father had the vision to give up being a migrant farm
worker, to settle down, getting a, you know, permanent job at a cemetery in my mother's hometown of
Brawley, or Broley [phonetic], as we say it in Spanish. That was one of the many good decisions that my
father made of settling down.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, thanks. So why don't you go ahead and tell us about your parents, like
grandma and grandpa?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My mother is a first generation Mexican-American who was born in Colorado. And
when I asked my mom is that how she was born in Colorado is that my father, which is my grandfather,
was also following the crops. At that time, they were picking tomatoes in Colorado. My mom met my
dad in Imperial Valley, where he had just emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico. At that time, my father
said is that it was far different from today. There was no fence. He just simply walked across the USMexican border. My father was a shoemaker by trade, and he had a small, small business in Mexico. But
he said that he could put his skills to better use in California and earn a lot more money to help his
mother and younger sisters who stayed behind in Mexico. Dad was not able to find a job as a
shoemaker, and instead turned to the most plentiful job around the Imperial Valley, and that was
picking crops.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can I ask you, Carlos, to just sort of paint a picture of your parents? What were
they like and their personalities?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I would say they were a lot like me, easygoing. You know, looking at the big picture.
Family came first, you know. While we saw a lot of divorces. I think my mom and dad, you know, sticking
together to raise our children, you know, had a big factor in, you know, how we grew up. We had a fun
family. My dad, my grandfather more or less continued the tradition that he was also a farm worker.
And, you know, it's interesting, he lost his life to tooth cancer. You know, something because even with - tooth cancer doesn't happen much these days, and you know, it was because of the lack of adequate
healthcare. But he was, my grandfather was, you know, farm worker. And that time, the woman, you
know, just like my mom, they just stayed at home and raised the family.
>> Erika Mendoza: So, did grandpa share any stories in coming to America with you?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My dad was a great storyteller. And one story that he -- that sticks with my mind
was sleeping inside the railroad cars. Because he couldn't afford, when he first came over, he couldn't
afford lodging. He used newspapers for a blanket. I mean, just imagine that. And for a pillow, he tied his
shoes and put them in the back of his neck. One morning he said that he woke and found that his pillow,
or shoes, were missing. Somebody took them. Que debo hacer? "What should I do?" he said to himself.
Putting his entrepreneurial, you know, skills to work, you know, remember that he was a small business
owner. He found a solution by something incredible, I mean something that shows his will to survive. He
went into a thrift shop and helped himself to a pair of worn shoes, and walked out. As he was leaving
the door, the storekeeper said, "Hey! Those are my shoes! You got to pay for them!" And my father
responded by saying is that, "You don't think I walked into your shoe barefooted. If you find my old
shoes, I'll pay you!" So the storekeeper, the storekeeper, he looked for the shoes for 30 minutes. And
after not finding them, of course he couldn't have found them, he said, "Get out of here!" But my dad
tells me that, you know, what he did was wrong, and he went back and made an anonymous donation
to the store, to the thrift store when he could afford it. I think that that was kind of unique.
>> Erika Mendoza: I hadn't actually ever heard of that story, so it's kind of funny. Okay, so what are one
of the best memories of yours in your childhood?
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, try to stay behind the microphone.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Alright. Yes, my father had instilled several core values, you know, that includes
respecting and helping others, being humble, believing in family, transparency, and using
entrepreneurial skills to get ahead. As a child, I drank powdered milk instead of regular milk. I enjoyed
eating ice milk instead of ice cream. You know, today's kids never heard of ice milk or powdered milk.
And eating ground beef five days a week, where essentially, I've told my wife is that I don't want nothing
to do with ground beef.
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard that before!
>> Carlos Mendoza: When I asked my father, you know, when I was young as to why he was making us
go through all of this. He reminded me that we are a family, and we all had to do our part because he
was saving money. And I remember that it was $1000 to purchase this house that was, you know, that
was in need of repair. But for him, it was home. Because he wanted to take us out of the projects. The
projects are, you know, HUD assisted housing. And you know, with all the challenges that we saw there,
you know, raising a family in the projects is really maybe -- no young child should be raised in the
projects. Maybe temporarily, but you know, a lot of them like live all their lives because there's issue
with, you know drugs and you know gangs, et cetera. But five years later, after drinking powdered milk,
and I specifically remember that, he raised enough money, $1000, to purchase a home where my mom
still lives today. You know, my dad was right. And in a bigger picture is that having a road map to
accomplish a goal is very important. In his case, he wanted to raise the down payment to purchase a
home to take us out of the public housing. And you know, without this plan which means sacrificing, we
would have still— I would have been grown up in the projects. He keep telling me that things don't
happen by themselves, and he was right. And you know, later on, working with SBA, that got reinforced
because, you know, in small business, you have to have a business plan to increase your chances of
success. But in real life, growing up, accomplishing anything that you want to do, you also have to have a
road map to get ahead. And I think I've used these skills to get ahead, which you'll see I did.
>> Unidentified speaker: Do you want to explain what SBA is?
>> Carlos Mendoza: SBA is Small Business Administration. It's a federal agency whose, who helps
entrepreneurs and small business owners start or expand their small agencies. They’re businesses.
>> Erika Mendoza: So grandma and grandpa were farm workers. Have you ever worked in the fields?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, but it's an interesting why. When the Bracero guest worker program, ended in
the late '60's, you know, and I was a, I was a sophomore in high school, there was a shortage of workers.
And this created a dilemma for the farmers. You know, the crops were rotting in the fields. I was in high
school. And upon the prospects of hearing, of earning extra money, you know, there was a shortage of
opportunities to work even if I wanted to -- I immediately took the challenge. And like many of my
friends said, "Yup! Let's go to the fields and pick tomatoes." I remember my father telling my mother
that this experience of working in the fields would help me, but I didn't really understand what he said.
But I remember waking up at 3:00 on my very first day working in the fields. This was on a Saturday, so it
didn't interfere with going to high school. Which was far too early. And being transported by bus to a
tomato field some one-hour away from my home in Brawley. I was getting a very large pail and being
told, and then told by the foreman, "Pick tomatoes." So I went about doing that, you know, busily
concentrating, you know, picking tomatoes, and not seeing what everybody else was doing. But I
remember that I filled my first large pail with red, juicy, and large tomatoes and showing it to the
foreman. Was I mistaken and embarrassed! I was surprised when the foreman just looked at me with a
blank face as he dumped all of my tomatoes to the ground. "Son," the foreman told me, "you're
supposed to pick the tomatoes green instead of red for them to reach the supermarket." From that
point onward, I remember several principles. You know, first, don't assume anything. I mean, who would
have known that tomatoes are picked green in the field? And but, and for me to do my homework, you
know, second principle was and one that I have never forgotten is that working in the fields is hard
work, and education was the road to not working in the fields. I remember on my very first day, arriving
back home, and going -- let's see, I must have arrived like around like 3pm, and going -- my mom asking
me, "I've made some enchiladas." But all I remember is going straight to bed and sleeping. I mean, I was
really, really tired. And I was fit.
>> Erika Mendoza: So did you ever go back and work again, or was that a one-time experience?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I did it, you know, a couple of times because as I said, there was a lack of
employment. And, you know, I saw the value of earning extra money and, you know, going to the
cinema, you know. And buying some real ice cream instead of ice milk. Have you got a tasted ice milk?
Probably not, right?
>> Erika Mendoza: No, I have not been fortunate enough to taste ice milk.
>> Unidentified Speaker: I was going to ask you, Carlos. You thought that education was kind of the road
out of this. What did your parents think about that choice, about prioritizing education?
>> Carlos Mendoza: You know, it's interesting. They showed me the importance, but they didn't -- Really
require me, I mean like force me to get an education. But it's something was right in my family because I
had three other siblings, and all of us went to college. My and you know, the when you start seeing
other -- my neighbors were also Mexican-American. It just didn't happen. I mean, like something really
happened, and I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I have two children. Both my children have
attended college. And but the same thing happened with my brother. As I said, my brother went to
college, and all of his children have went to college. So, you know, there's something there, wonderful,
that needs to be repeated over and over again because, you know, education just opens up doors. I
mean, it's -- if you don't want to work doing manual labor, you have to get an education.
>> Erika Mendoza: So you went to undergrad, and you went to grad school. Why don't you tell me how
your higher education has played a role in your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, my father, you know, came to America to improve his standard of living. While
he never graduated from high school, his work ethic was strong. And while he didn't exactly use the
words of entrepreneurial skills, I'm convinced that he knew what it was. He keep—he kept saying that
each generation had to be better economically and educationally than the previous one. And my father
said, "You know, son, each generation needs to make progress. I mean, we, especially here in America,
that gets you opportunities, so many opportunities." He reminded me that if I didn't want to do manual
labor, work in the fields, that I had to get an education. When I remember that studying -- I wasn't a, you
know, even though I went to Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I wasn't a -- in high school I
wasn't a straight-A student. I wasn't. I was a B-student. And I remember telling my dad, you know,
getting a B. I said, "Dad, I can't raise my grade." And but he said, "Well, how much time did you spend on
this class?" And he simply said, "Double it." And I remember saying the same thing to my son at Berkeley
when he also got a B for one of the classes. I said, "Well, how much time did you spend? Double the
time."
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard of that, too.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And you know, he didn't make it to an A, but he got a B+. Anyway, graduating from
UC Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I easily met my dad's test of beating him, essentially.
And I'm glad that my son, who also went to Cal, UCLA dental school, who is now a dentist, and you, my
daughter who is getting her MBA at Fresno State in December, are on their way to essentially beating
me. And this is ambition I think that every Hispanic family needs to have. You know, we need to make
progress. Giving, let's go back to you know, Berkeley because -- As I said, I was a B student. But in, you
know, I got admitted to, you know, Berkeley. And I remember seeing the movie, I believe it was by -Called Walk Out where a bunch in the like 1966, a bunch of students in L.A. walked out of their high
schools because they weren't being given the educational challenges that their counterparts at other
parts in the, like in Santa Monica, in L.A., in the better parts of L.A. were provided. You know, case in
point, when I was in high school, I was required to take shop. And you know, like a mini, you know, like,
doing tin cans, tin containers and wood shop. And I don't think that was happening like in the better
schools in Los Angeles. I mean, they were all being prepped up to go to college. Anyway, I saw this
movie, and I saw that there was a boycott of high school students. I can't remember the name of the
high school where they walked out, and as a result of that walk out, you know, bringing attention to the,
you know to the -- that they were not receiving the same education as their, you know, white
counterparts. I applied to Berkeley, you know, and to UCLA, and I got accepted to both schools. And I
was -- at the end of the movie in the clips, it showed that as a result of that boycott, in Los Angeles, that
the University of California doubled -- Doubled their enrollment of Hispanic students. And I look back
and say, "Hey! Because of that boycott, I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley." But, you know, one would
have thought was well, was I going to make it there? Well -- To remove any doubts, you know, I
remember telling my mom that in my first quarter at Berkeley, I got an A+, A+ for one of my classes. You
know, this, you know, shows that given a little bit of an opportunity is that a lot of Hispanics can
succeed. And uh, I did well at Berkeley, and I continued on my path of Princeton and Cal State Hayward.
So, you know, thank you Affirmative Action. I don't think that if it wasn't for that Affirmative Action --
back then it was called the EOP, Educational Opportunity Program. I don't think if I would have been
given the opportunity to be my best, you know, academically, that I would be here today.
>> Unidentified speaker: Let's, can I ask, like, when you were on, first on Berkeley's campus, what was it
like, I guess, being one of the only Hispanic students on campus? I guess, what was that experience like
for you? Was it a big adjustment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: What I tell you is that in answering that question is that I would have -- I got
accepted to UCLA and Berkeley and probably was closer to UCLA. And it's kind of interesting is that the
only reason that I went to Berkeley, even though it was farther, because my mom had concerns. She
said, "Son, I don't want you to become a hippie." Remember, this was like 1969? I went there because
my brother at that time was living in a hatch hash berry. He was a hippie. And but two months in
arriving at Berkeley, he left, said, "Brother, I'm going to Seattle." So he left me there. But I remember
entering Berkeley on the west gate, and you know, keep in mind that I had never traveled outside of
Imperial Valley. You know, up to, at the end, to the end of my high school, and looking at all the pretty
buildings. I just told myself, "Wow, am I here? Is this a dream?" I'm a, it was a, quite an experience. And
you know, my son also applied and he was now the second generation to have gone, you know, father
and son going to the same campus. And I feel very proud of that. It's a strange feeling. You know, it's
kind of interesting how what we do, what we end up, it's really because of circumstances. You know, if it
wasn't for the boycott, I probably would not have been admitted to Berkeley. If it wasn't for my brother
being over there, and who abandoned me, I would not have gone. But you know, where you end up, you
try to do your best to get ahead.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds like you had a lot of experiences, and you learned a lot of things while
you were in college. What happened post college? What did you do with your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, after graduating from, you know, Berkeley, I asked myself what I wanted to
do. But I decided to enter public service, US government. You know, as I mentioned, I completed 21
years of working with the federal government, essentially helping others. I wanted to work in the federal
government because it had a great potential to help others. I started working in Philadelphia as a GS -these are, in the federal government, there are the GS schedule which is a wage rate. And there are,
let's see, 15 levels. And the entry id GS1, but I entered federal government as a GS7. And over 41 years,
I've been able to climb to the highest level, which is a GS, you know, 15. And, you know, with each level
there is a progressive, progressive responsibility. But a lot of -- and the opportunity to do a lot of good as
I'll explain further. So, and this has taken me to my present position of District Director with the US
Small Business Administration, Fresno District office. And in this office, I have, you know, lending
contracting and management assistance in the entire San Joaquin Valley.
>> Erika Mendoza: Can you tell us a little bit more about SBA? And I believe that you have a farm worker
initiative. Is that so?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, as I said, the SBA is a small federal agency, and we help people start small
businesses or business to expand. We help with financing. SBA has an abundance of resources in
providing, you know, lending, start up, and contracting assistance. And the importance of small business
cannot be understated in today's economy. As you probably know, it's small business that has taken
America out of the recession, that has created four out of the five jobs in America. During my tenure as
SB director in Fresno, I have identified rural areas and farm workers as an underserved market. What
this designation has done is to increase marketing to these underserved groups because I am convinced
that they could take more advantage of all these tools to realize the American dream of making it big in
America. You know, many times I've been asked is that what does farm worker have to do with small
business. And the answer is simple. The majority of migrant farm workers have these micro-businesses
to help supplement their seasonal income. You know, I mean these micro businesses are small. They sell
tacos. I mean, you know, have [inaudible] shops. But and with the challenges brought about by lack of
work in the fields caused by the statewide drought, SBA can help. You know, we can strengthen their,
you know, business plans so that their chances of success increase in creating that taco shop. You know,
we have micro loan program that gives, you know, loans from, you know $500 to $25,000. And in SBA's
effort to help everybody, I think that Hispanics can use these services.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds that through SBA you are able to promote small businesses to these
underserved areas including farm workers. And you've encountered obstacles. What are some of those
obstacles that you've encountered as to promoting and getting these underserved areas to accept small
business?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, it is interesting is that when most immigrants come to America, like in the
case of my father, is that they all come from small businesses. I mean, just ask them. But here in
America they become employees. And you know, being policemen, teachers, repairmen are honorable,
but we also need our fair share of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My father tells me that
there's three ways to make it big in America. One is inheritance. And unless your name is Slim, as in
Carlos Slim, or Bill Gates, this is really not an option for most of us. Second way is winning the lottery,
but the odds are just so astronomical. But the third way is small business. Every community has
somebody, many people that have made it big. And, let's see. But small business is not for everybody.
And my father was wrong, there is a fourth way, and that's education. So but these skills can still be
applied to everyday, you know, used to get ahead. Of proper planning, of taking a little bit of measured
risk. So I take great pride in that I'm, you know, able to, you know, speak to every opportunity I have to,
you know, young people. And SBA does have a young people initiative to teach them some of these
skills.
>>Erika Mendoza: Can you give me an example of how entrepreneurial skills can help someone achieve
a personal goal?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, if I was a Martian and landed here in person and wanted to go to Reno,
Nevada, I would not simply take the first highway and start going towards Reno. I mean, for example,
take 99, Highway 99 going south. I would end up taking up the wrong way, I mean going several
thousand miles when if I would have mapped this, planned this ahead, I would say just go up north on
99. In Sacramento, you know, turn right. Take 50 or 80, and this is the principle, this is the importance of
why, whether it's for business or for personal life, one needs to map out what they plan to do. A
business plan is nothing more than a roadmap that takes you from here to there. But it should be no
different from planning to go to college, purchasing a house, I mean, just like my father did in having us
eat ice milk, and you know, eat ground beef five days a week. And so many of the small entrepreneurial
skill principles can be used whether you're in business or in real life. And this is one example of how
entrepreneurial skills can help you.
>> Erika Mendoza: It sounds like you've had a road map and a plan your entire life. But if you had to go
back and think, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Last year I received the highest performance rating a civil servant could receive as a
result of several achievements including me receiving The SBA Eisenhower Ike Award and the EPA
Bronze Medal for Commendable Service. But Erika, my greatest achievement had been, you know,
reaching out to the underserved which includes, you know, my community, and teaching them
entrepreneurial skills so that we would perhaps see another Carlos Slim or Bill Gates in our midst. I think
that's my greatest contribution. Perhaps helping somebody. And I think that I have. I've received, you
know, a lot of, you know, thank you's say, "Hey, Mr. Mendoza. Thank you!" So.
>> Unidentified speaker: We have about five minutes left. I'm wondering if I could ask a couple of follow
up questions of you two. So Erika, you're getting an MBA. Do you have any special memories of your
father influencing you as a kid that kind of put you on this path?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that my dad grew up always very business oriented, I always attended,
you know, business galas, and I remember him taking me to several business mixers. And you see a lot
of Latino community, Hispanic community out there really doing this outreach. And I think that it's
inspired me to continue my education, but specifically the business arena. And so that's what brought
me to start my MBA.
>> Carlos Mendoza: But what I also told her, Erika, is that this is a competitive world, and she needs to,
Erika, you need to be different. You need to set yourself apart. And you have a bachelors which is great.
Now you're in the civil service track, but to be different, MBA is tremendously going to set you aside so
that people in the next promotion cannot ignore you. So I think that this is doing to help you because I
think you're going to follow in my steps that to, you know beating me. There is one level on top of being
the GS15 level, and that's senior executive service in the federal government. So hopefully you'll reach
that path, too.
>> Erika Mendoza: Hopefully.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Do you have any memories of your dad, like, you guys said, "Double it," was
one of the messages he gave you. Do you have any memories of him, like, when you were a kid, telling
you like what grades to get, or like any specific stories that stand out?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that we're in a household, it's just me and my brother -- we're very
competitive in nature. From sports to, you know, to getting my parents' attention, to grades. Carlos has
always been slightly more disciplined than me when it comes to studying and getting good grades. I've
always been a little tougher, I guess you could say. But yes! My dad, just how he was saying, we would
get, you know, maybe like a C or a B and we would literally be crying and be like, "I did everything, and I
can't get an A." And he would be, he would say, "Well, clearly you're not doing everything because this
is not impossible." So yeah, we would just have to study and study and study. Like he said, "Double it
up." And yeah, it would increase our grades.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, could you tell Erika what your hopes are for her? In the future?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Uh, Well, to get married and to be the very best that you can. Apparently she wants
to follow in my footsteps of public service, of working with the federal government. Is to be her best.
>> Erika Mendoza: No pressure.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Yeah, we have about a minute and a half. Any last thoughts you want to tell
each other?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, actually I heard some things that I didn't know before. I had heard about the
ground beef and the powdered milk. But I didn't know about my dad living in the projects, and that
house that my grandpa saved up for. We love that house where my grandma still lives right now. It's
just, it has so many memories, and the house has -- I just took a picture of it the last time I went to visit
her. Yeah, but I think I found out a lot more about where I came from, where my dad came from. So it
was very informative.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can you two paint a picture of the house? What does it look like?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Of my mother's house?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah.
>> Carlos Mendoza: It's a -- I believe it used to be a dance hall. But, you remember that my father,
remember, purchased it for $5000 and like a very, very long time ago. But it has one room, and no
hallway. It has a bunch of bedrooms --
>> Erika Mendoza: No AC.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Bunch of bedrooms leading up to this central room. It does not have air
conditioning. And I remember growing up, believe it or not, using evaporated coolers. And interesting is
that, you know, one grows up with that, then you all think that everybody is using evaporated coolers
too. But that was not the fact. So but that's the importance of -- you know, we love movies. Going out to
movies because it like broadens your horizon, you know. Obviously we can't go to every part of this
world and experience everything, but movies help you do that.
>> Erika Mendoza: It's funny, at my grandma's house, the outside has changed, obviously. But the house
remains the same. There's vinyl floors. And when you walk, it creaks. And there's, you know, there's one
restroom. And there's a shed in the back. Buy yeah, it's a wooden house, basically.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yeah, with uh, no insulation.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Any last thank you's or anything you want to share with anybody?
>> Carlos Mendoza: No, thank you for this opportunity to share my story. Thank you.
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, thanks to StoryCorps.
2016. We are at the Madden Library on Fresno State, and Carolos Mendoza is my dad.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And my name is Carlos G. Mendoza. I'm 65 years old. Today's date is April 17, 1916.
We're at Fresno State University, and my daughter is going to be interviewing me.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Dad, can you tell us about your early
beginnings?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I was born 65 years ago to a Hispanic farm worker family. While I was born in
Merced, California, I could have very easily been born in the many cities that my father, you know,
followed picking the crops. So I could have been born in Lodi, Huron, El Centro, or Yuma, which are all
cities of the path my father followed. The interesting told, the interesting story is that this being migrant
really had a toll on my family, following the crops, because it uprooted my family that I was born into
every couple months. I don't remember that, but that's what, you know, my mother, tells me. Well,
after following crops for about seven years, my father had the vision to give up being a migrant farm
worker, to settle down, getting a, you know, permanent job at a cemetery in my mother's hometown of
Brawley, or Broley [phonetic], as we say it in Spanish. That was one of the many good decisions that my
father made of settling down.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, thanks. So why don't you go ahead and tell us about your parents, like
grandma and grandpa?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My mother is a first generation Mexican-American who was born in Colorado. And
when I asked my mom is that how she was born in Colorado is that my father, which is my grandfather,
was also following the crops. At that time, they were picking tomatoes in Colorado. My mom met my
dad in Imperial Valley, where he had just emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico. At that time, my father
said is that it was far different from today. There was no fence. He just simply walked across the USMexican border. My father was a shoemaker by trade, and he had a small, small business in Mexico. But
he said that he could put his skills to better use in California and earn a lot more money to help his
mother and younger sisters who stayed behind in Mexico. Dad was not able to find a job as a
shoemaker, and instead turned to the most plentiful job around the Imperial Valley, and that was
picking crops.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can I ask you, Carlos, to just sort of paint a picture of your parents? What were
they like and their personalities?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I would say they were a lot like me, easygoing. You know, looking at the big picture.
Family came first, you know. While we saw a lot of divorces. I think my mom and dad, you know, sticking
together to raise our children, you know, had a big factor in, you know, how we grew up. We had a fun
family. My dad, my grandfather more or less continued the tradition that he was also a farm worker.
And, you know, it's interesting, he lost his life to tooth cancer. You know, something because even with - tooth cancer doesn't happen much these days, and you know, it was because of the lack of adequate
healthcare. But he was, my grandfather was, you know, farm worker. And that time, the woman, you
know, just like my mom, they just stayed at home and raised the family.
>> Erika Mendoza: So, did grandpa share any stories in coming to America with you?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My dad was a great storyteller. And one story that he -- that sticks with my mind
was sleeping inside the railroad cars. Because he couldn't afford, when he first came over, he couldn't
afford lodging. He used newspapers for a blanket. I mean, just imagine that. And for a pillow, he tied his
shoes and put them in the back of his neck. One morning he said that he woke and found that his pillow,
or shoes, were missing. Somebody took them. Que debo hacer? "What should I do?" he said to himself.
Putting his entrepreneurial, you know, skills to work, you know, remember that he was a small business
owner. He found a solution by something incredible, I mean something that shows his will to survive. He
went into a thrift shop and helped himself to a pair of worn shoes, and walked out. As he was leaving
the door, the storekeeper said, "Hey! Those are my shoes! You got to pay for them!" And my father
responded by saying is that, "You don't think I walked into your shoe barefooted. If you find my old
shoes, I'll pay you!" So the storekeeper, the storekeeper, he looked for the shoes for 30 minutes. And
after not finding them, of course he couldn't have found them, he said, "Get out of here!" But my dad
tells me that, you know, what he did was wrong, and he went back and made an anonymous donation
to the store, to the thrift store when he could afford it. I think that that was kind of unique.
>> Erika Mendoza: I hadn't actually ever heard of that story, so it's kind of funny. Okay, so what are one
of the best memories of yours in your childhood?
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, try to stay behind the microphone.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Alright. Yes, my father had instilled several core values, you know, that includes
respecting and helping others, being humble, believing in family, transparency, and using
entrepreneurial skills to get ahead. As a child, I drank powdered milk instead of regular milk. I enjoyed
eating ice milk instead of ice cream. You know, today's kids never heard of ice milk or powdered milk.
And eating ground beef five days a week, where essentially, I've told my wife is that I don't want nothing
to do with ground beef.
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard that before!
>> Carlos Mendoza: When I asked my father, you know, when I was young as to why he was making us
go through all of this. He reminded me that we are a family, and we all had to do our part because he
was saving money. And I remember that it was $1000 to purchase this house that was, you know, that
was in need of repair. But for him, it was home. Because he wanted to take us out of the projects. The
projects are, you know, HUD assisted housing. And you know, with all the challenges that we saw there,
you know, raising a family in the projects is really maybe -- no young child should be raised in the
projects. Maybe temporarily, but you know, a lot of them like live all their lives because there's issue
with, you know drugs and you know gangs, et cetera. But five years later, after drinking powdered milk,
and I specifically remember that, he raised enough money, $1000, to purchase a home where my mom
still lives today. You know, my dad was right. And in a bigger picture is that having a road map to
accomplish a goal is very important. In his case, he wanted to raise the down payment to purchase a
home to take us out of the public housing. And you know, without this plan which means sacrificing, we
would have still— I would have been grown up in the projects. He keep telling me that things don't
happen by themselves, and he was right. And you know, later on, working with SBA, that got reinforced
because, you know, in small business, you have to have a business plan to increase your chances of
success. But in real life, growing up, accomplishing anything that you want to do, you also have to have a
road map to get ahead. And I think I've used these skills to get ahead, which you'll see I did.
>> Unidentified speaker: Do you want to explain what SBA is?
>> Carlos Mendoza: SBA is Small Business Administration. It's a federal agency whose, who helps
entrepreneurs and small business owners start or expand their small agencies. They’re businesses.
>> Erika Mendoza: So grandma and grandpa were farm workers. Have you ever worked in the fields?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, but it's an interesting why. When the Bracero guest worker program, ended in
the late '60's, you know, and I was a, I was a sophomore in high school, there was a shortage of workers.
And this created a dilemma for the farmers. You know, the crops were rotting in the fields. I was in high
school. And upon the prospects of hearing, of earning extra money, you know, there was a shortage of
opportunities to work even if I wanted to -- I immediately took the challenge. And like many of my
friends said, "Yup! Let's go to the fields and pick tomatoes." I remember my father telling my mother
that this experience of working in the fields would help me, but I didn't really understand what he said.
But I remember waking up at 3:00 on my very first day working in the fields. This was on a Saturday, so it
didn't interfere with going to high school. Which was far too early. And being transported by bus to a
tomato field some one-hour away from my home in Brawley. I was getting a very large pail and being
told, and then told by the foreman, "Pick tomatoes." So I went about doing that, you know, busily
concentrating, you know, picking tomatoes, and not seeing what everybody else was doing. But I
remember that I filled my first large pail with red, juicy, and large tomatoes and showing it to the
foreman. Was I mistaken and embarrassed! I was surprised when the foreman just looked at me with a
blank face as he dumped all of my tomatoes to the ground. "Son," the foreman told me, "you're
supposed to pick the tomatoes green instead of red for them to reach the supermarket." From that
point onward, I remember several principles. You know, first, don't assume anything. I mean, who would
have known that tomatoes are picked green in the field? And but, and for me to do my homework, you
know, second principle was and one that I have never forgotten is that working in the fields is hard
work, and education was the road to not working in the fields. I remember on my very first day, arriving
back home, and going -- let's see, I must have arrived like around like 3pm, and going -- my mom asking
me, "I've made some enchiladas." But all I remember is going straight to bed and sleeping. I mean, I was
really, really tired. And I was fit.
>> Erika Mendoza: So did you ever go back and work again, or was that a one-time experience?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I did it, you know, a couple of times because as I said, there was a lack of
employment. And, you know, I saw the value of earning extra money and, you know, going to the
cinema, you know. And buying some real ice cream instead of ice milk. Have you got a tasted ice milk?
Probably not, right?
>> Erika Mendoza: No, I have not been fortunate enough to taste ice milk.
>> Unidentified Speaker: I was going to ask you, Carlos. You thought that education was kind of the road
out of this. What did your parents think about that choice, about prioritizing education?
>> Carlos Mendoza: You know, it's interesting. They showed me the importance, but they didn't -- Really
require me, I mean like force me to get an education. But it's something was right in my family because I
had three other siblings, and all of us went to college. My and you know, the when you start seeing
other -- my neighbors were also Mexican-American. It just didn't happen. I mean, like something really
happened, and I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I have two children. Both my children have
attended college. And but the same thing happened with my brother. As I said, my brother went to
college, and all of his children have went to college. So, you know, there's something there, wonderful,
that needs to be repeated over and over again because, you know, education just opens up doors. I
mean, it's -- if you don't want to work doing manual labor, you have to get an education.
>> Erika Mendoza: So you went to undergrad, and you went to grad school. Why don't you tell me how
your higher education has played a role in your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, my father, you know, came to America to improve his standard of living. While
he never graduated from high school, his work ethic was strong. And while he didn't exactly use the
words of entrepreneurial skills, I'm convinced that he knew what it was. He keep—he kept saying that
each generation had to be better economically and educationally than the previous one. And my father
said, "You know, son, each generation needs to make progress. I mean, we, especially here in America,
that gets you opportunities, so many opportunities." He reminded me that if I didn't want to do manual
labor, work in the fields, that I had to get an education. When I remember that studying -- I wasn't a, you
know, even though I went to Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I wasn't a -- in high school I
wasn't a straight-A student. I wasn't. I was a B-student. And I remember telling my dad, you know,
getting a B. I said, "Dad, I can't raise my grade." And but he said, "Well, how much time did you spend on
this class?" And he simply said, "Double it." And I remember saying the same thing to my son at Berkeley
when he also got a B for one of the classes. I said, "Well, how much time did you spend? Double the
time."
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard of that, too.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And you know, he didn't make it to an A, but he got a B+. Anyway, graduating from
UC Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I easily met my dad's test of beating him, essentially.
And I'm glad that my son, who also went to Cal, UCLA dental school, who is now a dentist, and you, my
daughter who is getting her MBA at Fresno State in December, are on their way to essentially beating
me. And this is ambition I think that every Hispanic family needs to have. You know, we need to make
progress. Giving, let's go back to you know, Berkeley because -- As I said, I was a B student. But in, you
know, I got admitted to, you know, Berkeley. And I remember seeing the movie, I believe it was by -Called Walk Out where a bunch in the like 1966, a bunch of students in L.A. walked out of their high
schools because they weren't being given the educational challenges that their counterparts at other
parts in the, like in Santa Monica, in L.A., in the better parts of L.A. were provided. You know, case in
point, when I was in high school, I was required to take shop. And you know, like a mini, you know, like,
doing tin cans, tin containers and wood shop. And I don't think that was happening like in the better
schools in Los Angeles. I mean, they were all being prepped up to go to college. Anyway, I saw this
movie, and I saw that there was a boycott of high school students. I can't remember the name of the
high school where they walked out, and as a result of that walk out, you know, bringing attention to the,
you know to the -- that they were not receiving the same education as their, you know, white
counterparts. I applied to Berkeley, you know, and to UCLA, and I got accepted to both schools. And I
was -- at the end of the movie in the clips, it showed that as a result of that boycott, in Los Angeles, that
the University of California doubled -- Doubled their enrollment of Hispanic students. And I look back
and say, "Hey! Because of that boycott, I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley." But, you know, one would
have thought was well, was I going to make it there? Well -- To remove any doubts, you know, I
remember telling my mom that in my first quarter at Berkeley, I got an A+, A+ for one of my classes. You
know, this, you know, shows that given a little bit of an opportunity is that a lot of Hispanics can
succeed. And uh, I did well at Berkeley, and I continued on my path of Princeton and Cal State Hayward.
So, you know, thank you Affirmative Action. I don't think that if it wasn't for that Affirmative Action --
back then it was called the EOP, Educational Opportunity Program. I don't think if I would have been
given the opportunity to be my best, you know, academically, that I would be here today.
>> Unidentified speaker: Let's, can I ask, like, when you were on, first on Berkeley's campus, what was it
like, I guess, being one of the only Hispanic students on campus? I guess, what was that experience like
for you? Was it a big adjustment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: What I tell you is that in answering that question is that I would have -- I got
accepted to UCLA and Berkeley and probably was closer to UCLA. And it's kind of interesting is that the
only reason that I went to Berkeley, even though it was farther, because my mom had concerns. She
said, "Son, I don't want you to become a hippie." Remember, this was like 1969? I went there because
my brother at that time was living in a hatch hash berry. He was a hippie. And but two months in
arriving at Berkeley, he left, said, "Brother, I'm going to Seattle." So he left me there. But I remember
entering Berkeley on the west gate, and you know, keep in mind that I had never traveled outside of
Imperial Valley. You know, up to, at the end, to the end of my high school, and looking at all the pretty
buildings. I just told myself, "Wow, am I here? Is this a dream?" I'm a, it was a, quite an experience. And
you know, my son also applied and he was now the second generation to have gone, you know, father
and son going to the same campus. And I feel very proud of that. It's a strange feeling. You know, it's
kind of interesting how what we do, what we end up, it's really because of circumstances. You know, if it
wasn't for the boycott, I probably would not have been admitted to Berkeley. If it wasn't for my brother
being over there, and who abandoned me, I would not have gone. But you know, where you end up, you
try to do your best to get ahead.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds like you had a lot of experiences, and you learned a lot of things while
you were in college. What happened post college? What did you do with your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, after graduating from, you know, Berkeley, I asked myself what I wanted to
do. But I decided to enter public service, US government. You know, as I mentioned, I completed 21
years of working with the federal government, essentially helping others. I wanted to work in the federal
government because it had a great potential to help others. I started working in Philadelphia as a GS -these are, in the federal government, there are the GS schedule which is a wage rate. And there are,
let's see, 15 levels. And the entry id GS1, but I entered federal government as a GS7. And over 41 years,
I've been able to climb to the highest level, which is a GS, you know, 15. And, you know, with each level
there is a progressive, progressive responsibility. But a lot of -- and the opportunity to do a lot of good as
I'll explain further. So, and this has taken me to my present position of District Director with the US
Small Business Administration, Fresno District office. And in this office, I have, you know, lending
contracting and management assistance in the entire San Joaquin Valley.
>> Erika Mendoza: Can you tell us a little bit more about SBA? And I believe that you have a farm worker
initiative. Is that so?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, as I said, the SBA is a small federal agency, and we help people start small
businesses or business to expand. We help with financing. SBA has an abundance of resources in
providing, you know, lending, start up, and contracting assistance. And the importance of small business
cannot be understated in today's economy. As you probably know, it's small business that has taken
America out of the recession, that has created four out of the five jobs in America. During my tenure as
SB director in Fresno, I have identified rural areas and farm workers as an underserved market. What
this designation has done is to increase marketing to these underserved groups because I am convinced
that they could take more advantage of all these tools to realize the American dream of making it big in
America. You know, many times I've been asked is that what does farm worker have to do with small
business. And the answer is simple. The majority of migrant farm workers have these micro-businesses
to help supplement their seasonal income. You know, I mean these micro businesses are small. They sell
tacos. I mean, you know, have [inaudible] shops. But and with the challenges brought about by lack of
work in the fields caused by the statewide drought, SBA can help. You know, we can strengthen their,
you know, business plans so that their chances of success increase in creating that taco shop. You know,
we have micro loan program that gives, you know, loans from, you know $500 to $25,000. And in SBA's
effort to help everybody, I think that Hispanics can use these services.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds that through SBA you are able to promote small businesses to these
underserved areas including farm workers. And you've encountered obstacles. What are some of those
obstacles that you've encountered as to promoting and getting these underserved areas to accept small
business?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, it is interesting is that when most immigrants come to America, like in the
case of my father, is that they all come from small businesses. I mean, just ask them. But here in
America they become employees. And you know, being policemen, teachers, repairmen are honorable,
but we also need our fair share of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My father tells me that
there's three ways to make it big in America. One is inheritance. And unless your name is Slim, as in
Carlos Slim, or Bill Gates, this is really not an option for most of us. Second way is winning the lottery,
but the odds are just so astronomical. But the third way is small business. Every community has
somebody, many people that have made it big. And, let's see. But small business is not for everybody.
And my father was wrong, there is a fourth way, and that's education. So but these skills can still be
applied to everyday, you know, used to get ahead. Of proper planning, of taking a little bit of measured
risk. So I take great pride in that I'm, you know, able to, you know, speak to every opportunity I have to,
you know, young people. And SBA does have a young people initiative to teach them some of these
skills.
>>Erika Mendoza: Can you give me an example of how entrepreneurial skills can help someone achieve
a personal goal?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, if I was a Martian and landed here in person and wanted to go to Reno,
Nevada, I would not simply take the first highway and start going towards Reno. I mean, for example,
take 99, Highway 99 going south. I would end up taking up the wrong way, I mean going several
thousand miles when if I would have mapped this, planned this ahead, I would say just go up north on
99. In Sacramento, you know, turn right. Take 50 or 80, and this is the principle, this is the importance of
why, whether it's for business or for personal life, one needs to map out what they plan to do. A
business plan is nothing more than a roadmap that takes you from here to there. But it should be no
different from planning to go to college, purchasing a house, I mean, just like my father did in having us
eat ice milk, and you know, eat ground beef five days a week. And so many of the small entrepreneurial
skill principles can be used whether you're in business or in real life. And this is one example of how
entrepreneurial skills can help you.
>> Erika Mendoza: It sounds like you've had a road map and a plan your entire life. But if you had to go
back and think, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Last year I received the highest performance rating a civil servant could receive as a
result of several achievements including me receiving The SBA Eisenhower Ike Award and the EPA
Bronze Medal for Commendable Service. But Erika, my greatest achievement had been, you know,
reaching out to the underserved which includes, you know, my community, and teaching them
entrepreneurial skills so that we would perhaps see another Carlos Slim or Bill Gates in our midst. I think
that's my greatest contribution. Perhaps helping somebody. And I think that I have. I've received, you
know, a lot of, you know, thank you's say, "Hey, Mr. Mendoza. Thank you!" So.
>> Unidentified speaker: We have about five minutes left. I'm wondering if I could ask a couple of follow
up questions of you two. So Erika, you're getting an MBA. Do you have any special memories of your
father influencing you as a kid that kind of put you on this path?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that my dad grew up always very business oriented, I always attended,
you know, business galas, and I remember him taking me to several business mixers. And you see a lot
of Latino community, Hispanic community out there really doing this outreach. And I think that it's
inspired me to continue my education, but specifically the business arena. And so that's what brought
me to start my MBA.
>> Carlos Mendoza: But what I also told her, Erika, is that this is a competitive world, and she needs to,
Erika, you need to be different. You need to set yourself apart. And you have a bachelors which is great.
Now you're in the civil service track, but to be different, MBA is tremendously going to set you aside so
that people in the next promotion cannot ignore you. So I think that this is doing to help you because I
think you're going to follow in my steps that to, you know beating me. There is one level on top of being
the GS15 level, and that's senior executive service in the federal government. So hopefully you'll reach
that path, too.
>> Erika Mendoza: Hopefully.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Do you have any memories of your dad, like, you guys said, "Double it," was
one of the messages he gave you. Do you have any memories of him, like, when you were a kid, telling
you like what grades to get, or like any specific stories that stand out?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that we're in a household, it's just me and my brother -- we're very
competitive in nature. From sports to, you know, to getting my parents' attention, to grades. Carlos has
always been slightly more disciplined than me when it comes to studying and getting good grades. I've
always been a little tougher, I guess you could say. But yes! My dad, just how he was saying, we would
get, you know, maybe like a C or a B and we would literally be crying and be like, "I did everything, and I
can't get an A." And he would be, he would say, "Well, clearly you're not doing everything because this
is not impossible." So yeah, we would just have to study and study and study. Like he said, "Double it
up." And yeah, it would increase our grades.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, could you tell Erika what your hopes are for her? In the future?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Uh, Well, to get married and to be the very best that you can. Apparently she wants
to follow in my footsteps of public service, of working with the federal government. Is to be her best.
>> Erika Mendoza: No pressure.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Yeah, we have about a minute and a half. Any last thoughts you want to tell
each other?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, actually I heard some things that I didn't know before. I had heard about the
ground beef and the powdered milk. But I didn't know about my dad living in the projects, and that
house that my grandpa saved up for. We love that house where my grandma still lives right now. It's
just, it has so many memories, and the house has -- I just took a picture of it the last time I went to visit
her. Yeah, but I think I found out a lot more about where I came from, where my dad came from. So it
was very informative.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can you two paint a picture of the house? What does it look like?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Of my mother's house?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah.
>> Carlos Mendoza: It's a -- I believe it used to be a dance hall. But, you remember that my father,
remember, purchased it for $5000 and like a very, very long time ago. But it has one room, and no
hallway. It has a bunch of bedrooms --
>> Erika Mendoza: No AC.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Bunch of bedrooms leading up to this central room. It does not have air
conditioning. And I remember growing up, believe it or not, using evaporated coolers. And interesting is
that, you know, one grows up with that, then you all think that everybody is using evaporated coolers
too. But that was not the fact. So but that's the importance of -- you know, we love movies. Going out to
movies because it like broadens your horizon, you know. Obviously we can't go to every part of this
world and experience everything, but movies help you do that.
>> Erika Mendoza: It's funny, at my grandma's house, the outside has changed, obviously. But the house
remains the same. There's vinyl floors. And when you walk, it creaks. And there's, you know, there's one
restroom. And there's a shed in the back. Buy yeah, it's a wooden house, basically.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yeah, with uh, no insulation.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Any last thank you's or anything you want to share with anybody?
>> Carlos Mendoza: No, thank you for this opportunity to share my story. Thank you.
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, thanks to StoryCorps.
>> Erika Mendoza: My name is Erika Mendoza. I am 30 years old. Today is April the six -- seventeenth,
2016. We are at the Madden Library on Fresno State, and Carolos Mendoza is my dad.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And my name is Carlos G. Mendoza. I'm 65 years old. Today's date is April 17, 1916.
We're at Fresno State University, and my daughter is going to be interviewing me.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Dad, can you tell us about your early
beginnings?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I was born 65 years ago to a Hispanic farm worker family. While I was born in
Merced, California, I could have very easily been born in the many cities that my father, you know,
followed picking the crops. So I could have been born in Lodi, Huron, El Centro, or Yuma, which are all
cities of the path my father followed. The interesting told, the interesting story is that this being migrant
really had a toll on my family, following the crops, because it uprooted my family that I was born into
every couple months. I don't remember that, but that's what, you know, my mother, tells me. Well,
after following crops for about seven years, my father had the vision to give up being a migrant farm
worker, to settle down, getting a, you know, permanent job at a cemetery in my mother's hometown of
Brawley, or Broley [phonetic], as we say it in Spanish. That was one of the many good decisions that my
father made of settling down.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, thanks. So why don't you go ahead and tell us about your parents, like
grandma and grandpa?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My mother is a first generation Mexican-American who was born in Colorado. And
when I asked my mom is that how she was born in Colorado is that my father, which is my grandfather,
was also following the crops. At that time, they were picking tomatoes in Colorado. My mom met my
dad in Imperial Valley, where he had just emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico. At that time, my father
said is that it was far different from today. There was no fence. He just simply walked across the USMexican border. My father was a shoemaker by trade, and he had a small, small business in Mexico. But
he said that he could put his skills to better use in California and earn a lot more money to help his
mother and younger sisters who stayed behind in Mexico. Dad was not able to find a job as a
shoemaker, and instead turned to the most plentiful job around the Imperial Valley, and that was
picking crops.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can I ask you, Carlos, to just sort of paint a picture of your parents? What were
they like and their personalities?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I would say they were a lot like me, easygoing. You know, looking at the big picture.
Family came first, you know. While we saw a lot of divorces. I think my mom and dad, you know, sticking
together to raise our children, you know, had a big factor in, you know, how we grew up. We had a fun
family. My dad, my grandfather more or less continued the tradition that he was also a farm worker.
And, you know, it's interesting, he lost his life to tooth cancer. You know, something because even with - tooth cancer doesn't happen much these days, and you know, it was because of the lack of adequate
healthcare. But he was, my grandfather was, you know, farm worker. And that time, the woman, you
know, just like my mom, they just stayed at home and raised the family.
>> Erika Mendoza: So, did grandpa share any stories in coming to America with you?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My dad was a great storyteller. And one story that he -- that sticks with my mind
was sleeping inside the railroad cars. Because he couldn't afford, when he first came over, he couldn't
afford lodging. He used newspapers for a blanket. I mean, just imagine that. And for a pillow, he tied his
shoes and put them in the back of his neck. One morning he said that he woke and found that his pillow,
or shoes, were missing. Somebody took them. Que debo hacer? "What should I do?" he said to himself.
Putting his entrepreneurial, you know, skills to work, you know, remember that he was a small business
owner. He found a solution by something incredible, I mean something that shows his will to survive. He
went into a thrift shop and helped himself to a pair of worn shoes, and walked out. As he was leaving
the door, the storekeeper said, "Hey! Those are my shoes! You got to pay for them!" And my father
responded by saying is that, "You don't think I walked into your shoe barefooted. If you find my old
shoes, I'll pay you!" So the storekeeper, the storekeeper, he looked for the shoes for 30 minutes. And
after not finding them, of course he couldn't have found them, he said, "Get out of here!" But my dad
tells me that, you know, what he did was wrong, and he went back and made an anonymous donation
to the store, to the thrift store when he could afford it. I think that that was kind of unique.
>> Erika Mendoza: I hadn't actually ever heard of that story, so it's kind of funny. Okay, so what are one
of the best memories of yours in your childhood?
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, try to stay behind the microphone.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Alright. Yes, my father had instilled several core values, you know, that includes
respecting and helping others, being humble, believing in family, transparency, and using
entrepreneurial skills to get ahead. As a child, I drank powdered milk instead of regular milk. I enjoyed
eating ice milk instead of ice cream. You know, today's kids never heard of ice milk or powdered milk.
And eating ground beef five days a week, where essentially, I've told my wife is that I don't want nothing
to do with ground beef.
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard that before!
>> Carlos Mendoza: When I asked my father, you know, when I was young as to why he was making us
go through all of this. He reminded me that we are a family, and we all had to do our part because he
was saving money. And I remember that it was $1000 to purchase this house that was, you know, that
was in need of repair. But for him, it was home. Because he wanted to take us out of the projects. The
projects are, you know, HUD assisted housing. And you know, with all the challenges that we saw there,
you know, raising a family in the projects is really maybe -- no young child should be raised in the
projects. Maybe temporarily, but you know, a lot of them like live all their lives because there's issue
with, you know drugs and you know gangs, et cetera. But five years later, after drinking powdered milk,
and I specifically remember that, he raised enough money, $1000, to purchase a home where my mom
still lives today. You know, my dad was right. And in a bigger picture is that having a road map to
accomplish a goal is very important. In his case, he wanted to raise the down payment to purchase a
home to take us out of the public housing. And you know, without this plan which means sacrificing, we
would have still— I would have been grown up in the projects. He keep telling me that things don't
happen by themselves, and he was right. And you know, later on, working with SBA, that got reinforced
because, you know, in small business, you have to have a business plan to increase your chances of
success. But in real life, growing up, accomplishing anything that you want to do, you also have to have a
road map to get ahead. And I think I've used these skills to get ahead, which you'll see I did.
>> Unidentified speaker: Do you want to explain what SBA is?
>> Carlos Mendoza: SBA is Small Business Administration. It's a federal agency whose, who helps
entrepreneurs and small business owners start or expand their small agencies. They’re businesses.
>> Erika Mendoza: So grandma and grandpa were farm workers. Have you ever worked in the fields?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, but it's an interesting why. When the Bracero guest worker program, ended in
the late '60's, you know, and I was a, I was a sophomore in high school, there was a shortage of workers.
And this created a dilemma for the farmers. You know, the crops were rotting in the fields. I was in high
school. And upon the prospects of hearing, of earning extra money, you know, there was a shortage of
opportunities to work even if I wanted to -- I immediately took the challenge. And like many of my
friends said, "Yup! Let's go to the fields and pick tomatoes." I remember my father telling my mother
that this experience of working in the fields would help me, but I didn't really understand what he said.
But I remember waking up at 3:00 on my very first day working in the fields. This was on a Saturday, so it
didn't interfere with going to high school. Which was far too early. And being transported by bus to a
tomato field some one-hour away from my home in Brawley. I was getting a very large pail and being
told, and then told by the foreman, "Pick tomatoes." So I went about doing that, you know, busily
concentrating, you know, picking tomatoes, and not seeing what everybody else was doing. But I
remember that I filled my first large pail with red, juicy, and large tomatoes and showing it to the
foreman. Was I mistaken and embarrassed! I was surprised when the foreman just looked at me with a
blank face as he dumped all of my tomatoes to the ground. "Son," the foreman told me, "you're
supposed to pick the tomatoes green instead of red for them to reach the supermarket." From that
point onward, I remember several principles. You know, first, don't assume anything. I mean, who would
have known that tomatoes are picked green in the field? And but, and for me to do my homework, you
know, second principle was and one that I have never forgotten is that working in the fields is hard
work, and education was the road to not working in the fields. I remember on my very first day, arriving
back home, and going -- let's see, I must have arrived like around like 3pm, and going -- my mom asking
me, "I've made some enchiladas." But all I remember is going straight to bed and sleeping. I mean, I was
really, really tired. And I was fit.
>> Erika Mendoza: So did you ever go back and work again, or was that a one-time experience?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I did it, you know, a couple of times because as I said, there was a lack of
employment. And, you know, I saw the value of earning extra money and, you know, going to the
cinema, you know. And buying some real ice cream instead of ice milk. Have you got a tasted ice milk?
Probably not, right?
>> Erika Mendoza: No, I have not been fortunate enough to taste ice milk.
>> Unidentified Speaker: I was going to ask you, Carlos. You thought that education was kind of the road
out of this. What did your parents think about that choice, about prioritizing education?
>> Carlos Mendoza: You know, it's interesting. They showed me the importance, but they didn't -- Really
require me, I mean like force me to get an education. But it's something was right in my family because I
had three other siblings, and all of us went to college. My and you know, the when you start seeing
other -- my neighbors were also Mexican-American. It just didn't happen. I mean, like something really
happened, and I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I have two children. Both my children have
attended college. And but the same thing happened with my brother. As I said, my brother went to
college, and all of his children have went to college. So, you know, there's something there, wonderful,
that needs to be repeated over and over again because, you know, education just opens up doors. I
mean, it's -- if you don't want to work doing manual labor, you have to get an education.
>> Erika Mendoza: So you went to undergrad, and you went to grad school. Why don't you tell me how
your higher education has played a role in your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, my father, you know, came to America to improve his standard of living. While
he never graduated from high school, his work ethic was strong. And while he didn't exactly use the
words of entrepreneurial skills, I'm convinced that he knew what it was. He keep—he kept saying that
each generation had to be better economically and educationally than the previous one. And my father
said, "You know, son, each generation needs to make progress. I mean, we, especially here in America,
that gets you opportunities, so many opportunities." He reminded me that if I didn't want to do manual
labor, work in the fields, that I had to get an education. When I remember that studying -- I wasn't a, you
know, even though I went to Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I wasn't a -- in high school I
wasn't a straight-A student. I wasn't. I was a B-student. And I remember telling my dad, you know,
getting a B. I said, "Dad, I can't raise my grade." And but he said, "Well, how much time did you spend on
this class?" And he simply said, "Double it." And I remember saying the same thing to my son at Berkeley
when he also got a B for one of the classes. I said, "Well, how much time did you spend? Double the
time."
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard of that, too.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And you know, he didn't make it to an A, but he got a B+. Anyway, graduating from
UC Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I easily met my dad's test of beating him, essentially.
And I'm glad that my son, who also went to Cal, UCLA dental school, who is now a dentist, and you, my
daughter who is getting her MBA at Fresno State in December, are on their way to essentially beating
me. And this is ambition I think that every Hispanic family needs to have. You know, we need to make
progress. Giving, let's go back to you know, Berkeley because -- As I said, I was a B student. But in, you
know, I got admitted to, you know, Berkeley. And I remember seeing the movie, I believe it was by -Called Walk Out where a bunch in the like 1966, a bunch of students in L.A. walked out of their high
schools because they weren't being given the educational challenges that their counterparts at other
parts in the, like in Santa Monica, in L.A., in the better parts of L.A. were provided. You know, case in
point, when I was in high school, I was required to take shop. And you know, like a mini, you know, like,
doing tin cans, tin containers and wood shop. And I don't think that was happening like in the better
schools in Los Angeles. I mean, they were all being prepped up to go to college. Anyway, I saw this
movie, and I saw that there was a boycott of high school students. I can't remember the name of the
high school where they walked out, and as a result of that walk out, you know, bringing attention to the,
you know to the -- that they were not receiving the same education as their, you know, white
counterparts. I applied to Berkeley, you know, and to UCLA, and I got accepted to both schools. And I
was -- at the end of the movie in the clips, it showed that as a result of that boycott, in Los Angeles, that
the University of California doubled -- Doubled their enrollment of Hispanic students. And I look back
and say, "Hey! Because of that boycott, I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley." But, you know, one would
have thought was well, was I going to make it there? Well -- To remove any doubts, you know, I
remember telling my mom that in my first quarter at Berkeley, I got an A+, A+ for one of my classes. You
know, this, you know, shows that given a little bit of an opportunity is that a lot of Hispanics can
succeed. And uh, I did well at Berkeley, and I continued on my path of Princeton and Cal State Hayward.
So, you know, thank you Affirmative Action. I don't think that if it wasn't for that Affirmative Action --
back then it was called the EOP, Educational Opportunity Program. I don't think if I would have been
given the opportunity to be my best, you know, academically, that I would be here today.
>> Unidentified speaker: Let's, can I ask, like, when you were on, first on Berkeley's campus, what was it
like, I guess, being one of the only Hispanic students on campus? I guess, what was that experience like
for you? Was it a big adjustment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: What I tell you is that in answering that question is that I would have -- I got
accepted to UCLA and Berkeley and probably was closer to UCLA. And it's kind of interesting is that the
only reason that I went to Berkeley, even though it was farther, because my mom had concerns. She
said, "Son, I don't want you to become a hippie." Remember, this was like 1969? I went there because
my brother at that time was living in a hatch hash berry. He was a hippie. And but two months in
arriving at Berkeley, he left, said, "Brother, I'm going to Seattle." So he left me there. But I remember
entering Berkeley on the west gate, and you know, keep in mind that I had never traveled outside of
Imperial Valley. You know, up to, at the end, to the end of my high school, and looking at all the pretty
buildings. I just told myself, "Wow, am I here? Is this a dream?" I'm a, it was a, quite an experience. And
you know, my son also applied and he was now the second generation to have gone, you know, father
and son going to the same campus. And I feel very proud of that. It's a strange feeling. You know, it's
kind of interesting how what we do, what we end up, it's really because of circumstances. You know, if it
wasn't for the boycott, I probably would not have been admitted to Berkeley. If it wasn't for my brother
being over there, and who abandoned me, I would not have gone. But you know, where you end up, you
try to do your best to get ahead.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds like you had a lot of experiences, and you learned a lot of things while
you were in college. What happened post college? What did you do with your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, after graduating from, you know, Berkeley, I asked myself what I wanted to
do. But I decided to enter public service, US government. You know, as I mentioned, I completed 21
years of working with the federal government, essentially helping others. I wanted to work in the federal
government because it had a great potential to help others. I started working in Philadelphia as a GS -these are, in the federal government, there are the GS schedule which is a wage rate. And there are,
let's see, 15 levels. And the entry id GS1, but I entered federal government as a GS7. And over 41 years,
I've been able to climb to the highest level, which is a GS, you know, 15. And, you know, with each level
there is a progressive, progressive responsibility. But a lot of -- and the opportunity to do a lot of good as
I'll explain further. So, and this has taken me to my present position of District Director with the US
Small Business Administration, Fresno District office. And in this office, I have, you know, lending
contracting and management assistance in the entire San Joaquin Valley.
>> Erika Mendoza: Can you tell us a little bit more about SBA? And I believe that you have a farm worker
initiative. Is that so?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, as I said, the SBA is a small federal agency, and we help people start small
businesses or business to expand. We help with financing. SBA has an abundance of resources in
providing, you know, lending, start up, and contracting assistance. And the importance of small business
cannot be understated in today's economy. As you probably know, it's small business that has taken
America out of the recession, that has created four out of the five jobs in America. During my tenure as
SB director in Fresno, I have identified rural areas and farm workers as an underserved market. What
this designation has done is to increase marketing to these underserved groups because I am convinced
that they could take more advantage of all these tools to realize the American dream of making it big in
America. You know, many times I've been asked is that what does farm worker have to do with small
business. And the answer is simple. The majority of migrant farm workers have these micro-businesses
to help supplement their seasonal income. You know, I mean these micro businesses are small. They sell
tacos. I mean, you know, have [inaudible] shops. But and with the challenges brought about by lack of
work in the fields caused by the statewide drought, SBA can help. You know, we can strengthen their,
you know, business plans so that their chances of success increase in creating that taco shop. You know,
we have micro loan program that gives, you know, loans from, you know $500 to $25,000. And in SBA's
effort to help everybody, I think that Hispanics can use these services.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds that through SBA you are able to promote small businesses to these
underserved areas including farm workers. And you've encountered obstacles. What are some of those
obstacles that you've encountered as to promoting and getting these underserved areas to accept small
business?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, it is interesting is that when most immigrants come to America, like in the
case of my father, is that they all come from small businesses. I mean, just ask them. But here in
America they become employees. And you know, being policemen, teachers, repairmen are honorable,
but we also need our fair share of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My father tells me that
there's three ways to make it big in America. One is inheritance. And unless your name is Slim, as in
Carlos Slim, or Bill Gates, this is really not an option for most of us. Second way is winning the lottery,
but the odds are just so astronomical. But the third way is small business. Every community has
somebody, many people that have made it big. And, let's see. But small business is not for everybody.
And my father was wrong, there is a fourth way, and that's education. So but these skills can still be
applied to everyday, you know, used to get ahead. Of proper planning, of taking a little bit of measured
risk. So I take great pride in that I'm, you know, able to, you know, speak to every opportunity I have to,
you know, young people. And SBA does have a young people initiative to teach them some of these
skills.
>>Erika Mendoza: Can you give me an example of how entrepreneurial skills can help someone achieve
a personal goal?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, if I was a Martian and landed here in person and wanted to go to Reno,
Nevada, I would not simply take the first highway and start going towards Reno. I mean, for example,
take 99, Highway 99 going south. I would end up taking up the wrong way, I mean going several
thousand miles when if I would have mapped this, planned this ahead, I would say just go up north on
99. In Sacramento, you know, turn right. Take 50 or 80, and this is the principle, this is the importance of
why, whether it's for business or for personal life, one needs to map out what they plan to do. A
business plan is nothing more than a roadmap that takes you from here to there. But it should be no
different from planning to go to college, purchasing a house, I mean, just like my father did in having us
eat ice milk, and you know, eat ground beef five days a week. And so many of the small entrepreneurial
skill principles can be used whether you're in business or in real life. And this is one example of how
entrepreneurial skills can help you.
>> Erika Mendoza: It sounds like you've had a road map and a plan your entire life. But if you had to go
back and think, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Last year I received the highest performance rating a civil servant could receive as a
result of several achievements including me receiving The SBA Eisenhower Ike Award and the EPA
Bronze Medal for Commendable Service. But Erika, my greatest achievement had been, you know,
reaching out to the underserved which includes, you know, my community, and teaching them
entrepreneurial skills so that we would perhaps see another Carlos Slim or Bill Gates in our midst. I think
that's my greatest contribution. Perhaps helping somebody. And I think that I have. I've received, you
know, a lot of, you know, thank you's say, "Hey, Mr. Mendoza. Thank you!" So.
>> Unidentified speaker: We have about five minutes left. I'm wondering if I could ask a couple of follow
up questions of you two. So Erika, you're getting an MBA. Do you have any special memories of your
father influencing you as a kid that kind of put you on this path?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that my dad grew up always very business oriented, I always attended,
you know, business galas, and I remember him taking me to several business mixers. And you see a lot
of Latino community, Hispanic community out there really doing this outreach. And I think that it's
inspired me to continue my education, but specifically the business arena. And so that's what brought
me to start my MBA.
>> Carlos Mendoza: But what I also told her, Erika, is that this is a competitive world, and she needs to,
Erika, you need to be different. You need to set yourself apart. And you have a bachelors which is great.
Now you're in the civil service track, but to be different, MBA is tremendously going to set you aside so
that people in the next promotion cannot ignore you. So I think that this is doing to help you because I
think you're going to follow in my steps that to, you know beating me. There is one level on top of being
the GS15 level, and that's senior executive service in the federal government. So hopefully you'll reach
that path, too.
>> Erika Mendoza: Hopefully.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Do you have any memories of your dad, like, you guys said, "Double it," was
one of the messages he gave you. Do you have any memories of him, like, when you were a kid, telling
you like what grades to get, or like any specific stories that stand out?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that we're in a household, it's just me and my brother -- we're very
competitive in nature. From sports to, you know, to getting my parents' attention, to grades. Carlos has
always been slightly more disciplined than me when it comes to studying and getting good grades. I've
always been a little tougher, I guess you could say. But yes! My dad, just how he was saying, we would
get, you know, maybe like a C or a B and we would literally be crying and be like, "I did everything, and I
can't get an A." And he would be, he would say, "Well, clearly you're not doing everything because this
is not impossible." So yeah, we would just have to study and study and study. Like he said, "Double it
up." And yeah, it would increase our grades.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, could you tell Erika what your hopes are for her? In the future?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Uh, Well, to get married and to be the very best that you can. Apparently she wants
to follow in my footsteps of public service, of working with the federal government. Is to be her best.
>> Erika Mendoza: No pressure.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Yeah, we have about a minute and a half. Any last thoughts you want to tell
each other?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, actually I heard some things that I didn't know before. I had heard about the
ground beef and the powdered milk. But I didn't know about my dad living in the projects, and that
house that my grandpa saved up for. We love that house where my grandma still lives right now. It's
just, it has so many memories, and the house has -- I just took a picture of it the last time I went to visit
her. Yeah, but I think I found out a lot more about where I came from, where my dad came from. So it
was very informative.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can you two paint a picture of the house? What does it look like?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Of my mother's house?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah.
>> Carlos Mendoza: It's a -- I believe it used to be a dance hall. But, you remember that my father,
remember, purchased it for $5000 and like a very, very long time ago. But it has one room, and no
hallway. It has a bunch of bedrooms --
>> Erika Mendoza: No AC.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Bunch of bedrooms leading up to this central room. It does not have air
conditioning. And I remember growing up, believe it or not, using evaporated coolers. And interesting is
that, you know, one grows up with that, then you all think that everybody is using evaporated coolers
too. But that was not the fact. So but that's the importance of -- you know, we love movies. Going out to
movies because it like broadens your horizon, you know. Obviously we can't go to every part of this
world and experience everything, but movies help you do that.
>> Erika Mendoza: It's funny, at my grandma's house, the outside has changed, obviously. But the house
remains the same. There's vinyl floors. And when you walk, it creaks. And there's, you know, there's one
restroom. And there's a shed in the back. Buy yeah, it's a wooden house, basically.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yeah, with uh, no insulation.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Any last thank you's or anything you want to share with anybody?
>> Carlos Mendoza: No, thank you for this opportunity to share my story. Thank you.
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, thanks to StoryCorps.
2016. We are at the Madden Library on Fresno State, and Carolos Mendoza is my dad.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And my name is Carlos G. Mendoza. I'm 65 years old. Today's date is April 17, 1916.
We're at Fresno State University, and my daughter is going to be interviewing me.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Dad, can you tell us about your early
beginnings?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I was born 65 years ago to a Hispanic farm worker family. While I was born in
Merced, California, I could have very easily been born in the many cities that my father, you know,
followed picking the crops. So I could have been born in Lodi, Huron, El Centro, or Yuma, which are all
cities of the path my father followed. The interesting told, the interesting story is that this being migrant
really had a toll on my family, following the crops, because it uprooted my family that I was born into
every couple months. I don't remember that, but that's what, you know, my mother, tells me. Well,
after following crops for about seven years, my father had the vision to give up being a migrant farm
worker, to settle down, getting a, you know, permanent job at a cemetery in my mother's hometown of
Brawley, or Broley [phonetic], as we say it in Spanish. That was one of the many good decisions that my
father made of settling down.
>> Erika Mendoza: Okay, thanks. So why don't you go ahead and tell us about your parents, like
grandma and grandpa?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My mother is a first generation Mexican-American who was born in Colorado. And
when I asked my mom is that how she was born in Colorado is that my father, which is my grandfather,
was also following the crops. At that time, they were picking tomatoes in Colorado. My mom met my
dad in Imperial Valley, where he had just emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico. At that time, my father
said is that it was far different from today. There was no fence. He just simply walked across the USMexican border. My father was a shoemaker by trade, and he had a small, small business in Mexico. But
he said that he could put his skills to better use in California and earn a lot more money to help his
mother and younger sisters who stayed behind in Mexico. Dad was not able to find a job as a
shoemaker, and instead turned to the most plentiful job around the Imperial Valley, and that was
picking crops.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can I ask you, Carlos, to just sort of paint a picture of your parents? What were
they like and their personalities?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I would say they were a lot like me, easygoing. You know, looking at the big picture.
Family came first, you know. While we saw a lot of divorces. I think my mom and dad, you know, sticking
together to raise our children, you know, had a big factor in, you know, how we grew up. We had a fun
family. My dad, my grandfather more or less continued the tradition that he was also a farm worker.
And, you know, it's interesting, he lost his life to tooth cancer. You know, something because even with - tooth cancer doesn't happen much these days, and you know, it was because of the lack of adequate
healthcare. But he was, my grandfather was, you know, farm worker. And that time, the woman, you
know, just like my mom, they just stayed at home and raised the family.
>> Erika Mendoza: So, did grandpa share any stories in coming to America with you?
>> Carlos Mendoza: My dad was a great storyteller. And one story that he -- that sticks with my mind
was sleeping inside the railroad cars. Because he couldn't afford, when he first came over, he couldn't
afford lodging. He used newspapers for a blanket. I mean, just imagine that. And for a pillow, he tied his
shoes and put them in the back of his neck. One morning he said that he woke and found that his pillow,
or shoes, were missing. Somebody took them. Que debo hacer? "What should I do?" he said to himself.
Putting his entrepreneurial, you know, skills to work, you know, remember that he was a small business
owner. He found a solution by something incredible, I mean something that shows his will to survive. He
went into a thrift shop and helped himself to a pair of worn shoes, and walked out. As he was leaving
the door, the storekeeper said, "Hey! Those are my shoes! You got to pay for them!" And my father
responded by saying is that, "You don't think I walked into your shoe barefooted. If you find my old
shoes, I'll pay you!" So the storekeeper, the storekeeper, he looked for the shoes for 30 minutes. And
after not finding them, of course he couldn't have found them, he said, "Get out of here!" But my dad
tells me that, you know, what he did was wrong, and he went back and made an anonymous donation
to the store, to the thrift store when he could afford it. I think that that was kind of unique.
>> Erika Mendoza: I hadn't actually ever heard of that story, so it's kind of funny. Okay, so what are one
of the best memories of yours in your childhood?
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, try to stay behind the microphone.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Alright. Yes, my father had instilled several core values, you know, that includes
respecting and helping others, being humble, believing in family, transparency, and using
entrepreneurial skills to get ahead. As a child, I drank powdered milk instead of regular milk. I enjoyed
eating ice milk instead of ice cream. You know, today's kids never heard of ice milk or powdered milk.
And eating ground beef five days a week, where essentially, I've told my wife is that I don't want nothing
to do with ground beef.
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard that before!
>> Carlos Mendoza: When I asked my father, you know, when I was young as to why he was making us
go through all of this. He reminded me that we are a family, and we all had to do our part because he
was saving money. And I remember that it was $1000 to purchase this house that was, you know, that
was in need of repair. But for him, it was home. Because he wanted to take us out of the projects. The
projects are, you know, HUD assisted housing. And you know, with all the challenges that we saw there,
you know, raising a family in the projects is really maybe -- no young child should be raised in the
projects. Maybe temporarily, but you know, a lot of them like live all their lives because there's issue
with, you know drugs and you know gangs, et cetera. But five years later, after drinking powdered milk,
and I specifically remember that, he raised enough money, $1000, to purchase a home where my mom
still lives today. You know, my dad was right. And in a bigger picture is that having a road map to
accomplish a goal is very important. In his case, he wanted to raise the down payment to purchase a
home to take us out of the public housing. And you know, without this plan which means sacrificing, we
would have still— I would have been grown up in the projects. He keep telling me that things don't
happen by themselves, and he was right. And you know, later on, working with SBA, that got reinforced
because, you know, in small business, you have to have a business plan to increase your chances of
success. But in real life, growing up, accomplishing anything that you want to do, you also have to have a
road map to get ahead. And I think I've used these skills to get ahead, which you'll see I did.
>> Unidentified speaker: Do you want to explain what SBA is?
>> Carlos Mendoza: SBA is Small Business Administration. It's a federal agency whose, who helps
entrepreneurs and small business owners start or expand their small agencies. They’re businesses.
>> Erika Mendoza: So grandma and grandpa were farm workers. Have you ever worked in the fields?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, but it's an interesting why. When the Bracero guest worker program, ended in
the late '60's, you know, and I was a, I was a sophomore in high school, there was a shortage of workers.
And this created a dilemma for the farmers. You know, the crops were rotting in the fields. I was in high
school. And upon the prospects of hearing, of earning extra money, you know, there was a shortage of
opportunities to work even if I wanted to -- I immediately took the challenge. And like many of my
friends said, "Yup! Let's go to the fields and pick tomatoes." I remember my father telling my mother
that this experience of working in the fields would help me, but I didn't really understand what he said.
But I remember waking up at 3:00 on my very first day working in the fields. This was on a Saturday, so it
didn't interfere with going to high school. Which was far too early. And being transported by bus to a
tomato field some one-hour away from my home in Brawley. I was getting a very large pail and being
told, and then told by the foreman, "Pick tomatoes." So I went about doing that, you know, busily
concentrating, you know, picking tomatoes, and not seeing what everybody else was doing. But I
remember that I filled my first large pail with red, juicy, and large tomatoes and showing it to the
foreman. Was I mistaken and embarrassed! I was surprised when the foreman just looked at me with a
blank face as he dumped all of my tomatoes to the ground. "Son," the foreman told me, "you're
supposed to pick the tomatoes green instead of red for them to reach the supermarket." From that
point onward, I remember several principles. You know, first, don't assume anything. I mean, who would
have known that tomatoes are picked green in the field? And but, and for me to do my homework, you
know, second principle was and one that I have never forgotten is that working in the fields is hard
work, and education was the road to not working in the fields. I remember on my very first day, arriving
back home, and going -- let's see, I must have arrived like around like 3pm, and going -- my mom asking
me, "I've made some enchiladas." But all I remember is going straight to bed and sleeping. I mean, I was
really, really tired. And I was fit.
>> Erika Mendoza: So did you ever go back and work again, or was that a one-time experience?
>> Carlos Mendoza: I did it, you know, a couple of times because as I said, there was a lack of
employment. And, you know, I saw the value of earning extra money and, you know, going to the
cinema, you know. And buying some real ice cream instead of ice milk. Have you got a tasted ice milk?
Probably not, right?
>> Erika Mendoza: No, I have not been fortunate enough to taste ice milk.
>> Unidentified Speaker: I was going to ask you, Carlos. You thought that education was kind of the road
out of this. What did your parents think about that choice, about prioritizing education?
>> Carlos Mendoza: You know, it's interesting. They showed me the importance, but they didn't -- Really
require me, I mean like force me to get an education. But it's something was right in my family because I
had three other siblings, and all of us went to college. My and you know, the when you start seeing
other -- my neighbors were also Mexican-American. It just didn't happen. I mean, like something really
happened, and I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I have two children. Both my children have
attended college. And but the same thing happened with my brother. As I said, my brother went to
college, and all of his children have went to college. So, you know, there's something there, wonderful,
that needs to be repeated over and over again because, you know, education just opens up doors. I
mean, it's -- if you don't want to work doing manual labor, you have to get an education.
>> Erika Mendoza: So you went to undergrad, and you went to grad school. Why don't you tell me how
your higher education has played a role in your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, my father, you know, came to America to improve his standard of living. While
he never graduated from high school, his work ethic was strong. And while he didn't exactly use the
words of entrepreneurial skills, I'm convinced that he knew what it was. He keep—he kept saying that
each generation had to be better economically and educationally than the previous one. And my father
said, "You know, son, each generation needs to make progress. I mean, we, especially here in America,
that gets you opportunities, so many opportunities." He reminded me that if I didn't want to do manual
labor, work in the fields, that I had to get an education. When I remember that studying -- I wasn't a, you
know, even though I went to Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I wasn't a -- in high school I
wasn't a straight-A student. I wasn't. I was a B-student. And I remember telling my dad, you know,
getting a B. I said, "Dad, I can't raise my grade." And but he said, "Well, how much time did you spend on
this class?" And he simply said, "Double it." And I remember saying the same thing to my son at Berkeley
when he also got a B for one of the classes. I said, "Well, how much time did you spend? Double the
time."
>> Erika Mendoza: I've heard of that, too.
>> Carlos Mendoza: And you know, he didn't make it to an A, but he got a B+. Anyway, graduating from
UC Berkeley, Princeton, and Cal State Hayward, I easily met my dad's test of beating him, essentially.
And I'm glad that my son, who also went to Cal, UCLA dental school, who is now a dentist, and you, my
daughter who is getting her MBA at Fresno State in December, are on their way to essentially beating
me. And this is ambition I think that every Hispanic family needs to have. You know, we need to make
progress. Giving, let's go back to you know, Berkeley because -- As I said, I was a B student. But in, you
know, I got admitted to, you know, Berkeley. And I remember seeing the movie, I believe it was by -Called Walk Out where a bunch in the like 1966, a bunch of students in L.A. walked out of their high
schools because they weren't being given the educational challenges that their counterparts at other
parts in the, like in Santa Monica, in L.A., in the better parts of L.A. were provided. You know, case in
point, when I was in high school, I was required to take shop. And you know, like a mini, you know, like,
doing tin cans, tin containers and wood shop. And I don't think that was happening like in the better
schools in Los Angeles. I mean, they were all being prepped up to go to college. Anyway, I saw this
movie, and I saw that there was a boycott of high school students. I can't remember the name of the
high school where they walked out, and as a result of that walk out, you know, bringing attention to the,
you know to the -- that they were not receiving the same education as their, you know, white
counterparts. I applied to Berkeley, you know, and to UCLA, and I got accepted to both schools. And I
was -- at the end of the movie in the clips, it showed that as a result of that boycott, in Los Angeles, that
the University of California doubled -- Doubled their enrollment of Hispanic students. And I look back
and say, "Hey! Because of that boycott, I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley." But, you know, one would
have thought was well, was I going to make it there? Well -- To remove any doubts, you know, I
remember telling my mom that in my first quarter at Berkeley, I got an A+, A+ for one of my classes. You
know, this, you know, shows that given a little bit of an opportunity is that a lot of Hispanics can
succeed. And uh, I did well at Berkeley, and I continued on my path of Princeton and Cal State Hayward.
So, you know, thank you Affirmative Action. I don't think that if it wasn't for that Affirmative Action --
back then it was called the EOP, Educational Opportunity Program. I don't think if I would have been
given the opportunity to be my best, you know, academically, that I would be here today.
>> Unidentified speaker: Let's, can I ask, like, when you were on, first on Berkeley's campus, what was it
like, I guess, being one of the only Hispanic students on campus? I guess, what was that experience like
for you? Was it a big adjustment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: What I tell you is that in answering that question is that I would have -- I got
accepted to UCLA and Berkeley and probably was closer to UCLA. And it's kind of interesting is that the
only reason that I went to Berkeley, even though it was farther, because my mom had concerns. She
said, "Son, I don't want you to become a hippie." Remember, this was like 1969? I went there because
my brother at that time was living in a hatch hash berry. He was a hippie. And but two months in
arriving at Berkeley, he left, said, "Brother, I'm going to Seattle." So he left me there. But I remember
entering Berkeley on the west gate, and you know, keep in mind that I had never traveled outside of
Imperial Valley. You know, up to, at the end, to the end of my high school, and looking at all the pretty
buildings. I just told myself, "Wow, am I here? Is this a dream?" I'm a, it was a, quite an experience. And
you know, my son also applied and he was now the second generation to have gone, you know, father
and son going to the same campus. And I feel very proud of that. It's a strange feeling. You know, it's
kind of interesting how what we do, what we end up, it's really because of circumstances. You know, if it
wasn't for the boycott, I probably would not have been admitted to Berkeley. If it wasn't for my brother
being over there, and who abandoned me, I would not have gone. But you know, where you end up, you
try to do your best to get ahead.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds like you had a lot of experiences, and you learned a lot of things while
you were in college. What happened post college? What did you do with your life?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, after graduating from, you know, Berkeley, I asked myself what I wanted to
do. But I decided to enter public service, US government. You know, as I mentioned, I completed 21
years of working with the federal government, essentially helping others. I wanted to work in the federal
government because it had a great potential to help others. I started working in Philadelphia as a GS -these are, in the federal government, there are the GS schedule which is a wage rate. And there are,
let's see, 15 levels. And the entry id GS1, but I entered federal government as a GS7. And over 41 years,
I've been able to climb to the highest level, which is a GS, you know, 15. And, you know, with each level
there is a progressive, progressive responsibility. But a lot of -- and the opportunity to do a lot of good as
I'll explain further. So, and this has taken me to my present position of District Director with the US
Small Business Administration, Fresno District office. And in this office, I have, you know, lending
contracting and management assistance in the entire San Joaquin Valley.
>> Erika Mendoza: Can you tell us a little bit more about SBA? And I believe that you have a farm worker
initiative. Is that so?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yes, as I said, the SBA is a small federal agency, and we help people start small
businesses or business to expand. We help with financing. SBA has an abundance of resources in
providing, you know, lending, start up, and contracting assistance. And the importance of small business
cannot be understated in today's economy. As you probably know, it's small business that has taken
America out of the recession, that has created four out of the five jobs in America. During my tenure as
SB director in Fresno, I have identified rural areas and farm workers as an underserved market. What
this designation has done is to increase marketing to these underserved groups because I am convinced
that they could take more advantage of all these tools to realize the American dream of making it big in
America. You know, many times I've been asked is that what does farm worker have to do with small
business. And the answer is simple. The majority of migrant farm workers have these micro-businesses
to help supplement their seasonal income. You know, I mean these micro businesses are small. They sell
tacos. I mean, you know, have [inaudible] shops. But and with the challenges brought about by lack of
work in the fields caused by the statewide drought, SBA can help. You know, we can strengthen their,
you know, business plans so that their chances of success increase in creating that taco shop. You know,
we have micro loan program that gives, you know, loans from, you know $500 to $25,000. And in SBA's
effort to help everybody, I think that Hispanics can use these services.
>> Erika Mendoza: So it sounds that through SBA you are able to promote small businesses to these
underserved areas including farm workers. And you've encountered obstacles. What are some of those
obstacles that you've encountered as to promoting and getting these underserved areas to accept small
business?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, it is interesting is that when most immigrants come to America, like in the
case of my father, is that they all come from small businesses. I mean, just ask them. But here in
America they become employees. And you know, being policemen, teachers, repairmen are honorable,
but we also need our fair share of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My father tells me that
there's three ways to make it big in America. One is inheritance. And unless your name is Slim, as in
Carlos Slim, or Bill Gates, this is really not an option for most of us. Second way is winning the lottery,
but the odds are just so astronomical. But the third way is small business. Every community has
somebody, many people that have made it big. And, let's see. But small business is not for everybody.
And my father was wrong, there is a fourth way, and that's education. So but these skills can still be
applied to everyday, you know, used to get ahead. Of proper planning, of taking a little bit of measured
risk. So I take great pride in that I'm, you know, able to, you know, speak to every opportunity I have to,
you know, young people. And SBA does have a young people initiative to teach them some of these
skills.
>>Erika Mendoza: Can you give me an example of how entrepreneurial skills can help someone achieve
a personal goal?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Well, if I was a Martian and landed here in person and wanted to go to Reno,
Nevada, I would not simply take the first highway and start going towards Reno. I mean, for example,
take 99, Highway 99 going south. I would end up taking up the wrong way, I mean going several
thousand miles when if I would have mapped this, planned this ahead, I would say just go up north on
99. In Sacramento, you know, turn right. Take 50 or 80, and this is the principle, this is the importance of
why, whether it's for business or for personal life, one needs to map out what they plan to do. A
business plan is nothing more than a roadmap that takes you from here to there. But it should be no
different from planning to go to college, purchasing a house, I mean, just like my father did in having us
eat ice milk, and you know, eat ground beef five days a week. And so many of the small entrepreneurial
skill principles can be used whether you're in business or in real life. And this is one example of how
entrepreneurial skills can help you.
>> Erika Mendoza: It sounds like you've had a road map and a plan your entire life. But if you had to go
back and think, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Last year I received the highest performance rating a civil servant could receive as a
result of several achievements including me receiving The SBA Eisenhower Ike Award and the EPA
Bronze Medal for Commendable Service. But Erika, my greatest achievement had been, you know,
reaching out to the underserved which includes, you know, my community, and teaching them
entrepreneurial skills so that we would perhaps see another Carlos Slim or Bill Gates in our midst. I think
that's my greatest contribution. Perhaps helping somebody. And I think that I have. I've received, you
know, a lot of, you know, thank you's say, "Hey, Mr. Mendoza. Thank you!" So.
>> Unidentified speaker: We have about five minutes left. I'm wondering if I could ask a couple of follow
up questions of you two. So Erika, you're getting an MBA. Do you have any special memories of your
father influencing you as a kid that kind of put you on this path?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that my dad grew up always very business oriented, I always attended,
you know, business galas, and I remember him taking me to several business mixers. And you see a lot
of Latino community, Hispanic community out there really doing this outreach. And I think that it's
inspired me to continue my education, but specifically the business arena. And so that's what brought
me to start my MBA.
>> Carlos Mendoza: But what I also told her, Erika, is that this is a competitive world, and she needs to,
Erika, you need to be different. You need to set yourself apart. And you have a bachelors which is great.
Now you're in the civil service track, but to be different, MBA is tremendously going to set you aside so
that people in the next promotion cannot ignore you. So I think that this is doing to help you because I
think you're going to follow in my steps that to, you know beating me. There is one level on top of being
the GS15 level, and that's senior executive service in the federal government. So hopefully you'll reach
that path, too.
>> Erika Mendoza: Hopefully.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Do you have any memories of your dad, like, you guys said, "Double it," was
one of the messages he gave you. Do you have any memories of him, like, when you were a kid, telling
you like what grades to get, or like any specific stories that stand out?
>> Erika Mendoza: Well, being that we're in a household, it's just me and my brother -- we're very
competitive in nature. From sports to, you know, to getting my parents' attention, to grades. Carlos has
always been slightly more disciplined than me when it comes to studying and getting good grades. I've
always been a little tougher, I guess you could say. But yes! My dad, just how he was saying, we would
get, you know, maybe like a C or a B and we would literally be crying and be like, "I did everything, and I
can't get an A." And he would be, he would say, "Well, clearly you're not doing everything because this
is not impossible." So yeah, we would just have to study and study and study. Like he said, "Double it
up." And yeah, it would increase our grades.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Carlos, could you tell Erika what your hopes are for her? In the future?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Uh, Well, to get married and to be the very best that you can. Apparently she wants
to follow in my footsteps of public service, of working with the federal government. Is to be her best.
>> Erika Mendoza: No pressure.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Yeah, we have about a minute and a half. Any last thoughts you want to tell
each other?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, actually I heard some things that I didn't know before. I had heard about the
ground beef and the powdered milk. But I didn't know about my dad living in the projects, and that
house that my grandpa saved up for. We love that house where my grandma still lives right now. It's
just, it has so many memories, and the house has -- I just took a picture of it the last time I went to visit
her. Yeah, but I think I found out a lot more about where I came from, where my dad came from. So it
was very informative.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Can you two paint a picture of the house? What does it look like?
>> Carlos Mendoza: Of my mother's house?
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah.
>> Carlos Mendoza: It's a -- I believe it used to be a dance hall. But, you remember that my father,
remember, purchased it for $5000 and like a very, very long time ago. But it has one room, and no
hallway. It has a bunch of bedrooms --
>> Erika Mendoza: No AC.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Bunch of bedrooms leading up to this central room. It does not have air
conditioning. And I remember growing up, believe it or not, using evaporated coolers. And interesting is
that, you know, one grows up with that, then you all think that everybody is using evaporated coolers
too. But that was not the fact. So but that's the importance of -- you know, we love movies. Going out to
movies because it like broadens your horizon, you know. Obviously we can't go to every part of this
world and experience everything, but movies help you do that.
>> Erika Mendoza: It's funny, at my grandma's house, the outside has changed, obviously. But the house
remains the same. There's vinyl floors. And when you walk, it creaks. And there's, you know, there's one
restroom. And there's a shed in the back. Buy yeah, it's a wooden house, basically.
>> Carlos Mendoza: Yeah, with uh, no insulation.
>> Unidentified Speaker: Any last thank you's or anything you want to share with anybody?
>> Carlos Mendoza: No, thank you for this opportunity to share my story. Thank you.
>> Erika Mendoza: Yeah, thanks to StoryCorps.