Ruby Baniaga Kaldonis interviewed by Markus Faye Portacio

In this interview, originally recorded via Zoom Ruby Baniaga Kalidonis speaks with Markus Faye Portacio, a member of the Watsonville is in the Heart project team. Ruby shares her family’s migration experiences in Hawai’i and Watsonville, California. She recalls how her family arrived in the US and explains how her father Romeo Veo Baniaga and her mother Betty Magarin Baniaga, met. She discusses Romeo’s and Betty’s work in the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors. She also discusses Romeo's affinity for gardening and Betty’s skills in strawberry picking. Ruby talks about the community networks her family established in Watsonville and her relationships with her relatives that live in the Philippines. Additionally, Ruby reflects on her experience growing-up mixed-race and her “Mexipino” identity.

Ruby Baniaga Kalidonis

Markus Faye Portacio

August 12, 2022

Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and greater Pajaro Valley. All oral history interviews are donated to WIITH by the narrators. Copyright is held by WIITH. Oral history interview recordings and transcripts are available for unrestricted use and reproduction by educators and researchers. Please note that the recordings on this website are provided via Soundcloud. For access to oral history audio files, please contact the project director at wiith@ucsc.edu. If you are an oral history narrator and would like to remove your interview from the archive website, please contact the project director.

English

Oral History

Markus Faye Portacio

Ruby Baniaga Kaldonis

Zoom

.m4a

1:20:29