Raymond Gonzalez interviewed by Una Lynch

In this interview, originally recorded over Zoom, Raymond “Ray” Gonzalez speaks with Watsonville is in the Heart team member Una Lynch. Ray talks about his mother, Margaret Sanchez, a Latina woman who moved around the country from Texas searching for work. He explains how she eventually settled in Salinas, working in agriculture and as a cook in the labor camps. Ray goes on to talk about how his mother met his stepfather, Benito Acosta Nerona, while working in the canneries. Benito, who Ray describes as “the best part of [his] life”, immigrated to Watsonville from the Philippines to work as an agricultural laborer. Ray speaks about the hardships his stepfather endured while working in the fields, and he describes the union meetings his parents would host at their family home. Though Ray is not ethnically Filipino, he shares his feelings of respect and pride for the Filipino community in Watsonville that his stepfather passed down to him. Ray also reminisces about being involved in the Filipino Youth Club and the tight knit Filipino and Latino communities while growing up in Watsonville.

Raymond Gonzalez

Una Lynch

February 6, 2023

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

Una Lynch

Raymond Gonzalez

Zoom

.m4a

2:09:23