Skip to main content
Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive

Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo interviewed by Ian Hunte Doyle

Dublin Core

Title

Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo interviewed by Ian Hunte Doyle

Description

In this interview, originally recorded in person, Freddie Leo Castillo speaks with Watsonville is in the Heart team member Ian Hunte Doyle. Freddie details his father Doroteo Lafer Castillo’s immigration to the United States from the Philippines through Hawai’i, where he worked on the sugarcane plantations until eventually moving to the mainland to work seasonal agricultural jobs. Freddie explains how Doroteo settled in Watsonville and worked as a sharecropper. Freddie remembers growing up in Watsonville, where he and his sister were raised by his father, Doroteo Lafer Castillo. Fred recalls joining the Filipino Youth Club with his childhood friend Raymond “Ray” Gonzalez, who he refers to as his brother. He also describes working in the fields with Ray throughout high school. Fred talks about growing up half-Filipino and half-Mexican, and he explains how his father introduced him to Filipino culture, primarily through food and cooking.

Creator

Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo
Ian Hunte Doyle

Date

March 9, 2023

Rights

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.

Language

English

Type

Oral History

Oral History Item Type Metadata

Interviewer

Ian Hunte Doyle

Interviewee

Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo

Original Format

.wav

Duration

1:59:53

URL

Link to audio recording on escholarship: Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo interviewed by Ian Hunte Doyle

Files

Freddie Leo Castillo interviewed by Ian Hunte Doyle.pdf

Citation

Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo and Ian Hunte Doyle, “Fred "Freddie" Leo Castillo interviewed by Ian Hunte Doyle,” Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive, accessed November 7, 2024, https://wiith-archive.ucsc.edu/items/show/1204.

Output Formats

Comments

Allowed tags: <p>, <a>, <em>, <strong>, <ul>, <ol>, <li>