Rosario Lopez interviewed by Hana Yamamoto

In this interview, originally conducted in person, Rosario “Rose” Magdalena Lopez speaks with Watsonville is in the Heart team member Hana Yamamoto. Rose describes how her father, Arsenio “Archie” Soblechero Lopez traveled by ship from the Philippines to California and eventually began working in the fields in Watsonville. She further explains how Archie became sick with tuberculosis from pesticides like DDT that were commonly sprayed in the fields where he worked. His illness led him to quit working in the fields and open a barbershop in Santa Cruz on Mission Street. Rose vividly describes Archie’s barbershop, including the smell of Ilokanofood being cooked for lunch and Filipino men gambling, smoking, and even trading produce in the Ace Cardroom that Archie ran in the back. Rose remembers singing Filipino songs at her father’s band, Archie and the Islanders. She goes on to speak about her mother, Margaret Yepez Lopez, a Mexican American woman who worked for the canneries and was an outspoken figure in union organizing. Rose details her parents’ wedding ceremony in Watsonville in 1948. She reflects fondly on the tight-knit Filipino and Mexican communities in Watsonville, remembering the Filipino social dances, gatherings at the labor camps, and the Filipino men her parents would house and take in as a family.

Rosario "Rose" Magdalena Lopez

Hana Yamamoto

May 9, 2023

Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift storiWatsonville 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 the greater Pajaro Valley. Images were donated and digitally reproduced from private collections of individuals and families. Copyright remains with the original owners. All images included herein are intended for personal or educational use only. Any reproduction, redistribution, publication, or other use, by any means, without prior written permission is prohibited. Please note that the images on this website are not included at their full resolution. For permission to publish or reproduce and for higher resolution files, please get in touch with the project director at wiith@ucsc.edu. If you are the rightful copyright holder of this item and its use online constitutes an infringement of your copyright, please contact the project director to discuss its removal from the archive.

English

Oral History

Hana Yamamoto

Rosario "Rose" Magdalena Lopez

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