John Marquez interviewed by Katrina Pagaduan

In this interview, originally recorded in person, John Marquez and his mother, Evelyn Marquez talk with Watsonville is in the Heart team member Katrina Pagaduan. John primarily speaks about his grandfather, Leon Custodio Ventura, who served in the U.S. military and then immigrated to the United States. Evelyn describes her experience traveling by boat from the Philippines to California as a young child. John speaks about his grandfather’s experiences harvesting apples and strawberries for Jenson & Son Company in Watsonville. He recalls his time working in the fields with his grandfather when he was younger. He talks about his family’s experiences within the Watsonville Filipino American community and remembers that his grandparents taught other Filipino migrants how to navigate U.S. processes including citizenship, Social Security, and banking.

John Marquez

Katrina Pagaduan

Evelyn Marquez

October 20, 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

Katrina Pagaduan

John Marquez

Evelyn Marquez

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