Anastacio Asuncion interviewed by Meleia Simon-Reynolds
Dublin Core
Title
Anastacio Asuncion interviewed by Meleia Simon-Reynolds
Description
In this interview, originally recorded in-person, Anastacio “Stosh” Asuncion speaks with Watsonville is in the Heart team member Meleia Simon-Reynolds. Stosh starts by telling the story of his father, Anastacio Polistico Asuncion’s life in the Philippines, his migration to the United States through Hawai’i, and his involvement in both World Wars before eventually settling in Watsonville, California where he worked as a sharecropper for Reiter Berry Company. He discusses his father’s hobbies of gardening and fishing and remembers his mother, Paula Montelongo Asuncion’s cooking. Stosh reflects on how growing up within a multiethnic community at a labor camp located on San Andreas Road impacted his early views on his parents’ interracial marriage. He describes how he explored his mixed-race identity in college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He discusses reading Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart and his experience writing an undergraduate research paper titled, “Watsonville’s Filipino Bachelor Community” in 1970. Stosh talks about his experience working in the strawberry fields as a child, and reflects on the long term effects agricultural pesticides had on his father and other workers. He also provides vivid details about cockfights that were held in the Pajaro Valley. Stosh ends the interview by reflecting on fond memories of spending time with his parents, including going fishing with his father and having picnics with his mother.
Creator
Anastacio "Stosh" Asuncion
Meleia Simon-Reynolds
Date
February 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
Meleia Simon-Reynolds
Interviewee
Anastacio "Stosh" Asuncion
Original Format
.wav
Duration
1:41:49
URL
Link to audio recording on escholarship: Anastacio Asunción interviewed by Meleia Simon-Reynolds
Collection
Citation
Anastacio "Stosh" Asuncion and Meleia Simon-Reynolds, “Anastacio Asuncion interviewed by Meleia Simon-Reynolds,” Watsonville is in the Heart: Community Digital Archive, accessed November 27, 2024, https://wiith-archive.ucsc.edu/items/show/1338.
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