Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo Lechtenberg interviewed by Olivia Sawi

In this interview, Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo Lechtenberg speaks with Olivia Sawi, a member of the Watsonville is the Heart project team. Lechtenberg discusses her family background and immigration from the Philippines and Texas to Watsonville and later Aromas. She also discusses her experience growing up in a working-class, mixed-race family. She remembers her father’s difficulties navigating the 1965 Delano Grape Strike as a foreman. Lechtenberg also talked about the effects of pesticides on her family’s health and her turn towards herbalism and holistic medicine. She details her relationship with food as a product of her father’s love for eating.

Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo Lechtenberg and Olivia Sawi

May 8, 2021

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

DEO.2021.83

Olivia Sawi

Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo Lechtenberg

mp3

2:02:44

[04:25] Describing the Aromas community

[6:34] Antoinette and her sister, Veronica’s experiences working in the fields while growing up

[11:17] Father, Paul “Skippy” Tabalan DeOcampo’s and other family members’ farm properties in Watsonville and Aromas

[15:04] Mother, Gloria Molina DeOcampo’s background and how Gloria and Skippy met

[17:19] Skippy’s migration journey

[18:49] Childhood memories of manongs, extended family, and friends

[24:00] Racial and socioeconomic differences between Watsonville and Aromas communities

[26:11] Leisure activities

[28:12] Going to school in Aromas

[29:59] Family dynamics and challenges

[32:19] Memories of Skippy as a dedicated father and hard worker

[36:03] Childhood memories of family barbeques at Lazo Ranch

[38:24] Tensions Skippy experiences due to labor unionizing and his positionality as a contractor

[41:14] Watsonville Race Riots, enduring racism in the community, and experiences of discrimination

[48:14] Antoinette’s career at Cabrillo College

[55:00] Skippy’s personality

[58:40] Skippy’s and Gloria’s work to support the family through hard times

[1:03:10] Mixed-race, “Mexi-pino” identity

[1:06:10] Relationship between the DeOcampo and Rosser families

[1:07:31] Describing a typical day growing up in Aromas

[1:12:01] Interethnic interactions and the rural/urban divide between Aromas and Watsonville

[1:16:56] Effects of agricultural chemicals on the health of field workers and the DeOcampo family

[1:21:56] Food and healing

[1:27:38] Antoinette’s path to being a herbalist and its roots in her family

[1:37:25] Fond memories of leisure activities with manongs and family members