1310
Interview in Spanish.
Summary of Interview
Mrs. Quintero describes her hometown and what her life was like growing up; she explains that the young women of her home town were taken by force by the local men; in 1949, at the age of fourteen, she decided to marry in order to avoid the men of her town; in 1950, she gave birth to a daughter; her husband returned to the United States the following year; she describes his family as well-to-do; Mr. Quintero was a bracero in California until 1964; she details the suffering he endured and the low pay that he received while working as a bracero; while still living in her hometown, he would visit the family between contracts; her husband sent money home to his father and she was told to ask her father-in-law for the money; she began making a living as a seamstress; she and their six children moved to Mexicali, Mexico; in 1973, Mr. Quintero died of a heart attack; later, Mrs. Quintero became a supervisor at a clothing maquiladora and went on to own her own shop with twenty industrial machines; she states that she does not have the paperwork to recover her husband’s pension; her wish is for the braceros to get the ten percent deduction from their pay returned to them; she became an activist for their cause.