Interview Transcript
Thomas Gomez
Q: You kind of knew when you were going through high school that you wanted to come here?
A: Well, I was going through my last year of high school and my brother showed up in this nice car, and I was making payments on my bicycle. So I asked him if I could come with him and he said "No, because you are going to school." Six months later I finished high school and I started working. I called him and said "I'm not going to school anymore, so can I go?" I waited for another six months working there. The next time, my brother went over, I told him I wanted to come.
Q: So what was it like coming here? You didn't have all of your papers?
A: No, I didn't have any papers. I was only 17 and I liked the adventure, so I just wanted to come here.
Q: Tell me about the couple of days it took you to come?
A: We were at the border for almost a month. We came across about 7 times and we got caught just about every time coming through Nogales. We got caught every time we try to cross from there so we moved up to Tijuana through the airport, through the airplanes landing. But we were there for a week, on the hills, coming across. We spent a couple of days on a tomato field and then we got on the car and started moving, then we had to get out of the highway because of the Immigration . . . they just took the first exit and they dropped us off at this ranch where they were picking oranges, so there were a lot of orange trees over there. We just sleep under the trees and ate oranges for about 3 days. It took me about 7 days to come to Reno.
Q: Was it scary?
A: Not really, it was kind of sad because they didn't feed you right. They had like 10 loaves of bread and it was 30 people and five, six bags of bologna. Everybody was fighting over the food, so I just let them have the food. At night when it was dark, I just went to the orange trees and just got some oranges, or while we were at the tomato field, I just ate lots of tomatoes, that's all I ate because I didn't want to fight over the food.
Q: Did you know anybody here to come and stay with?
A: Yeah, my brothers they were all here already, they'd been here for about 10 years already so they were already working and everything.
Q: So what was it like going through the process of becoming legal?
A: Well, it was hard. The first time, we applied to the amnesty and when I did not have all the paperwork to prove it, I was refused. A lot of times, I worked with other names, we just bought different papers sometimes with different names, so they denied the first time after all the money we paid to pay for the process and for the immigration fees and stuff, I got denied the first time. But three years later, Juana applied and when she came to be a citizen and she applied for me.
Q: So she was legal first?
A: Yes. I was legal to work, I had a work permit but I didn't have my permanent residency. I went through one-year permits from year to year. So I was legal to work but I had to go through the process of renewing my permit every year. So when she became a citizen, she applied for me and that's how I became. But it was hard.
Q: Was it hard when you weren't legal, changing names and.....?
A: When I came here in '79, there wasn't much people here so it was easy to, for a job I got, I would just walk in there. I got here Sunday night and Monday morning, I walked in the first employment office and we filled out the application, we just made up a social security number. I was working that same day, so it was easy. But as time went by, more people came over, so it got harder and harder to find a job. To me, I never had a problem finding a job. I guess I've just been real lucky. Before I leave one job, I already have another one lined up. Sometimes, people offer me jobs and I always have people asking me to become partners with them, to start business, because they see me always doing different things.
Q: You have your own business, was it hard getting it going?
A: Yes, it was really hard, we did it for about seven years at the flea markets. Every time we got a paycheck, we went and bought little stuff. To start with almost nothing, you just went out there and stayed all day long in the hot weather almost for nothing. We had our minds made up that we were going to become self-employed, so we didn't mind all the work. We worked for like 12, 15 hours getting set up from 5, 6 o'clock in the morning until 6, 7 o'clock at night.
Q: But you still work long hours in the business.
A: Yeah, we still work long hours but it's easier over here. It's not as hard because you don't have to set up and close down everyday.
Q: So Edwin is a lot of help around here, isn't he?
A: Oh yeah, he helps us out. He has been a big help since he was a kid. He always went and helped people since he was seven, I think. He went and helped people, they like the way he talked to them, so they will tip him all the time or give him the 50 cent change, or they will give him a dollar, "thanks for your help." He likes to work. Sometimes, I am afraid that I am working him too much.
Q: Did you ever have any problems when you were going through the immigration stuff with the INS? Was that a big problem?
A: There was a lot of worries because I heard that sometimes people go for their appointments and they don't let them out. They just keep them and deport them, and with my family buying a house and all, there was always a worry going through the process. A lot people just don't take that chance and they just don't even try to become legal because they are afraid. There is not enough communication on the immigration laws, and I hear that they are always changing anyway, so unless somebody is on top of it. There is not enough communication with Immigration and the Hispanic community. There are a lot of people getting organizations together, but they are not really set up right, they are not really getting to the people, they are not giving them enough information.
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