<Begin Segment 5>

MN: Now, when you went to make deliveries to Chavez Ravine, how often did you make these deliveries?

BS: I would think once or twice a week, it seems like. And I sort of looked forward to it because it got away from the store. Because we were sort of confined just to the store or just to the streets with our neighbors that played. And they were all businesspeople's children, too. So we were just restricted to the street.

MN: And you mentioned there were like dirt roads up there.

BS: Yes.

MN: Was it a lot of farms up there?

BS: No, not farm, but just seemed like just countryside, real, I guess, undeveloped areas.

MN: So by this time, how many employees did your father have in total?

BS: If I had to guess I would say maybe six person.

MN: Were they all Latinos except for that one Japanese Americans that came in once in a while?

BS: Sometimes, yeah. They were all Hispanic.

MN: You're growing up in this predominately Latino neighborhood.

BS: Yes.

MN: What did you eat at home?

BS: Well, we ate some Japanese food, and then we ate lots of Mexican or Spanish food, too. So that's where I learned to eat the cow's tongue, or the brain, or the intestine. So those are things that the average person cannot stomach.

MN: Can you share with us how... where did your parents get the chorizo that they sold in the store?

BS: They probably had some commercial chorizo but I know they also made chorizo in the store. And I hate to say it, but it looked like they did all the leftover other meats and put it in it, and lots of spices. So I guess it all tastes the same after you spice it enough.

MN: Do you know who taught your parents how to make chorizo?

BS: I would think just the Mexican butchers knew how to do that.

MN: So other than your father's grocery store, how much, how many of the pockets were there Japanese businesses around the area? Was it a lot?

BS: Well, on our same block, the two hotels were run by Japanese. And across the street, there was the dry goods store run by a Japanese. And then across the street again was a, I guess it was a Japanese restaurant. So those were the immediate ones, but I know further down the block, there was many in the hotel business at that time. So in the next couple blocks I know a couple of them, because one of them was my classmate at Maryknoll school also.

MN: And then you're growing up during the Depression. Do you know if that affected your father's business at all?

BS: That I don't know because I was at the latter part of the Depression, so everything started going better.

MN: Now I'm gonna ask about your schooling. You kind of already mentioned it, but which kindergarten did you go to?

BS: Well, kindergarten or... either kindergarten or preschool. I don't think they had preschool in those days. Kindergarten, I went to Union Church on San Pedro Street.

MN: Were your parents Christians?

BS: Seems like they became Christian in the camps. So I'm not sure what they had before that, but we went to a Christian school and then eventually went to Maryknoll Catholic school. It seems like that was because of convenience. Bus would pick us up early in the morning and drop us of late in the afternoon, whereas public schools started later and ended earlier. So they didn't want us to go public school, so we went to a Catholic private school.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.