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TI: Tell me about the other, especially when it comes to the Boy Scouts and basketball, the other boys that you participated with. Were there any other Japanese Peruvians?

GN: No.

TI: How about, did you begin to learn about, like, did they come from the other camps like Tule Lake or Topaz or anything like that, did any of that ever come up?

GN: No, we never talked about that.

TI: Oh, so even though all of you probably were in camp, no one really talked about it?

GN: No one talked about what camp, yeah, that's true.

TI: So people didn't say, "Yeah, I was at Topaz"?

GN: No.

TI: You could say, "I was Crystal City," people would say, "Crystal City? Never heard of Crystal City."

GN: I remember one of the leaders, Boy Scout leader, he found out that we were from Peru, but he didn't tell anybody. Every time he sees me, he would talk about that.

TI: Oh, because he was just really interested and thought that was really interesting?

GN: Yes, he was, yes. To him it was really unusual, too, story, coming from Peru and all that.

TI: Now, did you retain any of your Spanish? Could you use, did you speak Spanish as you were growing up?

GN: Well, my Spanish, I didn't learn, well, I learned a lot of words from my older brother and my mother, they spoke Spanish at home. And I picked up a few words, and kind of got used to how it was pronounced. So when I pronounced Spanish words, it's perfect, it's not like an American trying to...

TI: Right, not like how I would do it. [Laughs]

GN: Yeah, right. So I learned that. When I worked for this chemical plant, there was a lot of Spanish people working there. I would talk to them in Spanish a little, and then they were really shocked.

TI: Because you're accent's so good?

GN: Yeah, the pronunciation was good.

TI: You would speak like a native speaker.

GN: Right, right. But then my Spanish was the old Spanish, it's not the new Spanish that they spoke, so a lot of things that I said, they said, "What?"

TI: Interesting.

GN: And then there was this older man, he says, "Yeah, that's right, you're speaking the proper Spanish," my word was proper, he says.

TI: So they must have been curious, like, so where did you learn Spanish?

GN: Yeah, so then I told them, "I'm from Peru, I was born in Peru." "What?" I told them my Spanish name, and then they start... so then when they see me, all the Spanish guys try and speak Spanish to me every day.

TI: And did you tell them your family's story and how you came to the United States?

GN: No.

TI: Now, why didn't you? Because here, it felt like you came across a group that, because of the language and the familiarity, and because many of them came to the United States in their different ways, would be an interesting story for them to learn.

GN: Not really, just that I was born there and I spoke Spanish, that's it. I remember the reason why they told me my Spanish was different, because I could say "avocado," right? Now they, like in high school, they pronounced "avocados" as "avocate." But Peru, it's not "avocate," it's "parta." So when I say, "Parta," they all say, "What?" They don't know what I'm talking about. But this old man said, "Parta?" he said, "that's avocado," things like that, it's really something. They were learning from me the old Spanish words.

TI: Now when you think about your life and different groups you've been in, one, it felt like there was, because of the language, some comfort with Spanish speakers, even though you didn't spend a lot of time. Is there a particular group that you just feel like, "Oh, I'm just so comfortable," that you can just relax and laugh? Has that happened in your life?

GN: Yeah, with some friends in the Boy Scouts. You get along with some, some you don't get along with, right? But the ones that I got along with, wow, we were good friends. Never mentioned about being a Peruvian or whatever. I was a Nisei, American, Japanese.

TI: So I'm curious, some of those friends that you grew up with, close ones, would some of them be surprised to find out that you're a Japanese Peruvian, or do they know now?

GN: Yeah, they know.

TI: Okay, they know.

GN: They didn't make fun of it or anything like that, they're good friends. What was it, really good friends. They would always come by the house and just visit me.

TI: Now that they know, have any of them just sort of, kind of, just one on one, just saying, "Hey, George, tell me more about this. You never really talked about this, I'm just really curious"?

GN: Not really. We never talk about that. There were a few of us that used to make fun, you know, my pronunciation, those are not my friends. I stayed away from them, but they used to make fun when I pronounce some words.

TI: Was that Japanese Americans?

GN: Yeah, Japanese, some of the guys from the Boy Scouts. So I stayed away from them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.