<Begin Segment 22>

AR: Okay, we're standing in front of the Capitan Elementary School now. Of course, this is a newer building, and in the '40s it would have been a much different schoolhouse that actually accommodated all children from kindergarten through twelfth grade, I think. And I'd like for you to recount what happened when you were at the Baca camp site in terms of education for the children.

RE: Well, it wasn't too long after we got there in January, late January, that my sister raised a concern with the authorities that the kids needed to get an education. After all, January was a school month, and kids needed to have an education, and they had somewhat forgotten about that fact. And so Mr. Tenney and the authorities went to the Capitan School Board which was the closest school district around. And they negotiated a situation where seventeen of us kids would be allowed to go to school, attend the school here. Well, we spent about three days in school here. I think the third day, however, a vigilante group formed and they were adult men who had shotguns and said, "Uh-uh, the kids are not going in that building again." So we all went back in the sedans and whatever, the vans, and we went back and that was the end of our education.

AR: At this location, right? What grade was your sister in at this time? About how old was she?

RE: My sister hadn't quite finished Clovis High School. She was a senior at that time and when the war broke out. So her education was limited to eleven-and-a-half years of school.

AR: And this is Amy or Emiko, right?

RE: Amy, uh-huh, my sister Amy. So they decided that the next best thing was to have the principal at the Clovis High School send her all the books that were necessary to educate all of us. And so she embarked on trying to teach us the best she could, but of course, with no teaching experience, it never materialized, so after a month or so she finally gave up and that was the end of our education.

[Interruption]

AR: When we were at Fort Stanton in our previous trip, your sister also had a little run-in with authorities there, too. Can you recap what happened when they brought you to Fort Stanton?

RE: After about eight or nine hours of driving time coming from Clovis to Fort Stanton, why we were there I don't know, but anyhow, we ended up there before the sun came up, and my sister inquired whether we were going to be incarcerated or detained over in this facility. And, apparently they said that's what the plan was. Well, my sister said, well, it's apparent to her that it was a POW camp, German war prisoners, and since we were mostly kids, we're American citizens, we could not be confined in that facility. So they then talked it over, and after we had breakfast over there some time later, they decided to put us in an abandoned CCC camp, which is the Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and so in Baca Canyon, and that's where we ended up.

AR: Yes, and I think one of the concerns she raised was that you were going to be housed with German prisoners, with men, right?

RE: That's correct.

AR: And your kids and women and families were gonna be...

RE: They were mostly, they were men, and there was no way that you could put families in there amongst these POWs.

AR: In those three days when you were in the classes, how did the other teachers and the children treat you?

RE: It was all right. It was a little strained because the majority of the kids were, I didn't recall seeing any white students. They were mostly American Indian students in there, but I don't recall any incidents at all.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2008 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.