<Begin Segment 8>

AR: So did your... what was your mother's outlook and goals for you three daughters? Did she want you to...

MM: Not any different.

AR: ...get married?

MM: You know, I remember my mother. She was always singing. What is that song? I forget, something. Oh, she'd be making the bed or she be doing something and then she was just a happy woman, that's all. Because, I mean, she... I can't remember her fighting with my father, because I don't know, see... well, they were two different persons. But I don't remember big fights or nothing like that.

AR: What did she want for the children? What do you think her ambition was for you?

MM: She could get them the best that she could, she'd get them. But the thing about it was, she'd do without to get for the kids, you know? That was the way it was, I guess, most parents.

AR: Did she kind of expect you to get married, grow up and get married?

MM: Well, when I told them that I was getting married, we were down here when Louie and his mother, they went to ask for my hand, and my father, he just sat down real quiet and he didn't say anything much, you know, because he couldn't express himself anyway. And, so my mother did all the talking and his mother, and so, what it was going to be like and am I willing to go through it and this and that. And Louie said, "Yeah." I said, "I guess so." So there we are.

AR: Did you guys date before that? Did you and Louie date before that?

MM: Yes, we did. Yeah. [Interruption] And I don't know how it was, but he ended up, one way or the other, we ended up I guess falling in love. So...

AR: So you say you had another boyfriend at the time?

MM: Oh, yeah. No, I didn't hold back. Everybody else, they stayed with the one boyfriend and this.

AR: So you had your share of boyfriends?

MM: Oh, I had my share. Too much. That's why my reputation followed me. [Laughs]

AR: Were they mostly Hispanic or Anglo or it didn't matter?

MM: No, they were Spanish. Yeah. I don't believe there were any Anglos.

AR: Japanese boys? Did any Japanese boys want to date you?

MM: Yeah, I went with one, Walter Shibata.

AR: Uh-huh.

MM: Yeah. But, not really that interesting, you know. Because...

AR: How old were you when your husband asked to marry you?

MM: I was twenty-one.

AR: Oh. Okay.

MM: Uh-huh. He was nineteen.

AR: Oh, younger than you.

MM: Yeah. I was... what do you call 'em? A baby stealer, or what? [Laughs]

AR: Baby stealer, okay. Hmm. In your household, what was the food like? Your dad was a cook, so did he do the cooking or did your mom do the cooking?

MM: Oh, both of them. My dad would fix us, you know, Japanese stuff. My mother always with her tacos and enchiladas and she always cooked the best beans. I can go somewhere and eat beans now and they don't taste the same. She done something with them. But she was, and that's what it was, a mixture.

AR: Oh, that's nice.

MM: Yeah. Because they opened up a restaurant over here and that's where she, all Mexican food and, boy, she used to get a lot of people there.

AR: So your mom and dad opened their own restaurant for a while?

MM: They opened it up and they were, you know, they'd work together , you know.

AR: What period was that? What year, decade maybe?

MM: Oh, well, let's see, I was married already. I got married in 1937, I guess, around there. Yeah.

AR: Okay. So, once you guys were married, you said about 1937, you still continued to live here in Gallup?

MM: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

AR: Okay. Did you go to work for your parents' restaurant?

MM: We used to go help her make tamales or something like that. And Louie, he used to go, because he and my dad would go to Mr. Casado's store and they'd all have their beer in the evenings. But that was about it. And during the war, before the war, that's when we moved up there, that Louie went to work for the shipyards.

AR: Moved to where?

MM: To California.

AR: Okay.

MM: We went to... what is that place? San Pedro?

AR: San Pedro, uh-huh.

MM: That's where he went and he was working the shipyards.

AR: I see, okay. And that's right before the war started?

MM: Oh, yeah.

AR: And you moved there with him. Did you have any children by that point?

MM: How's that?

AR: Did you two have children by that point?

MM: We had Inez, that was the only one. At that time, she about a year and a half, or something like that.

AR: Your first daughter?

MM: Yeah. And then he decided to come back. I tell you, he was always, always crying every day that his mama was this, and he was going to be called and I said, "Well, let's go home."

AR: He was going to be called into the service?

MM: Yeah. And he was not going to see his mama. He wasn't worried about not seeing me, he was not going to see his mom. [Laughs]

AR: His mom still lived here?

MM: No. His mother was still here, yeah.

AR: And your parents were here?

MM: My parents, well, they lived here, too.

AR: Okay. Now, when the war broke out, did you have any concerns about being half Japanese, living in California?

MM: That's when I went to California.

AR: Right.

MM: They were all coming out and I went with Louie.

AR: You were moving right about that time when the war started?

MM: Yeah. [Interruption] And so I went by Mary Montoya. But it's my name, you know, but I left the Toki out so that there wouldn't be no problems.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.