EXAMPLE INTERVIEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1
Angela Rodriguez Camacho is the name of the woman I decided to interview. She is an admirable and amazing lady and I’m blessed to have her as my grandmother. My mom's mom was born in El Rodeo, Amatepec, Mexico State, Mexico. She is 61 years old. An interesting fact about her is that nobody calls her by her name. Everybody calls her Gelita, a nickname I came up with when I was little because I couldn’t pronounce her name. She grew up with her mother, five sisters, and one brother. She told me that she enjoyed her childhood growing up with her siblings, however she didn’t have time to play because she was always busy working in the field. At a very young age, she had to cook for the men, who worked in the family fields. In this interview, I focus on different topics, such as family history, her experience coming to the United States, and her perspective on the importance of language.
I have always wanted to know where my family originally came from. My dad and I often have conversations about possibilities, but we don’t know the truth. From the interview, I learned that my relatives from my mom’s side are probably European. My grandma described to me the physical characteristics of her great-great-grandmother and my great-grandmother. She said that they had really light skin and blue eyes. I was fortunate to meet my great-grandfather; I called him “Abuelito”. He was also light-skinned, but he had green eyes. My grandmother herself is very beautiful. She is short, skinny, with light skin, light brown hair, and green eyes. What I love about her is her personality; she loves kids and is always watching out for people in need. She told me that her dad was the first one in their family to be born in El Rodeo and that everybody in their family spoke Spanish. On the other hand, my dad is from a little town called San Juan, only about an hour away from El Rodeo; yet, he told me that his grandmother spoke Nahuatl. I found it really interesting that my family from my dad’s side spoke Nahuatl, while on my mom’s side they only spoke Spanish.
Due to work, my grandmother couldn’t pursue an education. She told me she enjoyed learning, but since she had to help at home, she only completed the fourth grade. Nevertheless, I’m really impressed by the skills she has. She knows how to read and write perfectly and she even has math skills. She has the most beautiful cursive I’ve ever seen. (I would say that it’s better than mine.) Something new that I learned about her was that she was a housekeeper in Mexico City, where my oldest uncle and my mom were born. At the house where she worked, there were two girls who spoke Nahuatl, but they would only speak it around the owners of the house.
Then, after having her first two kids, she moved back to El Rodeo and lived with her mother. Later, she had three more children, which only meant more work because she had to raise them on her own. She would make clothes and bake bread to sell to the families in the town. The first time she came to America was approximately six years ago. She was here for three years and then returned to Mexico. She lived in Mexico for another year and then came back to America again. She loves it here, but she says she misses her little town, El Rodeo. I asked her if she noticed any language differences in Mexico when she went back. She said no because she is always around people that speak Spanish.
My grandmother lives with my aunt, who has an eight-year-old daughter old and is always speaking English. So, I asked my grandmother if there were any words that she knew in English and she said yes. Then I asked her why she never used them and she said, “Escuchando se pega, el inglés, hay muchas palabras que tengo in la mente pero nada mas no va,” meaning that she knows some words but she just doesn’t feel like it’s okay for her to say them. I also asked her if she would like to learn English but she said, “No, porque ya me voy a ir a mi tierra,” meaning no because she is going back to Mexico, but I don’t believe she really wants to go. Maybe the only reason why she would like to go is to see her sons and granddaughters. I asked her if she thought she had an accent and she said yes. She said that she thinks everybody has an accent, but that she wouldn’t be able to describe her own. I also asked her if she used any slang and she responded really wisely by saying, “No lo puedo decir yo, a la major otra persona me califica,” meaning that she wouldn’t be able to say yes or no and that someone else might judge her. She also shared with me some words that she uses now that she didn’t before she came to America. A couple examples are “soda” and “closet.”
In previous conversations I have had with my grandmother, she told me that her relatives came to El Rodeo around the time of the Mexican Revolution and that they would hide in the caves. She told me that her relatives would hide because they were scared. They would do it to protect their food, the young girls, and themselves: the girls would be raped and the men would get beaten. The men that would come would force the women to feed them. My grandmother told me that the men that would come to harm her relatives would bring canned food; for some reason this really surprised her.I had the amazing privilege to visit a few of these caves. There is one that is called el Campanario (bell tower). It’s a huge rock, but when you get close to it there are entrances to the cave. Everybody in the town is scared to go inside because of the town’s scary myths. I asked my grandmother if she thought it was difficult for her family to adjust to a new town and she said yes. She told me that her grandparents became friends with the people that were already there, which was only three families, and that they also had to become friends with the people from nearby towns. In order to survive, they would trade goods. She said that her relatives had to start planting corn and that they would share it with the neighbors.
I also asked her about the changes she saw in El Rodeo. She told me about the instruments they used to weigh foods. She said that they used something called cuartillos, which were wooden boxes. Their scales would be two sardine containers tied together. She told me that they used to wrap everything in paper, until plastic came around later. Electricity also came around not too long ago. They used to use molcajetes, metates, torilleras, andjogones, metal irons. She told me that the road that connected the little towns to the bigger town,Amatepec, was made with axes and shovels and only fit one vehicle. Now, all the roads are paved and are two lanes. She said that as she was growing up there was a school, but it only went up to fourth grade. Now there are more schools and the traditional elementary school goes up to sixth grade. Today, the kids are more encouraged to get educated.
Gelita believes that it is very important for our language to be carried on from generation to generation; she said that our language is the biggest part of our identity. I learned a lot from this interview and I really enjoyed it. My grandma was uncomfortable at the beginning of the interview, but by the end she was more relaxed. She said that the interview was somewhat challenging because she doesn’t like talking about herself.