This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student digital storytelling initiative. The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries, websites, and interviews are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Students at Mineola High School in Texas developed content-rich websites that explored "journey stories" in their community. Participating students interviewed family, friends, and other local residents as part of their official Youth Access Grant local history projects, supported by Museum on Main Street in 2013-14.
Speaker 1 (00:00): How did you come to the United States?
Fidel Sanchez (00:08): When I came, walk or traveled. Well, my first time, when I first came, I walked. I was come across, walk like everybody else do in leaving. I crossed several times. I forgot how many, but at least three or four times. Just walk in a park. And somebody pick me up, pick us on circle place, and drop the vehicle after that. Bring us to different places.
Speaker 1 (00:39): Why did you come to the United States?
Fidel Sanchez (00:43): I guess I'm hungry. We were raised and real weak, and well, because we heard things. We heard that, old people, they ... old persons would say they make better back from here. Now they travel a lot, and that's how they ... we just started trying, and that's how we come. My brothers, I was real young when I come through, and my brothers come, too. And that's how it started. I just, I guess a lot to say, it's the way that we lived. We had nothing down there. We just ...
(01:34): We walked. By that time we didn't have no vehicle, we didn't have nobody that had a vehicle, we just walked. And we finally get to find job and have a place, and just like everybody, if you look for it, you'll find it. Long as you try. That's what we always ... we suffer a little bit to get, we ... by that time, sometimes you suffer from water, drink water, because you didn't have no water, you didn't have no f-
(02:03): We had some money by that time, but we didn't know how to spend the money. Because we didn't know anything, we can't speak English, we didn't ... It's pretty rough when you come through like here, it's pretty rough. But we come through.
(02:20): Oh yeah. That was pretty scary. That was frightening. That bank can fright, because you afraid because you didn't know anything. Especially the first time you come, and you didn't know anything, you just afraid of anybody. You just come like, "Wow."
(02:37): And I was scared in anybody. You run just like a ... when we come that way, we just come just like a ... I ain't going to say that, but in a real while, because we afraid of anything. If you see a vehicle, we'd run away from that. If we see a person, we'd run away from that. Until we get to the place that we're supposed to hit it. And except for that, we're afraid of anybody when we first come.
Asset ID: 2022.33.05a
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
