Feliciano H. Ordoñez
Title
Feliciano H. Ordoñez
Description
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Feliciano H. Ordoñez was born June 9, 1930, in Arizona; his father was from México, Distrito Federal, but as a boy he immigrated to the United States during the Mexican Revolution; he met his wife while working in the fields of Texas, and they moved to Arizona in the 1920s; Feliciano was the second born of his nine siblings; they grew up in the rural area of the west valley in Phoenix, Arizona; by the time he was six years old, he was already laboring in the fields; the entire family worked as migrant farm laborers, and his father was a foreman; as an adolescent, he often interacted with braceros while in the fields.
Summary of Interview: Mr. Ordoñez talks about his family and his parents in particular; he also comments on the general Hispanic community in Phoenix; he recalls working in the fields by the time he was six and how the entire family worked as migrant farm laborers, including his father who was a foreman; the bracero program began in 1942, when he was twelve year old, which led to constant interactions with the men; his first impression of them was that although they were not very well educated, they were humble and very hard workers; he recalls that they were well received as they were close to the ancestral roots of much of the working community; even so, they worked in different fields than the locals, because their boss did not want them to know how much less they were earning in comparison; they earned nine to ten cents an hour; in general, they were kept separate and had little if any interaction with the people in the community; there were also discrepancies in the language, and the locals discovered how little Spanish they really knew; because they used the short hoe, they developed a gradual curvature of the spine, not unlike many of the locals; Feliciano also remembers reading articles in the local newspaper about how well the program was going and how much the braceros helped while the local men were off at war; he also recounts other anecdotes and details their housing, accommodations, living conditions and provisions.
Summary of Interview: Mr. Ordoñez talks about his family and his parents in particular; he also comments on the general Hispanic community in Phoenix; he recalls working in the fields by the time he was six and how the entire family worked as migrant farm laborers, including his father who was a foreman; the bracero program began in 1942, when he was twelve year old, which led to constant interactions with the men; his first impression of them was that although they were not very well educated, they were humble and very hard workers; he recalls that they were well received as they were close to the ancestral roots of much of the working community; even so, they worked in different fields than the locals, because their boss did not want them to know how much less they were earning in comparison; they earned nine to ten cents an hour; in general, they were kept separate and had little if any interaction with the people in the community; there were also discrepancies in the language, and the locals discovered how little Spanish they really knew; because they used the short hoe, they developed a gradual curvature of the spine, not unlike many of the locals; Feliciano also remembers reading articles in the local newspaper about how well the program was going and how much the braceros helped while the local men were off at war; he also recounts other anecdotes and details their housing, accommodations, living conditions and provisions.
Creator
Loza, Mireya
Ordoñez, Feliciano H.
Date
2008-01-09
Subject
worked alongside braceros
Rights
Institute of Oral History, The University of Texas at El Paso
Language
spa
title (Spanish)
Feliciano H. Ordoñez
creator (Spanish)
Loza, Mireya
Rights Holder
Institute of Oral History, The University of Texas at El Paso
Online Submission
No
Duration
48:00
Bit Rate/Frequency
24 bit
96 k
96 k
Interviewer
Loza, Mireya
Interviewee
Ordoñez, Feliciano H.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
File Name Identifier
Ordonez_AZ048
Citation
Loza, Mireya and Ordoñez, Feliciano H., “Feliciano H. Ordoñez,” Bracero History Archive, accessed November 23, 2024, https://braceroarchive.org/items/show/739.