Calavera Highway

Description
Reviews
Citation
Cataloging
Transcript

When Armando and Carlos Pena set off to carry their mother’s ashes back to South Texas and reunite with their brothers, the road reveals more than they bargained for. The feature documentary, CALAVERA HIGHWAY (Skeleton Highway), traces the odyssey of two brothers as they decipher their family’s story—why their mother Rosa was outcast by her own family, and what happened to their father Pedro, who disappeared during the notorious 1954 U.S. government deportation program, “Operation Wetback,” in which over a million Mexican and Mexican Americans were forced across the border. CALAVERA HIGHWAY is a sweeping story of a family of seven men grappling with the meaning of masculinity, fatherhood, and a legacy of rootless beginnings.

Duke University | Ariel Dorfman, Walter Hines Page Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Literature
"Calavera Highway takes us on a unique journey into the many Americas disputing the heartland and the border, and does so with energy, sophistication and a deeply literary resonance."

Los Angeles Weekly
“The best film previewed… The film is filled with affecting moments, but the most powerful is incredibly simple: In footage culled from family home movies, one of the adult sons is sitting on the sofa next to his frail, sleeping, dying mother; he simply looks at her for a while, and then drops his eyes to his hands, resting in his lap. There’s so much grief and sadness in that quick exchange, it breaks your heart.”

SF360 | Independent View
"An intimate and elegantly crafted work of cinema verite, Calavera Highway encompasses universal familial tensions, Mexican-American identity, the responsibilities of fathers (and sons) and the psychic malleability of
map-drawn borders.”

Citation

Select a citation style:

Main credits

Tajima-Pena, Renee (film director)
Tajima-Pena, Renee (film producer)
Griego, Evangeline (film producer)
Peña, Armando (screenwriter)
Peña, Armando (narrator)

Other credits

Edited by Yolanda Demetrakas; director of photography, Jonathan Schell; music, Brian Kirk [and others].

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

American Studies, Archival, Biographies, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Economics, Labor, & Poverty, Immigration & Border Studies, Latinx Studies, U.S. History, Gender Studies, Masculinity + Fatherhood; "Calavera Highway"; GOOD DOCS

WEBVTT

00:00:03.294 --> 00:00:07.340
♪ ♪

00:00:12.470 --> 00:00:15.014
♪ ♪

00:00:15.473 --> 00:00:18.309
(speaking in Spanish)

00:00:21.104 --> 00:00:24.524
ARMANDO: Unlike my brothers,
I\'m not crazy about fishing and

00:00:24.607 --> 00:00:27.694
I don\'t much enjoy barbecuing.

00:00:28.611 --> 00:00:30.572
I come from a
family of seven boys.

00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.492
We all grew up like
street urchins without a father.

00:00:35.201 --> 00:00:37.495
I had, I had a terrible stutter,

00:00:37.579 --> 00:00:40.540
and Carlos repeated
the first grade twice.

00:00:41.708 --> 00:00:42.959
RAUL: Right there.

00:00:43.042 --> 00:00:44.294
CARLOS: Why don\'t you take
\'Mando with you, over there?

00:00:44.377 --> 00:00:46.212
That guy\'s
dangerous over here...

00:00:46.463 --> 00:00:49.048
ARMANDO: Raul was a bed wetter,
which was kind of a drag because

00:00:49.132 --> 00:00:52.510
we all had to sleep
together in the same stinky bed.

00:00:54.929 --> 00:00:57.015
But in the eyes
of my mother, Rosa,

00:00:57.098 --> 00:00:58.892
we were her \"hijos de oro,\"

00:00:58.975 --> 00:01:00.977
her golden boys.

00:01:01.811 --> 00:01:02.687
I, I got something.

00:01:02.771 --> 00:01:03.772
CARLOS: Damn.
ARMANDO: Look at this.

00:01:03.855 --> 00:01:05.231
CARLOS: It\'s dead.

00:01:05.315 --> 00:01:05.815
(laughing).

00:01:05.899 --> 00:01:06.775
ARMANDO: Huh?
CARLOS: It\'s dead, man!

00:01:06.858 --> 00:01:08.651
RAUL: It\'s a snake!

00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:11.654
CARLOS: He caught
it from the belly.

00:01:11.946 --> 00:01:16.451
ARMANDO: You see, now you
guys won\'t pick on me anymore.

00:01:17.869 --> 00:01:20.413
We haven\'t seen much
of each other in six years

00:01:20.497 --> 00:01:22.040
since mom\'s funeral.

00:01:23.708 --> 00:01:26.127
When she died, there was a
lot of turmoil in the family.

00:01:28.922 --> 00:01:31.090
Mom left us with
unanswered questions;

00:01:32.091 --> 00:01:35.428
why she was outcast
by her own mother and

00:01:35.512 --> 00:01:38.348
why our father
Pedro disappeared.

00:01:39.682 --> 00:01:41.142
By the time I was born,

00:01:41.226 --> 00:01:43.603
he had vanished,
like an apparition.

00:01:59.369 --> 00:02:01.079
CARLOS: OK. So how\'s
Armando doing, Renee?

00:02:01.162 --> 00:02:03.456
RENEE: Oh, he\'s, he\'s
doing ok, you know Armando,

00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:05.375
he keeps on going
through your mom\'s stuff,

00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:07.377
calling your brothers.

00:02:11.756 --> 00:02:14.092
CARLOS: That\'s my
workout for the day.

00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:22.600
Look at there, that\'s her
little altar, right there?

00:02:23.268 --> 00:02:24.561
RENEE: Mhmmm.

00:02:25.770 --> 00:02:29.899
CARLOS: Yeah, so
those are her ashes.

00:02:34.112 --> 00:02:35.738
Are they coming out, Renee?

00:02:35.822 --> 00:02:37.949
RENEE: No. What\'s that?

00:02:38.658 --> 00:02:39.659
CARLOS: Those are
her ashes in there.

00:02:39.742 --> 00:02:42.996
RENEE: No, no, no,
no, no, uh, uh.

00:02:43.162 --> 00:02:45.331
It can\'t be.

00:02:47.375 --> 00:02:51.212
CARLOS: I\'m thinking, ah,
what I\'m seeing right now

00:02:51.296 --> 00:02:54.591
is 60 something years.

00:03:00.555 --> 00:03:04.726
(crying).

00:03:13.651 --> 00:03:15.695
ARMANDO: There was barely
a chance towards the end.

00:03:15.778 --> 00:03:18.072
To get Mom to
talk about the past.

00:03:19.532 --> 00:03:22.368
We tried all kinds of
treatments for the cancer.

00:03:25.413 --> 00:03:27.206
We even got her a country
house where all of us could

00:03:27.290 --> 00:03:31.419
come visit, full of the
kinds of animals she loved.

00:03:36.132 --> 00:03:39.218
She named two of the pigs
after Carlos and his wife Libby.

00:03:42.889 --> 00:03:45.475
I even took her to
see Lupita la curandera,

00:03:45.558 --> 00:03:47.435
the folk healer.

00:03:47.518 --> 00:03:50.438
But Lupita was in
worse shape than Mom.

00:03:58.321 --> 00:04:01.824
My mom spent her final
months with me in Los Angeles.

00:04:04.243 --> 00:04:07.455
Carlos came to help,
but after a lifetime in Texas,

00:04:08.373 --> 00:04:11.250
she died in L.A.

00:04:22.262 --> 00:04:24.597
CARLOS: All right Gabe!

00:04:26.432 --> 00:04:29.894
My God, how do feel
about the ashes Armando?

00:04:30.853 --> 00:04:31.896
You know, me and my mom

00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:34.816
got to be really
good friends at the end.

00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:36.025
We would sit together,

00:04:36.109 --> 00:04:37.568
you know, in the
afternoons or whatever,

00:04:37.652 --> 00:04:40.196
and, and talk about the
brothers and stuff like that,

00:04:42.490 --> 00:04:44.659
and when it came to Armando:

00:04:44.742 --> 00:04:46.411
She would just say
\"Ese Mandito, you know.

00:04:47.203 --> 00:04:48.329
I don\'t know what
he was waiting for?\"

00:04:48.663 --> 00:04:49.706
I would say what
do you mean by that?

00:04:49.789 --> 00:04:51.958
Well \"No tiene familia.
He doesn\'t have any kids.

00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:54.627
He better hurry,
he better hurry.\"

00:05:11.227 --> 00:05:14.939
ARMANDO: She came to see
her, her grandchildren but

00:05:15.023 --> 00:05:16.899
she still can\'t see them.

00:05:17.066 --> 00:05:18.568
RENEE: Why?

00:05:18.651 --> 00:05:20.903
ARMANDO: I think you can
best answer that question

00:05:20.987 --> 00:05:22.780
better than me.

00:05:24.198 --> 00:05:27.201
(baby crying)

00:05:35.001 --> 00:05:36.794
Oh!

00:05:36.878 --> 00:05:38.588
Okay, let\'s try it again.

00:05:38.755 --> 00:05:40.339
Okay, now you tell me the
joke, you tell me the joke,

00:05:40.673 --> 00:05:42.833
you tell me the joke of the
chicken, you tell it to me.

00:05:43.051 --> 00:05:44.719
Go ahead.

00:05:44.969 --> 00:05:46.569
GABE: Why did the
chicken cross the road?

00:05:46.637 --> 00:05:49.724
ARMANDO: There you, that\'s it!
To get to the other side. Ahhha.

00:05:51.184 --> 00:05:53.686
Mom never got the
chance to meet Gabe,

00:05:53.853 --> 00:05:55.730
she died before he was born.

00:05:58.232 --> 00:06:02.278
I\'ve always felt since I
was a child one of us had the

00:06:02.361 --> 00:06:06.199
obligation to try to
fill the empty spaces left

00:06:06.282 --> 00:06:08.576
by the absence of our father.

00:06:15.208 --> 00:06:17.960
Okay, uh, I want to, I
want to pull out some things uh,

00:06:18.044 --> 00:06:20.213
that mama left here.

00:06:20.505 --> 00:06:22.298
RENEE: You\'re not going to take
the whole suitcase back are you?

00:06:22.882 --> 00:06:24.342
ARMANDO: No, no,
just some of her things.

00:06:24.467 --> 00:06:27.345
Maybe we can find something for
the, the mausoleum, you know.

00:06:28.221 --> 00:06:30.223
CARLOS: What are
you looking for?

00:06:30.306 --> 00:06:32.934
Why do you want to go and, and
dig out bones that are not ours?

00:06:34.143 --> 00:06:36.623
He\'s trying to pick on me, he\'s
trying to pick my little brain.

00:06:37.772 --> 00:06:40.691
He\'s asking me little
questions, you know and it,

00:06:40.775 --> 00:06:43.194
and it upsets me
because it takes me back.

00:06:45.363 --> 00:06:48.199
But Armando, he was
always in another world.

00:06:48.574 --> 00:06:50.743
I remember when he
was little, you know,

00:06:50.827 --> 00:06:52.328
we thought he was the
dumb one of the family and

00:06:52.411 --> 00:06:55.123
yet he was the
smart one of the family.

00:06:57.500 --> 00:06:58.835
But we were very street wise,

00:06:58.918 --> 00:07:01.295
the other guys
compared to Armando.

00:07:07.552 --> 00:07:11.222
It\'s like a bunch of red
ants and there\'s a white ant.

00:07:16.644 --> 00:07:20.314
I think he saw too many,
too much of the movie \"Roots\".

00:07:20.398 --> 00:07:21.566
That\'s all he talks about.

00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:24.819
He wants to go back and find
out about my mom and our dad

00:07:25.361 --> 00:07:28.239
and our uncles and, and
he\'s always trying to get, uh,

00:07:28.322 --> 00:07:30.199
back to the roots of us.

00:07:30.658 --> 00:07:32.535
I told my brother
you\'re looking for something

00:07:32.618 --> 00:07:35.246
that\'s not there, you know.

00:07:40.626 --> 00:07:41.836
Huh?

00:07:41.919 --> 00:07:42.962
RENEE: Look at your brother.

00:07:43.045 --> 00:07:44.005
CARLOS: What?
RENEE: He\'s frantic.

00:07:44.088 --> 00:07:45.339
CARLOS: What I do?

00:07:45.423 --> 00:07:46.507
(mumbling).

00:07:46.591 --> 00:07:48.551
RENEE: Yes, honey...

00:07:48.718 --> 00:07:51.137
ARMANDO: Do we have the
maps that we\'re gonna?

00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:52.096
RENEE: Yeah.

00:07:52.180 --> 00:07:53.472
CARLOS: Are we going
down, yeah? \'Mando?

00:07:53.556 --> 00:07:54.724
ARMANDO: Okay.
CARLOS: Are we going down?

00:07:54.807 --> 00:07:55.807
ARMANDO: Yeah.

00:07:55.850 --> 00:07:57.435
CARLOS: Well let
me take the ashes. No?

00:07:57.518 --> 00:08:00.146
ARMANDO: Of course!
CARLOS: I\'ll take them.

00:08:02.106 --> 00:08:05.234
ARMANDO: Oh, wow, my, I haven\'t
got my right, right shoes on.

00:08:13.075 --> 00:08:14.075
Yeah.

00:08:17.538 --> 00:08:19.538
ARMANDO: Yeah, we\'re
going to move it into the van.

00:08:19.916 --> 00:08:21.626
Because we are
going on a long trip.

00:08:25.630 --> 00:08:27.715
♪ ♪

00:08:27.798 --> 00:08:29.425
We\'ll take a
round-about drive so

00:08:29.508 --> 00:08:31.385
we can see each of our brothers.

00:08:31.469 --> 00:08:33.012
Our last stop is Texas,

00:08:33.095 --> 00:08:34.805
where Carlos lives
with his wife and son.

00:08:36.224 --> 00:08:38.100
That\'s where we\'ll bury mom.

00:08:41.729 --> 00:08:44.815
The first stop will be the
hardest, especially for me.

00:08:46.275 --> 00:08:49.195
We\'ll see my brother Luis
who lives in central California.

00:08:50.905 --> 00:08:53.032
When Luis became
a born-again Christian,

00:08:53.115 --> 00:08:55.243
he changed to
a different person.

00:08:55.326 --> 00:08:57.703
And when mom died,
I guess you could say

00:08:57.787 --> 00:08:59.830
all hell broke loose.

00:09:00.831 --> 00:09:03.209
CARLOS: Armando, when was
the last time you saw Luis?

00:09:03.668 --> 00:09:04.877
ARMANDO: Six years ago.

00:09:04.961 --> 00:09:06.837
CARLOS: I thought you tried to
make some contact with the guy.

00:09:06.921 --> 00:09:09.423
ARMANDO: Well we,
we did, we left messages

00:09:09.507 --> 00:09:11.509
he never called back.

00:09:11.592 --> 00:09:13.873
I told him what the plan was
that we were going to cremate

00:09:13.928 --> 00:09:16.430
her and I explain to him and
he was very upset that we were

00:09:16.514 --> 00:09:19.475
doing that and he said that
the bible didn\'t allow that.

00:09:19.976 --> 00:09:22.228
And I said well, that, those,
those were my discussions with

00:09:22.311 --> 00:09:24.397
mom and that\'s
what we\'re going to do.

00:09:25.147 --> 00:09:27.858
CARLOS: He didn\'t want to
come to the funeral or whatever.

00:09:28.067 --> 00:09:30.236
But we\'re not going to
touch at the subject \'Mando.

00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:48.879
(speaking in Spanish)

00:09:52.341 --> 00:09:54.510
LUIS: Is that the little one?
ARMANDO: This is Gabe.

00:09:59.515 --> 00:10:01.726
CARLOS: Luis had his
bible Armando has his,

00:10:01.809 --> 00:10:03.519
had his books on the other side

00:10:03.602 --> 00:10:06.105
and they just
didn\'t see eye to eye.

00:10:14.488 --> 00:10:16.907
LUIS: The important
about a rose is that a rose,

00:10:16.991 --> 00:10:18.993
the bible talks
about the rose as being,

00:10:19.076 --> 00:10:21.454
about our life being as a rose.

00:10:21.912 --> 00:10:23.122
(phone rings).

00:10:23.205 --> 00:10:26.417
It flourishes and then before
we know it just falls down

00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:28.860
and then the wind just blows
it away, one of us passes away.

00:10:30.171 --> 00:10:33.257
So a rose is like a life.

00:10:39.055 --> 00:10:40.639
ARMANDO: Luis was
a real lady\'s man.

00:10:41.474 --> 00:10:43.755
We\'d be out in the fields
picking sugar beets or something

00:10:44.143 --> 00:10:46.771
and over there was
Luis, missing in action.

00:10:48.272 --> 00:10:50.191
He\'d had this
dazed look on his face,

00:10:50.566 --> 00:10:52.610
completely love lorn.

00:10:55.112 --> 00:10:57.114
CARLOS: Luis, when he got
to California he started out

00:10:57.198 --> 00:10:59.200
working the fields,
picking peaches and whatever

00:10:59.867 --> 00:11:01.994
fruits he could, you
know, that was available.

00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:04.830
And now he is the head
of the water treatment plant

00:11:04.914 --> 00:11:06.916
of the whole town of Wasco.

00:11:07.792 --> 00:11:09.293
Grade 5, huh?

00:11:09.377 --> 00:11:14.590
LUIS: Here\'s my Grade 5 license.
It took me 10 years to get it.

00:11:17.510 --> 00:11:18.950
LUIS: This, this
is a hat from Chile.

00:11:19.678 --> 00:11:21.597
One of my workers
brought it for me from Chile.

00:11:22.390 --> 00:11:25.101
CARLOS: And this
is from a tomato.

00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:26.559
Chile and tomato.

00:11:26.602 --> 00:11:27.853
LUIS: Chile and tomato.

00:11:27.937 --> 00:11:29.146
(laughter).

00:11:29.230 --> 00:11:30.981
ARMANDO: This is his picture
when he was auditioning for the,

00:11:31.065 --> 00:11:32.483
\"Where the boys are.\"

00:11:32.566 --> 00:11:33.567
CARLOS: The boys are?

00:11:33.651 --> 00:11:35.528
That\'s, that\'s Chip, Chip, uh...

00:11:35.611 --> 00:11:38.739
ARMANDO: \"My Three Sons\".

00:11:39.115 --> 00:11:40.157
(laughing).

00:11:40.241 --> 00:11:42.284
CARLOS: The Mexican Chip.

00:11:42.952 --> 00:11:45.329
This is Ernie.

00:11:45.454 --> 00:11:47.915
And I\'m the dog, Como
se llama el perro Mando?

00:11:48.082 --> 00:11:49.125
RENEE: Armando is always
saying his father figure is

00:11:49.208 --> 00:11:51.544
Fred McMurray, \"My Three Sons,\"

00:11:51.627 --> 00:11:53.629
how about you Luis?

00:11:53.796 --> 00:11:57.258
LUIS: My mom, because we
didn\'t have anybody else that

00:11:57.341 --> 00:12:00.302
we could really depend on.

00:12:00.469 --> 00:12:02.805
So my mom was our mom and dad.

00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:04.432
This is mi mama.

00:12:10.354 --> 00:12:13.149
LUIS: Uh, I
remember that I was,

00:12:13.232 --> 00:12:15.609
I would go to
the stores with her,

00:12:15.693 --> 00:12:18.028
when nobody else wanted to go.

00:12:32.001 --> 00:12:36.255
CARLOS: You know, we didn\'t
know, now that we look back,

00:12:36.338 --> 00:12:40.593
it\'s nice to talk about it,
but uh, we went through hell.

00:12:45.723 --> 00:12:47.308
LUIS: I\'m just a
sentimental person I guess,

00:12:47.391 --> 00:12:50.811
I just find it
difficult to talk about my mom.

00:12:52.521 --> 00:12:54.899
RENEE: Difficult to talk
about the way she died or

00:12:54.982 --> 00:12:58.068
the way she lived?

00:13:00.112 --> 00:13:01.697
LUIS: Probably just
to talk about the memories

00:13:01.780 --> 00:13:04.325
from the past.

00:13:15.961 --> 00:13:19.298
♪ ♪

00:13:19.381 --> 00:13:21.217
ARMANDO: All 7 of us
brothers are haunted by

00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:23.427
memories of our childhood.

00:13:24.053 --> 00:13:25.679
Our father was gone.

00:13:25.763 --> 00:13:27.640
And we were outcasts.

00:13:29.517 --> 00:13:31.602
Maybe because of
what happened to us,

00:13:31.685 --> 00:13:33.812
some of my brothers
seem to have more failures

00:13:33.896 --> 00:13:37.274
than successes in
life, more regrets.

00:13:39.401 --> 00:13:41.161
That, that they\'re
missing something, I mean,

00:13:41.237 --> 00:13:43.739
just like I feel like
there was something missing.

00:13:44.448 --> 00:13:48.369
Perhaps by, by answering,
uh, that mystery of what that

00:13:48.452 --> 00:13:52.248
something was maybe it\'ll
allow them to see themselves

00:13:52.331 --> 00:13:53.791
as survivors in what has been,

00:13:53.874 --> 00:13:57.169
really has been a difficult
journey for each of us.

00:14:04.218 --> 00:14:07.096
♪ ♪

00:14:12.393 --> 00:14:14.103
CARLOS: Moses Lake,
Washington.

00:14:14.186 --> 00:14:16.188
Man, I haven\'t been
here for over 20 years.

00:14:16.272 --> 00:14:17.231
RAUL: We used to
have some hair!

00:14:17.314 --> 00:14:19.066
CARLOS: I use to have
some hair you know,

00:14:19.149 --> 00:14:22.152
but now I look like
a neon bulb light.

00:14:22.987 --> 00:14:25.072
GABE: A bulb light.

00:14:25.531 --> 00:14:27.950
You still got some
hair on top of you.

00:14:28.158 --> 00:14:30.995
CARLOS: He-he-he,
that\'s funny, Gabe.

00:14:31.203 --> 00:14:32.413
ARMANDO: Our next
stop is Moses Lake,

00:14:32.496 --> 00:14:35.666
Washington to see our
brothers Lupe and Raul.

00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:40.379
♪ ♪

00:14:40.546 --> 00:14:43.591
(speaking inaudibly)

00:14:49.471 --> 00:14:52.182
LUPE: I haven\'t seen
these guys since 1996?

00:15:06.572 --> 00:15:09.700
ARMANDO: Lupe, always
worried Mom the most.

00:15:11.035 --> 00:15:12.995
He seemed to be in
constant car wrecks in Texas.

00:15:14.747 --> 00:15:17.374
He just loved the fast life,
and he\'s never changed.

00:15:36.310 --> 00:15:37.645
They made him take classes

00:15:37.728 --> 00:15:40.022
one after the other even and...

00:15:40.105 --> 00:15:42.232
He even took classes
that would give him,

00:15:42.316 --> 00:15:44.151
offered to teach him a trade.

00:15:45.152 --> 00:15:47.821
He used to watch
a lot of television.

00:15:49.198 --> 00:15:51.116
One of the, uh, shows
they used to like a lot

00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:53.077
was \"Martha Stewart.\"

00:15:54.453 --> 00:15:56.163
(laughter).

00:16:00.751 --> 00:16:02.836
This is my brother Raul.

00:16:03.170 --> 00:16:05.464
When he and Lupe first
came here to live they got jobs

00:16:05.547 --> 00:16:08.258
in the same plant, and
they raised their kids together.

00:16:10.010 --> 00:16:12.304
They\'re very close.

00:16:12.680 --> 00:16:15.265
They even got
busted together for drugs,

00:16:15.349 --> 00:16:17.184
a week after mom\'s funeral.

00:16:24.149 --> 00:16:26.610
LUPE: My mom worried most
about me because I was the

00:16:26.694 --> 00:16:28.737
one that liked
to party too much.

00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.990
I\'d like to
drink too much and...

00:16:32.074 --> 00:16:33.826
My mom passed away.

00:16:33.909 --> 00:16:36.995
I came home five days
later and I got in trouble.

00:16:38.288 --> 00:16:40.749
I go to prison and,
but when you\'re in prison

00:16:40.833 --> 00:16:43.502
you can\'t really
show weakness so.

00:16:48.298 --> 00:16:49.425
CARLOS: Does the dog bite?

00:16:49.508 --> 00:16:51.760
RAUL: No.
CARLOS: Uh huh.

00:16:52.344 --> 00:16:54.024
RAUL: OK let\'s start
from the smallest one.

00:16:54.722 --> 00:16:58.100
This is Christopher,
and we got Roxanne over here.

00:16:59.059 --> 00:17:02.396
We got Ashley over here 9 years
old, and Chelsea\'s 12 years old.

00:17:03.313 --> 00:17:06.608
LUPE: This is Rosa Lizette,
My little baby, Wadda.

00:17:07.568 --> 00:17:08.861
My granddaughter Shonnie.

00:17:10.988 --> 00:17:14.533
My other son Jimmie and his
girlfriend Sara or wife.

00:17:16.452 --> 00:17:18.871
I just got four, four kids.

00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:21.832
No well, 5.

00:17:27.796 --> 00:17:30.116
ARMANDO: Although none of Lupe\'s
marriages have worked out,

00:17:30.716 --> 00:17:32.843
he takes it upon himself
to provide for the kids,

00:17:34.094 --> 00:17:35.846
even his step-children.

00:17:36.847 --> 00:17:38.974
It\'s like he
sees himself in them.

00:17:41.852 --> 00:17:43.437
CARLOS: I started
calling him \'Father Goose\',

00:17:43.520 --> 00:17:45.689
he\'s a, he\'s a very caring guy.

00:17:45.773 --> 00:17:48.150
He loves his
kids a lot, you know.

00:17:48.442 --> 00:17:49.777
LUPE: Time to go home?

00:17:51.320 --> 00:17:53.322
One more beer, Lizette.

00:17:53.530 --> 00:17:55.032
CARLOS: Which is
great but I didn\'t like the

00:17:55.115 --> 00:17:56.784
environment for the kids.

00:17:56.867 --> 00:17:59.077
I didn\'t like the kids
going back and forth and

00:17:59.161 --> 00:18:02.623
the guys drinking and
smoking, you know, Mando had,

00:18:03.248 --> 00:18:05.128
would always, you know
he\'s always telling Lupe,

00:18:05.167 --> 00:18:06.460
spend more time with the kids.

00:18:06.543 --> 00:18:10.964
And, Lupe being a smart, man, so
he\'s spent time with the kids,

00:18:11.048 --> 00:18:13.509
so he takes them to the bar.

00:18:14.009 --> 00:18:17.554
I see the family that I\'ve
seen for years and nothing has

00:18:17.638 --> 00:18:18.806
changed in this place.

00:18:18.889 --> 00:18:21.058
Look at all the kids running
around the house, man.

00:18:21.141 --> 00:18:22.267
Damn, you know?

00:18:22.351 --> 00:18:23.685
ARMANDO: I mean they got
their problems, Carlos,

00:18:23.769 --> 00:18:25.437
so let\'s just not
get into it too much because

00:18:25.521 --> 00:18:26.939
we don\'t really know that much.

00:18:27.022 --> 00:18:28.440
CARLOS: You sound like mom.

00:18:28.524 --> 00:18:30.692
ARMANDO: I do.

00:18:37.908 --> 00:18:39.451
RAUL: The closest thing
to a father would be

00:18:39.535 --> 00:18:41.537
my oldest brother.

00:18:41.620 --> 00:18:44.164
The oldest always took
care of the young ones.

00:18:44.331 --> 00:18:47.584
Armando was the only one he
always told me that you have,

00:18:47.668 --> 00:18:50.045
you have a talent.

00:18:50.212 --> 00:18:53.173
My last year at school, I
ended up getting a scholarship.

00:18:54.675 --> 00:18:56.510
The University of Michigan.

00:18:56.593 --> 00:18:59.346
It was a 4 years
art scholarship.

00:18:59.972 --> 00:19:03.559
And I blew it away,
I mean I let it go because

00:19:03.642 --> 00:19:06.854
I decided to get married.

00:19:07.062 --> 00:19:14.278
I thought it was more important
which I regretted ever since.

00:19:16.905 --> 00:19:20.200
After my divorce,
I left my house and stayed

00:19:20.284 --> 00:19:22.661
with Lupe because I
didn\'t have no place to go,

00:19:23.245 --> 00:19:26.331
and he was doing things he
shouldn\'t have been doing and

00:19:26.415 --> 00:19:28.876
I was at the wrong
place at the wrong time.

00:19:29.710 --> 00:19:36.174
So, I was, I was busted
and that was probably one of

00:19:36.258 --> 00:19:38.802
the worst mistakes in my life
because I lost my job over that,

00:19:39.177 --> 00:19:41.638
which I had, I mean
I had 2 years to retire.

00:19:43.015 --> 00:19:45.058
That was in \'96.

00:19:45.142 --> 00:19:47.811
I\'d been working at
this plant for 18 years.

00:19:53.066 --> 00:19:55.777
Chelsea, uh, which
is my 12 year old

00:19:55.861 --> 00:19:58.864
and Ashley she\'s 9 years old uh,

00:19:58.947 --> 00:20:03.702
when me and their mom had
our separation, 5 years ago, uh.

00:20:04.703 --> 00:20:06.955
They ended up going
with their mom and um,

00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:09.249
they had a pretty
rough life, you know.

00:20:10.083 --> 00:20:12.544
They, they weren\'t going
to school and she\'d leave,

00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:14.922
you know, and leave them there
for a day or two and kids are

00:20:15.005 --> 00:20:17.758
there by themselves.

00:20:18.342 --> 00:20:20.969
My youngest one,
Ashley, uh, she\'s scared.

00:20:21.345 --> 00:20:25.641
She\'s always hanging up
on me or cuddled up to me.

00:20:26.892 --> 00:20:29.436
You know, we\'ll go
around the house and umm,

00:20:29.603 --> 00:20:31.230
she\'s right there or when
I am sitting down she\'ll go

00:20:31.313 --> 00:20:33.857
sit down by me and hug me.

00:20:36.193 --> 00:20:37.861
She thinks that maybe
somebody is going to leave

00:20:37.945 --> 00:20:40.489
her alone again.

00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:55.629
CARLOS: Watch it guys.
Get over there...

00:20:55.879 --> 00:20:58.048
KID: Ew, gross!

00:20:58.757 --> 00:21:01.176
CARLOS: Gross! Thanks a lot.

00:21:05.639 --> 00:21:07.891
ARMANDO: My brothers
love to barbecue.

00:21:07.975 --> 00:21:10.602
I, I find barbecuing about
as interesting as fishing.

00:21:13.230 --> 00:21:17.025
Whatever time of the year, I can
call my brothers in Moses Lake

00:21:17.275 --> 00:21:20.445
in February, uh, and
snow covering the ground and,

00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:23.490
and I\'ll ask them what they
are doing and the phrase

00:21:23.573 --> 00:21:25.200
that always comes
out of their mouth is

00:21:25.283 --> 00:21:27.285
\"Oh I\'m barbecuing.\"

00:21:29.288 --> 00:21:32.290
CARLOS: Yikes. Call 911.

00:21:33.417 --> 00:21:35.210
In the valley like around
December you know when we

00:21:35.293 --> 00:21:36.503
didn\'t go to school.

00:21:36.586 --> 00:21:38.213
We used to get
in on those trucks,

00:21:38.296 --> 00:21:40.799
on the back of the trucks,
they had some crates.

00:21:40.882 --> 00:21:43.427
And, and we would get
in there and, and drive,

00:21:43.510 --> 00:21:45.220
were talking the
Rio Grande City,

00:21:45.637 --> 00:21:48.307
35 miles or more and,

00:21:48.390 --> 00:21:52.352
and go work for may, maybe
2, 3 dollars topping carrots

00:21:52.436 --> 00:21:55.856
you know in the really
cold weather, and raining

00:21:55.939 --> 00:21:57.274
and drizzling
and stuff like that.

00:21:57.357 --> 00:21:59.776
ARMANDO: We actually all
had to work on weekends, uh,

00:22:00.819 --> 00:22:02.696
throughout uh junior
high and high school.

00:22:02.779 --> 00:22:04.823
I, I don\'t remember a
weekend that we didn\'t work.

00:22:04.906 --> 00:22:06.408
The only reason we wouldn\'t
work was that either there

00:22:06.491 --> 00:22:10.287
was a storm or a hurricane.

00:22:11.371 --> 00:22:12.971
LUPE: When we were
little kids, you know,

00:22:12.998 --> 00:22:14.238
I was always scared of the dark.

00:22:14.291 --> 00:22:17.377
And we had, you know the,
the bathrooms were outside,

00:22:17.461 --> 00:22:20.839
no light, no
electricity outside.

00:22:20.922 --> 00:22:23.550
So I always saved a
tortilla for dinner, you know.

00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:26.553
And after dinner, when I
wanted to go to the bathroom

00:22:26.636 --> 00:22:27.971
and I was
scared to go by myself.

00:22:28.055 --> 00:22:29.973
So I always save the tortilla
and would tell Carlos.

00:22:30.057 --> 00:22:31.183
(laughs).

00:22:31.266 --> 00:22:33.894
LUPE: If you go with me
I\'ll give you this tortilla.

00:22:34.061 --> 00:22:35.854
I always give him my last
tortilla that I had saved.

00:22:35.937 --> 00:22:37.817
And so Carlos always say
OK give me the tortilla

00:22:37.898 --> 00:22:40.567
and he\'d go with me.

00:22:52.245 --> 00:22:53.997
♪ ♪

00:22:54.164 --> 00:22:56.124
ARMANDO: Mom loved reunions.

00:22:56.291 --> 00:22:58.919
She always told us to
not be like her family,

00:22:59.002 --> 00:23:00.796
they never invited
her to the weddings or

00:23:00.879 --> 00:23:03.173
the holiday gatherings.

00:23:08.053 --> 00:23:10.847
LUPE: They never really
liked my mom because she had

00:23:10.931 --> 00:23:12.682
too many kids you know and,

00:23:12.766 --> 00:23:14.392
they thought that every
time we went to visit

00:23:14.476 --> 00:23:17.270
them was because we were
hungry and we wanted them to

00:23:17.354 --> 00:23:20.565
feed us or give
us something you know.

00:23:21.566 --> 00:23:24.903
I remember my
grandmother calling us at noon.

00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:29.407
Called all of us, the oldest 5.

00:23:30.033 --> 00:23:34.162
She would give us a
cup of laxative and uh,

00:23:35.455 --> 00:23:38.291
we had to run home all 5
of us and, so they, they,

00:23:38.375 --> 00:23:40.460
her and her family
could sit down and eat.

00:23:40.669 --> 00:23:42.796
They run us off.

00:23:43.171 --> 00:23:44.798
She was mean.

00:23:44.881 --> 00:23:46.883
She was a mean woman.

00:23:47.050 --> 00:23:49.511
ARMANDO: The way she
explained it, was that umm,

00:23:49.594 --> 00:23:52.222
she had a falling out, a
big falling out with her mom,

00:23:52.848 --> 00:23:56.393
Eulalia, and as you guys
know, Eulalia was a mother

00:23:56.935 --> 00:23:59.688
to them with a very heavy hand.

00:23:59.855 --> 00:24:02.524
She had one run-in
with her where she hit her,

00:24:03.150 --> 00:24:04.943
and mom said to her
that the next time she,

00:24:05.026 --> 00:24:07.946
would lay a hand on her
that she was gonna be,

00:24:08.029 --> 00:24:10.282
that that would
be the last time.

00:24:10.490 --> 00:24:11.825
So then the day
came when it happened,

00:24:11.908 --> 00:24:15.787
and she just ran off and
she hid in the orange grove,

00:24:16.538 --> 00:24:18.540
not far from the
railroad tracks,

00:24:18.623 --> 00:24:22.085
and she climbed in
one of the trees, and,

00:24:22.169 --> 00:24:24.504
and hid and she said that
she could hear them when

00:24:24.588 --> 00:24:26.965
they were looking for her.

00:24:29.134 --> 00:24:31.803
And then she started
working at the diner.

00:24:32.095 --> 00:24:36.850
And she said that one day this
worker had been sort of like

00:24:36.933 --> 00:24:39.811
stalking her or was always
going there and looking at her.

00:24:40.353 --> 00:24:43.064
And she could tell
that he had set eyes on her

00:24:43.607 --> 00:24:45.233
and that was dad, you know.

00:24:45.317 --> 00:24:47.736
That was Don Pedro.

00:24:48.153 --> 00:24:50.322
CARLOS: According to the
story the guy liked mom.

00:24:50.488 --> 00:24:53.074
And, uh, and as a matter
of fact he, he hid her away.

00:24:54.034 --> 00:24:57.370
He, he kind of, uh he hid
her away for I don\'t know

00:24:57.537 --> 00:24:59.497
how many weeks,
and our grandparents.

00:24:59.748 --> 00:25:00.749
ARMANDO: He, he kidnapped her.

00:25:00.832 --> 00:25:02.417
CARLOS: Kidnapped, yeah.

00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:05.045
ARMANDO: He had for,
for a number of days,

00:25:05.128 --> 00:25:06.504
a number of weeks.

00:25:06.588 --> 00:25:09.132
And wouldn\'t let her
go and then by that,

00:25:09.216 --> 00:25:11.843
by that time her
parents had come back.

00:25:11.927 --> 00:25:15.013
And then they, they
made him marry her.

00:25:17.224 --> 00:25:19.059
You know, and they went
ahead and married her off and

00:25:19.142 --> 00:25:21.728
it didn\'t matter that this guy
had taken her against her will.

00:25:29.069 --> 00:25:31.863
♪ ♪

00:25:31.988 --> 00:25:33.573
I, I think that one
of the things she feared

00:25:33.657 --> 00:25:35.116
a lot when she was alive.

00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.120
You know, when people
passed away and uh, they, uh,

00:25:39.204 --> 00:25:42.040
they tend to be forgotten
and she thought that maybe being

00:25:42.123 --> 00:25:44.626
cremated it would make
her easier, if, if I moved,

00:25:44.709 --> 00:25:46.962
I could take the ashes with me.

00:25:50.715 --> 00:25:54.135
So, so, she didn\'t
think that she,

00:25:54.219 --> 00:25:56.179
that when she came to L.A.
that that was going to be

00:25:56.263 --> 00:26:00.350
the uh, the end of the road,

00:26:07.190 --> 00:26:10.902
but uh, I knew.

00:26:12.696 --> 00:26:14.823
(speaking inaudibly)

00:26:15.323 --> 00:26:18.118
What?

00:26:19.202 --> 00:26:20.829
These are, uh, peppers.

00:26:20.912 --> 00:26:22.330
Uh, I think you
want some popcorn.

00:26:22.414 --> 00:26:24.624
Do you want to go back
and get some more popcorn?

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.460
Huh?

00:26:28.044 --> 00:26:31.381
She wanted to be
able to, uh, umm,

00:26:31.464 --> 00:26:34.175
to be moved around basically.

00:26:34.592 --> 00:26:36.094
Seems that she was
always in movement.

00:26:36.177 --> 00:26:37.929
One, one kind of
movement or another whether

00:26:38.013 --> 00:26:41.433
it was jobs or relationships.

00:26:42.183 --> 00:26:44.019
And I told her
that, uh, you know,

00:26:44.102 --> 00:26:45.895
that if we ever moved or
whatever that we\'d always be

00:26:45.979 --> 00:26:48.273
able to take her with, you
know, with us wherever we went,

00:26:48.356 --> 00:26:51.359
whether, whether I
moved to NY or Texas,

00:26:51.693 --> 00:26:54.821
or heaven forbid Moses Lake.

00:27:01.578 --> 00:27:04.372
♪ ♪

00:27:04.456 --> 00:27:07.125
Over the years my brothers
and I have drifted apart.

00:27:09.502 --> 00:27:12.005
RAUL: Scattered,
we\'re all scattered.

00:27:14.174 --> 00:27:16.301
Mom didn\'t talk
very much about my dad.

00:27:18.219 --> 00:27:21.348
LUPE: He was always hiding
behind a dresser whenever

00:27:21.431 --> 00:27:24.309
an immigration bus came.

00:27:24.601 --> 00:27:27.937
I don\'t remember the final time
that he just never came back.

00:27:29.105 --> 00:27:32.067
CARLOS: This county agency
wanted to take us away from mom.

00:27:33.109 --> 00:27:34.589
She was ready to
fight them, you know.

00:27:34.652 --> 00:27:37.072
She wasn\'t
gonna let them do that.

00:27:38.406 --> 00:27:42.035
ARMANDO: Actually, I, umm, use
think of our family as a family

00:27:42.118 --> 00:27:45.372
of tumble weeds, kind of
like blowing in the wind,

00:27:45.663 --> 00:27:47.415
so to speak.

00:27:54.047 --> 00:27:56.674
CARLOS: We got to put
mom\'s ashes in the corner there.

00:27:56.800 --> 00:27:59.719
Here we go Rosita,
one more for the road.

00:28:03.807 --> 00:28:05.475
ARMANDO: Okay?

00:28:05.558 --> 00:28:07.394
Okay then, let\'s go ahead.

00:28:07.811 --> 00:28:10.814
♪ ♪

00:28:15.777 --> 00:28:18.113
RADIO: There\'s a 60% chance
of showers or thunderstorms.

00:28:20.198 --> 00:28:23.118
♪ ♪

00:28:24.911 --> 00:28:26.746
CARLOS: This is my cotton gin
that I used to work at, man,

00:28:26.830 --> 00:28:30.041
right here, first night, and
on the right, no the left side.

00:28:30.375 --> 00:28:34.504
The first night, you remember
Armando in Monte Alto, Fuga,

00:28:34.587 --> 00:28:36.965
the guy who got killed in
the, in the press machine,

00:28:37.757 --> 00:28:40.427
he was cleaning the, the
bottom and the owner didn\'t know

00:28:40.593 --> 00:28:42.804
and he squashed him
to death on the bottom

00:28:42.887 --> 00:28:44.139
and he had squished it all.

00:28:44.222 --> 00:28:46.307
I mean gee, I wanted to
quit that same minute.

00:28:50.812 --> 00:28:52.689
During those years
they were looking for,

00:28:53.106 --> 00:28:55.400
for men for boys
that could work,

00:28:55.483 --> 00:28:58.486
and we were tough I mean there
was this trucker from Elsa and

00:28:58.570 --> 00:29:02.031
he would always say Los Peñas
I don\'t need anybody else.

00:29:02.699 --> 00:29:04.159
They\'ll pick the
whole truck for me,

00:29:04.242 --> 00:29:06.494
and they\'ll load the whole
truck for me, and we used to.

00:29:19.674 --> 00:29:22.010
This is before it, uh,
it, it balls into cotton.

00:29:22.760 --> 00:29:23.803
ARMANDO: Before it blooms, yeah.

00:29:23.887 --> 00:29:25.680
CARLOS: That thing stayed there.

00:29:25.763 --> 00:29:27.348
This is (Spanish word)
we used to call them.

00:29:27.432 --> 00:29:28.600
We used to play war with \'em.

00:29:28.683 --> 00:29:30.763
ARMANDO: Yeah, this is what
we used to play war with.

00:29:32.479 --> 00:29:34.522
It actually was kind of fun,
cause you\'re kind of small and

00:29:34.606 --> 00:29:36.649
you don\'t really
know the, the, uh,

00:29:36.733 --> 00:29:38.485
extent of the misery
that you\'re in.

00:29:38.568 --> 00:29:41.029
You\'re just, you\'re young
and strong and you\'re.

00:29:41.112 --> 00:29:42.697
And, and some of these
things we\'re actually taller

00:29:42.780 --> 00:29:44.199
than we were, even higher.

00:29:44.282 --> 00:29:46.201
And, they\'re full of leaves,

00:29:46.284 --> 00:29:49.329
so you\'re like,
uh hiding in there.

00:29:49.787 --> 00:29:52.790
And, within in the rows,
for a little kid it\'s like, uh,

00:29:52.874 --> 00:29:55.084
heaven, you know,
especially boys with insects.

00:29:56.252 --> 00:29:58.129
And, there would be
all kinds of caterpillars,

00:29:58.213 --> 00:30:00.632
black, white, yellows.

00:30:01.508 --> 00:30:03.718
They\'re very fuzzy and
very beautiful looking.

00:30:05.178 --> 00:30:07.889
In the heat though they are not
so much fun because of the,

00:30:07.972 --> 00:30:11.559
uh, the little hairs would
get loose and they would

00:30:11.643 --> 00:30:14.604
penetrate your uh,
your pores, or the skin and

00:30:14.687 --> 00:30:17.023
did like little thorns,

00:30:17.106 --> 00:30:18.525
so that was kind of
interesting because you would

00:30:18.608 --> 00:30:20.693
be playing with them and
then they\'d be causing you

00:30:20.777 --> 00:30:22.946
some misery also
at the same time.

00:30:23.029 --> 00:30:24.864
CARLOS: What I miss is the
pesticides that the planes used

00:30:24.948 --> 00:30:27.492
to, uh, drop on us when
we were picking the cotton.

00:30:27.951 --> 00:30:30.245
It was like dew, you know,
we just opened our eyes and

00:30:30.328 --> 00:30:32.956
our mouth, that\'s
what affected my growth.

00:30:34.415 --> 00:30:36.876
I should\'ve really been bigger.

00:30:41.089 --> 00:30:42.924
(squealing, giggling)

00:30:45.552 --> 00:30:47.804
Oh, when border patrol
would come around,

00:30:47.887 --> 00:30:49.681
I mean all you could
see was just the weeds,

00:30:49.764 --> 00:30:52.684
just the plants just moving
back and forth, you know.

00:30:53.393 --> 00:30:56.563
But, you always had the plane
on top, you know, and uh, yeah.

00:30:56.854 --> 00:30:58.606
RENEE: What did
they used to yell?

00:30:58.690 --> 00:31:00.900
CARLOS: La migra!
ARMANDO: La migra!

00:31:01.568 --> 00:31:03.319
And then shooom.

00:31:03.528 --> 00:31:05.697
Zoom out of the fields.

00:31:05.780 --> 00:31:08.449
Scatter like uh, like,
you know, every direction.

00:31:08.533 --> 00:31:10.613
CARLOS: Well, they tried
to hide but they\'d catch\'em.

00:31:24.841 --> 00:31:27.135
ARMANDO: Our next
stop is New Mexico.

00:31:27.218 --> 00:31:30.680
I\'d like to visit my old
college friend, Cynthia Orozco,

00:31:31.055 --> 00:31:33.891
she lives in Ruidoso
just off of Highway 54.

00:31:40.231 --> 00:31:43.860
CYNTHIA: There was one
time when the Migra, uh,

00:31:44.277 --> 00:31:46.571
someone called the
Migra to Cuero to pick up

00:31:46.654 --> 00:31:48.239
my dad specifically.

00:31:48.323 --> 00:31:50.116
They came and did a home visit.

00:31:50.199 --> 00:31:52.619
They said well \"it looks
like you have a nice family,

00:31:52.702 --> 00:31:54.329
your house is clean.

00:31:54.412 --> 00:31:56.998
You\'re, you\'re,
you\'re like clean Mexicans.

00:31:57.206 --> 00:32:00.501
You are OK and your
husband, can come back.\"

00:32:01.711 --> 00:32:05.298
CARLOS: My mom would tell us
that our father had a chance of,

00:32:05.381 --> 00:32:08.051
you know, being
legalized, he had, uh, 5 kids.

00:32:09.636 --> 00:32:11.054
So the immigration
would come over and,

00:32:11.137 --> 00:32:12.722
and then they would
try to haul him,

00:32:12.805 --> 00:32:14.891
you know take him away
because he was illegal.

00:32:14.974 --> 00:32:17.644
And mom, uh, you know,
knew what to do so she would

00:32:17.727 --> 00:32:19.437
gather all the kids,

00:32:19.520 --> 00:32:21.240
and we would go to
the bus and start crying.

00:32:21.564 --> 00:32:23.024
And they would let him down.

00:32:23.107 --> 00:32:24.400
LEO: Is that right?

00:32:24.484 --> 00:32:25.485
(laughter).

00:32:25.568 --> 00:32:26.569
CARLOS: So sure enough,
he was safe for a while,

00:32:26.653 --> 00:32:28.696
and they would tell him

00:32:31.157 --> 00:32:32.283
And you know...

00:32:32.367 --> 00:32:33.493
ARMANDO: He married
an American citizen.

00:32:33.576 --> 00:32:36.120
My mom was born here but
he just never got around to,

00:32:36.204 --> 00:32:37.413
the guy was just not.

00:32:37.497 --> 00:32:40.291
So finally at the end they
just have to haul him away...

00:32:40.583 --> 00:32:42.168
It was during
the Bracero program,

00:32:42.251 --> 00:32:44.671
which was a program that
brought in people from Mexico to

00:32:44.754 --> 00:32:47.674
the US to do the harvest
and the crop harvesting, and,

00:32:47.757 --> 00:32:51.177
and we never really found out
whether my dad was a Bracero

00:32:51.678 --> 00:32:53.888
or whether he crossed
to the US illegally.

00:32:58.976 --> 00:33:00.976
NARRATOR: International
problem on the U.S. Mexican

00:33:01.020 --> 00:33:05.358
border along the Rio Grand
and chiefly around El Paso

00:33:05.441 --> 00:33:07.944
thousands of Mexican farm
workers are trying to enter the

00:33:08.027 --> 00:33:10.154
United States illegally.

00:33:10.321 --> 00:33:13.032
CARLOS: What happened with the
Braceros was once they were not

00:33:13.116 --> 00:33:16.369
needed in the US, they were
all just shipped back to the,

00:33:16.452 --> 00:33:19.580
Mexico, even
people who were citizens.

00:33:19.872 --> 00:33:23.000
CYNTHIA: You know, the
big sweep they had was in \'54.

00:33:23.084 --> 00:33:25.878
Uh, that was that program they
called \"Operation Wet Back.\"

00:33:26.462 --> 00:33:28.297
NARRATOR: A constant look out
at this important point on the

00:33:28.381 --> 00:33:29.841
Rio Grande has helped to

00:33:29.924 --> 00:33:31.926
intercept many
more of the illegals.

00:33:32.385 --> 00:33:34.929
Most of them are captured as
these exclusive Paramount News

00:33:35.012 --> 00:33:37.473
films show after they\'ve
gotten just a few blocks

00:33:37.557 --> 00:33:39.183
across the border.

00:33:46.607 --> 00:33:48.192
CYNTHIA: Come
on this way, Gabe.

00:33:49.777 --> 00:33:52.780
ARMANDO: Everybody wants to
have a little, uh, ranch house.

00:33:52.947 --> 00:33:54.490
Even if it is just
an acre or 2 acres.

00:33:54.574 --> 00:33:58.411
Then, you have a couple of
cows and some goats and, yeah.

00:33:59.203 --> 00:34:01.914
Then you can drive out and spend
your day there on the weekend,

00:34:01.998 --> 00:34:04.125
or whatever and do nothing.

00:34:04.751 --> 00:34:06.544
Drinking beer
and believe it or not,

00:34:06.627 --> 00:34:14.627
guys think that, that, uh,
peeing al fresco is the next

00:34:15.011 --> 00:34:17.513
best thing to sex.

00:34:17.638 --> 00:34:18.890
CYNTHIA: That\'s
what my husband says.

00:34:18.973 --> 00:34:20.933
CARLOS: It\'s better if
you do it against the wind.

00:34:22.518 --> 00:34:23.436
LEO: Bracero!

00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:26.355
ARMANDO: Bracero!
Carlos! Come on!

00:34:27.065 --> 00:34:29.609
The real dream of a place like
this is to pass something on

00:34:29.692 --> 00:34:32.278
to your children, but
Leo\'s daughter died young,

00:34:33.237 --> 00:34:35.948
and now he has her
buried here on the ranch.

00:34:37.825 --> 00:34:40.453
As a Mexican, I like the idea
of living with my ghosts,

00:34:41.788 --> 00:34:44.207
in which case, you might
as well have a nice place

00:34:44.290 --> 00:34:45.875
for them to dance.

00:34:46.626 --> 00:34:49.337
♪ ♪

00:34:51.005 --> 00:34:52.840
(speaking in Spanish)

00:34:56.594 --> 00:35:01.724
(speaking in Spanish)

00:35:03.935 --> 00:35:05.812
(speaking in Spanish)

00:35:09.524 --> 00:35:12.109
CARLOS: What the hell is that?
Is that square dancing?

00:35:17.532 --> 00:35:20.660
(speaking in Spanish)

00:35:29.001 --> 00:35:30.753
ARMANDO: My brother
Carlos does not want to visit

00:35:30.837 --> 00:35:33.464
our relatives because
he\'s got bad memories of them.

00:35:34.966 --> 00:35:37.385
My mom had to work at
a bar to make ends meet and

00:35:37.468 --> 00:35:40.930
in their eyes they
thought that that was shameful

00:35:41.556 --> 00:35:43.683
so they basically cut her off.

00:35:44.851 --> 00:35:46.602
He said that
he\'ll at least help me

00:35:46.686 --> 00:35:48.729
find their phone numbers.

00:36:00.283 --> 00:36:01.534
MAN: Uh, hello?

00:36:01.617 --> 00:36:04.620
CARLOS: Yes, uh, my
name is Carlos Peña-Luera.

00:36:05.830 --> 00:36:07.190
MAN: Uh, you have
the wrong number.

00:36:07.331 --> 00:36:08.708
CARLOS: I\'m
sorry, sir. Thank you.

00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:13.337
ARMANDO: What did he say?
CARLOS: \"Una Americano!\"

00:36:29.478 --> 00:36:31.731
CHELO: Si.
CARLOS: Chelo, soy Carlos.

00:36:52.084 --> 00:36:53.294
CARLOS: That kind of
made me really feel good.

00:36:53.377 --> 00:36:54.670
I haven\'t talked to,
um, we used to be very

00:36:54.754 --> 00:36:55.880
close before mom die.

00:36:55.963 --> 00:36:57.590
And then her husband
died, mom\'s brother,

00:36:57.673 --> 00:36:59.383
so we were always crying
on the phone with each other,

00:36:59.467 --> 00:37:01.093
you know, for
quite a few months.

00:37:01.177 --> 00:37:03.262
So we did, we did had
a good contact there.

00:37:03.346 --> 00:37:04.597
Yeah?

00:37:04.680 --> 00:37:05.681
ARMANDO: Mhmm...

00:37:05.765 --> 00:37:08.893
CARLOS: But she\'s
willing to go along and uh,

00:37:08.976 --> 00:37:10.770
one of her sons has a
little business just a block

00:37:10.853 --> 00:37:12.772
and a half away
so he\'ll be there.

00:37:12.855 --> 00:37:16.984
Yeah, but if we guarantee
we\'ll be there Saturday morning

00:37:17.068 --> 00:37:19.737
she\'ll probably call the
other, the rest of the kids.

00:37:28.704 --> 00:37:32.458
♪ ♪

00:37:37.964 --> 00:37:40.091
ARMANDO: So, um, Carlos
already talked to the son.

00:37:40.174 --> 00:37:41.259
He said that she\'s
around the house.

00:37:41.342 --> 00:37:43.260
She wanders off.

00:37:43.344 --> 00:37:45.763
So we are just gonna show up.

00:37:50.393 --> 00:37:51.352
ARMANDO: They can\'t locate her?

00:37:51.435 --> 00:37:52.937
CARLOS: No, well,
I called George.

00:37:53.020 --> 00:37:54.230
ARMANDO: Yeah?

00:37:54.313 --> 00:37:55.231
CARLOS: And he says call me
back in 10 minutes, let me...

00:37:55.314 --> 00:37:58.150
So, he tried and
he couldn\'t find her.

00:38:12.999 --> 00:38:14.375
CARLOS: Uh what
do you wanna do?

00:38:14.458 --> 00:38:15.501
WOMAN: Well I\'m really
sorry you all missed her.

00:38:15.584 --> 00:38:17.336
I don\'t know where she is.

00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:18.629
ARMANDO: Uh, yeah, do
you mind asking George?

00:38:18.713 --> 00:38:20.006
If uh, if it\'s not
too much trouble since.

00:38:20.089 --> 00:38:22.133
CARLOS: Tell him that we\'ll
hang around a little bit longer.

00:38:22.216 --> 00:38:24.677
Maybe she\'s hiding from us.

00:38:26.512 --> 00:38:29.390
Maybe the kids
discouraged her from doing it.

00:38:29.473 --> 00:38:31.976
RENEE: I bet she, I
bet she went shopping to get

00:38:32.059 --> 00:38:33.644
ready for you guys.

00:38:33.728 --> 00:38:36.772
CARLOS: Uh, I don\'t
know about that.

00:38:37.565 --> 00:38:39.608
Maybe the guys
discouraged her from doing it.

00:38:39.692 --> 00:38:40.609
RENEE: Who?

00:38:40.693 --> 00:38:44.697
CARLOS: The guys.
Wow she changed a lot.

00:38:47.533 --> 00:38:49.326
ARMANDO: We were hoping to
see your mom but we weren\'t

00:38:49.410 --> 00:38:51.203
able to see her, so far.

00:38:51.287 --> 00:38:52.371
She gets busy huh?

00:38:52.455 --> 00:38:53.622
WOMAN: She gets busy.

00:38:53.706 --> 00:38:56.751
But uh like about 2 or 3
days before Christmas she has

00:38:56.834 --> 00:38:58.711
somebody, you know,
pick her up you know to...

00:38:58.794 --> 00:39:03.007
ARMANDO: Right.
Right. Right. OK, bye.

00:39:04.383 --> 00:39:09.346
CARLOS: OK.
MAN: Why she left I don\'t know.

00:39:10.681 --> 00:39:13.476
But, uh some of her
friend comes by and pick her up.

00:39:13.559 --> 00:39:15.811
Alright.

00:39:15.895 --> 00:39:17.146
ARMANDO: OK. Buenos.

00:39:17.229 --> 00:39:18.355
MAN: See you.
Nice to meet you.

00:39:18.439 --> 00:39:21.734
Ok, bye-bye.
Take care. See you, bye.

00:39:25.404 --> 00:39:27.031
ARMANDO: See I think when
she was driving around I think

00:39:27.114 --> 00:39:29.325
they were buzzing her
on trying to see where we were.

00:39:29.700 --> 00:39:32.495
So, I think he, you know,
I think uh, believe me,

00:39:32.578 --> 00:39:35.456
they know where she is
and she probably got scared or

00:39:35.539 --> 00:39:38.125
intimidated they probably
talked to her and scared her.

00:39:40.711 --> 00:39:42.088
RENEE: I shouldn\'t,
I shouldn\'t leave her a box

00:39:42.171 --> 00:39:44.465
of chocolates or something?

00:39:46.133 --> 00:39:47.718
CARLOS: You know it\'s so funny
I\'ve been doing pretty good all

00:39:47.802 --> 00:39:51.889
this trip and I come and visit
my family and I go back to...

00:39:53.099 --> 00:39:54.725
RENEE: I think you
two are paranoid.

00:39:54.809 --> 00:39:56.352
Your cousins were really nice.

00:39:56.435 --> 00:39:57.853
CARLOS: I hate to be
kissing ass especially my

00:39:57.937 --> 00:39:59.271
own people you know.

00:39:59.355 --> 00:40:00.523
I hope you
understand that Renee.

00:40:00.606 --> 00:40:03.317
I, I don\'t want to go there
but if you wanna go, we\'ll go.

00:40:04.527 --> 00:40:06.654
ARMANDO: Oh, let\'s
just get out of here.

00:40:06.737 --> 00:40:07.905
Never mind.

00:40:07.988 --> 00:40:09.824
CARLOS: Pisses, pisses, I
can\'t even talk about it because

00:40:09.907 --> 00:40:12.493
it pisses me off I lived,
when I was with mom, you know,

00:40:12.576 --> 00:40:15.663
I lived through it and, and
I\'m tired of it, you know, and.

00:40:16.789 --> 00:40:19.083
ARMANDO: You\'re
too emotional, man.

00:40:19.333 --> 00:40:21.210
CARLOS: Well fuck, what is
it you don\'t understand?

00:40:21.293 --> 00:40:22.586
They don\'t want
to talk to you man.

00:40:22.670 --> 00:40:24.839
ARMANDO: Well, fine.

00:40:24.922 --> 00:40:30.344
CARLOS: Then why are you...

00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:32.847
that\'s why Lupe, my brother,

00:40:32.930 --> 00:40:36.100
he hates all these relatives
of ours, cause they were,

00:40:36.183 --> 00:40:38.060
they treated us really bad
when we were little man all

00:40:38.144 --> 00:40:40.729
of our uncles, our grandparents.

00:40:44.483 --> 00:40:47.444
♪ ♪

00:40:56.370 --> 00:40:59.957
♪ ♪

00:41:04.712 --> 00:41:07.298
ARMANDO: I know that my mom
was very young when she had us

00:41:07.381 --> 00:41:11.302
and uh, my oldest brother,
Robert, grew up with a certain

00:41:11.385 --> 00:41:15.097
resentment towards her because
he remembered seeing things.

00:41:15.389 --> 00:41:20.269
And then his father had gone
and we would have these dinners

00:41:20.352 --> 00:41:23.189
together and my mom would do one
of her impressions of somebody

00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:26.734
that we knew and, because
she was such a good mimic and

00:41:26.817 --> 00:41:30.654
we all would just be laughing
and then all of the sudden,

00:41:30.779 --> 00:41:35.075
my brother Robert would, out of
the blue he would just explode.

00:41:37.203 --> 00:41:39.288
Like, he would call
her a fake, or he would,

00:41:39.371 --> 00:41:42.208
he would just
put a damper on it.

00:41:42.291 --> 00:41:45.044
Because he had to drop
out of school to work.

00:41:45.169 --> 00:41:47.755
There was always this
sort of underlying anger.

00:41:55.971 --> 00:41:59.475
♪ ♪

00:42:05.022 --> 00:42:08.901
♪ ♪

00:42:09.026 --> 00:42:10.945
ROBERT: I
was always a mean guy.

00:42:11.195 --> 00:42:15.282
I was mean to my brothers
and the local bullies,

00:42:15.366 --> 00:42:17.159
you might say.

00:42:17.243 --> 00:42:19.078
So, I had to more or less
protect my brothers so I had

00:42:19.161 --> 00:42:21.747
to become kind of mean.

00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:26.252
When I had my son, it was hard
for me to be a father figure

00:42:28.045 --> 00:42:30.130
and I had no idea
how to treat my own son.

00:42:30.214 --> 00:42:33.884
I was used to dealing
with my brothers, so I tried,

00:42:34.134 --> 00:42:37.263
I think I tried to treat
him like he was my little,

00:42:37.346 --> 00:42:39.306
like one of my little brothers.

00:42:39.473 --> 00:42:40.474
GABE: Is that fire?

00:42:40.557 --> 00:42:41.642
ROBERT: Huh?
GABE: Is that fire?

00:42:41.725 --> 00:42:43.018
ROBERT: We\'re going to barbecue.

00:42:43.102 --> 00:42:45.302
CARLOS: I bet you Robert,
man\'s got a lot to talk about,

00:42:45.437 --> 00:42:47.273
but he doesn\'t want to...

00:42:47.439 --> 00:42:48.482
RENEE: He saw everything, right?

00:42:48.565 --> 00:42:50.859
CARLOS: He saw everything,
yeah, he saw everything,

00:42:51.110 --> 00:42:53.654
I think he, uh, covers
it with a beer, you know.

00:42:57.032 --> 00:42:58.993
ARMANDO: Then
there\'s my brother Junior,

00:42:59.076 --> 00:43:01.078
he works as a pipe-fitter
at a chemical plant.

00:43:02.329 --> 00:43:03.914
Junior\'s the baby
of the family by Mom\'s

00:43:03.998 --> 00:43:06.125
second husband, Marroquin.

00:43:07.543 --> 00:43:10.504
After Junior was born,
Mom found out that Marroquin

00:43:10.713 --> 00:43:13.048
was beating up
on my older brothers.

00:43:13.215 --> 00:43:15.884
So one night she got
a knife and told him,

00:43:15.968 --> 00:43:18.929
\"Nobody touches my
boys\", and he was gone.

00:43:21.432 --> 00:43:23.976
Look at the size of that fish!

00:43:24.184 --> 00:43:25.978
ROBERT: It\'s not a fish!

00:43:26.312 --> 00:43:28.522
Armando was
always kind of a, oh,

00:43:28.605 --> 00:43:31.317
you might say he was not as
tough as the rest of the guys.

00:43:32.234 --> 00:43:35.779
He was always kind of, well
he had that bookworm in him

00:43:35.863 --> 00:43:37.906
when he was a little kid.

00:43:37.990 --> 00:43:40.701
That\'s, you know, so
we teased him about it.

00:43:40.909 --> 00:43:42.077
He was always pretty smart.

00:43:42.161 --> 00:43:43.537
Always was.

00:43:45.247 --> 00:43:48.417
GROUP: Armando! He did it!

00:43:48.792 --> 00:43:49.912
ARMANDO: Good, I get an \'A.\'

00:43:49.960 --> 00:43:51.253
CARLOS: Armando is the
only one of the brothers

00:43:51.337 --> 00:43:52.421
who has a
white-collar job.

00:43:52.504 --> 00:43:54.381
We call him the
\"burro-crat\" of the family.

00:43:54.465 --> 00:43:55.591
RENEE: So he\'s a donkey?

00:43:55.674 --> 00:43:57.760
CARLOS: You could, he\'s
a donkey with a degree.

00:44:02.348 --> 00:44:05.851
♪ ♪

00:44:08.312 --> 00:44:10.814
ARMANDO: Our last family
reunion was back in 1992.

00:44:11.648 --> 00:44:14.151
I think it was Easter, and
we had just found out that

00:44:14.234 --> 00:44:16.278
Mom had terminal lung cancer.

00:44:16.362 --> 00:44:18.722
No, I just did a lot of uh,
reading and trying to figure out

00:44:18.781 --> 00:44:22.618
you know, what we
could do for her that, uh,

00:44:22.701 --> 00:44:25.704
might make her stronger
and healthier and...

00:44:26.163 --> 00:44:27.831
CARLOS: We were all
eating tortillas, you know,

00:44:27.915 --> 00:44:32.086
corn and flour tortillas with
uh, beef guts and, uh, stuff.

00:44:32.378 --> 00:44:35.923
And Armando comes in
with a batch of, uh, miso soup.

00:44:43.305 --> 00:44:47.059
♪ MAN: Hey mamacita,
I wanna be your man... ♪

00:44:49.228 --> 00:44:50.562
CARLOS: Mom believed in it,
and that maybe that\'s why she

00:44:50.646 --> 00:44:53.273
lasted a little bit longer.

00:44:55.025 --> 00:44:58.362
(mumbling)

00:45:02.658 --> 00:45:04.410
ARMANDO: It\'s heavy.
JUNIOR: Is it?

00:45:04.493 --> 00:45:05.702
ARMANDO: No we,
we had to seal it.

00:45:05.786 --> 00:45:07.454
JUNIOR: 30 pounds, no?

00:45:07.538 --> 00:45:09.081
ARMANDO: 25, 30 pounds.

00:45:09.164 --> 00:45:11.667
About as much as Gabe.

00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:14.211
ROBERT: About as much as Gabe?

00:45:22.970 --> 00:45:25.931
(speaking inaudibly)

00:45:26.932 --> 00:45:29.252
ARMANDO: A nice little breeze,
in the bayou and everything.

00:45:31.228 --> 00:45:35.190
(speaking inaudibly)

00:45:40.028 --> 00:45:41.530
JUNIOR: I used to
go with my mother to

00:45:41.613 --> 00:45:43.657
Progresso every weekend.

00:45:43.740 --> 00:45:45.367
Every weekend
was the same thing.

00:45:45.451 --> 00:45:50.247
You go to the border check
and her English was not very

00:45:50.330 --> 00:45:53.709
good at all, well she
would go there and they said

00:45:53.792 --> 00:45:55.252
\"OK, what is it,

00:45:55.335 --> 00:45:58.005
what is your reason
for coming to Mexico for?\"

00:45:58.088 --> 00:45:59.298
and she would tell them

00:45:59.381 --> 00:46:01.675
\"Well I want to come here
to get my hair, my hair done.\"

00:46:01.759 --> 00:46:02.968
\"Is there anything else that,

00:46:03.051 --> 00:46:05.304
that you are bringing?\"

00:46:05.554 --> 00:46:07.556
\"Well you don\'t see
anything in my car do you?\"

00:46:08.807 --> 00:46:10.976
She said, \"I wish, I wish
you people would leave me alone.

00:46:11.059 --> 00:46:12.936
\'Cause every weekend
that I come you here and,

00:46:13.020 --> 00:46:14.605
and it\'s the same person almost,

00:46:14.688 --> 00:46:17.024
you hassle me like
that all the time and

00:46:17.107 --> 00:46:18.484
even on the way back, you know,

00:46:18.567 --> 00:46:19.902
what are you bringing back?

00:46:19.985 --> 00:46:22.237
Well I don\'t, I\'m not bringing
don\'t you see my hairdo?\"

00:46:23.739 --> 00:46:27.075
She, she didn\'t put up with the,
the immigration at Progresso.

00:46:31.413 --> 00:46:34.791
I haven\'t talked
with Raul and Lupe,

00:46:35.501 --> 00:46:38.795
I guess about maybe
a couple months or a year

00:46:38.879 --> 00:46:41.006
after mama passed away.

00:46:41.089 --> 00:46:44.218
Six years.
I haven\'t talk to them.

00:46:45.969 --> 00:46:47.429
ROBERT: We don\'t get together
and we don\'t communicate

00:46:47.513 --> 00:46:49.973
as much as we used
to and I expected that,

00:46:50.057 --> 00:46:53.310
I knew it was going to happen
and it is still happening,

00:46:53.393 --> 00:46:56.438
little by little were losing
contact with each other.

00:46:58.273 --> 00:47:00.400
ARMANDO: I think he started
to feel guilty that he\'d hadn\'t

00:47:00.484 --> 00:47:03.195
really been able
to express forgiveness or

00:47:03.278 --> 00:47:05.280
get closer to her.

00:47:05.364 --> 00:47:07.324
We were not the kind of family
that would sit down and say,

00:47:07.407 --> 00:47:09.660
okay, what\'s
bothering you Robert?

00:47:09.743 --> 00:47:12.496
You would have a problem
and it would just simmer there

00:47:12.579 --> 00:47:14.957
and you would have to
figure it out on your own.

00:47:17.626 --> 00:47:19.294
MAN: You\'re here
for a couple of weeks.

00:47:19.378 --> 00:47:21.838
ARMANDO: That you\'d asked
me if it would be okay

00:47:21.922 --> 00:47:22.923
about leaving Mom\'s ashes...

00:47:23.006 --> 00:47:23.882
ROBERT: Well, that\'s
not a problem,

00:47:23.966 --> 00:47:25.717
I can go pick
her up later on if,

00:47:25.801 --> 00:47:27.970
I\'ve been trying to tell
you this for a while Pedro

00:47:28.053 --> 00:47:29.221
but I never did.

00:47:29.304 --> 00:47:30.597
JUNIOR: Yeah but,
once it\'s in there,

00:47:30.681 --> 00:47:31.723
ROBERT: I can keep mom here.

00:47:31.807 --> 00:47:33.725
I mean, I would rather
have her in somebody\'s,

00:47:33.809 --> 00:47:35.352
one of us, our house
than a, uh, mausoleum...

00:47:35.435 --> 00:47:36.979
ARMANDO: Oh you mean
for a while, not, oh,

00:47:37.062 --> 00:47:38.814
oh you mean permanently?

00:47:38.897 --> 00:47:40.440
ROBERT: Uhm, you might say that.

00:47:40.524 --> 00:47:42.693
I always thought about
putting her up over there,

00:47:42.776 --> 00:47:45.195
you know, overlooking
everything you might say.

00:47:45.279 --> 00:47:46.655
ARMANDO: Yeah, yeah.

00:47:46.738 --> 00:47:49.157
RENEE: Raul said he
wants her in Washington.

00:47:49.241 --> 00:47:50.909
ROBERT: Does he?

00:47:50.993 --> 00:47:55.247
ARMANDO: See what, see
the problem Mom created?

00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:00.919
JUNIOR: It\'s just like a
good idea that, spending time,

00:48:01.003 --> 00:48:02.462
you know, at each
one, you know like...

00:48:02.546 --> 00:48:04.214
ARMANDO: Well Luis
wanted to have her,

00:48:04.298 --> 00:48:06.216
Luis wanted to have her
over there 6 years ago.

00:48:06.300 --> 00:48:08.844
JUNIOR: I mean no one can
have her all the time you know.

00:48:08.927 --> 00:48:10.762
ARMANDO: Remember that? Yeah.

00:48:10.929 --> 00:48:14.182
ROBERT: I talked to
\'Mando a while ago about uh,

00:48:14.266 --> 00:48:16.101
leaving her here with us.

00:48:16.184 --> 00:48:20.856
That\'s when he told me about
this going on, going in to a,

00:48:20.939 --> 00:48:22.107
into the mausoleum and stuff.

00:48:22.190 --> 00:48:23.567
OK that\'s not a problem.

00:48:23.650 --> 00:48:26.695
I don\'t have a problem,
with that, so, you know.

00:48:30.991 --> 00:48:32.117
But that\'s alright.

00:48:32.200 --> 00:48:33.201
I told the guys I\'ll pick
her up some other time and

00:48:33.285 --> 00:48:35.495
bring her down here with me.

00:48:40.042 --> 00:48:42.085
RENEE: I think they\'d rather she
just stay here a little while.

00:48:42.169 --> 00:48:45.297
ROBERT: Mhmmm. Yeah.

00:48:49.968 --> 00:48:52.137
JUNIOR: I\'ve seen
every one of them leave,

00:48:52.220 --> 00:48:54.514
Cause I was the last one.

00:48:54.598 --> 00:48:57.517
When Carlos and Mando, they
used to go to the Michigan,

00:48:57.601 --> 00:48:59.227
at that, college.

00:48:59.311 --> 00:49:01.938
I mean, she used to cry,
you know, day and night,

00:49:02.105 --> 00:49:04.942
you know \'cause,
she knew that they were doing

00:49:05.025 --> 00:49:07.402
better for themselves.

00:49:07.486 --> 00:49:10.614
But every time they,
they\'d go or they\'d come.

00:49:12.032 --> 00:49:14.326
She was, there was a lot of
sadness in her life, you know.

00:49:17.871 --> 00:49:20.332
And when I left,
I guess she was,

00:49:20.415 --> 00:49:23.043
she was more or less used
to it but the, I could still,

00:49:23.126 --> 00:49:25.504
still see it in her eyes.

00:49:29.883 --> 00:49:32.803
♪ ♪

00:49:37.683 --> 00:49:41.895
CARLOS: Rows and rows and rows.
We used to work those rows man.

00:49:42.229 --> 00:49:44.898
Hoeing sugar beets.

00:49:45.691 --> 00:49:47.150
Rows and rows and rows.

00:49:51.738 --> 00:49:54.199
ARMANDO: This is Mission,
Texas where Carlos lives

00:49:54.282 --> 00:49:56.410
with his wife Libby.

00:49:56.827 --> 00:49:59.413
They\'re both social workers
who work with migrant families.

00:50:01.206 --> 00:50:04.876
CARLOS: The valley is the
poorest county in the nation.

00:50:05.794 --> 00:50:08.171
The income here in
the valley is very low.

00:50:08.672 --> 00:50:11.925
While other states are paying
$8, $7 an hour state wages,

00:50:12.592 --> 00:50:14.636
we\'re still making,
a lot of the people are still

00:50:14.720 --> 00:50:16.596
making $5.15 an hour.

00:50:18.014 --> 00:50:19.516
ARMANDO: The valley is
the kind of place that people

00:50:19.599 --> 00:50:21.059
don\'t go back to.

00:50:21.143 --> 00:50:22.728
It isn\'t so much that people
don\'t want to go back as much

00:50:22.811 --> 00:50:25.689
as you don\'t want to go
back to, to a place that is

00:50:25.772 --> 00:50:28.024
difficult to make a living.

00:50:28.692 --> 00:50:30.026
In a way it is not that
different from people from

00:50:30.110 --> 00:50:33.155
Mexico who come up here
who are always talking about

00:50:33.238 --> 00:50:35.365
going back but then
their kids are born here.

00:50:36.366 --> 00:50:38.785
You know, and they
never end up going back

00:50:38.869 --> 00:50:40.996
because everything is here.

00:50:46.084 --> 00:50:49.337
CARLOS: When we were out working
the fields, this trucker,

00:50:49.421 --> 00:50:52.591
he wanted us to work
faster, pick more, uh,

00:50:52.674 --> 00:50:54.676
cucumbers so they can,
he can get more loads,

00:50:54.843 --> 00:50:56.136
and this and that, you know.

00:50:56.219 --> 00:50:58.638
He started putting us in
the middle of the rows where

00:50:58.722 --> 00:51:01.725
the truck was going so he
could move the truck faster.

00:51:02.976 --> 00:51:05.187
He did that a couple
of times and then mom says,

00:51:05.270 --> 00:51:08.440
\"Ah hell no, you\'re
going to have my sons, uh,

00:51:08.523 --> 00:51:11.109
working their butts off so
the truck can go faster and

00:51:11.193 --> 00:51:13.737
so we can
continue going faster?\"

00:51:13.820 --> 00:51:16.698
So, she and the guy
started giving her hell and

00:51:16.782 --> 00:51:20.285
she just says \"saves que\",
she, she threw the cans of

00:51:20.368 --> 00:51:23.872
where the harvested cucumbers
were and said \"vamanos\".

00:51:23.955 --> 00:51:27.167
She, she took all of us
and we started walking out

00:51:27.250 --> 00:51:29.377
and then people
started following us.

00:51:29.461 --> 00:51:31.701
I remember one gentleman
would say \"Ese Rosa,\" she would,

00:51:31.755 --> 00:51:33.882
he would say, the guy.

00:51:36.301 --> 00:51:39.221
EDDIE: When I ran in
\'73, uh your mother was one

00:51:39.304 --> 00:51:41.389
of my leaders.

00:51:41.556 --> 00:51:43.683
And, uh, she said we\'re
going to help you and

00:51:43.767 --> 00:51:45.310
we\'re going to get
you elected, and sure enough,

00:51:45.393 --> 00:51:46.895
I mean, I got elected.

00:51:46.978 --> 00:51:51.608
What she had was that she put
the inspiration on all of us

00:51:52.108 --> 00:51:53.485
because she was really
positive all the time and we\'re

00:51:53.568 --> 00:51:55.362
going to win and any time
you hear \"you\'re going to win\",

00:51:55.445 --> 00:51:58.907
we need that, that push,
I guess, you wanna call it,

00:51:58.990 --> 00:52:02.202
to get to the level that,
that you really believe and

00:52:02.285 --> 00:52:04.329
she was really good
about doing that for us.

00:52:04.788 --> 00:52:08.250
And not only she talk,
but she also did the walk.

00:52:08.917 --> 00:52:10.377
She did the walk.

00:52:10.460 --> 00:52:12.420
She was a hell of an organizer.

00:52:20.887 --> 00:52:23.139
♪ ♪

00:52:31.231 --> 00:52:34.150
(singing in Spanish)

00:52:37.821 --> 00:52:39.906
ARMANDO: I wanted to come
see this band because these guys

00:52:39.990 --> 00:52:42.951
are from my old school,
Edcouch Elsa High.

00:52:45.203 --> 00:52:46.830
MAN: You
were born in Weslaco?

00:52:46.913 --> 00:52:48.456
ARMANDO: In
uh, Elsa, actually.

00:52:48.540 --> 00:52:50.000
BAND MEMBER: You
were born in Elsa.

00:52:50.083 --> 00:52:50.959
ARMANDO: Yeah, in Elsa.

00:52:51.042 --> 00:52:52.252
BAND MEMBER: Wow.

00:52:52.335 --> 00:52:53.211
Your, your wife was telling
me that you were part of the,

00:52:53.295 --> 00:52:55.463
the 69, during the walk out.

00:52:55.547 --> 00:52:57.007
ARMANDO: Oh yeah,
the 68 walk outs, yeah.

00:52:57.090 --> 00:52:58.300
BAND MEMBER: Nah
man, really? Wow.

00:52:58.383 --> 00:52:59.676
A lot of my family was there.

00:52:59.759 --> 00:53:01.928
ARMANDO: Yeah, I
was in the eighth grade.

00:53:02.012 --> 00:53:03.597
BAND MEMBER: Oh you were in the
eighth grade and you walked out.

00:53:03.680 --> 00:53:06.725
In eighth grade?

00:53:06.808 --> 00:53:09.185
CRONKITE: Tonight\'s protest,
the Mexican American students

00:53:09.269 --> 00:53:12.480
in Edcouch, Texas has
spread to two other locations

00:53:12.772 --> 00:53:14.065
in the Rio Grande Valley.

00:53:14.149 --> 00:53:16.067
The story of that
movement from Ed Rabel.

00:53:17.360 --> 00:53:19.738
ED: This is the Rio Grande
which flows the length of

00:53:19.821 --> 00:53:21.740
the Rio Grande Valley.

00:53:21.823 --> 00:53:24.659
The practice here has
been one of domination,

00:53:24.743 --> 00:53:27.495
the Anglos
dominating the Latins.

00:53:27.579 --> 00:53:30.790
But the Mexican Americans
say that day has ended.

00:53:30.874 --> 00:53:33.418
That they are on the move,
that they will have a piece

00:53:33.501 --> 00:53:34.669
of the action.

00:53:34.753 --> 00:53:37.047
ARMANDO: It was sort like
this \'Hey Peña did you hear

00:53:37.130 --> 00:53:38.298
about the walk out?\"

00:53:38.381 --> 00:53:39.674
And you would say
\"What\'s a walkout?\"

00:53:39.758 --> 00:53:42.260
And he\'d say, oh yeah, that\'s
a bunch of students went to,

00:53:42.344 --> 00:53:44.679
to, to, I mean make
known that we\'re not happy

00:53:44.763 --> 00:53:47.307
with the
conditions of the school.

00:53:50.226 --> 00:53:52.520
It became more than
everybody realized it was

00:53:52.604 --> 00:53:54.397
going to become because then
you started getting a lot of

00:53:54.481 --> 00:54:00.528
television stations, and
the tensions began to escalate

00:54:01.738 --> 00:54:03.823
and I remember that other
parents were going in there and

00:54:03.907 --> 00:54:05.742
they were telling their
kids \"you better apologize.

00:54:05.825 --> 00:54:07.452
You better go in there and tell
them what they wanted to hear\"

00:54:07.535 --> 00:54:08.870
and that kind of thing.

00:54:08.954 --> 00:54:10.664
And some, and
some parents were crying

00:54:10.747 --> 00:54:12.540
and two students were crying.

00:54:12.624 --> 00:54:13.864
And my mother was the opposite.

00:54:13.917 --> 00:54:17.462
She basically, uh, was bringing
us, uh, boxes of sandwiches.

00:54:18.546 --> 00:54:19.798
CARLOS: She wouldn\'t
back off, that\'s for sure,

00:54:19.881 --> 00:54:22.550
I mean because she was the
man and, and, and, you know,

00:54:22.634 --> 00:54:24.928
the mother of the house
she wouldn\'t back off.

00:54:25.095 --> 00:54:26.972
ARMANDO: You know, we
had seen her angry at certain

00:54:27.055 --> 00:54:29.474
injustices over the years.

00:54:29.683 --> 00:54:32.394
I think we knew that she
identified with the same kinds

00:54:32.477 --> 00:54:34.229
of feelings that
we were feeling.

00:54:35.230 --> 00:54:37.023
CARLOS: We were like an
awakening minority, you know,

00:54:37.107 --> 00:54:39.442
we were starting to waken up.

00:54:42.612 --> 00:54:45.073
ED: The school dispute
exemplifies the new spirit

00:54:45.281 --> 00:54:48.159
pervading the Mexican Americans
who live along this river.

00:54:49.244 --> 00:54:52.330
Mexican Americans here
hope their new spirit will bring

00:54:52.414 --> 00:54:54.582
a better life to them.

00:54:54.666 --> 00:54:57.919
Ed Rable, CBS News
at the Rio Grande Valley.

00:55:11.766 --> 00:55:13.935
CARLOS: This is the main
drag of Monte Alto, man.

00:55:14.102 --> 00:55:16.146
The railroad tracks
used to be right here,

00:55:16.521 --> 00:55:18.314
where this cut here is.

00:55:18.398 --> 00:55:20.608
This is years ago.

00:55:23.403 --> 00:55:25.864
This is the famous
view farms \'Mando.

00:55:25.947 --> 00:55:27.627
This is where all the
Braceros use to work.

00:55:27.699 --> 00:55:28.783
ARMANDO: Yeah.

00:55:28.867 --> 00:55:29.951
CARLOS: This is a big shop...

00:55:30.035 --> 00:55:32.370
ARMANDO: But these houses,
this looks like seasonal

00:55:32.454 --> 00:55:34.622
farm worker houses.

00:55:38.877 --> 00:55:42.630
When I was about 11
years old, I was, um,

00:55:42.714 --> 00:55:47.177
standing on a street corner
like this and um, this man,

00:55:47.552 --> 00:55:51.890
must have been a young man in
his 20s, early 20s, 22, 23, uh,

00:55:52.057 --> 00:55:54.976
came up to me and looked like
uh, really tired and dirty,

00:55:55.518 --> 00:55:57.228
and he looked like he\'d been
walking or something for a

00:55:57.312 --> 00:56:00.231
fairly long time, stopped
me and asked me and said

00:56:04.861 --> 00:56:07.739
And I just looked at him
kind of puzzled, \"like Chicago?\"

00:56:08.239 --> 00:56:11.117
and I, and then I
realized that he was, uh,

00:56:11.201 --> 00:56:14.537
an undocumented
worker and said um,

00:56:14.621 --> 00:56:16.247
and I kind of
like laughed and said

00:56:16.331 --> 00:56:20.168
\"Chicago, uh, para hay.\"

00:56:23.254 --> 00:56:26.633
You know, I sort of
hinted that he was so crazy,

00:56:27.425 --> 00:56:29.761
but he just kept on walking.

00:56:29.928 --> 00:56:31.179
And I just stood there
and looked at him until,

00:56:31.262 --> 00:56:33.807
about a hundred feet or
something and he just kept

00:56:33.890 --> 00:56:37.769
on walking, really
determined and just disappeared.

00:56:42.941 --> 00:56:44.192
Longoria\'s is still there.

00:56:44.275 --> 00:56:45.401
CARLOS: This is a store...

00:56:45.485 --> 00:56:46.861
ARMANDO: There\'s the, in
fact, it\'s got the name on it,

00:56:46.945 --> 00:56:47.946
look at that.

00:56:48.029 --> 00:56:49.155
CARLOS: This is a store...

00:56:49.239 --> 00:56:52.117
ARMANDO: This was the heart
of the little town, right there.

00:56:52.325 --> 00:56:53.243
ERIC: Where did you live, dad?

00:56:53.326 --> 00:56:54.244
CARLOS: Uh, we
used to live, uh...

00:56:54.327 --> 00:56:55.495
ARMANDO: Right there
where the house is.

00:56:55.578 --> 00:56:56.621
CARLOS: Yeah, but behind,
because the bar was right here.

00:56:56.704 --> 00:56:58.540
ARMANDO: Yeah, the
bar was in front, and,

00:56:58.623 --> 00:57:00.583
the house was in back.

00:57:00.667 --> 00:57:02.043
CARLOS: I remember I
wanted to go into that store and

00:57:02.127 --> 00:57:04.212
buy tortilla but I
wanted to say it in English.

00:57:04.295 --> 00:57:06.339
I couldn\'t, I didn\'t know
how to say tortillas in English,

00:57:06.422 --> 00:57:08.842
same thing, tortillas, you know?

00:57:10.051 --> 00:57:11.261
RENEE: Can you talk
about why you guys used to

00:57:11.344 --> 00:57:13.972
tease Armando about this grocer?

00:57:14.514 --> 00:57:17.225
ARMANDO: No, I don\'t think so.

00:57:18.935 --> 00:57:20.937
Tell other stories...

00:59:22.016 --> 00:59:24.477
CARLOS: My mother, she
was very tough on us because

00:59:24.560 --> 00:59:27.105
we were all men, you know,
and she was always working and,

00:59:27.188 --> 00:59:28.523
and this and that, you know,

00:59:28.606 --> 00:59:30.149
and she was always
mad because she, she

00:59:30.233 --> 00:59:32.527
couldn\'t afford a lot of
things and she couldn\'t keep up

00:59:32.610 --> 00:59:35.363
with the bills and
stuff like that so...

00:59:35.571 --> 00:59:37.907
LUPE: I don\'t remember her
hugging us when we were little,

00:59:37.991 --> 00:59:41.661
you know, because she was so
worried about just feeding us

00:59:41.744 --> 00:59:44.455
and uh, you know, putting
clothes on our backs and a roof

00:59:44.539 --> 00:59:48.626
over our head, I don\'t
remember, there was no hugs,

00:59:49.085 --> 00:59:51.045
no nothing, you know, nothing.

00:59:51.212 --> 00:59:53.047
ARMANDO: She was like your
working stiff that worked

00:59:53.131 --> 00:59:56.092
in the factories 16 hours
a day, well, in her case,

00:59:56.175 --> 00:59:57.719
she was both a mom and dad.

00:59:57.802 --> 01:00:01.389
She wouldn\'t sit
down with a beer.

01:00:02.598 --> 01:00:05.226
You know, but uh,
she would just crash,

01:00:05.310 --> 01:00:08.229
she would just come home
and crash and, that\'s it.

01:00:16.696 --> 01:00:19.115
ERIC: My grandma, she raised
me like when I was small,

01:00:19.198 --> 01:00:21.284
that\'s how I learned Spanish.

01:00:21.617 --> 01:00:24.287
I was probably maybe 12,
when I found out about my

01:00:24.370 --> 01:00:26.497
grandmother having cancer,
diagnosed with cancer.

01:00:31.878 --> 01:00:35.131
It affected him.

01:00:35.298 --> 01:00:37.759
It affected him
pretty hard for a while.

01:00:38.384 --> 01:00:39.886
I think he\'s gotten
more grouchy because of that

01:00:39.969 --> 01:00:43.473
he\'s, he, he has like
a grudge against god.

01:00:44.307 --> 01:00:46.601
You know people get angry.

01:00:50.855 --> 01:00:53.941
CARLOS: When mom passed
away, we, I had some uh,

01:00:54.025 --> 01:00:56.319
things left over on her.

01:00:56.402 --> 01:00:59.113
So I\'m probably gonna
try and pull them out and

01:00:59.197 --> 01:01:01.783
hand them over
to her friend Rosa.

01:01:02.283 --> 01:01:05.161
Uh, she used to have,
you know, she used to have

01:01:05.244 --> 01:01:07.497
beautiful clothes
you can see by this here.

01:01:09.332 --> 01:01:12.043
It\'s been there, I have to,
I have to do something with it.

01:01:13.002 --> 01:01:13.961
RENEE: How come you kept it?

01:01:14.045 --> 01:01:15.338
How many years have
you kept it and why?

01:01:15.421 --> 01:01:21.677
CARLOS: Well, um because, you
know it was, when she died, uh,

01:01:21.761 --> 01:01:24.722
you know, I missed her a
lot and I used to come in there

01:01:24.806 --> 01:01:27.975
and uh, and smell her clothes.

01:01:28.976 --> 01:01:31.020
I kind of like the smell.

01:01:34.065 --> 01:01:36.317
I would call her
3 or 4 times a day and

01:01:36.401 --> 01:01:38.778
I still remember
the phone number.

01:01:38.861 --> 01:01:42.615
When she died on me I even
called the same number and

01:01:42.698 --> 01:01:46.285
I told this lady that would
answer to excuse me but this

01:01:46.369 --> 01:01:49.288
used to be my mom\'s number
and she just passed away.

01:01:49.372 --> 01:01:51.791
And it was just
told for me to call,

01:01:51.874 --> 01:01:54.460
and she says you call anytime
son don\'t worry about it,

01:01:54.544 --> 01:01:57.088
the lady told me.

01:02:25.241 --> 01:02:27.034
ARMANDO: My mother and
Pedro lived in Mexico for the

01:02:27.118 --> 01:02:29.245
first year of their marriage.

01:02:29.328 --> 01:02:31.205
She used to tell us as kids
that on the first night that

01:02:31.289 --> 01:02:33.916
she spent there at her
mother-in-law\'s that she heard

01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:38.087
a racket on the roof, animals
fighting, like owls hooting.

01:02:39.380 --> 01:02:41.780
And the next day she asked her
mother-in-law about the noise,

01:02:42.008 --> 01:02:44.760
and the lady said,
\"Oh don\'t worry,

01:02:44.844 --> 01:02:47.972
it\'s those old women that
don\'t have anything else to do.

01:02:48.055 --> 01:02:49.974
Damn witches.\"

01:02:51.809 --> 01:02:54.353
(singing in Spanish)

01:02:58.274 --> 01:02:59.942
ARMANDO: Mom always described
her time with Pedro in

01:03:00.026 --> 01:03:03.738
Mexico like it was something
out of a Juan Rulfo novel.

01:03:09.452 --> 01:03:13.122
As if she gave birth to her
first-born Roberto in a place

01:03:13.206 --> 01:03:17.335
full of witches
and spirits, and dust.

01:03:18.586 --> 01:03:23.257
RENEE: The rocks.
CARLOS: Wow, look at that.

01:03:23.341 --> 01:03:26.761
Kind of reminds me of
when we used to be migrants.

01:03:28.554 --> 01:03:30.306
ARMANDO: You go
out in the fields.

01:03:30.389 --> 01:03:33.267
It\'s always, always full
of mud and getting stuck and.

01:03:33.351 --> 01:03:39.065
CARLOS: The smell of gas
and, look at this curve here.

01:03:40.983 --> 01:03:43.402
Look at this one, man.

01:03:43.653 --> 01:03:45.112
Yikes.

01:03:51.702 --> 01:03:55.039
Hallelujah! Damn!

01:03:56.207 --> 01:03:58.292
Are my pants dirty?

01:03:58.376 --> 01:04:01.420
Jesus Christ. Ah, man.

01:04:03.214 --> 01:04:04.924
ARMANDO: This
is San Luis Potosi,

01:04:05.007 --> 01:04:07.718
the area in Mexico where
our father, Pedro is from.

01:04:10.054 --> 01:04:12.598
We\'ve heard rumors
of what become of him.

01:04:12.682 --> 01:04:13.891
That he had settled
in the mountains and

01:04:13.975 --> 01:04:16.686
drank himself to death.

01:04:16.978 --> 01:04:18.688
That he was a
hardworking stonemason

01:04:18.771 --> 01:04:21.607
living in some tiny village.

01:04:21.774 --> 01:04:23.192
And that he\'d started
a whole new family in

01:04:23.276 --> 01:04:25.570
Monterrey with five daughters.

01:04:25.736 --> 01:04:27.488
Or was it ten?

01:04:49.218 --> 01:04:52.138
♪ ♪

01:04:53.514 --> 01:04:57.351
(singing in Spanish)

01:05:00.438 --> 01:05:02.690
CARLOS: My Aunt Adela,
she\'s the oldest of the family,

01:05:02.773 --> 01:05:05.901
she still lives where
my grandparents used to live.

01:05:06.861 --> 01:05:08.946
You know, what\'s so funny is
that\'s she never got married

01:05:09.030 --> 01:05:11.657
and she\'s 80 years old
right now and what she does,

01:05:11.741 --> 01:05:14.577
is she does wedding
dresses for a living.

01:05:18.331 --> 01:05:20.051
ARMANDO: My mother
comes from a long line of

01:05:20.124 --> 01:05:22.209
very strong women in the family.

01:05:22.918 --> 01:05:26.172
Our great grandmother
Petra Salinas claimed that

01:05:26.255 --> 01:05:28.257
she fought alongside
Pancho Villa during the

01:05:28.341 --> 01:05:32.011
revolution, but
then again, with my family,

01:05:33.054 --> 01:05:36.140
you never know where
reality ends and myth begins.

01:06:59.348 --> 01:07:00.641
CARLOS: But then
again we don\'t,

01:07:00.725 --> 01:07:03.811
we don\'t want to make our
grandparents look bad, you know.

01:07:04.270 --> 01:07:06.147
ARMANDO: Mom said
she left because...

01:07:06.230 --> 01:07:08.983
CARLOS: But Adela is not
the right person to ask her,

01:07:09.066 --> 01:07:12.194
you know why their
parents were mean with mom,

01:07:12.278 --> 01:07:15.072
because she adores
these, I mean, her parents...

01:07:15.156 --> 01:07:16.073
ARMANDO: Well of
course, of course.

01:07:16.157 --> 01:07:17.324
CARLOS: She was
with them for 60 years.

01:07:17.408 --> 01:07:18.617
ARMANDO: No but that\'s
why I\'m saying that,

01:07:18.701 --> 01:07:20.501
CARLOS: In her family,
\'Mando, I think Adela..

01:07:20.578 --> 01:07:24.081
She, she was, I think she
was spoiled at the time, Adela.

01:07:24.165 --> 01:07:25.708
While mom was like a Cinderella.

01:07:27.168 --> 01:07:28.419
ARMANDO: I don\'t know if,

01:07:28.502 --> 01:07:33.007
if she would ever verify what
uh, our great aunt Jova told,

01:07:33.090 --> 01:07:38.387
had told mom, that
she was not, you know, uh,

01:07:38.471 --> 01:07:41.015
born of the same father.

01:07:41.098 --> 01:07:44.560
That, uh, her
father was somebody else.

01:07:44.894 --> 01:07:47.646
You think if we asked her
about uh, what Jova would said,

01:07:47.730 --> 01:07:48.689
you think that she would...

01:07:48.773 --> 01:07:50.399
CARLOS: No don\'t ask her that.

01:07:50.483 --> 01:07:52.985
That\'s like, that\'s
like saying that her mom was

01:07:53.068 --> 01:07:55.321
a whore or something, you know?

01:07:55.404 --> 01:07:58.157
She was messing around.

01:08:35.277 --> 01:08:36.529
RENEE: Does it make
a difference to know that your

01:08:36.612 --> 01:08:39.740
father asked
for you before he died?

01:08:39.907 --> 01:08:40.825
CARLOS: Am I shaking?

01:08:40.908 --> 01:08:42.468
Oh yes I am shaking,
anyway, he don\'t...

01:08:42.493 --> 01:08:43.536
RENEE: Seriously.

01:08:43.619 --> 01:08:45.913
CARLOS: No seriously,
I\'ve got no, nothing,

01:08:45.996 --> 01:08:47.957
no regrets on the guy, nada.

01:08:48.040 --> 01:08:49.291
RENEE: Does it make, make
a difference to you, that he,

01:08:49.375 --> 01:08:50.334
to know that he asked for you?

01:08:50.417 --> 01:08:52.127
CARLOS: It\'s too late.
It\'s too late. No.

01:08:52.211 --> 01:08:54.880
I don\'t know about him.

01:08:55.548 --> 01:08:57.883
To me it\'s too late
for the guy you know.

01:09:18.988 --> 01:09:21.866
It\'s all the way to San Ramon...

01:09:32.209 --> 01:09:33.919
ARMANDO: Just 20
kilometers, thank you.

01:09:34.003 --> 01:09:36.171
No, no it\'s not too bad.

01:09:53.397 --> 01:09:56.233
RENEE: Will you guys
ever come back here?

01:09:56.901 --> 01:09:57.818
ARMANDO: Carlos?

01:09:57.902 --> 01:09:59.062
CARLOS: Don\'t look at, to me.

01:09:59.111 --> 01:10:00.529
I don\'t know what
we\'re doing over here.

01:10:00.613 --> 01:10:02.990
I don\'t mind where mom
was born, you know, or raised,

01:10:03.073 --> 01:10:04.700
but over here...

01:10:04.783 --> 01:10:07.244
ARMANDO: Yeah, well...

01:10:07.328 --> 01:10:08.621
CARLOS: Fine, but I don\'t
want to talk to nobody

01:10:08.704 --> 01:10:11.373
because I don\'t
know anyone there.

01:11:07.471 --> 01:11:09.139
CARLOS: How come
my legs are shaking?

01:11:29.952 --> 01:11:30.869
UNCLE: Carlos.

01:11:30.953 --> 01:11:32.830
CARLOS: Carlos Peña.

01:13:23.023 --> 01:13:26.527
♪ ♪

01:13:34.535 --> 01:13:35.452
ARMANDO: It\'s funny
about my brothers,

01:13:35.536 --> 01:13:36.936
but my brothers
would get into these

01:13:36.995 --> 01:13:38.872
sort of things
when we were going up.

01:13:38.956 --> 01:13:42.126
My brother Robert would
say about being a Peña

01:13:42.209 --> 01:13:43.502
and being a Pena.

01:13:43.585 --> 01:13:45.546
My brother would say it
like there was a sort of a sense

01:13:45.629 --> 01:13:47.464
of pride like, you know,

01:13:47.548 --> 01:13:49.550
(speaking in Spanish)

01:13:49.633 --> 01:13:51.760
or you know, I\'m more
Pena than you are,

01:13:51.844 --> 01:13:55.222
and I would always find
it kind of, uh, strange.

01:13:57.474 --> 01:13:58.767
CARLOS: What are
we trying to do here?

01:13:58.851 --> 01:14:00.727
What are we trying to say here?

01:14:00.811 --> 01:14:01.812
And here we are here.

01:14:01.895 --> 01:14:03.522
We\'re talking about mom,

01:14:03.605 --> 01:14:06.608
we\'re trying to have her
up here and now we\'re...

01:14:06.692 --> 01:14:08.694
ARMANDO: I don\'t think it\'s
a question of whether we are

01:14:08.777 --> 01:14:12.823
trying to embarrass our
mother as much as in trying

01:14:12.906 --> 01:14:15.075
to appreciate how
complex her life was.

01:14:15.451 --> 01:14:16.785
CARLOS: That\'s
what I mean man.

01:14:16.869 --> 01:14:18.412
She went through
what she went through,

01:14:18.495 --> 01:14:20.747
she did what she
had to do to survive.

01:14:20.831 --> 01:14:22.040
So, the hell with the rest.

01:14:22.124 --> 01:14:24.751
Why the hell do we want
to say she slept with this guy

01:14:25.127 --> 01:14:27.921
or she slept with the other
guy or you\'re not my brother?

01:17:15.088 --> 01:17:16.340
ARMANDO: She says
not a little bit.

01:17:16.423 --> 01:17:18.925
More than I imagine.

01:17:24.139 --> 01:17:25.974
CARLOS: Armando\'s
different from us.

01:17:26.058 --> 01:17:28.226
He walks different.

01:17:28.310 --> 01:17:29.936
We\'re brothers, you
know, we\'re brothers.

01:17:30.020 --> 01:17:32.064
I don\'t give a damn
what, what it is or what

01:17:32.147 --> 01:17:34.024
they say is in that.

01:17:34.107 --> 01:17:35.108
We\'re all brothers.

01:17:35.192 --> 01:17:37.652
Raul, Junior, everybody.

01:17:37.736 --> 01:17:39.071
That is one
thing that some people

01:17:39.154 --> 01:17:40.322
don\'t understand, you know.

01:17:40.405 --> 01:17:43.075
They uh, they think
that because they\'re,

01:17:43.158 --> 01:17:45.452
they\'re from a different
father, or this or that,

01:17:45.535 --> 01:17:47.621
that uh \"my half-brother\",

01:17:47.704 --> 01:17:49.873
we\'d never said
that to each other.

01:17:49.956 --> 01:17:53.168
Half-brothers, never did.

01:17:53.251 --> 01:17:55.087
Anyway...

01:17:58.507 --> 01:17:59.841
♪ ♪

01:17:59.925 --> 01:18:01.718
ARMANDO: I don\'t know that
finding out whether Pedro or

01:18:01.802 --> 01:18:05.097
Longoria is my real
father changes anything.

01:18:05.180 --> 01:18:07.265
Neither one of those
guys was ever there.

01:18:07.349 --> 01:18:08.975
And I don\'t relish
the thought that I could be

01:18:09.059 --> 01:18:11.728
a skeleton in some guy\'s closet.

01:18:11.978 --> 01:18:14.058
Pedro and Longoria are
pieces in the puzzle that will

01:18:14.106 --> 01:18:16.858
always be missing for
me and my brothers.

01:18:20.946 --> 01:18:23.281
CARLOS: I remember, uh,
being embarrassed because

01:18:23.365 --> 01:18:25.033
I didn\'t have a father I
would always tell them that,

01:18:25.117 --> 01:18:26.952
that he was working.

01:18:27.035 --> 01:18:29.913
That he uh, that I
would lie about my father.

01:18:30.372 --> 01:18:31.832
ROBERT: The only thing
that I can figure that my dad

01:18:31.915 --> 01:18:35.377
did not want the responsibilities.

01:18:36.169 --> 01:18:38.088
And I\'m like him.

01:18:38.255 --> 01:18:40.424
LUPE: I didn\'t, never did
want to tell my big brother,

01:18:40.507 --> 01:18:43.427
\"Hey, I need help.\"
Esteban had epilepsy,

01:18:44.719 --> 01:18:47.931
and if I have to depend on my
brothers to take care of me,

01:18:48.014 --> 01:18:51.393
then I could not be that
good of a father to my own son.

01:18:51.560 --> 01:18:53.603
CARLOS: I didn\'t have
no dreams, you know,

01:18:54.020 --> 01:18:55.939
I just wanted to
have some nice clothes,

01:18:56.022 --> 01:18:58.608
and have a girl look at
me once in a while but uh.

01:19:00.819 --> 01:19:03.071
I didn\'t really have no dreams.

01:19:43.570 --> 01:19:46.448
♪ ♪

01:19:51.661 --> 01:19:56.416
ARMANDO: See that house,
with the red, with the red,

01:19:56.500 --> 01:19:58.543
columns, there; the pillars?

01:19:58.627 --> 01:20:01.379
That, that was my mom\'s house.

01:20:01.505 --> 01:20:03.131
My mother\'s house, eww!

01:20:03.215 --> 01:20:05.550
You\'re drooling.

01:20:15.143 --> 01:20:18.647
♪ ♪

01:20:22.609 --> 01:20:24.903
The Christmas tree
used to be there.

01:20:39.000 --> 01:20:42.420
Well, well this is
where it all happened.

01:20:42.546 --> 01:20:45.006
This is where the gatherings
and everything happened,

01:20:45.507 --> 01:20:47.467
the Christmas, reunions we had.

01:20:52.472 --> 01:20:58.478
♪ ♪

01:21:06.486 --> 01:21:10.282
♪ ♪

01:21:19.040 --> 01:21:21.793
♪ ♪

01:21:21.960 --> 01:21:24.754
All she had was us,
and all we had was her.

01:21:26.756 --> 01:21:29.551
Mom is the one who taught us
how to be family and survive.

01:21:33.179 --> 01:21:35.432
We\'ve had to figure
out how to be men,

01:21:35.515 --> 01:21:38.476
and how to be
fathers on our own.

01:21:47.777 --> 01:21:49.738
♪ ♪

01:21:57.621 --> 01:21:58.663
Oh ok.

01:21:58.747 --> 01:22:01.041
GABE: Upside down.
ARMANDO: Ok, ok, ready, ready?

01:22:03.084 --> 01:22:05.170
One more time,
one more time, ready?

01:22:05.253 --> 01:22:10.675
♪ Close your eyes,
Have no fear. ♪

01:22:13.428 --> 01:22:17.098
♪ The monster\'s gone,
He\'s on the run. ♪

01:22:17.432 --> 01:22:20.018
♪ And your daddy\'s here, ♪

01:22:22.312 --> 01:22:25.690
♪ Beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful. ♪

01:22:25.774 --> 01:22:29.069
♪ Beautiful boy. ♪

01:22:31.071 --> 01:22:34.449
♪ Beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful ♪

01:22:34.532 --> 01:22:37.952
♪ Beautiful boy. ♪

01:22:39.329 --> 01:22:43.083
♪ (singing in Spanish) ♪

01:23:15.031 --> 01:23:18.410
ARMANDO: One, two...

01:23:23.581 --> 01:23:28.962
♪ MAN: Darling, darling,
darling boy ♪♪

01:23:29.796 --> 01:23:31.089
ARMANDO: Okay, good.

01:23:31.172 --> 01:23:32.632
(Gabe laughing)

Main content

Calavera Highway

Citation

Main credits

Other credits

Docuseek subjects

Distributor subjects

Keywords