Crewport History Project
Senor Jose Trevino first moved his young family of four sons and one daughter from the Texas Pan Handle to Crewport in 1959. He got married on September 15, 1944 in Anton, Texas, when he was three months shy of age sixteen and his wife was already sixteen. They lived at Crewport briefly and moved to Granger; but their residence at Granger was short-lived, since they returned to reside at Crewport shortly thereafter. Senor Trevino recalled the circumstances in Texas that helped him decide to relocate his family to the Yakima Valley. Discrimination, overwork, and poor wages figured in his decision to move to Washington. "Right here I got along good. In Texas is where I had some problems. I raised my family at $25.00 per week, at seven days a week; and somtimes I would work day and night. If I ever asked for anything from a white person, they would get a glass of water and dump it on the ground, and they would give you the empty glass." Once relocated permanently in the Yakima Valley Senor Trevino became a very succesful enterpreneur in order to provide a comfortable life for his family. He first served as a crew leader for workers on relief programs and as a vocational instructor in auto mechanics. After that Senor Trevino became a succesful labor contractor and founded a freight trucking business with his sons' help. "Well the Welfare at the time, they would give a check to the men but they had to put so many hours [of work] per month. I was the boss [crew leader]. I cleaned all that in Zillah, all along the river [the Yakima river] where the freeway is. All that was woods undeveloped. I cleaned all of that with the people that worked for the Welfare. ... and at night I was an instructor in mechanics, there in Granger those three years." Senor Trevino commented on his good fortunes in the Yakima Valley, "Then I bought my old trucks to work the hops ... I started contracting people ... to work for me with all the ranchers [farmers]from Granger to white Swan. I brought them people from Texas. They use to give me ten cents an hour for each person. ... there were times when I got upto one hundred persons [working for him] ... I started taking a truck to carry the berries, then buying other trucks for the potatoes, the beets and so on ... I had six trucks, ten wheelers ... but I sold those trucks and bought one, the first diesal tractor ... Afterwards I started buying until all my sons had tractors ... I still have the two tractors and the two trucks. I got a [freight] contract with Safeway at ninety cents a mile... My son, Juan Ramon, he is running them [the trucks] today." Justifiably Senor Trevino feels he has had a successful life, "But I never, from the years I've been here ... never worked for a farmer. I always contracted people, always with my trucks, and always had enough. My sons, in the winter, they didn't have to work pruning and those kinds of work. Somtimes they would go, but that was because they wanted to. But they were never in need of money." He feels the same way about the years he and his lived at Crewport. "Look here, well just about everyone who lived in Crewport never had problems. Everybody there was my friend... to say that I had to fight with someone, no one, with no one."
Jose Treviño, Narrator
Start of interview:
Mario: Since 1940.
Jose: The first year was in ‘58, then I went back [to Texas]. And in 1959 I came back and established myself there in Crewport. Then from there I moved to Granger for just a little while. Then I moved back to Crewport. Then in 1961 I worked my life there and raised my family at $25.00 per week at seven days a week.
Mario: In pay?
Jose: Over there, in Texas.
Mario: Oh!
Jose: But then when I established myself here in 1961 and 1962 and 1963, I was a boss [crew leader] for the Welfare.
Mario: A company?
Jose: Yes.
Mario: A company? What was the name of it, the company, what’s the name?
Jose: Well, the Welfare at that time they would give a check to the men, but they had to put so many hours per month. I was the boss; I cleaned all that in Zillah, all along the river where the freeway is. All that was woods undeveloped. I cleaned all that with the people that worked for the Welfare. I lived in Granger, I mean Crewport.
Mario: You used the workers, you as a contractor?
Jose: Yes. I did all that work with the workers that worked with the Welfare, for the check they gave them. They paid me separate, and at night I was an instructor for mechanics, there in Granger those three years.
Mario: At the school?
Jose: In a garage that an American man had ... there. They got it to teach school, I was the one who thought the school to the students. I started that kind of work from the age of sixteen. And I knew how to work in autos, so they had me teaching auto mechanics.
Mario: As a mechanic?
Jose: As a mechanic, for three years there; and that’s when I started buying some old trucks, ‘48s.
Mario: Model ‘48’s?
Jose: Yes. I used them to work in the hops and from there on, in 1965 I bought here [his house in Toppenish, where the interview was conducted]. In 1965, May ... that was when I bought this place and another place where my oldest son lives, Noe. He had already married, and he still lives there. But the house is not the same; it’s like this one. This was already falling, and from 1965 I’ve been here.
Mario: And the camp was it still open when you moved out?
Jose: Yes. Yes, it was still open. Later I’ve gone back, but it has changed a lot.
Mario: Now the families are owners of the houses.
Jose: Yes, but normally we go through a life we don’t forget. Me, I’m just a youngster, as I say. But I’ve got my years.
Mario: How old are you?...
Jose: 72.
Mario: 72!
Jose: Yes.
Mario: You’re still young.
Jose: Oh well.
Mario: You still have some [years] left.
Jose: I was a lost child, when my wife and I got married. She was sixteen and I was fifteen and nine months. My father had to take charge, take responsibility. But he knew what he had, because from the age of thirteen I was a regular worker from sun-up to sundown.
Mario: In Texas?
Jose: In Texas.
Mario: In what part?
Jose: In Anson, 24 miles from Abilene.
Mario: You moved to San Antonio?
Jose: Yes.
Mario: You moved at what age?
Jose: When we moved I was nine years old.
Mario: What part of San Antonio did you live in?
Jose: In Floresville, in ...Wilson County.
Mario: Wilson?...
Jose: Yes! Yes, in Wilson County, and I still have all the roads from where I was born right here [he pointed to his head with his hand, indicating he still remembers the roads] and I see them.
Mario: And you say you grew up in Anton?
Jose: I got married in Anton, in 1944, the 15th day of September...
and by the age of twenty six we had all of our kids we wanted to have.
Mario: How many children did you have?
Jose: It is Noe, it is Jose jr., it is Jesus, it is Raul, it is Olga and then Prieto (Johnny). He [Prieto] is the youngest; he is her husband [points to his daughter-in-law who was present during this part of the interview]. But I never, from the years I’ve been here, or am still here, never worked for a farmer. I always contracted people, always with my trucks; and always had enough. My sons in the winter they didn’t have to work in the pruning and those kinds of work. Some times they would go, but that was because they wanted to; but they were never in need of money.
Mario: For their needs?
Jose: Yes, but I had some bad luck, my wife died. We had fifty-four years of marriage. I have eight artificial veins in this heart, one valve and a little machine. If I’m a four cylinder I have three left, but they still don’t misfire.
Mario: You are of the antique motors, those with eight cylinders those with the most power.
Jose: Right now we would have fifty-six years of marriage, right now on the 29th of June, will be two years that she past away. Right here they were all with her (referring to his sons)
that was in 1974. Because the first heart attack I had was 1973 a week before Christmas. And as soon as I got out of the hospital, I went to town and I got two bottles of Tequila so I wouldn’t feel a thing.
Mario: What year did you come to Washington?
Jose: In 1959.
Mario: And how many years did you live in the camp of Crewport?
Jose: Well, until 1965.
Mario: The majority of the families that lived there, there were other families there?
Jose: Well, there was the family Cantu, Galdino Cantu, right now he is an elder person, just the other day I saw him, I really don’t remember what day it was [when he saw Mr. Galdino Cantu]... [a] big family, lots in the family, it’s a big family. And Nasario Martinez too. They have 21 in the family. His oldest son said one day he said to me, “lucky that the first ones died or else we wouldn’t fit in the house.” Yesterday he was here, my compadre and my comadre. They live in Sunnyside.
Mario: Nasario Martínez?
Jose: Yes. And Armando Flores, Mr. Willie, I don’t remember his last name. Mr. Willie, there were a lot of families lots of families. Right there; there lived my father-in-law, Antonio Nunez and his family...
Mario: What is the gentleman’s name?
José: Antonio Núñez.
Mario: The families that lived at the camp, were they all from Texas?
Jose: As far as I knew yes, everybody was from South Texas, from that part of the South.
Mario: From the area of McAllen?
Jose: Yes, from those areas. I really don’t exactly know ... what part they were from. But they were from Texas, from around those areas, from there close to the border.
Mario: The families there at the camp, how did they get along? What did they do for entertainment?
Jose: The only thing there was the post office. There was no place for entertainment. The only place was in Granger, at the Bar. Well, there was a tavern, two taverns; and that is where we would gather. But usually that was all there was. But places for entertainment, there were none.
Mario: Talk to us a little bit more about the life, the years you have lived here.
Jose: Good life, since I arrived here. Like I said, three years I worked here with the Welfare as a contractor and as an auto mechanics teacher at night ... Then I bought my old trucks to work in the hops, from there on then I moved here. I started contracting people ... to work for me with all the ranchers from Granger to White Swan. I brought them people to work from Texas. They used to give me ten cents an hour for each person.
Mario: For every person you brought?
Jose: For every person I brought, I used to keep their time cards, their name and their social security [number]. There were times when I had bundles of fifteen or twenty’s just like that spread around. But there were times when I got up to one hundred persons, and I would keep their time (a record of hours each employee worked), from Monday through
Friday. Friday evenings I would turn the time card to the farmer, and he would have the checks ready by Saturday at noon. They would come here (Jose Trevino's his house) and pick up their checks, everyone.
Mario: Did you contract them from here, or did you bring them from Texas?
Jose: I was taking people to the coast to the strawberries. The farmer would come here (to his house) right here he would lend the people money if they needed. I was responsible for them [contracted laborers] and I used to take them the people. I started taking a truck to carry the berries; then I started buying other trucks for the potatoes, the beets and so on. Now I gave my son John, the youngest,I had six trucks, ten wheelers, that I use to take to Winamaka, Nevada, right at the border of California. I got contracts and bought three potato trucks. But I sold all those trucks and I bought one, the first diesel tractor that I bought. My son Raul ran it, may he rest in peace. He passed away from a heart attack, in Yakima. He was the first one who started running my first diesel truck. Afterwards I started buying, until all my sons had tractors, and I bought three potato trucks. I still have two diesel tractors and the two trucks. One a 91 Freightliner, which is parked in the back, and a 92 which is the one my son has running right now. I got a contract with Safeway at ninety cents a mile, loaded or empty just for the tractor. The trailer, Safeway supplies them.
Mario: Do you still have that contract?
Jose: Yes. My son, Juan Ramon, he is the one running them today. This evening he will arrive. He was in Wenatchee loading potatoes, and he had to go to Spokane. His round is from Portland to Seattle, and from Seattle to Moses Lake, then to Spokane. Wenatchee and all those places, that’s the furthest he has to go.
Mario: Lot of the people we have interviewed, we ask them and they tell us there were no racial problems here. What do you think about that? How did the Mexican people get along with the others?
Jose: Look here, well just about everyone who lived in Crewport never had problems. Everybody there was my friend, anyone to say that I had to fight with some one, no one, with no one.
Mario: And how did you get along with the white folks?
Jose: Right here I got along good. In Texas is where I had some problems.
I raised my family at $25.00 per week, at seven days a week; and sometimes I would work day and night. If I ever asked for anything from a white person, they would get a glass of water and dump it on the ground, and they would give you the empty glass.
Mario: In Texas?
Jose: In Texas yes; but not here. Ever since I arrived here, things have been good.
Tomas: When you all lived in Crewport, were there any whites there?
Jose: During the time I lived there, the only white person there, was the one who managed the camp. Mr. Haney, Haney was his name.
Mario: The one who managed the camp?
Jose: The one who managed the camp.
Tomas: And other than that, there weren’t other whites there?
Jose: No. Whites, I don’t remember there being any.
Tomas: Where did you ... go shopping when you went to buy groceries on weekends?
Jose: Right there in Granger. Right there by the school, kiddy corner, was a little store, the Village Market right there. Right there they would give credit to everyone.
Tomas: Right there at the Village Mart you would go buy your groceries?
Jose: Yes.
Tomas: On credit or cash?
Jose: On credit, and every month the people would pay or every time they got their check. You would pay and then continue on with your credit.
Tomas: Do you remember which school the children would attend there at Crewport?
Jose: Look here, the oldest Jose Jr., he went to school there. I don’t remember what’s the name of the school, it’s right there close to the camp [his daughter-in-law answered, wasn’t it called the Liberty?] Yes, and they dismissed him from school at the age of 14 years old, because they said he wouldn’t learn any thing. He would spend the time drawing cartoons. Cartoons of Tin Tan [Mexican comedian and movie star], and on the mud-flaps and the fenders of the trucks, he would draw. He would spend his time doing that. So they told me "You better get him out because he doesn’t learn anything. He doesn’t do any schoolwork." And Juan as a youngster, he always just laughed. They would throw him out of school, so he could go laugh outside until he fulfills the laughter. But any way, we call him Rungo, the oldest, junior. But his intelligence was gifted, he came out to be a good carpenter, a professional. He was the boss right there where Eagles is at, those stores; he was the one who managed those jobs. He was the manager of the Carpenters Union for those jobs. It was just that from here, they moved him to Portland because he would build Banks and Schools, nothing but big constructions. Then from there they moved him to Olympia and he had to move back because his wife was sick of over weight. Now he mostly spends his time at home, he spends his time at home taking care of her. He was born in 1949 in Plainview, Texas. Noe, Noe also was a carpenter and a professional. All of them, just like when they would give them a blueprint, they would build everything from the foundation to the electricity everything, from the beginning to the finnish.
Tomas: Do you remember any of the names of the farmers you used to work for, there in Crewport?
Jose: Look here, for many years I did the work for Richard Shelf, John Shelf at first until his father wasn’t able to any more, then he gave everything to his son, Richard Shelf. Right there going to Granger on that hiway, right before you turn to the right, before you cross the tracks. There’s a fruit stand on the corner, that’s his. The day you want, go by there and ask if he remembers Joe Trevino, because he is pretty old as well, but he's still going. In Texas we used to run around in a model “A” car. I have one, I have a picture where one girl, there were three sisters. They put on them, a twenty eight model “A” convertible, yellow with black fenders. And you would put down the top and you would open the trunk, and you could sit two on the back.
Mario: Did the trunk have a seat?
Jose: Yes, yes.
Mario: Yes that’s what they called the rumble seat.
Jose: Yes, the rumble seat. I don’t have my wallet; I have it [car picture] in my wallet. Usually, me and a nephew used to run together; he was about two years older than I was, son of my oldest sister. We would always carry the guitar to enter a dance. We would drink a pint of alcohol, to be able to start dancing, but they would look for us everywhere to sing at the dances. It was a custom in the ranches, out in the desert, in the patio well swept and they would get some benches or in a large room.
Mario: All the years you have lived here, you have been treated well, have they treated you good?
Jose: All my time here? I can’t complain. I’ve always had what I needed, and sometimes more than what I’ve needed. That’s why I’m grateful for the years I am right now, that I don’t need anything.
Tomas: And over there in Texas, how was life?
Jose: In Texas, Well at $25.00 per week. The most I ever made in 1958 was $37.00 per week. One time snowing and me on the tractor, well in those days they didn’t use covers. Today one of those tractors is just like being in a Cadillac. And over there no, just the plain tractor without anything. While the snow was falling, and I was on the tractor, I would stop every once in a while to clear my face. And I would stand by the [tractor's] muffler to warm up. I by myself had to operate four irrigation pumps of eight inches in dirt ditches and two-inch tubes. There were times at night I had to go out; because over there the irrigation is no game. Here it’s very easy; over there, no. When the water comes out you have to change it at night with the light of the moon you see the water coming through the rows of the field, unless the crops are tall. You have to count the rows and pick up the irrigating tubes and switch them around. He would pay me on the first and on the fifteen in the morning. My kids had a television, I had them a television. I really don’t remember, but it was big. You couldn’t see the picture you could just hear the voices everybody would gather around and sit around to watch television. All you could hear was the shooting and the noise of the horses every once in a while you would see a shadow that was all they saw. But with that farmer, was the last one I worked for. My wife and I had planned that on the fifteen we would leave, the little that we had I stored it at my father-in-laws. I had a 55 Buick convertible. We had everything ready he gave me my check, and I would usually bring it to my wife so she would go pay the store where we purchased our groceries. Well on the fifteenth I went, and as soon as he gave me my check. I left. And we had everything ready, we had already gotten everything out and I parked his pick-up there. We put the kids in and left. I left four irrigation pumps running; the four pumps running of eight inches irrigation pipes. He drowned or he ended up in the ocean, I don’t know.
Tomas: What year was that?
Jose: 1958, and I never did go back to work with those farmers.
Mario: They treated the Mexicans pretty bad?
Jose: Oh yes, like I told you.
End of Interview
Jose Treviño
Interviewed May 19, 2000
Crewport History Project
Yakima Valley Community College
Yakima, WA
Credits and Interview identification Data
Jose Treviño, Narrator
Date: Friday, May 19, 2000
Place of Interview: At his home in Toppenish, Washington
Interviewers:
Mario C. Compean
Tomas Escobar
Edgar Rosas
Transcribed by: Tomas Escobar
Translated to English by: Tomas Escobar
Edited for Publication: by Mario C. Compean
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