Taryn, Part 1. Mexican American - Farmers' Markets and Fur Coats

In this episode, Jess Lin interviews Taryn, a third-generation Mexican American from Woodland, California and a Returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer. Taryn shares powerful stories about her grandparents’ migration from Mexico, their resilience as farmworkers, and the traditions that shaped her family’s life in California’s Central Valley.

She reflects on her grandpa Eloy’s journey crossing the border, his time in the Marines, and his role in the Woodland community. On her father’s side, she recalls her grandpa Ramon’s determination as an orphan who built a thriving almond farm and helped start the Davis Farmers Market. Alongside these stories, Taryn remembers her grandmothers’ influence, her parents’ experiences growing up in agricultural towns, and the cultural traditions that continue today.

This is Part 1 of 2. Stay tuned for the continuation of Taryn’s story and reflections on identity, culture, and belonging.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/L0I4HrQ9rP4

Transcript

Transcript generated by AI and may contain errors.

Taryn: [00:00:00] And so he went out and bought her a very expensive fur coat and he was like, look like I'm providing for you. 

I bet he was pretty excited to give it to her. She was not happy. She went off on him about like how much money he had just wasted when they have three small children 

So he's like, well, now I need to apologize, so I'm gonna go buy her a big bunch of roses 

Jess: You are listening to Cultureful. I'm your host, Jess Lin. In honor of Latinx Heritage Month. I'm sharing a two-part conversation with my friend Taryn. She's a 33-year-old, third generation Mexican American from Woodland, California, a historic agricultural town in the northern part of the state. Taryn currently works at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as Aquarist.

In this first part, [00:01:00] she shares her family roots, brings us up close to her grandparents, how they migrated to California for farm work, how they built their lives while becoming deeply involved in their new communities. We hear about both of her grandfather's early experiences in farm work and the paths they took.

One, leaving agriculture to join the military. The other establishing himself as an almond farmer and starting the famous and lively Davis farmer's market. She also shares favorite memories of her grandmothers and describes her mom and dad growing up in these farming towns.

 Taryn, reflects on how her family has navigated integration and prejudice, and how Mexican culture shows up for them. Along the way, we glimpse challenges, triumphs, and everyday moments. 

and as always, you can watch the video version with photos on YouTube. I hope you enjoy.

hey [00:02:00] Taryn, how's it going?

Taryn: Hey, Jess. Pretty good. Glad to be here. How are you?

Jess: Good. Thanks for coming onto the podcast. This is such a treat. Um, we served in the Peace Corps together in Zambia as site neighbors, and you even got to come out to my site. To help with a fish farming project, which was really awesome.

And then in California, we were also lucky enough to be neighbors for a while while I lived in Sacramento. And your family's in Woodland, um, and Ruben and I got to go on your family's farm to help with almond harvesting, which was really fun and really physical. yeah, so I'm really happy to finally get to interview you.

I feel like we've been talking about this for a while.

Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

 I'm looking forward to getting to know about your family history a bit better. you are third generation Mexican American, and, uh, we're gonna dive into the story of the three generations and your family's relationship to your Mexican [00:03:00] heritage and culture. so pick a side, your mom's side or dad's side, grandparents. And let's just start with Yeah. One of the sides what part of Mexico they came from what that side of the family's like background is like.

Taryn: Sure. so if we wanna start with my mom's side, I'm still. Kind of learning more and more about my family's history. Uh, even as an adult, I feel like it wasn't always necessarily, a lot of details weren't always something that, uh, my family talked about. So it wasn't something I was, likely to really ask.

So I didn't always know what kind of questions to ask, but it's been interesting to learn about my mom's side that started with my great-grandparents. my mom's grandparents, they were from, uh, Guanajuanto, Mexico Altogether they had, 12 children. this was between Mexico and the United States.

So [00:04:00] some were born in Mexico, others were born in the United States. My mom's father, my grandpa Eloy, is one of the children that grew up. Moving from farm to farm, depending on what produce was in season at the time. 

He told me about when he actually came to the United States. It wasn't just one journey that he made. So he came up to the States when he was about five years old with his older brother and his dad, So they crossed through the Rio Grande, which was, um, actually dry at that time. and he's a very small child. They crossed over illegally, with the help of some, what they call coyotes. technically people who are paid to smuggle people across the border.

 his dad, went to work, uh, in the fields. at that time, uh, I don't know if this still happens, I'm sure it does [00:05:00] in some capacity. but his dad was able to rent him and his brother out to a different family in Louisiana where they, it's essentially in, in, To my understanding of the term, uh, indentured servitude where they worked picking cotton and working in fields as very, very small children, and they would give the money to their father.

Jess: In the early to mid 19 hundreds in the US children of farm working or immigrant families often worked for other households or farms to support their families. these arrangements were an informal type of indentured labor. Though laws and child labor regulations we're beginning to limit them. Today, renting out children is illegal, but child labor still happens, especially in agriculture through loopholes, parental consent, and weak enforcement. 

Taryn: So they were there to

make money for their dad. 

Jess: your [00:06:00] great-grandfather was in Texas and the kids were in Louisiana.

Taryn: mm-hmm. 

Jess: Whoa. Uh oh. And.

Taryn: a different family. They were rented out,

Jess: Wow. Holy smokes.

Taryn:  at some point they were back in Texas, They had gotten deported, so they had to go back to Mexico. But instead of going to Guanajuanto, they stayed in Monterey, Mexico, uh, which is very close to the border. my great-grandpa somehow managed to file for appropriate paperwork so that they could come back into the country.

So the second time they came back in, they came in legally, 

Jess:  so he came the first time when he was five. Do you know how old he was when they got deported and when they came back? Mm-hmm.

Taryn: I think he was about six or seven. And when he came back to the states. Legally, he was closer to eight years old.

Jess: and it was still him, his brother, and his dad.[00:07:00] 

Taryn: Believe it was still him, his brother and his dad. during that time working in Fields again, and then his, the rest of his family, his mom siblings were able to come to the States as well. And then they moved to Northern California and it was part of a, legal work program

Taryn: cheap labor was needed from Mexico.  . From 1942 to 1964, the Bracero program brought millions of Mexican laborers to the US to work in agriculture and railroads, especially in California's Central Valley,

Jess: while it offered economic opportunities. Workers often faced low pay, poor living conditions and exploitation. 

 The program ended in 1964, which led to increased undocumented immigration and highlighted the need for labor reforms 

today. The legacy [00:08:00] of the Braceros is honored. Through monuments and ongoing advocacy for farm worker rights. 

Taryn: So laborers were able to come up from Mexico and, work in these, essentially labor camps. They were assigned a spot in a barn that was essentially like a deconstructed barn where they had wooden slots with dirt floors, and that was their home. So kind of, uh, almost resembling a chicken coop. And that was where their family lived. And that's right in the middle of the four is where they cooked my grandpa at eight years old was tasked with, stomping, spinach. So he was a spinach stomper for a long time. during the nighttime and during the day, he would go to school. Now, there were a lot of people in the community, both of, immigrant origin and not who had the same routine. Uh, little kids apparently back in the day would. Go to school. And then during the nighttime they [00:09:00] would come home and they would go to work and they would work all night long. my grandpa was telling me about how he actually met one of his future brother-in-laws as a small child who would work alongside him stomping spinach throughout the night.

So my grandpa married Grandma Nancy. Grandma Nancy has a sister, Judy. And Judy married Eddie. But Eddie and my grandpa

had worked together, stomping spinach as small children in all night long.

 'cause they needed to work to. Help their families. 

Jess: and this was already all like close to Woodland area.

Taryn: yep. this is all close to Woodland. Woodland is the area. It's a small-ish farm town. It's definitely grown over the years, but uh, it's the county seat of Yolo County and it's a very important part of the.

Larger agricultural system in California. So it made sense for, , migrant workers to settle there in the [00:10:00] area. 

Jess: Hmm mm-hmm.

Did he describe how he felt about some of these childhood experiences?

Taryn: he definitely said that they were hard.

 he mentioned that he'd be exhausted for school he mentioned a couple teachers that the kids really, really liked, or like people had a favorite teacher. And, their favorite teacher was great because they understood that they had full-time jobs. At the end of the day after they went to school all day. So there were some teachers who would just let the kids sleep in their classrooms 

and would be really empathetic to their situations. so my grandpa doesn't hold back on saying that it was really difficult and that it was a lot, but he kind of seems to have almost like a humorous approach to it now where he can talk about it and kind of chuckle to himself. mentioning just kind of like weird shenanigans that they would get up to on the job because they are children working. 

 he made it to at least, I think sophomore or junior year of high school, 

My grandpa at 16 enlisted for the [00:11:00] Marines

and he said that, I asked him like, why did you decide to go into the Marines? And he said it was because he. Was going to starve to death if he tried driving tractors. He said that he, his grandpa or his dad and his brother both drove tractors out in the fields and, you had to drive really, really straight to get the, the planting done correctly. Whenever grandpa did it, he would be all over the place.

Zigzagging totally messing up the crop. And he said, this is not a job for me. And so he's like, I need to make a living and I can make a living through the military. So he had signed up for the Marines without getting permission from his father who needed the money to, sustain some of his, unhealthy, drinking and other habits.

Jess: When you said needed the money, you mean needed the money that your grandfather would've made in the fields.

Taryn: Yeah. my [00:12:00] grandpa's dad kind of used his kids, as free labor for him. grandpa didn't wanna do that anymore, and he wanted to make money for himself, and he joined the Marines. his dad got so angry that he chased him through Woodland, running a bunch of red lights until he chased him down and punched him in the face.

And yeah, it was, his dad was really angry about,  him joining. So, but my grandpa was like, it's too late. I joined, I can't leave

now. 

 So, within the time that he served in the Marines, He had two tours in Vietnam, so he had gone over there twice. 

Jess: does Grandpa Eloy talk about any specific stories of serving in the military?

Taryn: No, from what my grandma told me, he doesn't like talking about the war. he really doesn't talk too much about the military in general. He had some [00:13:00] anecdotal stories about how the guys quote unquote like him. So what he means by that are Spanish speaking.

 men of Mexican heritage, potentially just an overall, a generalized, idea of just how people of color slash men of color in the military were and may potentially still be treated today. I'm not sure. but what I can say from his stories was that in Vietnam, he and quote unquote guys like him definitely had more of the grunt work.

Uh, the more dangerous work. 

Jess: Throughout US history, the military has mirrored the country's broader struggles with racism. During the Vietnam War, Latinx and other minority soldiers were disproportionately assigned to combat roles and discrimination affected promotions and treatment. 

 today, while the military is officially integrated, minority service members still [00:14:00] face challenges including unequal opportunities and racial bias in assignments and leadership. 

Taryn: there's a job that, some guys would have to do where they would blow a hole into the side of a hill and it was their job to. Squeezed through these underground tunnels, in the attempt to apprehend part of the, the gorilla group, the Vietcong. So he and quote unquote guys like him would be the ones who would have to do those really dangerous jobs.

Um, he had one story where he and, some other guys who probably didn't speak very good English, had to take a inflatable rubber boat and go out in the middle of the night in the pitch dark into a not so safe river and, cross it with the boat on top of them. And, yeah, so it was the dangerous jobs, it was the grunt work, that was given [00:15:00] to soldiers who were considered less than 

And my grandpa was, let's see, He was going from, you know, training to Woodland and one time in Woodland, , my grandpa was 20 at this time, and he wanted to ask out. Girl in the neighborhood. the girl that my grandpa was taking out lived next door to my grandma, and this girl needed to be in someone else's house. So my grandpa went to go take her out because her father would not have let her go on a date with a Mexican man or boy, So she went next door to my grandma's to get ready. And

And, because this girl was in my grandma's house, my grandma came outside on the porch just to kind of see what was going on. She was about 15, and she still tells me about like, how cute she thought she looked. She's like, I had this like aqua blue dress the high, you know, ruffled sleeves. And she's like, I was [00:16:00] barefoot. Which I guess being barefoot was kind of like something you didn't really do, like, I don't know. Um, and she was like checking out this guy on her porch and she'd never seen him before.

And, my grandpa asked her like, oh, are, are you coming too? And she's just like, why would I go on a date with you? Like, you're, you're going on a date with my neighbor. Like, wrong you? My grandma's always been kind of a very straightforward, Person. she's got a

big personality, Very direct.

he took the neighbor on the date, but because either the neighbor wasn't into it or because the fact that her father wouldn't want her dating him, that didn't end up going anywhere. But my grandpa decided he wanted to go out with my grandma. they started dating and he would go, he would take her out and then he'd have to leave for months and months on end for different trainings or  he had two tours in Vietnam. but at some point when he came back, my grandma was 17, he decided that he was gonna ask her to marry him. So they got married [00:17:00] she by 18, had my mom.  my grandma and grandpa, settled there actually after my grandpa got out of the military. she was a stay at home mom. so eventually they had, three children all together. My mom, her younger brother, , who's my Uncle Ricky and, her younger sister, who's my Aunt Angie. my grandma and grandpa have lived in the same house in Woodland during their entire marriage, so they still live there.

Jess: Wow.

Taryn: He worked for, a gas station for a while. He had been a gas station attendant. then eventually he went and worked at, a chemical company, for most of his career. and when that shut down, he finally got a job at the Walgreens, distribution center. Where from which he retired, in

Jess: wow, that's very vivid now I think we can kind of picture like a little, like a lot more of like Wow. How he grew up and Oh man. Just like a memorable, compassionate [00:18:00] teacher, but also like, I mean, it seems like such a brave thing to do to defy your dad after it seems like your whole life you've been working, to pay for Family household things and, and then just to be like. I'm gonna do this for me. That that just seems like such a brave moment that was so consequential, like his whole life changed from there, from kind of making that decision at 16.

Taryn: yeah,

financial independence and, the time he spent in the Marines actually really helped it, it seems like a, a small thing, but it really helped his, development with the English language

because before he left, my grandma said that his, English was very difficult to understand,

which granted Spanish is his first language. I think it helped him to  move through life A bit easier when he joined the Marines really drilled in his English and came back. ' cause that was about the time that he [00:19:00] was, he got, he went from moving up from say like a gas station attendant position to a job at the chemical plant,

um, where he was making enough money to support, you know, a family of five and own a house and a mortgage and,

 They're in the same house. Um, it's like five blocks away from my parents' house.

Jess: what is Grandpa Eloy personality like? Yeah.

Taryn: Eloy loves golfing. he's a very, social person.

Jess: Uhhuh,

Taryn: he has strong relationships with his golf buddies that he's been golfing with for decades.

he has like his standing golf dates. Um, so every week he golfs at the same time, hangs out with the same guys. 

Jess: that is so relatable to me. My dad is a very serious golfer and has, multiple days of golf dates with his crew every week, for I think, 40 years, at least. 35 years. Yeah. People that are in golf can be really into [00:20:00] golf. Something very addictive about it, I think.

Taryn: I think so. golf is a big thing for him. he's also big into fishing, so he grew up, I believe, at least since coming to Woodland, he's fished with a lot of the men in our family. So, um, his son, my uncle Ricky, uh, is a boat captain and, he captains a sport fishing boat, 

 they fish in San Francisco Bay. They'll fish out at sea in tamales or Bodega Bay area. They kind of fish wherever the season is happening. when, the abalone population was still doing well, they would go abalone hunting.

since then, the population's crashed, so it's illegal to hunt for abalone at the moment in California. But they go halibut fishing and tuna fishing, and river fishing. my grandpa loves fishing.

Jess: So he has multiple hobbies,

Taryn: he has multiple hobbies. He keeps busy. , He loves a barbecue. I think my grandpa is very content sitting back [00:21:00] and enjoying the company of our family members and friends and social events.

He's not necessarily going to offer personal information.

Uh, that's not really his thing. Uh, but he likes being around the people that he loves. So that's how I've grown up interacting with my grandpa. It's not necessarily like information that he's ever really offered. 

Jess: how old is grandpa right now?

Taryn: he's I think 81, 82. 

Jess: After the break, we get to know Grandma Nancy and Taryn's mom.

Jess: my grandma was from Woodland. my grandma Nancy she tracked down her ancestry a while ago and it's been like a really big, project [00:22:00] for her. So she's found relatives all over the United States, and has connected with relatives, overseas. but her heritage comes from more Scott's Irish background.

Taryn: so very like Caucasian background. So marrying my grandma or my grandpa, they essentially, started like a very mixed cultural heritage.

Jess: Yeah, they were in an interracial marriage.

Taryn: they are. Yeah. Which is, I've asked my grandma about that before and I don't know if she really gave it too much thought. I believe that she's had, they, she's given me instances just throughout their marriage especially as she's gotten older and she's given me some examples of like how that, that, that's been a point of contention, but it doesn't seem to really have defined their relationship, because the city that I'm from, Woodland, it's a very homogenized.

Culture. [00:23:00] So, heavily Hispanic and heavily white. those are really kind of the two dominant, races there. So 

 it may have been common.

I'm not a hundred percent sure it's not something that my family really talks

about, but yeah. And she could have just been really young at the time and maybe didn't really take it into consideration. When you're 18 and you're a mom trying to

Jess: Yeah.

Taryn: ma manage a household, it's a lot.

Jess: busy with more practical things.

Taryn: Yeah.

Jess: Yeah. What's Grandma Nancy like 

Taryn: Yeah. Grandma Nancy is also a very social person. grandma Nancy is a very resilient woman she prides herself in the family that she's raised. She's, that's something that she's always been very adamant about, was raising good people who can function well in society, and I think she's very proud of her family.

 I, I think when you're a very, very young mom and you have three very small children, and that is your major goal, I, [00:24:00] I think she really set her mind to it. she graduated from high school either a year before or a couple months before. My mom, because she dropped outta high school when she was young.

 She enjoyed having fun as a young person. she was very rebellious. she wasn't one to be told what to do and she still doesn't, she very much does things in her own terms. she always told my mom growing up though, that she would go back and get her GED before my mom graduated and I think my mom's senior year, my mom asked her again, when are you going to get Your GED and my grandma said, you know what, before you graduate, my mom reminded her, I'm graduating this year, so there's a time limit now. And my grandma took her butt down to the school, and figured out which classes she needed to take and zoomed through said classes to make sure that she got her, think she had her diploma, maybe she got her GED, but essentially she completed high school before my mom, because that was her goal, and she wasn't going to let my mom beat her.[00:25:00] 

Jess: Okay. I think it's awesome that your mom kept her mom accountable as a teenager. Like that's just really cool that your mom as a teenager cared about that enough to, you know, because teenagers are busy with a lot of their own things. They have a lot going on. Especially when they're like a senior about to graduate.

And then also really inspiring that your grandma went and, kept her promise to herself. That's so cool. 

yeah, any favorite memories with Grandma Nancy? 

I think my grandma Nancy, is my grandparents that I spent the most time growing up with. 

Taryn: I remember going to the beach with Grandma Nancy, spending a lot of time at Dillon Beach with my family. but Grandma Nancy is someone who has a lot of very creative talents. 

I wouldn't even call it humble, I think she just doesn't think about how creative an artistic she is.

she has like hobbies where she, she knits, she sews, she embroiders, she crochets. And she makes quilts [00:26:00] and is very crafty and awesome with the sewing machine. But. I didn't know that she was creative in other ways. So when we spent a lot of time at Dillon Beach, we went to the, northern coast in California, which is, for anyone who maybe thinks about the California coastline and beaches, it's very different depending on where you are.

So, uh, Dillon Beach isn't necessarily like warm, sunny, like hot sandy beach where people are, you know, surfing and, you know, often. 

Jess: You're crushing everyone's California dreams.

Taryn: I know, I know, 

 I think there's this vision of what looks like Southern California that is. Similar in ways to Northern California, but with some, like, big differences. So for example, it's, it's very cold. Um, you're not gonna wanna sit in a bathing suit on the beach in the sun. Like, it'll be sunny. It'll be beautiful and clear with like blue skies, bright sun. People will surf, but they're gonna have a very [00:27:00] thick, suit on.

They're not gonna be in for super long 'cause it is freezing cold. Uh, the mornings are often very foggy and kind of gloomy, and most of the time it'll burn off to like a beautiful sunny day. But for the most part it's like very gray. and like kind of slate blue, kind of the colors you think of when it comes to Northern California.

so walking along the beach, finding shells with my grandma was a really great memory that I've had since I was a little kid. she really loved sea glass. And what we would do with sea glass was she had a rock Tumblr at home and we would put the sea glass in the rock Tumblr with the sand and water and they would, tumble for a couple weeks until they came out very, like more smooth or a little bit like clearer.

And, she would make wire jewelry out of them. I believe she still does, she does like wire wrapping jewelry and she, when before the pandemic, , we used to have a, like a local craft store in downtown Woodland and they exclusively sold local art from [00:28:00] different artists and it was a very popular store.

 And grandma's jewelry was one of the most popular items, So that was really cool. Another time she. Showed me this painting that she had where she's like, you know, I took a picture of the water from Dillon Beach and decided to paint it.

And I was like, oh, I'd love to see that. It was gorgeous. It was like a huge, like oil painting with the waves rolling in with the kind of slate gray, very cold, foggy look to it. And it had like depth that had beautiful shading. and I'm just like, grandma is beautiful.

And she's just like it's okay. Like I just, I just painted it. I was like, what? So there's a, lot.

Jess: like a, a multimedia artist

that's like, thinks she's just. Hobbying, but 

apparently quite talented.

Taryn: Yes, she is quite talented and I, I'm always, I, I get these little surprises when I see like little peaks of her, her talent. [00:29:00] so yeah, grandma Nancy is a person who, she's very straightforward. she very much love, loves what she loves. She loves her family. She loves going to the beach. she loves crafts and art and but she also really loves consistency.

So Grandma Nancy is a person who isn't gonna be super happy that her grandchildren are leaving town to live in, you know, go to college or live abroad somewhere. of my cousins, like, and my siblings at some point had like left Woodland or, you know, gone to live somewhere else or have gone to college or, you know, take jobs in other cities.

So she gets used to it at a point. But being the first grandchild, I feel like there was definitely a bit of like the brunt of the, um, upset 

with, 

Jess: wanted to leave?

Taryn: of just saying like, well, why would you go to this college if it's three hours away when you could go to this one that's 15 minutes away? And I was like, because, you know, but [00:30:00] my freshman year, sophomore year of college, uh, I always expected like my weekly calls with grandma and they were always great.

Like it was just a good way to check in with her. She'd always give me the whatever's happening with the family. any information I wanted to know about what's happening or. 

Jess: all the updates, 

Taryn: She's, yes, she's, she gave me all the updates, short of gossip, but it, it was always great 'cause I knew I could count on grandma for that.

 one other thing is I spent quite a bit of time with my grandma when I was in high school because she was a teacher, for one of the special education classes.

 sorry. She was an assistant, So, um, when I started driving and had my learner's permit and my license, I would drive my grandma to school every day. 

Jess: As her ride,

Taryn: She, yes, we'd carpool, she would drive her car to my house and then I would drive her car to school 

Jess: to let you practice. 

Taryn: me practice.

Yes, yes. And I, it 

was 

Jess: had a lot of [00:31:00] quality time with Grandma Nancy.

Taryn: I've had a lot of quality time with Grandma Nancy. I always enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed seeing her around high school 'cause I'd see her out and around and we would drive home together. it was very comforting. I, I really love my grandma. in some ways we can be kind of similar, we could both, both be very direct but at the same time get really frustrated really quickly. So, driving to school with her sometimes. I, I think those were some of the most frustrating times we've had together. 'cause my grandma was very blunt about, The fact that I was scaring her in driving or I would get a lot of, like feedback about my driving and

Jess: a lot of direct feedback. 

Taryn: not care for it because it came out in like bursts and her yelling or 

Jess: Yeah. Yeah.

Taryn: I was gonna get us killed. And I was just like, it's six blocks. Like, we're fine.

Jess: I can relate to that though. 'cause I, I retaught Reuben how to drive as an adult in Sacramento. And it was the heart like [00:32:00] actually, actually the hardest and scariest thing I've done ever.

Taryn: Yep. That's 

Jess: and I'm also a little bit intensely direct for someone relearning how to drive.

So it was kind of a lose lose situation that we had to do together. 

Taryn: Good on you though. 

Jess: yeah, I'm sure, yeah, grandma was trying to help you, but then that's stressful and then. And then you're like, okay, I need to practice. 

Taryn: You need to practice, but you're yelling at me all the time. 

Jess: Yeah. Oh,

Taryn: Yep, but it was fine. We got through it, 

Jess: you've survived 

Taryn: we survived. And you know what, it's a memory that I cherish, so it's fine. 

Jess: now that you have enough healthy distance from it. Um, just like Grandpa Eloy has enough healthy distance from his childhood that he can laugh at parts of it now. 

Taryn: think so. I think so. I think grandpa's always the sort of person to make the best of things and, grandma Nancy makes sure that, that it is. She's like, well, okay, but I'm gonna make sure that we fix this. 

[00:33:00] I have one more little anecdote if that's okay. Sorry. 

Jess: that's the juiciest parts of the podcast or like the anecdotes.

Taryn: one story that my grandma loves to retell, uh, when they were very, very young and married and, I can't imagine being a 19-year-old mother or, or a 22-year-old mother of three and, with a husband who just got back from, uh, Vietnam from his second tour and is now outta the military and working full-time.

grandma is a person who is very, strict and logical when it comes to things like financial literacy. Uh, she was handling the money for the household, for the kids, and. I think my grandpa got very used to how things were in Vietnam when you get your paycheck. So even though, uh, grandma and the kids were set up at the house, they still had to be very practical.

She had to be very practical and with, how she balanced the finances. My grandpa was just by himself over there, so he is like, get your [00:34:00] paycheck. You go to the bar, you spend it there,

Jess: You enjoy it.

Taryn: you enjoy it. So, uh, he gets outta the military, he comes home, he's working, he bringing home the paycheck. And my grandma's like, do you think you're going back to the bar?

Like, no. Like you did not. He spent way too much money. she was so mad about it and so he oh man, Didn't seem to really catch on to the fact that, um, they needed to be a little bit more careful with their money. There was one time that he decided, he was like, you know what, grandma needs a fur coat. And so he went out and bought her a very expensive fur coat and he was like, look like I'm providing for you. 

Jess: That was his love language 

was giving her, getting her this fancy for coat.

Taryn: and I, you know what? It could have benefited from learning about each other's love languages very early on and communicating that. I think in that time [00:35:00] communication was not really a thing that people did too much.

It's just a lot of like action and consequence. So he bought, it's expensive fur coat and I, I bet he was pretty excited to give it to her. She was not happy. She was very angry. She went off on him about like how much money he had just wasted when they have three small children and a mortgage, and she berated him for it.

And her, I think her expectation was he would take it back and, you know,

Jess: get the money back.

Taryn: either get the money back, uh, or just like learn a lesson from it. Uh, my grandpa, I actually think was quite sweet in this sense, but like, so misguided, he felt bad because he had made her angry. So he's like, well, now I need to apologize, so I'm gonna go buy her a big bunch of [00:36:00] roses and brings that back. And she's just like, what are you doing? yeah, didn't really learn much of a lesson that day. 

Jess: that's hilarious. 

 what was their household like? Like what was the vibe that your mom grew up in? 

you know, I feel like that might be hard to describe. I know that they were tight knit. because my grandpa settled in. Woodland, his family settled in Woodland. My grandpa's side always had a really huge presence in town. my grandma's family also all lived in Woodland.

Taryn: So you have this huge Mexican side of the family. And then you have, my grandma's more moderate size family, uh, which meant that there were barbecues and parties in someone's backyard all the time. my family loves socializing. They love drinking, they love cooking, they love barbecuing.[00:37:00] 

So their relationships and their friendships, especially growing up and especially like coming up in Woodland, were within the family. So, My grandpa has stories of anytime, like going out or getting into, you know, some sort of, any sort of ridiculous thing. It always involved one of his brothers or his uncles and my grandma's brother-in-laws.

And everyone knew everyone and they all hung out at the same places and they all went to the same parties and they all know the same people. 

Jess: Yeah. Like they, they like had fun together,

Taryn: yeah. Yeah, I'd say so. Um, so I think because of that, my mom and her siblings also grew up. Their best friends were their cousins. I mean, I mean, they have other friends outside of that. My mom's, my mom still has, um, her closest, some of her closest relationships or closest friendships with people outside of the family.

She's still friends with them and they still live in Woodland. So there are a lot [00:38:00] of people. Both in the family and outside the family who have just been there throughout my fam family's entire life. So like people didn't really leave Woodland, leaving Woodland would be like, kind of a weird thing for people in my family.

So they, if they went on vacation, they would go down to, their favorite place was Ensenada, Mexico. So we have pictures of, my mom and my aunt and uncle when they were little, visiting Mexico, um, which isn't anywhere near where my family's from. So it was literally like a fun vacation, go to 

Jess: A vacation spot. Yeah.

Taryn: and a place to go fishing because like I said, my grandpa and my, many of my male family members are big into fishing, so they're pretty consistent.

 they also grew up going to Doran Beach. Dillon Beach, bodega Bay, Northern California coast. Mexico were my family's [00:39:00] spots. That was vacation.

Jess: Did your grandpa's side of the family, because it sounds like that's like the big side of the family. when everyone's hanging out, was it mostly in Spanish and did people celebrate Mexican holidays and just like, how much of like the, the traditions and culture did they keep up with?

Or was it mostly, hanging out and doing fun things but not necessarily doing things that were, tied to certain holidays or stuff like that?

Taryn: I'm gonna say that things weren't tied to holidays so much. because my grandpa's mother, grandma Pita, was very busy raising and caring for a ton of kids. they, I don't believe. Celebrated or adhered to a lot of Mexican tradition.

I'd say that the most cultural thing or the things that they maybe held onto culturally would be, the Spanish language. Like they definitely spoke a lot of Spanish, but would integrate English in quite a bit because I think [00:40:00] a lot of people in the family married English speakers. the food though was definitely something that crossed over into the next generation.

So if not necessarily, there are, there are some traditions that I've heard about that I've come to try and learn more about. for example, a lot of people. Mexican heritage will have a big tamal making party on Christmas Eve. It's not something I grew up doing. Mexican food was carne asada for a family barbecue.

Um, it was warm tortillas with butter as a snack. It was, whatever meat heavy sort of foods we can maybe find at like a quinceanera or, my family's preference for Mexican imported beer. 

Jess: Quinceanera is a girl's 15th birthday celebration in Latin American cultures, marking her transition to young womanhood. 

[00:41:00] Rooted in indigenous coming of age, rituals, Spanish colonial customs, and Catholic traditions. It typically includes a religious ceremony, a formal gown, a father daughter dance, a court of honor and a festive party with food, music, and dancing. It remains widely celebrated in Mexico, central America, and among Latinx communities in the us. 

Mm-hmm.

Taryn: Besides that, there's really no major holidays or traditions that were passed on through my grandma Nancy and Grandpa Eloy. 

Jess: and then your mom, your mom is the oldest of three and What was she like when she was a kid and so she grew up speaking Spanish.

Taryn: Integration was a big thing for my grandpa's side of the family. and you see that with other families who immigrate and are probably having to deal with issues of being [00:42:00] othered. So I believe my grandma and grandpa, they probably spoke mostly English in the household.

so my parent, my mom. No. Or understand Spanish to an extent, but she, my uncle and my aunt are not fluent. my mom, I think, embodies the oldest female sibling trope very well.

Jess: Uh.

Taryn: Uh, she

Jess: I'm smiling because you're also the oldest female of three 

Taryn: I know, So she, uh, you know, she lived her whole life in Woodland. She, said that growing up that she was academically pretty competitive. even to the, I think to the extent of getting bullied a bit in school where, she had a story about being in elementary school and always getting.

The best grades on her exams. So there's some boys that were really jealous of that, and they would call her Queenie. So Queenie was her nickname in

Jess: because she was really awesome at school. She got made fun of as queeny. Ugh,

okay. [00:43:00] Kids. Kids can be so mean.

Taryn: yes. Jealous little boys. yeah, that was my mom. very social. She moved out, uh, as soon as she graduated high school. she moved to an apartment across town with her cousin, who was like one of her best friends. And, um, my grandparents I think were really confused about that because they were like, you're not moving outta town.

My mom worked three jobs and she didn't, mom is interesting. She had really, really good grades, and I think she was offered. a scholarship to go to uc Davis because at the time, if you had the grades, uh, and you were, close proximity to university, in California, you could potentially get a full ride to a uc.

So she said that she was offered, uh, a chance to go to Davis, but going to a four year college wasn't something that people did in my family. it was just so out of the realm of possibility that my mom immediately wrote that off. It was just like, that's not something that we do. 

Jess: She didn't see it modeled in the [00:44:00] family. It wasn't like a thing that people talked about. She didn't see it. 

Taryn: mm-hmm. No, no. Not at all. Um, maybe there were some, I don't know exactly. What it was that was maybe a turnoff because it was like, you get a free ride, like you take it. But that's nowadays, that's not, that's not Then. Um, so she graduated in 85. She, worked three jobs. She had a 

Jess: jobs?

Taryn: She said that 

Jess: I mean, she was 18, right? Like, oh my gosh, I had a ton of energy at 18

Taryn: yeah,

yeah, yeah. She said she, uh, I think her, one of her favorite jobs was working at Winchell's, uh, donut shop. So she would get up at like 3:00 AM. She would, you know, go make donuts and like sell donuts. She worked, at a Montessori preschool. that was her main thing. She really, really wanted to work at a preschool.

She always loved children. She always wanted to work with children. and then on top of it, she was always throwing parties. So she's like, our apartment was the party apartment. We always had all the best parties.[00:45:00] 

Jess: I could totally see that.

Taryn: I've asked her like, when did you sleep? And she's like, I don't think I did.

I don't think I really thought

Jess: Okay, nevermind. I never had that kind of energy.

Taryn: Oh, yeah,

no, 

I mean, talking to my mom about, speaking of just like differences and growing up I think I was like already trying to figure out like how to optimize my health in high school and was all about like a very balanced lunch.

cause I was into a big cross country and my mom was like, I didn't, my mom was like, you can make me run. Like no one was gonna make me work out. She was like, you know, to stay thin, I would eat like a Snickers bar and I'd have a Diet Pepsi. So diet, 

Jess: that was her diet secret.

Taryn: diet secret, just not a candy bar and a

Pepsi. So, you know, she was living her best life. She loved it. She was having a great time. and, I think my grandparents were, happy that she stayed in town, but it was still like a big deal for her to move outta the house right away without any help. So,

Jess: I just

[00:46:00] realized

that. By the time your mom moved out at 18, your grandmother was 36. Wow. That just like the whole family is just so young. So young. After the break, we change gears to Taryn's dad's side of the family.

 Let's migrate over to, your dad's side of the family and like kind of trace, was it grandparents?

Was it great grandparents that came over? Yeah. What happened on dad's side?

Taryn: I know that my dad's parents, Ramon Cadena and my Grandma Lucy, are from Guadalajara. My grandpa grew up, uh, actually an orphan [00:47:00] in, that part of Mexico. He struggled quite a bit, kind of bounced between family members, in Guadalajara, um, experienced homelessness at one point as a very small child.

so my grandpa had a lot of hardships, that I think helped drive him to take on this. Need for sort of an individualism 

I think my grandpa really, took on being an independent person really, really early in life, uh, for the purpose of survival. So by the time he was old enough, to start kind of looking around at his options and opportunities, he had already met my soon to be Grandma Lucy and he got connected with this federal program.

The United States had started sometime between the sixties and seventies, So. There was a need for more farm workers, more laborers, in California [00:48:00] especially, uh, to essentially be paid these very low wages that American workers were not willing to, take on. So they decided to start looking, uh, and giving these legal, versions of a visa to, Mexican laborers.

 my grandpa Ramon, took the opportunity to come to the United States with a legal visa.

So, uh, my grandpa decided to make every opportunity work for him, and he was really strategic about it. my grandpa Ramon did enjoy telling stories. , He was very adamant about telling people about himself, because I think he was really proud of that.

So he came up to California, he was working in Capay Valley, on other people's farms. 

Jess: Do you know how old he was at the time?

Taryn: I don't, probably in his twenties,

my guess, he would tell stories, priding himself in how he would. he would save his money. apparently, according to him, [00:49:00] other people with the program or other farm workers were apt to go and spend their money at the end of whenever they were paid, um, go out, have a good time, reward themselves for essentially being in a very difficult labor position.

but my grandpa Ramon said that he was good about saving his money. He wanted to have a long-term plan. He said that he instead started paying for night classes so that he could learn English. Um, he took business classes because he again, prided himself in independence and starting his own business at some point when he was able to, was important to him. He eventually became really close friends with one of the farmers who he, that he worked for, and my grandpa was founded to be really important to establish himself as a hard worker, as someone who is, can be counted on in the community.

And [00:50:00] so he was noticed for that. At one point he was able to buy a parcel of land 23 acres out in Esparto, California.

Jess: Wow.

Taryn: And he,

Jess: That's the almond farm. Okay.

Taryn: Yes, that is the Almond farm. so he had built a small little Adobe house beforehand on a different property so that my Grandma Lucy could come up from Guadalajara and live with him and, get married.

And then he decided that they needed a bigger house. So then he built the house that is now on my family's farm now,

Jess: He and Grandma Lucy were already together.

Taryn: They got married somewhere in between him coming up and then him coming back to get her. I think he just knew her and I think he wanted to make sure that he had a place for her to be before committing to marriage.

Jess: I'm so curious if they wrote love letters or something. 'cause how do you keep something like that going? Like long [00:51:00] distance? Like for how, how long? You know, how did they pull that off? Anyway? Okay. 

Taryn: I have no idea. Yeah,

essentially, at least by the seventies, my grandpa Ramon and my Grandma Lucy were living on their own farm with 23 acres in this house that my grandpa helped build. And that's where they raised, uh, their family, uh, which is my, my aunt, my dad. My dad is named after my grandpa, so he's Ramon Junior and then their younger sister.

So again, two girls. One, one middle boy. Yes. It's the same birth order that my mom was born into and the same birth order that me and my, my siblings and I are 

Jess: Yeah. 

Okay. So, and Esparto is close to Woodland.

Taryn: s Fargo's about 20 minutes north of Woodland.

Jess: And grandma's personality. What, what was she like?

Taryn: , Grandma Lucy was a very, loving, sort of cuddly grandma. she wants to give her grandkids [00:52:00] like all the biggest hugs and kisses. Um, grandma Lucy spoke better Spanish than English. and I think if anything I remember, like Spanglish words or learning any sort of like bits of Spanish here and there probably came from Grandma Lucy.

yeah, she. Loved it when we would visit. always wanted to make sure that, you were fed. I think talking to other people about Grandma Lucy's personality as an individual, taught me that she could be really, really funny.

Um, I think sometimes things would get lost in translation, so, I didn't always get to see that side of her personality. but she was a very loving grandma.

Jess: Any favorite memories you have with her? 

Taryn: Yeah, I

think spending time going out, uh, into the flower garden, I have some memories as a little kid, um, getting the chance to go out and do that and, collect flowers with her. I remember there were always like wild feral cats on the [00:53:00] property and every so often we'd find kittens and cats are my favorite animal.

So, uh, whenever I got to see. 

Jess: High five. 

Yeah. 

Taryn: exactly.

Jess: I wonder why you ended up cast sitting for us too in Sacramento. You know,

Taryn: yeah. So,

Jess: one of Catthew many loving aunties.

Taryn: Yes. 

exactly. Oh, Catthew, so do that. I totally just remember this Now, she liked to teach me cute little songs in Spanish. grandma liked games and songs. so a lot of my memories come from when I was really little, because as an adult I, I don't think I was close to home often enough to make the drive out to Esparto.

So most of my memories are from when I was a little kid with, those grandparents.

Jess: okay. yeah. What was their household like? Do you know? Like what was your dad's upbringing like?

Taryn: Very rural. they grew up in a very, very, very [00:54:00] small farm town. Uh, much smaller than Woodland. my dad's graduating class in Sparta was 34 people.

Jess: Wow.

Taryn: And uh, my dad grew up doing a lot of sports, so he was in track, he was on the football team. A lot of times there was a lot of work to be done on the farm.

Uh, it was a family run farm, keeping the farm going and having the kids work on the farm was essential to their livelihoods. There is a very, well-known and, very well established farmer's market in Davis, California. Uh, it's considered to be one of the best and like one of the oldest farmer's markets in the state. And that was started, in the seventies, I believe.

my grandpa Ramon was on the committee to help get that market started.

So, uh, grandpa Ramon helped to establish the Davis farmer's Market and that's where he sold his produce. essentially for the rest of his life,

Jess: what were the main produce that he was selling?

Taryn: So I'd say almonds, walnuts were some of [00:55:00] their biggest harvests. they sold different types of citrus, so oranges, lemons, various garden vegetables depending on what was in season. like bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic. And my grandma also kept, pretty big flower gardens. When the springtime, they would sell bunches of flowers, a lot of sweet peas.

Uh, I think sweet peas is the one that I remember the most. 'cause it also smelled really good and I really enjoyed the way that they grew. And I could go in. Clip off flowers, uh, with my grandma. So that was always really nice. 

Jess: Can you describe Grandpa Ramon's personality?

Taryn: he is, I wouldn't say stoic, he's got kind of a serious, personality and he's a big storyteller, if you were ever looking for him, he is probably hanging out in one of his three or four, favorite haunts, whether it's the greenhouse or the front porch, or somewhere out on the farm.

usually had a cigarette [00:56:00] in his hand.

He was drinking black coffee all day long. Uh, so he usually smelled like coffee and cigarettes. he was usually telling some sort of story about his past. That was a, that was a big thing that he liked to do. yeah, it was a very patriarchal household. I think he really valued, rules and respect and the hierarchy of what is kind of considered the machismo of Mexican culture. So, um, my grandma was a, homemaker the one who.

Provided the care for the kids and took care of the house and took care of the laundry and the food and everything. And I think my grandpa saw himself as, um, the master of the house. And that's was very important to him. 

Uh, he was also very proud, I'd say He's a very proud person. they're heavily religious, they have a very [00:57:00] charitable mindset. I think my grandpa wanted to give back to the people in his community, and he was, someone who. Prided himself in knowing everyone in town, knowing the relationships of everyone in town, and then also being a person who would try his best to help out when possible.

So they never missed a day at church in Esparto. And they would also, source bread. I don't know where they would get their bread, but they always had bread on Sundays, like fresh bread, and they would give out free bread from the back of their truck at the end of church service every Sunday. 

Jess: Oh, just to people 

just community members.

Taryn: just community members.

Uh, he was really good about giving things away. So that's something that I would say is very much in his personality. he did look out f. For the people in his community.

Jess: so your dad's side of the family, both your grandma and your grandpa are Mexican.

And what [00:58:00] was their, , relationship to maintaining Mexican culture in the household?

Taryn: Uh, Spanish was definitely the dominant language in the household. My dad's first language is Spanish. even though he was born in California, so holding onto the Spanish language, I think was very important. again, food as a, a bridge to. Heritage may not have been an intentional thing, but it definitely had a lasting thing.

Uh, my grandma had a really great albondigas recipe,

uh, which is like a, it's a Mexican meatball soup, um, made with chicken stock celery and carrots and onions. And she would hand make, uh, these big meatballs, uh, full of like, beef and veggies.

And that was like one of my favorite things that grandma and grandpa would bring over.

there are some things that I think are kind of like left over from Mexican culture that are [00:59:00] little snippets that were brought over. So, uh, it's things like this that remind me of, um. How culture is kind of passed on through different generations from the movie. My Big Fat Greek wedding, if you

remember. There's uh, and I can't say this is true, I, it is just a, a trope from the movie, but in the movie, the Ants are all about Windex fixing everything. Um, in Mexican culture, and I've talked about this with other friends who have Mexican backgrounds, so I know that it, we're not like the only ones, but Vicks Vapo Rub apparently like fixes everything, in Mexican culture. 

Jess: Vicks Vapo Rub is a menthol cream for rubbing on the chest or back to relieve a stuffy nose or cough. While it's marketed for clearing congestion and soothing cold symptoms, people around the world, including Latin America, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia, also use it for other [01:00:00] things like minor aches, headaches, and general discomfort when feeling unwell.

Taryn: so it's anything from like a sore throat to you fell flat on your back from the roof or something. It's like, put fix on it. It'll fix it. 

so it's almost these kind of like homeopathic remedy sort of things that have somehow evolved to fit our modern. Market for what you can actually find.

Jess: yeah, like modern, I mean, very like commercialized products right now, like Vix rape, vapor roast,

Taryn: So there's something to VIX that I think has 

moved through. 

Jess: I feel like I learned so much about both sides of your family and, ah. It's really nice. I love learning about people's grandparents especially, 

 it's such a treat because they grew up in such different generations and it feels like time traveling. But also it kind of, explains more of like, how your parents [01:01:00] came up and then now, and that helps me understand a lot more about you.

Taryn: Yeah,

Jess: Thanks so much for listening. In part two, Taryn shares about her parents' meet Cute, which involved a silo party and a serenade. We get insight into her childhood and her parents' wedding. She also reflects on how she and her siblings are now trying to reconnect with their Mexican culture and heritage.

And we wrap up with updates on what everyone is up to now. Be sure to subscribe or follow, and turn on notifications so you don't miss it. If you enjoyed this episode, there are a few ways to support this homegrown indie podcast. Share the episode with a friend. Word of mouth really helps us grow.

Donate via the link in the description to help keep these stories of representation coming. Stories that don't [01:02:00] reduce our experiences to stereotypes, but that bring nuance and our everyday narratives to the forefront and leave a comment. At Toto Mohammed 3, 5, 5, 9 wrote, Aisha never forgets to mention me.

It was a blast growing up with her Toto. It's awesome. You and Aisha are still in touch. Thanks for listening and engaging. This episode was produced and edited by me with advising and executive production support from Ruben Gnanaruban. I'm Jess Lin.

See you soon.​