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Audio Recording Waldina Jimenez' first job in America

[Waldina Jimenez' first job in America]

About this Item

Title

  • Waldina Jimenez' first job in America

Names

  • Jimenez, Waldina (Narrator)
  • Levitas, Susan, 1961- (Interviewer)

Created / Published

  • 1994-08-05

Headings

  • -  Interviews
  • -  Emigration and Immigration
  • -  Oral history
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  Clothing industry
  • -  Memorial Day Care Center (Paterson, N.J.)
  • -  Honduran Americans
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  United States -- New Jersey -- Paterson

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Interview with Waldina Jimenez, an office worker at Memorial Day Nursery.
  • -  Summary of audio segment: (Then you came to this country; start with your first job here?) A month or two later,all my money from Honduras was spent; I told my sister, "I want to work, I need to work." We went to F and S Fashion to ask for a job. It's on Straight Street, right side of the post office. So we climbed the stairs and my sister knocked on the door. A hard faced man came out; my sister said, "We are looking for a job;" he slammed door and another man came out. He said, "what can you do?" "I'm a presser," said my sister. "You press the coats; you iron." "Oh, I need a presser," said the Italian guy. "How much you pay?" "5 dollars an hour." "What about my sister?" "What can she do?" This guy speaks Spanish to me. "Nothing." "Nothing?! What are you doing here?" I said "Teach me and I'll learn and I'll work for you." I started at $3. per hour, my sister at $5. He taught me; (she shows me a shoulder pad); I had to attach a shoulder pad to a coat, that's the first thing I learned. But that day I broke like 15 needles; I asked him to teach me another job. "You can clean the coats," he said. "And don't call me sir."

Medium

  • Analog Audio Cassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1995/028: WIP-SL-A001

Source Collection

  • Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line

Working in Paterson Project collection, 1993-2002 (AFC 1995/028), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Jimenez, Waldina, and Susan Levitas. Waldina Jimenez' first job in America. -08-05, 1994. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003595/.

APA citation style:

Jimenez, W. & Levitas, S. (1994) Waldina Jimenez' first job in America. -08-05. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003595/.

MLA citation style:

Jimenez, Waldina, and Susan Levitas. Waldina Jimenez' first job in America. -08-05, 1994. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003595/>.