Audio Recording Interview with Margarito Garcia and Trinidad Garcia about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 2
Interview with Margarito Garcia and Trinidad Garcia about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 2
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Title
- Interview with Margarito Garcia and Trinidad Garcia about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 2
Names
- Fleischhauer, Carl (Recordist)
- Kalb, Laurie Beth (Research team member)
- Garcia, Trinidad (Interviewee)
- Garcia, Margarito (Interviewee)
Created / Published
- Mosquero, New Mexico, August 30, 1985
Headings
- - Folklore--New Mexico
- - Field recordings
- - Interviews
- - Sound recording
- - United States -- New Mexico -- Mosquero
Genre
- Field recordings
- Interviews
- Sound recording
Notes
- - Index data: Part 2 of a 3-part interview with Interview with Margarito and Trinidad Garcia, at their home near the courthouse in Mosquero NM: about life on the homesteads in Mosquero Canyon (first established circa 1890-1918), purchasing and storing goods at the homestead, flour typically bought as a 100 lb. sack, you came to town and went home the same day, Trinidad Garcia's father would get up very early, for bulk groceries, need storage, pile flour in the storehouse near the residence, flour could be emptied into a steel container, in summer, a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon; about entertainment, enjoy life, get together on Saturday to dance, dances separate from church, some played violin and guitar, invite people to the evening dance, square dances, the Spanish-speaking people didn't have to call the dances, there were callers who called in English, with violin and guitar, sometimes harmonica, mostly the same musicians played, Trinidad Garcia's father and uncle would get the musicians and invite everyone, dance until 9 in the morning, dances usually held on Saturday; this custom fell out when people moved from the canyon to the town, people didn't have dance parties in town because they didn't have a car, only wagons; dances in town at the town hall; in the canyon, all generations went to the dance, but when people started moving to town and things went dry (lack of water?), things changed; about economic opportunities around Mosquero, there used to be a huge dry ice plant in Solano, as well as two other ice plants, today, if kids don't go into the military, they go to (Amarillo) or look for jobs elsewhere, there's nothing here, just old people waiting for the check to come, on check day, it's busy at the post office, we go to get our groceries, all the old people are there too, then at the bar, it's loaded with people, retired people, social security; about Margarito Garcia's biography, he left home at 13, when he married, he was a gambler, but she didn't like it so he quit, then he worked for the railroad, for a (re-icing?) service company, they moved in 1947, to Dalhart, Texas, because he wanted a better education for his kids, but in time they came back, Garcia's father's land and father-in-law's land together equaled two-and-a-half sections with 35 cows on each section, that helped make a living, cattle bought and sold at auction in Dalhart, then in about 1953, bought a ranch, the buildings include those from father-in-law, nothing new has been built, but fences repaired, in the old days, there were chickens, not now, there had been a wooden barn, now about to fall; how people used to build homes out of logs, posts, and mud, the last little house, as you come around the corral, two or three rooms, it's still standing; Trinidad Garcia explains about snakes, risk of death, the doctor is a long way from there, in the old days, the main medicine for snake bite was kerosene, wash the leg with kerosene, you have to let yourself bleed, cut yourself with glass, razor blade, or a knife, a pretty good thing to have in your pocket all the time, by the time you started hurting it was done, then wash it with kerosene, how Margarito Garcia once sat on a snake, his father wanted his son to become a sheepherder, Margarito Garcia sat down on the grass to watch the sheep and all of a sudden he heard a big bull snake, Margarito Garcia continues the story, "I jumped, scared the devil out of me," Trinidad Garcia says if it had been a rattler, he wouldn't be here today, the dangerous ones are rattlesnakes, racers aren't dangerous, about killing a snake with a rock, if you miss, get another and kill it, roadrunners go to a cactus and get stickers to put in the rattlesnake's mouth, about chameleons and rattlesnakes; about people who lived in the canyon and now live in town, they have someone work on the ranch for them, some people today come for recreation, some people keep up ranches but do not live there.
Medium
- audiotape reel, 7 in.
Call Number/Physical Location
- MBRS Shelflist: RXA 7249
- Field project identifier: NM-85-LK-R8
- Call number: AFC 1991/032: SR08
Source Collection
- New Mexico Folklife Project collection (AFC 1991/032)
Repository
- American Folklife Center
Digital Id
Online Format
- audio