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“I feel calmer and very comfortable.”
–Manuel Garcia
I have been in California since the death of President Kennedy in 1963. I was 18 years old when I first got here. I come from a family of 11 in Mexico. I have worked in a lot of places. I moved to Woodland around 1978 and have lived here for the majority of my life.
The time I spent in Hughson, I lived in the field. We were 70 men working for a contractor, all of us were undocumented. All those seven years I spent in Hughson we lived in the field. We moved from one field to another. We picked a lot of grapes. The contractor had a roll up mattress and a little blanket for us. Sometimes it rained and I would place a plastic cover of the grape vines so I would not get wet.
When I finally moved to Lodi, they had five little trailers for us. It was four of us in each trailer. Everything was good. I worked trimming the grape vines, peaches, and apricots. I trimmed grape vines in Lodi for seven years. We had the hoe and no other tools to work with. I knew how to work the fields, so that is what I did and what I liked.
Here in Woodland I was picking tomatoes, irrigating, driving tractors, and working other machinery. Working in irrigation was tough. Our legs would get soaked with water 3 times a day. That is a cause for the leg pain we have now and lack of balance.
My wife was a bus driver for the school and then for the city. Her name was Ester Flores. When I married my wife, my life changed completely. She helped me receive my green card. I was able to help my family in Mexico and send them money. We lived on California Street here in Woodland for 15 years. We lived well. In this area there was a car accident one time. My wife was in that car accident, she was taken to the emergency room. She was not well after the car accident. My wife wouldn’t talk. Then when we moved to New Mexico she had a stroke and died.
Our goddaughter, Angelica, suggested I move back to Woodland. I lived with Angelica for one month, then I moved with my brother and his family in Sacramento. That is when Angelica found out about Spring Lake.
When I got the keys to the apartment in Spring Lake my brothers and Angelica brought me chairs, couches, a bed, and kitchen ware. I feel calmer and very comfortable.