Audio Recording Gilberto Flores interview conducted by John W. McKerley, 2016-12-09.

Title

• Gilberto Flores interview conducted by John W. McKerley, 2016-12-09.

Summary

• In this interview, Gilberto Flores recounts his occupational history. He was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and came to the US with his mother after graduating from high school ca. 1977-78. He wanted to become a pilot but his family could not afford the training, so he came to the US to find employment. His father was already living in Los Angeles and he settled there. He worked at a number of diverse jobs in LA, including a "Mr. Polish" (car wash), a market, and fast food restaurants. He also delivered the LA Times in Bel Air and got to meet celebrities that way. Eventually, he decided to focus his efforts on a career at McDonald's. He became a swing shift manager and then second assistant manager and believes he was on a path to becoming a store manager, but in 1990, he quit his McDonald's job because he felt that he was being asked to do additional work without receiving any additional pay. He also resented that other assistant managers were being promoted faster than he was, which he believes was due to anti-Hispanic discrimination. Shortly afterward, he found employment in a fish processing plant on the island of Unalaska in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. He worked there for about five months. He describes it as a good experience, except for the occasional tsunami warnings. When the Alaska job ended, he moved to Iowa in 1991 to be with his girlfriend (and later wife) Yolanda, who was then working at IBP in Columbus Junction. Upon his arrival, he applied for unemployment benefits, but the staff in the Muscatine local office told him that he would have to return to Alaska or California to apply. Mr. Flores knew that this was not true and he believed that the staff person was deliberately giving him false information because of her hostility toward Hispanic people. Eventually, he was able to speak to a supervisor. who approved his claim. He explains how such life experiences taught him the importance of being an advocate, first for himself and later for others. From 1992 to 2005, he worked for a meatpacking plant run by IBP in Columbus Junction. He worked a variety of different jobs, all on the night shift. Although the plant is non-union, the pay was not bad and included lots of overtime pay. There were many other Hispanics working in the plant. Mr. Flores believes that Hispanics have a reputation as hard workers and, as a result, are assigned lots of extra work. About 2005, he went to work as a construction worker in the Iowa City area. He had no previous construction experienced but was able to learn the job by carefully observing others. He worked on several large construction projects in Iowa City and Coralville, before being laid off in 2009. After that, he found work as a school bus driver for the Iowa City School District, and also made money as a court interpreter and a soccer referee. Much of the interview consists of Mr. Flores giving examples of the life lessons that he has learned, citing examples of unfairness and discrimination that he has experienced, and describing the challenges of his family life.

Names

• Flores, Gilberto (Of Iowa City, Iowa), interviewee.
• McKerley, John W., interviewer.
• Occupational Folklife Project, sponsor.

Created / Published

• 2016-12-09

Headings

• -  Flores, Gilberto--(Of Iowa City, Iowa)--Interviews
• -  Children of working parents
• -  Wages
• -  Disability evaluation
• -  Discrimination in employment
• -  Employees--Dismissal of
• -  Factories
• -  Families
• -  Income
• -  Night work
• -  Overtime
• -  Blue collar workers
• -  Meat industry and trade--Iowa
• -  Packing-house workers--Iowa--Interviews
• -  Iowa City (Iowa),--event place

Genre

• Sound recordings
• Interviews
• Oral histories
• Personal narratives

Notes

• -  Recorded in Iowa City, Iowa, December 9, 2016.
• -  Recent immigrant workers in Iowa's meatpacking industry Archie Green Fellows Project, 2015-2016 (AFC 2015/026: 03362) Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• -  To honor the memory of Archie Green (1917-2009), a fellowship program was established at the American Folklife Center in 2010. Archie Green Fellowships support new research in the contemporary culture and traditions of American workers.
• -  In English.

Medium

• 2 sound files (wav) (03:27:42) : digital, sound.
• 1 manuscript : digital, pdf file.

Source Collection

• Recent immigrant workers in Iowa's meatpacking industry Archie Green Fellows Project, 2015-2016 AFC 2015/026: 03362

Repository

• Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC USA 20540 to 4610 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home

Digital Id

• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2015026.afc2015026_03362_sr01
• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2015026.afc2015026_03362_sr02
• afc2015026.afc2015026_03362_ms02

Library of Congress Control Number

• 2020655382

Rights Advisory

• Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Access Advisory

• Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Online Format

• audio
• image
• pdf

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2020655382

Additional Metadata Formats

• MARCXML Record
• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record