Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Minerva Cheatum
TAPE NUMBER: RG2000-113
DATE
OF BIRTH: Circa 1938
SEX:
Female
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: August 25, 2000
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Cheatum home,
Clint, Texas
INTERVIEWER:
Robert Hart
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM__x___ OTHER:_____
TRANSCRIBED:
YES____x___ NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: One
ABSTRACTOR:
Robert Hart
DATE
ABSTRACTED: February 19, 2001
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Good
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: Memories as a
child on grandparents’ farm. Both Italian and German prisoners of war were
employed there during World War II, as many as fifty at a time. Consultant’s
grandfather had a cook-out for the Italian POWs which was attended by
Italian-American families living in the area. Includes thorough description
concerns grandfather’s use of draft horses in farming.
DATE
RANGE: 1943-1946
ABSTRACT
(IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE
ONE, SIDE ONE:
German
and Italian World War II prisoners of war were housed in camps in Ysleta and
Fabens, respectively. The prisoners were trucked to the farm of Minerva
Cheatum’s grandfather, Rafael Guardado, and brought sack lunches with them.
The farm was between San Elizario and Fabens.
She
had direct contact with the POWs and said she had no fear of them. She was more
cautious, though, with German POWs. The Germans were serious; the Italians,
happier. The prisoners and other farm workers, including family members, shared
their lunches.
People
of Italian descent who lived in the El Paso area would come to the farm and
visit the Italian POWs, taking their photographs. The guards were more alert
when the German POWs were working there.
About
fifty prisoners at a time would harvest cotton or hay.
The
consultant remembers the Italian POWs teaching the Hispanic farm workers to sing
in the fields, and trading their packed lunches for burritos. She said her
grandfather was permitted to have a steak cookout for the POWs one lunchtime on
the farm’s picnic area.
Because
of the attitude of her grandparents, Mrs. Cheatum said she did not see the
Germans and Italians as “prisoners” but as “somebody else coming from
another place and working.” They chopped cotton and turned hay as well as
helped with the harvests.
Mrs.
Cheatum related a detailed description of her grandfather’s use of draft
horses he bought from Fort Bliss. The horses’ temperament, care and work
patterns are described.
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