Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Martha Muñoz, Jesse Muñoz
TAPE NUMBER: RG2000-112
DATE
OF BIRTH: Martha: August 20, 1940; Jesse: March 19, 1931
SEX:
Female/Male
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: August 24, 2000
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Muñoz residence,
El Paso, Texas
INTERVIEWER:
Robert Hart
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM__x___OTHER_____
TRANSCRIBED:
YES____x___ NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: Two
ABSTRACTOR:
Robert Hart
DATE
ABSTRACTED: February 24, 2001
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Martha: High static content. Voices clear. Jesse:
Voice decreases in volume over course of interview (tired).
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE:
Martha:
Childhood memory of German prisoners of war working on irrigation ditches
during World War II. Discusses a
neighbor’s memory of working alongside Italian prisoners of war who sang as
they worked in the field.
Jesse:
Picked cotton alongside Italian and German POWs on a Texas farm where his father
was a foreman during WWII.
DATE
RANGE: Martha: 1944-1945; Jesse: circa 1942-1945
ABSTRACT
(IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE
ONE, SIDE A:
Martha
Muñoz: As a child of four, living with her grandparents, she noticed a group of
men working on an irrigation canal nearby. They were wearing khaki shorts and no
shirts. Her grandmother cautioned her that they were “Germans.” The POWs
planted carrizo (bamboo) for erosion
control. The consultant’s father was serving in the armed forces guarding
prisoners of war in the Philippines.
Martha
discusses a neighbor, Magdalena Hinojosa, who was twelve years old during the
war. Magdalena remembers being cautioned not to go out with her sister to the
area where the German POWs were dropped off for work. Magdalena picked cotton
alongside Italian POWs, and remembers them singing while they worked.
Magdalena’s mother trusted the Italian POWs more than the German POWs.
Martha
believes her husband, Jesse, has additional information about the POWs. The Muñoz’s
contacted the Museum as a result of an article about the POW project in the El
Paso Times.
TAPE
ONE, SIDE A:
Jesse
Muñoz: He first became aware that POWs were available to do farm work in 1942
or 1943. His father was a foreman on a cotton farm. Fifteen to twenty Italian
POWs were picked up at 6:00 am and transported to the farm in a pickup. The POWs
and other workers were not supposed to talk to one another in the fields, but
Jesse talked to the POWs anyway. Sometimes the POWs slept in the rows between
the cotton plants. The POWs brought “barrels” of tea with them to the fields
and would share it with him.
Jesse
believes the POWs had a quota of seventy-five pounds of cotton that they had to
pick, which wasn’t difficult to achieve; however, it sometimes took them the
entire day. At times some POWs exceeded their quota.
The guards were armed with rifles.
Sometimes
the POWs sang while picking cotton. Although German POWs were also employed as
laborers on the farm, he remembers more about the Italian POWs. In addition to
tea, the Italian POWs also shared French bread with him.
He
isn’t sure whether the guards would have “detected” the fraternization
that was occurring in the fields between the POWs and other workers. The only
time the POWs were at the farm was during cotton harvest.
Describes
the POW camp at Fabens, Texas, that was surrounded by barbed wire and armed
guards.
He
was not afraid of the POWs. He believes the Italian POWs were, as a rule,
happier than the German POWs.
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