JOSIE GONZALEZ

 

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Josie Gonzalez was born in Arizona, but grew up in Texas and Minnesota. Growing up in a migrant family, she spent her early years traveling around Texas while her family worked in the fields. Her family settled in Fisher, Minnesota when Josie was nine. She went on to attend the University of Minnesota in Crookston. She came to Moorhead in 1981. While working at Clay County Social Services, Josie realized how the system discriminated against migrants and saw the need for someone to speak up for them. After leaving Clay Country Social Services, she started Project Advocacy, a program to help migrant families attain medical services and appeal for services. Her goal was to help 30 families, but she surpassed that goal by helping 230. In 1992, Josie joined the Minnesota Churches Antiracism Initiative (MCARI) to help the community deal with racism as well as to educate Latino Families. She also testified on behalf of MCARI before the Minnesota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Currently, Josie is a legal assistant for Centro Legal, a non-profit law office that provides legal services for Latinos.

Her interview focuses on the experiences of migrant families in Moorhead and her various efforts to help them. She also discusses her perceptions of racism in the community and her analysis of what needs to change to improve the quality of life for Latinos.

Josie Gonzalez was interviewed on May 1, 2003 by Duane Huseby, Cindy Mason, and Kayla Meuhler.

 

SAMPLES FROM THE INTERVIEW

ON MAINTAINING HER CULTURE IN AN AREA DOMINATED BY SCANDANAVIAN HERITAGE:

"I think that from a very small age, given that I went to segregated schools, I had been conditioned to be bicultural. In order to survive, you have to… be able to, to do what you need to do to survive in a dominant, white dominant, culture. And at the same time, be able to keep your identity. And so I, completely, keep
my culture here. You can see it in my home. And this is where I am a complete Mexicana, as opposed to being out there."

REMEMBERING THE DIFFICULTIES OF HER CHILDHOOD:

"Actually, when I… was in sixth grade, I was working in the fields… There was an incident at our farm… We didn’t have bank accounts or anything like that and we were just um… completing the beet harvest. My mother had hid all of the money that we had just gotten paid in, under, a mattress and we had gone to Crookston. My brother had bought a motorcycle. And our house burned down with all the money in it. And, so, we could not return to Texas that year. That was the first year that we resettled here. And, because of our financial situation, both of my parents went to work and I had to stay with my brothers and sisters. So, after sixth grade, I wasn’t allowed to go back to school because I had to help to take care of my siblings, my younger siblings."

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

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