We Are Always in Touch

Interview by Kimberly Espinosa

Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Ofelia Zavaleta. I’m from Puebla, Mexico

Do you live in Los Angeles?
I live in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

How do you like the area?
It’s a nice area. Nothing bad happens. At least in the years that we’ve lived here, no. Everything is calm.

How long have you lived there?
Around 16 years. I live with my husband, my daughter, my son-in-law, and my husband’s brother, whose home this is.

When did you arrive in the United States?
I arrived in 1991.

Do you have other siblings here in Los Angeles?
Yes, I have a sister in Los Angeles; one in Pennsylvania; and a brother as well.There are only three sisters and one brother [in the United States]. We are twelve sisters and two brothers.

How do you feel? Would you like to return to Mexico or do you like living here?
To be honest, I would really like to stay here.I went [to Mexico] once, about two years ago. I didn’t like it.

I came to the U.S.when I was 24 years old. Right now, I am 54 years old. I didn’t pay for the flight or the pass — [my family] paid for everything. They just told me [what to do] from one day to the next. They told me on a Saturday and by Tuesday I was already here. I left my house at 4 a.m., and by 5 p.m., I [had] arrived that same day. The person who I lived with was my distant cousin.Wherever we went, we always told them that she was my niece. My cousin and her family treated me well.

Did you work in Mexico?
No, I lived with my parents. My dad had a good job.He worked doing a lot of things. For example, he could make your photograph out of wood, in any size. With just the photo that you gave him, he would make it for you! He made the Christ Child from wood or stone. He knows how to do everything. But none of us know how to do what he does.

Do you keep in touch with your relatives in Mexico?
Yes, we are always in communication. Now that we can see each other, it is easier than before when it was only on the phone.

What are you currently up to? Are you currently working?
Yes, I am working. Today is my day off.

What kind of work do you do? Right now, I am cleaning at McDonald’s.Recently, like two weeks ago, they started showing me around the kitchen. But it’s already been four years [of] cleaning.

How did you start this job?
Well, I just went to McDonald’s, and since I was walking by, I asked one of the employees if I could speak to the manager. She called her, and the lady came and asked me if I was working. I told her I wasn’t, but I was looking for a job. She asked me, “Do you want to work?” I told her, “Yes.” She told me, “Look, come Thursday at around 10 a.m.” So I went, and she sent me to go interview. By Monday, I was working.

Can you tell me a little more about your past job experiences? What was your transition into the garment industry like?
One of my father’s family members already lived here. I was with them for about six years. I was working in my dad’s family’s house, then six years passed, and I didn’t want to be there anymore. I moved in with an uncle who had a house in East Los Angeles. My aunt had cousins who worked in sewing, and that’s where I went to work. It was like 2008, 2009, around that time.

Did you like it?
Yes, I really liked it because there was a lot of ambiance. All the people knew each other. Everyone talked to each other.We had good communication between everyone and even the bosses. The owners of the factory were Chinese.

Was this in Downtown Los Angeles?
Yes, it was around Flower and 9th [Street].

How long did you work there?
I worked there for about three years.

What did you do at that job?
I worked doing threading.You see, when they are about to finish the job, one has to take the threads off, assemble [the garments] and sometimes count the pieces. All that. They made us finish the pieces. Removing the threads, that’s what you do.

What was the workflow like? Did you spend a lot of time sitting or standing?There were little machines where you just put [the garments] and the thread was removed. Other co-workers removed it with scissors.I had to use razor blades. We would pass the thread over it, and it would cut. That’s how I worked. On the weekends, they had us assemble — folding the shirts, and putting them in the bags.

Were there challenges that you faced in the workplace?
Everything was calm there. Nothing like that would have happened there.

Were there things that you learned in those years from the work that was being done?
No, not really. I always did the same thing.

What was the environment like? Did the time go by very fast or were the days long?
To be honest, it went by fast because one always did the same activity. Everyone who worked there was dedicated to what was being done on the machine. Everyone there already knew the work. Only when we were leaving, they gave us 15 minutes as a break in the morning and later on, half an hour. And another 15 minutes after the half hour. We chatted there and even spent time with the owners.

Did you have direct communication with your co-workers frequently?
Yes, with everyone! It didn’t matter what country people came from.“Hello! How are you?” or anything else.

What were some of the communities present in your workplace?
They were usually all Latinos. We were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. Almost everyone was Latino.

Were most of them adults? Young people?
They were 18 and older. It didn’t matter if people were older, [there were people] from like 60, 65 years old. They were of all ages.

Were there injustices that you faced? Do you think you were paid fairly for your work?
I really don’t know what to tell you because when I stayed with my dad’s family, they treated me well. They gave me everything. They would take me anywhere with them. But they wouldn’t let me go out by myself or have a boyfriend and whatnot. So, for that reason, I didn’t want to be there anymore. I talked to my uncle because he was the one who visited me. It’s not because they wouldn’t give me permission, it’s because he was far from where I was. He was in East Los Angeles, and I was in Alhambra. I didn’t know how to catch the bus.So when my uncle was resting, he would come and visit me. On one of those visits, I told him, “Uncle, I don’t want to stay here anymore. Can I go live with you?” He said, “Yes, niece. Whenever you want.’’

In the workplace, they didn’t pay by the hour. For example, let’s say they gave you 100 pieces. On those 100 pieces, there was a ticket for how much they were going to pay you. You would keep the ticket or stick it in a notebook. Sometimes it would come to $5. The co-workers would say, “You have to work hard.” Sometimes we earned a little more than the minimum wage. Sometimes we would work six days a week, Monday through Saturday. But Saturday only until noon.

Were there sacrifices you had to make to go to work?
Honestly, since I wasn’t married, I didn’t have any responsibilities.

Is there anything you regret from when you were working there?
Not really, we all got along well because the boss and his wife always treated us well. They would throw us a Christmas party. It was very nice because of that. We all had communication and we all got along well. To this day, when I come across the compañeras [female co-workers] and compañeros [male co-workers] who are my age or older than me, we see each other around and say hello. Some people come to learn with a single needle or overlock or another machine, and they stay. That’s where they learned and that’s where they stay. They don’t go anywhere else.

Were you always in the same position at work?
Yes, in the same job. They would ask me if I wanted to learn something else, but one time I stuck my finger [with the needle]. So, I said, “No, no, no, no, I don’t want that!” Then I got scared.

Did they give you support at work when that happened to you?
Yes, the boss paid me for about two days off.

That’s good!
Yes, don’t worry. It wasn’t bad I thought my nail would not grow back because it went in the middle of the nail. After a week, it didn’t hurt or anything. It had already compounded [begun healing]. All that was left was for the nail to fall off.

What would you like others to know about the work you did? You told me you worked in a factory. Did you get to work in a store? Talking to the people who bought the garments or just producing the garments?
[It was only] production there because they would bring everything packaged. Then they would take it somewhere else. There were other boys who were in charge of putting them in the boxes. From there, we didn’t know where [the clothes] went. We never asked the owner.

Why did you leave that job? You told me you are no longer working in the garment industry.
I met my husband. From then, I had my daughter. I only had her.

I did work somewhere else. We painted shirts.

Did you do the same thing there or did you do something else?
My sister-in-law and I would iron a paper design on the white shirts with a very big machine. I worked there for about two years. But it was somewhere else. It wasn’t in downtown Los Angeles.

Do you still remember those techniques you used at work?
Yes! To paint the shirts, yes.I know how to paint them. They brought in really big machines. There were two of us pouring paint on each side, moving the shirts. The people in front of us were picking them up because a lot of paper and shirts were coming out. They would arrange them.

Did they teach you how to use the machine or did you learn by yourself?
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the tortillerías [tortilla factories] that are sometimes shown on TV. We would put them in like that. That’s how the shirts were. Just as if they were being ironed.

Was it very difficult to manage?
They were already arranged on the paper — the shirts — and they were ready to be put into the machine.

In that job, was the environment the same as your other job?
There was a lot of discipline to work with the shirts. You had to be focused so that everything went well. In the other job too, but more so in this one. Almost no one talked because everyone was doing what they had to do. They paid by the hour. So, if they paid you by the hour, they demanded more.“Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

Of all your jobs, which one do you like the most?
I liked all my jobs. For example, where I work [currently], I don’t like cooking that much. It’s not that I don’t like it, but there is more pressure. If there are a lot of people, sometimes I see that my co-workers don’t go to the bathroom. Eventually, I think people get sick. As long as I am cleaning, I can go as often as I want. I like my job because the manager likes the way I do my job, and everything is fine. They have been the new owners since January. They are happy. Every now and then they have their meetings and I [ask them], “Why [are you happy]?” “Because it is cleaner than in other places.” “Why don’t you put someone else [for work] to clean?” “Because there is no one else like you!” But yes, I like my job as if I were at home. And yes, the customers also like the bathrooms, they are always clean. They like the job I do, and at the same time, I also like my job.

If you had the opportunity to return to the garment industry, would you go back?
My cousins are working in the industry [of what they are doing], right? But now they say that sometimes there is work and sometimes there isn’t. They say, “We don’t even know what to do anymore.”

Like right now, when places are closed because of the pandemic and everything, it’s difficult because the rent doesn’t wait. You must pay. Whether or not [the factory] is closed, they are receiving revenue from the clothes they’ve already made.

I would like to learn about your experience with regard to what we are currently living in. We are still in a pandemic. How has it affected you?
It did affect [my family] a little because I didn’t work for two months. The little savings we had was for the rent that we had to pay. I didn’t know that they gave out food or anything because we always went shopping because we were working. But later, my sister said that they were giving out food around here and thank God I could go, and they would give us food. But now we are not going anymore. Thank God, we are back to normal.