Abstract
Gladys Martinez, originally from Guatemala, describes how she made a life for herself in Cleveland after arriving in the United States when she was only ten. Martinez took advantage of the educational opportunities that the United States offered. Her traditional cultural and family values kept her focused on the future and her personal betterment. Martinez's story highlights how education transforms lives regardless of ethnic backgrounds.
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Interviewee
Martinez, Gladys (interviewee)
Interviewer
Dubelko, Jim (interviewer)
Project
Project Team
Date
1-16-2014
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
51 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Gladys Martinez interview, 16 January 2014" (2014). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 999108.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1034
Transcript
Jim Dubelko [00:00:01] Okay, it’s January 16, 2014, and I’m at the, I’m Jim Dubelko and I’m at the Clark Fulton- Stockyards-Clark Fulton-Brooklyn Centre Community Development Office. And I’m taking the oral history of Gladys Martinez. And she’s already signed the permission form to retain her own history. Gladys, can you just identify yourself as anything you want to.
Gladys Martinez [00:00:33] Gladys Martinez.
Jim Dubelko [00:00:37] And where were you born?
Gladys Martinez [00:00:39] I was born in Guatemala.
Jim Dubelko [00:00:42] In a city?
Gladys Martinez [00:00:43] I was born in, yeah, the city of Guatemala. But I grew up like in the countryside of Guatemala, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Narango de Partamento de Santa Rosa, Guatemala.
Jim Dubelko [00:00:52] Guatemala. Because Guatemala. Guatemala is also a city?
Gladys Martinez [00:00:56] Guatemala City is, yes, Guatemala. The capital is Guatemala. That’s why you say Guatemala. Guatemala City. Very many years ago it used to be Antigua. Guatemala. And Antigua is like further, I think, 30 minutes away from the city right now. So it’s no longer, this is where the ruins that I was speaking with the Antigua in Guatemala, the ruins, and now it’s Guatemala city right in the city Guatemala. So now Antigua is just like a historical area, which is gorgeous, very touristic, although people from all over the country go visit. And I was from Santa Rosa, which is the countryside, like 45 minutes away from the city, which is where I grew up, in the wild.
Jim Dubelko [00:01:40] And what did your parents do?
Gladys Martinez [00:01:44] They were coffee growers. My father has, well, he passed away. He used to have coffee plantations and my great grandfather, my all my family there. The economy in Guatemala is based on cotton, sugar, and coffee, so it’s pretty basic.
Jim Dubelko [00:02:02] And at some point in time your family decided to come to the United States?
Gladys Martinez [00:02:06] Yes, my mother decided to move to the United States 40 some years ago, and she came with an agency. They hired her from Guatemala to come work in the US as a babysitter. And I think she came to live with them. It was a contract that she signed. And this is how she ended up in the US. She came to Maria, Ohio. She used to work there.
Jim Dubelko [00:02:38] Were you already born?
Gladys Martinez [00:02:40] Yes, I was already born.
Jim Dubelko [00:02:43] How old were you?
Gladys Martinez [00:02:44] Oh my goodness. I was like maybe three years old around there.
Jim Dubelko [00:02:48] Do you remember?
Gladys Martinez [00:02:49] No. Oh, I remember. No, no, I didn’t come with her when I was three years old. I came here when I was ten years old because I stayed with my grandmother, my great grandmother, yes.
Jim Dubelko [00:02:59] And so your mother came for work?
Gladys Martinez [00:03:03] Yes.
Jim Dubelko [00:03:03] And she lived and worked in Berea, Ohio?
Gladys Martinez [00:03:06] Correct.
Jim Dubelko [00:03:07] And you were still, you were living with your grandparents?
Gladys Martinez [00:03:10] Yes.
Jim Dubelko [00:03:12] And you said then when you were about ten years old, so about seven years after she came here, you joined her. And why did you come then? Why?
Gladys Martinez [00:03:20] Why? (laughter) I didn’t have a choice. She wanted me here. I didn’t want to come, to be honest with you, because I was so attached to my grandmother. To me, that was my mother, you know, my family, my cousins. And I cried, like, for three months after I arrived in Cleveland because I wanted my grandma, I wanted my cousins. We lived in the country where you had banana plants, these tropical fruits. You had oranges, you had limes, you had mangoes trees. You know, I would live out there. If I wanted a mango, I would go grab a mango and that kind of thing. So obviously, you come to a city. I wasn’t used to living in the city behind a fenced yard or not being able to go climb trees or going to the coffee mills, because the coffee mill was a lot of fun. It was like a pool because they used all that water to wash the coffee. So we used to go swimming there every afternoon after school with all my friends and cousins. Here it was like I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t speak English. My mom said, you’re coming, and that’s it. I didn’t have a choice, really. My grandmother did not want me to come here either. And here I am. But-
Jim Dubelko [00:04:26] You’re an only child?
Gladys Martinez [00:04:27] To my mother. Yes, because she got married here, and my father, she got married, and then she had other kids. So that was another thing. I wasn’t happy to come and to have other siblings. You know, when you’re ten years old, you can be very jealous.
Jim Dubelko [00:04:45] You didn’t speak any English when you came?
Gladys Martinez [00:04:46] No.
Jim Dubelko [00:04:47] And how did you learn English?
Gladys Martinez [00:04:49] Well, that was an interesting thing. I went to Clark elementary school that just had just opened. I remember it was a beautiful school.
Jim Dubelko [00:04:56] Let me just stop you for a second. When your mother first came, she was in Berea?
Gladys Martinez [00:05:00] In Berea.
Jim Dubelko [00:05:01] And when did she move into Cleveland?
Gladys Martinez [00:05:02] She moved. I think, from what she tells me, she moved into Cleveland after her contract was out and her contract had ended. So then she came to Cleveland for Christmas, I guess in Berea. There was nothing for her, obviously, her English and all of that. So somehow a friend of hers that came from Guatemala as well invited her to a party, and the party was in Cleveland. So this friend of hers knew somebody that spoke Spanish also. So they came to the party in Cleveland, and during Christmas time, she tells the story, you know, how cold it was, and they were stranded because of the storm. And she met all these Spanish people. And I guess in one of these adventures, they met. She met my stepfather. And that’s how it all started how she ended up in Cleveland. She needed to stay.
Jim Dubelko [00:05:55] Is your stepfather Hispanic?
Gladys Martinez [00:05:57] Yeah, he’s from Puerto Rico.
Jim Dubelko [00:06:01] Do you know about what year she moved into Cleveland?
Gladys Martinez [00:06:05] I don’t know. She came in 1965, 60- 1966, maybe. Maybe she left before that. ’66, ’68 maybe?
Jim Dubelko [00:06:19] You came in 1973?
Gladys Martinez [00:06:21] ’68, ’71, ’72, ’73. I think it was, yeah, ’72, around there.
Jim Dubelko [00:06:29] Where was she living when you came?
Gladys Martinez [00:06:31] She had purchased a house on West 44th, right off of Clark. Like [inaudible]. That’s where she was living. And that’s where she’s still living right now.
Jim Dubelko [00:06:40] Maybe that’s why she had you come. Because she had a house now?
Gladys Martinez [00:06:45] Yeah. Possibly because she told me. I hated to leave you, but I wanted a better future for you as well. And to me, I always fought her. I said, why did you leave me? That was ten years you left me. And she says, Gladys, I know it’s hard for you. I left you because she was young when she had me. She’s very ambitious and she’s like, I’m not getting anywhere here. And then the opportunity presented, and obviously she’s. And I appreciate that. Okay. Sometimes I said, okay, thank you. But yet we could have done okay in my country and as aggressive as she is, and it was a mess because my father wasn’t liked by my grandmother or what. So they kind of kept them both from getting married. It’s one of those things where parents don’t think, why didn’t they let them get married? My dad and her. Okay. Instead of, like, separating. I was already in the middle of all of this. So I always fought and argue that with my father and her and the consequences that I suffered. So she tells me, I wanted the best for you. I said, well, thank you. But now you appreciate what she did. I do have an opportunity. Not that I personally, I think I would have done well in Guatemala as well. Okay. When you are. When you identify yourself or when you really see who you really are. I see. And I did it, too in Guatemala. I could have been just as strong in Guatemala as I am here. Yes, here I got to learn English. Back then, you didn’t have, like, schools where you could go learn the language or anything like that. It has this pros and cons, but I am glad that I am here, that my kids are here. It’s just something.
Jim Dubelko [00:08:34] So when you first came, was your mother still working?
Gladys Martinez [00:08:39] Yes, she was working. She has worked all her life.
Jim Dubelko [00:08:41] Where did she work?
Gladys Martinez [00:08:42] She used to work with Hugo Boss, sewing. She used to work.
Jim Dubelko [00:08:49] On Memphis? Or was that Tiedemann, maybe?
Gladys Martinez [00:08:50] There was one in Tiedemann. I think there was one another or something, I don’t know. But she talks all her jobs. She used to work in sewing? Yes, he worked when I first came. He used to work somewhere on Ridge Road, and then he got a job with SMP in Wickliffe, Ohio, doing some airplane moldings or something like that. And after that he got laid off there, and then he just became a mechanic, working in cars and stuff like that.
Jim Dubelko [00:09:22] So when you first came, you went to Clark Elementary School?
Gladys Martinez [00:09:24] Yeah.
Jim Dubelko [00:09:25] How far away was Clark Elementary from?
Gladys Martinez [00:09:28] West 44th?
Jim Dubelko [00:09:29] Yeah, just a couple.
Gladys Martinez [00:09:30] Couple of blocks. I used to walk to school. Yeah.
Jim Dubelko [00:09:33] And was it, was there a hispanic community with other Hispanic kids?
Gladys Martinez [00:09:38] When I first came here? There were a few, yeah, a few Cubans, a few Puerto Ricans, and most of them were from Puerto Rico. I think I was the only one from Guatemala because you couldn’t find many people from Guatemala here.
Jim Dubelko [00:09:53] Did you have any formal instruction in English?
Gladys Martinez [00:09:56] Yes, I did, to learn the English language when I first came.
Jim Dubelko [00:09:59] Okay, where did you go for that?
Gladys Martinez [00:10:01] Clark elementary School. And they had a tutor, Mr. Rivera. I’ll never forget this guy’s name. He made a difference in my life. After school, he would take me like an hour every day, and he started me from the vowels all the way in English, Aeoaeiou. And he taught me how the a had two different sounds, because you have the long and the short vowels. He’s the way for you to learn the pronunciation is when you get this. This is the secret to learning the good English. This is the secret to writing English. He was from Puerto Rico, and, you know, here I am just like, staring at him like this when he’s teaching me. And I learned that the basics, like apple and ape and how you write, because I was, what, in the fourth grade or something? And then I’m like, when am I going to be able to just speak the English language and write it without stopping to think? And how am I going to say this? Because I used to do that. I want to say something, but I would say it in Spanish and then English, and I would organize the sequence of my words, the order, and then finally, okay, after, I think by the 6th grade, I was able to pretty much communicate a little bit more fluent. I hit the 7th grade, and then here I am, which I think with his help, I learned it very quickly. In three months, I was already expressing myself more, you know, but when it came to writing and speaking the language more like, just say it, don’t think about it. I think it was six or seven. But I was able to understand within those three months and what my friends were trying to say, let’s go play. Or, you know, it’s not like I’m just sitting there like, you know. So he had me really well, the instruction he gave me was super.
Jim Dubelko [00:12:01] Was there a church you went to?
Gladys Martinez [00:12:02] San Juan Baptista. I think it was on West 32nd off of Lorain or somewhere there by St. Ignatius High School.
Jim Dubelko [00:12:11] Alright. Juan- Juan Batista?
Gladys Martinez [00:12:13] Juan Baptista. Yeah, San Juan Baptista.
Jim Dubelko [00:12:15] That was Roman Catholic. Was it named something else before, renamed for the expanded population?
Gladys Martinez [00:12:24] Not to my knowledge. That’s all I remember.
Jim Dubelko [00:12:26] How long did you go to church there?
Gladys Martinez [00:12:28] I think we went there for about one, two, three, four, about five, six years, maybe more. Five to eight years. Because then they moved to Clark until they were building the church. Somehow we stopped going there. And then they opened a building right where Rite Aid is right now. It was right where Rite Aid is. It was a brick building where they had the church until they moved to the Sagrada Familia. West 85th and Detroit.
Jim Dubelko [00:13:04] Is that the largest Hispanic Roman Catholic church in west of Cleveland?
Gladys Martinez [00:13:09] Actually, yeah. Maybe because St. Michaels does have a- It could be, yeah, I think so. Because it’s all Spanish.
Jim Dubelko [00:13:17] Did you go to Roman Catholic churches when you were in Guatemala?
Gladys Martinez [00:13:20] Yes.
Jim Dubelko [00:13:21] And how were the churches here different, if they were at all, or were they the same?
Gladys Martinez [00:13:26] No, no, absolutely not. In Guatemala, the Catholic- The buildings, the structures are all churches. You know, the whole works and definition are what a church is here. I could see churches, any building. This is why when San Juan Bautista, it wasn’t like. Like St. Michael’s. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to St. Michael’s Church. Beautiful church in Guatemala, you have the same. Okay? Pretty much when you walk into a church, it’s not just a building. And here I see a lot of that modern churches. All of the churches there are very, very nice. And you can feel like, again, the Spanish that- The structure, the architecture. Architecture, it’s all there in the churches, especially.
Jim Dubelko [00:14:10] What ethnicity were the priests here?
Gladys Martinez [00:14:15] Puerto Rico, some- In fact, one was from Wickliffe. He was born in the US, but he learned Spanish. He went to San Salvador to learn. And Father David, super, he passed away, like five years ago. Wonderful priest. And he- Who else? San Padre Domingo, who was from Puerto Rico, and some from San Salvador.
Jim Dubelko [00:14:44] Is there any kind of language barrier? But is there any difference in Spanish that’s spoken by somebody from Guatemala as opposed to somebody from Cuba? As opposed to Puerto Rico?
Gladys Martinez [00:14:55] Yeah, definitely.
Jim Dubelko [00:14:57] So how do they deal with that, like, in churches or gathering places?
Gladys Martinez [00:15:04] No, no, no. In churches. Churches or any organizations. Mostly, I think when you deal with professional individuals, they all come to the same language. Okay. You’re going to find this when you speak to people that are not well educated, that speak their own language dialogue. As far as Puerto Rico and then Guatemala, and then you have Cuba. To me, an orange is una naranja. Puerto Rico is a china. Okay, what is the correct word? China or Naranja. A China is a lady from China and an orange is an orange. So when professional individuals learn the Spanish language, they learn the proper language. Some Guatemala to Antigua, like I said before, because, because there’s many schools for Spanish doctors from Metro. Everyone I speak to there go to Antigua to learn Spanish.
Jim Dubelko [00:15:56] What is Castilian Spanish?
Gladys Martinez [00:15:58] Castellano is from Spain. They said it’s the perfect language. El Castellano is just a Spanish language, but the perfection. Okay. And there’s certain countries that try to get as close to El Castellano. So there is Guatemala, Costa Rica, and I think Salvador, I’m not sure. But even San Salvador, Costa Rica, all of those countries in Central America also have different names for different. Whatever, how can I say this? Objects, they don’t call like a map, for example. We call it trapiador. The Puerto Ricans call it mapo. And then again, the mapo, I think, is like spanglish type of thing, because it’s a map. And a mapo, like when you’re going to fill up your tank of gasoline. Sometimes in my country they say, fulelo, fill it up. So here’s a little bit of English saying full fill it up. But because under gas tank, you see f u l l, they go, fulelo.
Jim Dubelko [00:17:00] Growing up now. So you’re here when you’re ten years old and son, and you have a Puerto rican stepfather, your mother’s Guatemalan. Did they ever. I don’t want to say fights, but did they joke with each other about how you.
Gladys Martinez [00:17:14] What a word. Yeah, I remember Cabron. It’s a very bad word for Puerto Ricans. And one day we were playing out and we were playing with water, the hose, and there was a little pool, and I said to my brother, because he wet me. And I’m like, cabron, you know? And my stepfather said, what did you just say? I said, cabron, so you don’t have to say that word. I said, why not? Cabron means like you mean or someone like. Because in my country has two meanings, cabron meaning like, man, he’s so good at something. Like he’s tough. He’s a good student. That’s a Cavronte, like, top student. Okay. And then Cabron could also mean a bad word as to, like, que cavron. Why did he do that? He didn’t have to. But to the Puerto Ricans, Cavron means that my, let’s say if I call you Cabron or my husband calls you Cavron, that he’s sleeping with your wife. That’s how bad it was to Puerto Rico. But I had no idea. And he explained to me, you don’t use that word here. I said, oh, okay. Like, my son, just now that they were in Guatemala for Christmas, they were cooking with my daughter, and he called Maldita to my daughter. In my house, we don’t use that word, Maldita. It’s like this ‘damn you’ kind of thing. So Melissa comes home and complains to me, mom, you know what Manny called me in Guatemala? I said, what? He called me Maldita for no reason. We weren’t fighting. I’m like, were you fighting? He said, no, nothing. We were eating. I was making him pupusas, and I brought it to the table, and he said, maldita. I said immediately to myself, that’s not a vocabulary word for Manuel. We don’t use it in my house. And I said, you sure you’re not fighting? Because when you fight, you can say or maldita them or whatever. And I said, if you’re not fighting and if you’re not this and that, everything okay? So I called my son because he was still in Guatemala, and I said, manny, why did you call Melissa Maldita? I didn’t do that, ma’am. I said, yes, you did. And he had no memories, like. And I said, you called her. What were you doing? And, Melissa, can you remind my son what happened? She said, remember, we were eating, I was making you food, and then you call me Maldita. And Manny was like, mom. Then I said, look, Maldita is not a word that you used or that we use or that the family Guatemala use. And he said, well, at Cornell we do, because I have a whole group of people from Puerto Rico. And then he gave me all these words that they’re using. I said, whoa, Manuel, you need to see, maybe get yourself a new set of friends here. Because Maldita, Cabron, [quietly] Puta you know, to him, it was normal. I said, no, no, no. When you’re with the same circle of friends, use it if you want to, but not when you go away to live with another culture, because that’s not part of our culture. So be careful how you use that because you hurt your sister very much. Plus, you look very terrible in front of the family, calling you Sister Maldita and being like, nothing happened, you know? So this is how you can also run into situations when it comes to language barriers, Spanish and cultures. Different cultures and customs.
Jim Dubelko [00:20:25] Okay, so you were at Clark Elementary School. Where did you go to? How long were you there?
Gladys Martinez [00:20:31] I was there from four, fifth, sixth. Three years.
Jim Dubelko [00:20:34] Is it the same building there?
Gladys Martinez [00:20:36] Same building.
Jim Dubelko [00:20:37] Okay, and where’d you go next?
Gladys Martinez [00:20:39] Thomas Jefferson.
Jim Dubelko [00:20:40] Was that junior high school?
Gladys Martinez [00:20:41] Yeah.
Jim Dubelko [00:20:42] Any interesting experiences there?
Gladys Martinez [00:20:46] Interesting? Well, I was still trying to- I was able to communicate better. I had more friends, and I got to, I think I learned more because obviously I was able to understand English a lot more. I enjoyed my classes because, again, I was able to communicate. Science was always my favorite, and the teachers.
Jim Dubelko [00:21:12] Was there bussing in Cleveland at the time?
Gladys Martinez [00:21:13] No.
Jim Dubelko [00:21:14] Not yet?
Gladys Martinez [00:21:15] Not till I hit to high school. High school. 8th, 9th, 10th. When I hit the 10th grade, I was going to Lincoln West High School. The busing started.
Jim Dubelko [00:21:28] Was it Lincoln already called Lincoln West?
Gladys Martinez [00:21:30] Yeah, on West 32nd.
Jim Dubelko [00:21:32] Okay. Alright, so you’re going there.
Gladys Martinez [00:21:34] I’m going there. And then the bussing started. I got transferred. I only lived at West 44th. I could walk to Lincoln West. All Spanish school, pretty much.
Jim Dubelko [00:21:45] Did you go to the same house this whole time? From the time you came?
Gladys Martinez [00:21:47] Yeah, when I came and I went to high school and all. Then I got bused to Glenville High School on the east side. Oh, my gosh. All of us, pretty much. They took all of the students from this school and sent us to the east side. And then they brought all these other kids over here. Everybody was so unhappy, because why would they want to take you? You’re so close to your house, and yet you got to be on the bus for two hours to all that time you could have used for doing homework or resting or meanwhile, you got to get up. 7:00 a.m. I had to catch my bus by a cemetery where it was all dark, and I didn’t feel safe, you know, walking- It was still dark.
Jim Dubelko [00:22:26] What cemetery?
Gladys Martinez [00:22:27] Right here on West 44th. On 41st.
Jim Dubelko [00:22:29] St. Mary’s?
Gladys Martinez [00:22:30] Yes. Right here, it was 41st. And I’m like, why do I have to do this?
Jim Dubelko [00:22:35] So what was the route the bus took to get you?
Gladys Martinez [00:22:37] The freeway, right there on 41st. You get on 90 East. Got off on-
Jim Dubelko [00:22:42] What year did you start high school?
Gladys Martinez [00:22:46] 1982? 1980, I think it was. Yeah. 1980, ’80. No, no, no. I graduated in 1982. Okay? Yeah, I graduated in 1982, so I started in 1980- ’79, right? 1978. ’78.
Jim Dubelko [00:23:08] High school for you started in 10th grade?
Gladys Martinez [00:23:09] Yeah, okay. Yeah. ’78. ’78–79. The year of ’78–79.
Jim Dubelko [00:23:18] I think probably ’79.
Gladys Martinez [00:23:19] Yeah, ’79.
Jim Dubelko [00:23:20] ’80, then ’80, ’81, ’82.
Gladys Martinez [00:23:21] Yeah. But because it start, like, the year, you know, in August, so you pretty much get part of that.
Jim Dubelko [00:23:29] Did you go to Glenville? How long?
Gladys Martinez [00:23:31] I was there for two months. I got out of it, and I applied to this health career center, high school for nursing and the whole. In the medical field. And it was like you had to apply into it because it could only take so many students.
Jim Dubelko [00:23:52] Where was that located at?
Gladys Martinez [00:23:54] East 32nd and Payne, downtown. And I got accepted, and I was very happy because I rather catch the bus from here to there, then all the way to Glenville and being fighting riots because the blacks and the whites would fight, and then it came to the whites and the Hispanics. So, yeah, we had a few riots. It was so funny because, you know, you’re so nice and peaceful and never got into a fight in my life. I go on the bus, and then we’re getting attacked by all this. It was mainly, like, Spanish. I mean, Puerto Ricans. And the white people, they would call each other spicks, I guess. The white people would call the puerto rican spicks, and the Puerto Ricans would call the whites. Oh, gosh. I forget what they would call, but they would insult each other, and there they were. I didn’t feel like part of that, but because I spoke Spanish, they thought I was Puerto Rican, and I was part of the- So whenever there was a fight, I had to protect myself. I’m like, oh, my gosh, I’m gonna get attacked. And whenever we got off the bus, like the buses from Store, I was the last one to be dropped off because the bus would come off the freeway and go all the way to Store avenue and those areas. My friends will get off there. My friend got off that bus, and there was a whole bunch of white people waiting on that bus for these people to get out, okay. With bats in the whole works to attack the students. So, Sarita, you know, once you get out of that bus, which wasn’t fair, because we’re not even talking student to student anymore, these students parents and friends and cousins would be waiting at the bus stop to attack the students. And I’m glad. I’m like, oh, my gosh, thank God my bus stop is not here. It was all the way by the cemetery. Well, one of them got hit really hard. I remember that they attacked on Tito. So when that happened, Sarita, my friend, she took off running from Store all the way to the cemetery. Okay. Trying to find out. Gladys, be careful. They’re gonna attack you, too. And there was nobody where, like, your parents are waiting for you to get off that bus. It’s okay. We were in high school, so I was already walking by. Back then it was People Savings bank on Clark. I was already crossing, and I saw Sarita running. I’m like, what’s the matter? Oh, my gosh, you’re okay. Because I heard there was another group of people waiting for you to get off the bus, and so they couldn’t beat you up. I’m like, why? So, you know, all of these things, we had to live, all because of the busing and who knows what else happened, the fighting between the other neighborhoods and the schools. But I got out of Glenville High School, and I would, when I was still being bussed, all these riots, I would go into my mom’s jewelry box and take as big as rings as she had and take her jewelry to protect them if I have to punch somebody. And she used to have, like, this watch ring and which was like, this real big thing. I took that. I’m like, if anyone is going to attack me here, I am being totally more in the learning mode where I wanted to succeed and be somebody. Meanwhile, we get interrupted by all this mess. I think it was devastating. A lot of people moved away from this area, all the Anglo Saxons, and it was people that I went to, Clark elementary school. All my friends there never saw again. Their parents moved away, who knows? Parma or further, Brook Park, running away from the- A lot of people accused them of being racial, and I don’t think that was the case. Again. Parents know, if I would have been a parent, I think I would have moved away as well, because no one wanted to see that. And it’s not like you have to be racial not to want to see people coming and going, but alone, just us. It wasn’t even blacks and whites or Hispanics. It was whites and Hispanics, and I’m sure blacks, whatever. I never had problems with the black people, but the idea is that they wanted us to mingle, okay? Which is, I’m all for it. I’m not racial at all. It was a good thing, but they didn’t have to send us. I think they could have done something different if they wanted us to get along with the people that lived on the east side because they were separated. You know, blacks here, whites there, and then you have the Hispanics and whites in different areas. They could have maybe had, like, games, sports, more sports, where you have all these activities and you exchanging. I don’t know. So I think something better could have been done.
Jim Dubelko [00:28:32] How did you do as far as grades and everything?
Gladys Martinez [00:28:34] I used to. Well, and that’s another thing. Like you asked me before. What experiences did you have from Clark Elementary, Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln West. Super. Because as I got older again, I understood the language better, my grades were better, and I did wonderful. When I graduated from high school, I was very good. I got the scholarship from the medical Kaiser Foundation because I used to want to be a doctor. But in health career center, you had to do, like, an internship. Like, I was in a nursing lab, and I went to Aristocrat Lakewood nursing home to do my internship. And instead of volunteering, they actually gave me a job. So I was working and going to school for a whole year. I needed a thousand hours. And I’m glad I did that internship because I learned that the medical field is not what I wanted to do. I love people. I love working with people, but not sick people. And they gave me that opportunity to actually say, hey, I do love people, but I don’t want to see people dying. And I saw that happen, you know, and I was taught to treat people with dignity even after they die, you know, how to treat them before rigor mortis sets in and the. The whole. And I also saw how these nurses at Aristocrat were not following the code as to what I was being taught at health careers. You know, they were treating people like dirt even when they died. Just shoved them in the bag. And I went back to my teacher and I said, miss west, in this place, in this nursing home, the nurses are not doing what you’re teaching us. I mean, I can see when they put a catheter in, we were taught differently, and I’m not in high school, okay? Learning all of these nursing techniques and procedures. When I go there, I expect to see that you don’t see that. So therefore, she told me, you know, why you’re doing an internship. This is why we want to make sure that you’re there because you have the vocation to be a nurse, not because you just want to go and have a job or to make money. You have to have that vocation where it’s in your heart that you care for these people, and those are the good nurses and the good doctors. I said, well, okay, I know I could do what you teach me, but that’s not what I want. I don’t want to deal with sick people, and I think I can do better than they’re doing because I’m not going to disrespect this elderly. I have a soft heart for the elderly and the children. And it bothered me so much to see these nurses mistreating these elderly individuals there. Oh, my gosh. So I said, no, I don’t want to go in the medical field.
Jim Dubelko [00:31:13] So when you graduated in ’82, what did you do?
Gladys Martinez [00:31:17] I went to Kent State University.
Jim Dubelko [00:31:18] And did you live down there?
Gladys Martinez [00:31:20] Yeah, I stayed at Allen hall at Kent and also there. And I still try to pursue to go in the medical field. Okay. I still tried. And all my friends were like, in business administration from. What is this place? They were from Asia. I forget the other country. But I enjoyed it because I’m like, wow, you know, there are books. And then I got involved. I’m like, here I am with chemistry and biology and all of that. And I told my parents, you know what, if you want to help me, not in the medical field, I want to go into business or do something where I can do better or something that I like working with people.
Jim Dubelko [00:32:02] At this poi
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