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  • HL_MPML_Miller_Hooper_2019-08-06_transcript

Rita Hooper 1 Rita Hooper Interview Interviewee: Rita Hooper Interviewer: Holly Miller Interview Location: Cullowhee, NC Interview Date: August 6, 2019 Interview Length: 55:23 Holly Miller: Okay. So, we’re going to start with, can you just say your name for the record? Rita Hooper: Okay. My name is Rita, Rita Hooper. HM: Awesome. So, where were you born? RH: I was born in Mexico City in 1937. HM: And did you grow up in Mexico City? RH: Until I was about, say, 13 years old, then we moved on into Laredo, Mexico because my mother and her sisters was born in the United States, in other words, my grandparents came to the United States as immigrants. Then my grandfather worked for the railroad in Kansas City, that’s where they lived. When they were little, they were taken back to Mexico because my grandmother got sick, and the doctor advised them to go back for the change of climate. However, my grandmother got sicker and she passed away, and then in a little while, my grandfather also passed away. So, here was all eight children, it was total of my mother’s brothers and sisters. So, when they grew up, they decided that they wanted to reestablish their citizenship. HM: In Mexico? RH: In the United States. HM: Oh, in the United States? RH: Because, see, they was born here. HM: Right. RH: But they was taken back to Mexico, they was minors, so therefore, they did grant them their citizenship. So, when I was about… then we came, my mother died when I was two months old, so one of her sisters was the one that raised me. So, anyway, they granted their citizenship because they was taken as children to Mexico and they didn’t have the authority to say yes or no, you know, they have to go. HM: Right. Rita Hooper 2 RH: So, that’s how come, you know, we moved to Laredo, which this was back in the early ‘50s. Then we lived there and, you know, this process, you know, getting your citizenship, it takes time. HM: Yeah. RH: So, we lived there for several years. During that time, I met my first husband and he was originally from Ohio, Lebanon, Ohio, and he and I got married in, I think, ‘56, and he was in the navy. He brought me, I didn’t know the language, you know, to speak it, I could understand, but I couldn’t speak it, so I had kind of a, you know, hard time on that. HM: Right. RH: And he brought me to, came to Lebanon to live with his mom and daddy, he was leaving me there because he has to go back to the state of Washington, and I couldn’t go with him. HM: Right. RH: Because he was going to have to go to Japan. So, anyway, I stayed with his mom and daddy, and I lived there in Ohio, in Lebanon, Ohio, and then in ‘59, my husband re-enlisted again in the service. He was out one hour and he re-enlisted again. So, therefore, he had to take another tour to Japan. So, here I am staying with his mom and daddy, you know. But anyway, he was killed in 1959. The plane, it was the whole crew and the plane had crashed, and so I was going to go back home. His mom and daddy wouldn’t let me. They said they wanted me to stay with them and be with them as their daughter, you know. So, I did. And then a few years later, a couple of years later, I met my husband, Wade, and we got married in 1962, and he is originally from here. HM: Right. So, did you meet him while you were living in Ohio? RH: Yes. He was just out of the service. He was... HM: Okay. So, he was in the military as well? RH: Yeah. Yeah. He was, yeah, he was born and raised up there where I live now, on Caney Fork, and he comes from a family of 21 children. HM: Right. He has a big family. RH: And he’s the baby. He was the baby. But anyway, so he used to work for the government and he kept traveling all over the world and all over the United States. So, while he would work in the United States, I go with him because we got us a travel trailer and wherever I went, that was my house. So, we did that for several years, then I finally got tired of it, and I told him, I said, “We got to settle down somewhere.” So, we did. We moved to, we lived in Maryland, Edgewater, Maryland, and then from there, we moved to Raleigh, to Cary, and then we went to Georgia, which my daughter, that’s where my daughter was born, in Dallas, Georgia, just a little town Rita Hooper 3 right outside of suburban Atlanta, and he decided that he wanted to come back, wanted us to raise our daughter here in this area. So, we came back up here, in ‘72 is when I moved up here permanently. HM: Right. And did his family still live here? RH: Most of his family is gone. They’re all gone, even his sisters and his brothers. There’s nobody of his immediate family left. And on the sister-in-laws, I think I only got about maybe me and two others and that’s all, and, of course, you know, because of the lack of jobs around this area, the first thing children do is leave and... HM: Right. RH: go look for a job, and that’s what happened to my daughter, she had to leave here so she can find her a job, but so my family, I don’t have anybody up here except, I have an aunt that lives in Milwaukee, that’s my mother’s baby sister, and she’s the last one left of those eight children, and I do have some cousins and aunts, you know, I still have family in Mexico City and surrounding areas down there. HM: And you go back to visit Mexico City? RH: Hmm-hmm. Yeah, I go back. I try to go back every three years, yeah. So, it’s been pretty interesting. HM: It sounds like it. What was it like when you were 10, like coming from Mexico to America, was it like a culture shock or...? RH: Well, it was because of the food, for one thing. I missed the food. On Sundays, that was the hardest day for me. The atmosphere is completely different from, you know, up here from what it was over there because then there, you don’t need to have money to go and have a good time, you can go and walk in the park and sit down and watch the people and, you know, kind of pass the day like that. HM: Right. RH: So, it was, you know, it was hard for me, and especially because of the language too. HM: Right. RH: Yeah. HM: So, when you married your first husband, did he start to help you learn the language or... RH: No, because he had to leave. HM: Right. Rita Hooper 4 RH: His father, his dad sat me down every evening when he comes from work and he used to call me gringo, said, “Okay, gringo, come on.” He said, “We’re going to study.” So, he’d get the newspaper and it’s how I learned English. He taught me how to read the Spanish in the newspaper. HM: So, how did you navigate the language barrier with your first husband? Was it not an issue because he left quickly or...? RH: Well, not with him as much but with his mom and dad... HM: Right. RH: you know, because I was kind of shy and I was afraid I’d say the wrong thing, you know. HM: Right. RH: So, it was, but I got a friend that was from California, not a friend, but a lady that I met through them, she was from California, she was a Hispanic, and she was the one that helped me a whole lot. She read to me my letters, you know, from my husband, and she will also write for me for him, so she and I became real close, yeah, and that’s how I could, you know, learn a lot from her too, yeah. HM: So, how did you meet your first husband? RH: Well, down there in Laredo, Texas, there’s a lake down there, and you can go down there, a recreation place like, and I went down there with a couple of girls one time to go swimming, and that’s when I met him, yeah. That’s when I met him. HM: Okay. And then, Wade, your second husband, how did you meet him in Ohio, right? RH: In Ohio, yeah. He had just got out of the service because he served in the army and in the navy and he had just got out, and I knew this lady that lived in this little town called Morrow, that’s, you know, just a little bit like Sylva and Cullowhee. HM: Right. RH: And she had a daughter that lived in Dayton, Ohio, and her husband was a policeman, and also my husband had a cousin that was also a detective in the police force, and so he was going to see him, in the meantime, he made real good friends with this girl’s husband, so they was having a family reunion and her daughter invited my husband, Wade, and this girl’s mother invited me, and that’s when I met him. HM: What are some of your favorite memories with him? RH: My what? Rita Hooper 5 HM: Memories, like stories with him. RH: Well, the most beautiful memories that I have was he was a person that he didn’t like to sleep you know, and there was lots of times he’d come in from the base and he would just out of the spur of the moment, he would say, “Come on,” he said, “Let’s go down to the beach.” And we would go down there and he would stop and get some stuff, you know, for us to take, to eat and coffee, and take him some coffee, and we go down to the beach, and we’ll build a fire, and we just sat there until dawn, you know, and that’s my most beautiful memory. He and I was married almost three years, but out of those three years, we only got to be together six months. So those six months that I was, I went up there to live with him in the state of Washington. That was my most treasured with him. Yeah. HM: Okay. So you have a daughter, right? What’s her name? RH: Her name is Marie, Rita Marie. HM: And she’s a nurse, right? RH: Hmm-hmm. HM: And where is she a nurse? RH: Well, she lives in Burlington, North Carolina. Uh-huh. HM: What are some traditions, like family traditions, you passed down to her? RH: Well, when she got married, we have a tradition of course, you know, I was raised Catholic. And so when they get married and the wedding ceremony, we had this little, it’s like a cord that entwines both of them, and that was something that I had done for her. Also, at the end of the—almost at the end of the ceremony, after they put their wedding rings and everything, there is little coins, and these little coins are blessed by the priest. So the husband then, she puts her hands like this, and then he deposits them in her hands real slowly. That symbolizes that that would never...they will never be without anything, you know. It’s a symbol of, well, you might say prosperity or something like that. HM: Like that he will provide for her and... RH: Hmm-hmm. HM: Right. Okay, so when you moved here to Jackson County, was it a difficult transition, or were you like relieved since you’ve been moving around so much? RH: Well, you know, I came to the United States in 1956, and that was during the time when there was a lot of racial discrimination, and I went through it myself. I kept going to restaurants where I was refused to be served, you know, and that’s kind of hard, you know, because I’m not Rita Hooper 6 used to that. I didn’t live like that. So anyway, I lived through the Civil Rights Movement. As a matter of fact, I was in Washington DC when Martin Luther had their big, we just happened to be there that day. HM: Wow. RH: And there was, I mean it just, you know, unbelievable that, you know, to remember and see that. HM: So you saw his big speech and, wow. RH: Yes. HM: That’s amazing. RH: And also, you know, when he was killed, when they started burning everything, the cities, we were living in Edgewater, Maryland which is right outside of Baltimore and Annapolis, and the next day, after that happened, it was like they wouldn’t let nobody out of their house, you know. You had to stay in your house, and that went on for a couple days. HM: Wow. RH: So that was kind of a scary time, but I’m glad that that happened because, I mean, you know, I’m glad that the Civil Rights thing because now, you know, you don’t feel like, you can go anywhere, you know, and nobody is going to tell you you have to leave. EM: Did that happen to you in Ohio, everywhere? RH: Yes, in Ohio especially. My mother-in-law worked in a jewelry store, and I used to go and see her, you know, at the jewelry store, and they actually fired her. HM: Oh, really? RH: Yeah. They told her stop, she had to leave her job. I didn’t know this for a long time. These things were going on behind, like behind my back, you know, I wasn’t aware of it. Also, one of the restaurants there in town, they always used to go eat on Saturday evenings. So after I came home, you know they were trying to take me, you know, the owner of the restaurant pulled him off to the side and told him not to bring me back over there anymore. “You are welcome to come but don’t bring her.” And my father-in-law tried to tell him, you know, that I was colored and I was Mexican. And he said, “I don’t care.” He said, “Don’t bring her back.” HM: Wow. So how did you like deal with that? RH: Well, I got to be, it was like, I was afraid to go anywhere, you know, after that, after I realized what was going on, and then when I met my husband Wade, he would say, “Let’s go out and eat,” and I’d say, “Well,” you know back then, they had drive-ins where you can eat in the Rita Hooper 7 car, like Sonic, and he would say no. He said, “We’re going to go in.” So he’s the one that brought me out of that fear, you know. HM: Right, that pushed you to... RH: Hmm-hmm. HM: Wow. RH: Yeah. And we got instances like in Minnesota. We went and ate at this restaurant, and this lady kept staring at us because he was real tall and blond hair, and here I am, you know, dark skin and black hair, and she kept staring and staring, and I see him get up, and he went to her and just, “Did you want her picture?” That lady didn’t know what to say. Yeah, but, you know, little incidents like that, it happens, but I don’t, you know I let that just, you know. HM: Roll it off of your back, yeah. RH: Yeah. I don’t make a big deal out of it. HM: Well, so church is a big part of your life, yes? RH: Hmm-hmm. HM: So what role do you sort of play in the church and... RH: Now ask me again because I -- HM: Right. Okay, so what like part do you feel like you play in the church? Like -- RH: Oh, what part? Well, I try to give of myself as much as I can, because God has given me, He’s been with me and He brought me a long way. So I’m going to do what I can as long as He let, gives me life. EM: How long have you been, was Wade a member of this church? Is that how you joined this church? RH: No. I, you know, was raised Catholic, and when, because of the racial thing going on, because that happened to me on the Catholic, the first Catholic church that I visited in the states had an incident there too, and so that’s, you know, I didn’t want to go to church no more because of that, but I had a sister-in-law, and I owe it to her. She invited me to her church down there in Maryland, and I told her, I said, “I don’t want to go,” I said, “Because, you know, I don’t want to embarrass you.” “No,” she said, “You’re going.” She said, “That’s not going to happen.” So because of her, I was saved. I was saved in that church and then she taught and I was baptized and that’s where I accept Christ. HM: And that was a Methodist church? Rita Hooper 8 RH: No, Baptist. HM: A Baptist church, okay. RH: Yeah, the Baptist church, yeah. HM: So when you moved here, did you immediately join a church, or was your husband a part of a church? RH: Yeah. No, I did because my mother-in-law was, you know, she was pretty much about going to church. So we already, whenever we used to come and visit, we will go with her to church. So when I come, when I moved up here, it was that easy for me, just, you know, and so because I had been in bigger churches, you know, that kind of help me to kind of help out on Sunday school with the little children, you know, and stuff like that. So it’s, but the reason I move over here in this church was because he didn’t go to church anyway and I always ask God to please, you know, that I want him to go to church with me. So when he decided to go to church, this is where he wanted to go. So I came up here with him. I joined the church here on, I want to say probably maybe somewhere along, between ‘97 and ‘98, somewhere along there. HM: And you’ve been here ever since. RH: Yeah. HM: Wow. RH: And a good part about it was that he joined the church, yes. And we celebrated our 50 wedding anniversary over here. HM: Wow. EM: I could always remember Mr. Hooper with that little white dog, and the first time I came to the church here you made that Mexican cornbread. RH: Oh, yeah. EM: So delicious. RH: Yes. HM: So you’re a member of this Eastern Star Organization? RH: Yes, I am. Oh, that’s my pride and joy. No, I shouldn’t, besides putting God first, that’s second. HM: So can you tell me a little bit about what exactly that is? Rita Hooper 9 RH: Well, it’s an organization. I can’t tell you too much about it, but I’ll tell you what I can. In order to join, somebody in your family has to be affiliated. They have to be they are Masons. And that was, when I first, when the first time that I ever knew about the Eastern Star, it really kind of impressed me a lot. I went to work as a nurse’s aide at the Eastern Star Home in Maryland, and that’s when I got acquainted with the Eastern Star, and I used to say, “Forget about it, Rita. You’ll never belong to that.” And one thing because Wade wasn’t a Mason, and I didn’t think that he would ever, you know, would be one, but after we moved up here, he kind of got interested, and he joined the Masons. So it’s so nice he joined and went through what he have to do. I went in and he was like I’m going. Yeah. And I’ve been a member now. I’m going on 45 years, and I have helped a station every year that I had been in there. I’ve been Worthy Matron six times and I’ve been district deputy one time and I’ve been a representative in North Carolina for Puerto Rico, and I went through their grand chapter over there, and I got to see all their work done in Spanish which was really good for me. Let me see. What else? Well, that’s about all, rather than, you know, serving whatever they need me, I’ll try to help out and support my chapter. HM: Right. So, how has being a member of the organization like impacted your life? RH: Well, it makes you, it’s like having sisters and brothers that you know that you can go to them and no matter what they’re there to help you. We had also made some religious...our lectures are based on, you know, Martha and Esther and Ruth, which I kind of thought of myself because of my mother-in-law. You know, Ruth was a lady from another country and yet she, when her mother-in-law needed her, she helped her. HM: Right. RH: And then you have like that, she was a lady that, not too much about her, but she defended her faith and even wanted to die if it was necessary. So, that’s a very beautiful, beautiful thing. HM: Right. So, when you go back to Mexico to visit, does your daughter ever come with you? RH: Yeah. I take her only when she has been a little girl, a little baby, but after that she has not been back because of the school and then, you know, her work and she don’t like to fly, so, you know. But I took my grandson, my oldest grandson and he had the time of his life. He really loved it. So, he got to meet some of my family and got to see the other way of life over there, you know. HM: How was it different, I guess, from here? I mean I know you said that it’s a little more like things you don’t have to have money to like have a good time, but how else are the two countries different? RH: Well, let’s see. How can I put it? Different in Christmas, you know, we have a different way of celebrating Christmas, not a different way but, you know, we start celebrating Christmas 12 days before Christmas. And then on Christmas Eve, the family gets together and has a big dinner at midnight and we, you know, just all, everybody gets together and the children don’t get any, I Rita Hooper 10 mean that night nobody gets no gifts. They have to wait until the sixth of January. That’s when you put your shoe sock at the door and you write a letter, a letter that you write to one of the Wise Men that’s who supposed to bring your gifts. So, that’s one of the traditions that I missed, yeah, which is different, you know, than up here. Yeah, yeah. We don’t celebrate Easter. I mean we do but it’s different. I’ve never heard about the Easter Bunny, and let’s see, what else? Oh, Halloween, that’s another one. I was amazed, you know, when Halloween came. I just couldn’t believe that. So, that’s another we don’t, we do it but it’s in November and not to celebrate the dead. We go to the cemetery, you know. It’s not like that, so. HM: You don’t dress up in like crazy costumes? RH: No. Anyway, that’s some of the things that are different. HM: The traditions. How has Mexico changed since you lived there as a little girl? RH: Oh, very much, it has changed. There is more people there. It’s changed in some ways for the good but, you know, still there’s too many people, trying to keep from polluting the country. They don’t allow you to drive the car no older than 12 years old. So, now, you’ll see most of the modern cars over there. And so, that’s one of the things that has changed but it’s good. HM: They’re trying to keep the, you know… RH: Yeah. HM: And then, obviously, we talked about how it’s gotten a little more accepting in America but what are some other ways that America has changed since you lived here? RH: Well, I really don’t know. EM: In Jackson County, so you came to Jackson County in 1972, right? RH: Yeah. Well, yeah, Jackson County, yeah, that’s one, on Fridays that used to be the fun thing to do is to go to town and everybody would go to town it seems like the whole street will be full. We had 10 cents store and all those little shops and there was a little place down there at the very end of town, they used to sell the best hotdogs, chili hotdogs and I just look forward to coming, just to go there to get a hotdog, but now it has changed a lot. It’s not like it used to be. It’s really, you know, no place to really go shopping over there anymore because it’s nothing, you know. They have this bunch of restaurants and, you know, places like that, which I guess is okay but, so, it has, it has changed. Some things have been good but some are not. HM: And the university has gotten a lot better. RH: Oh, yeah, the university was so small and I worked in the cafeteria, at Camp Lab. I worked there for 10 years. My daughter would have graduated from high school but they, you know, consolidated and went to Sylva. So, it’s grown a lot, it’s bigger and bigger and bigger. But, I also worked at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. I went from Camp Lab over there, to the Rita Hooper 11 bottom like a dishwasher, but in the end, I ended up being one of the head cooks, which I don’t even know how to cook. And I was sent over there. And I really enjoyed it and it makes me feel good that some of our governors had seen the food that my little hands prepared so that makes me feel good. HM: The consolidation of the high school into one, what was like the community reaction to that when that was -- RH: They wasn’t, we didn’t like it, you know. There was a lot of controversy because to begin with they wanted to build a new high school, you know, a brand-new school with all the latest. But Sylva I think they got a little jealous, so they started, you know . . . We even got a lawyer to go with, you know, try to speak for Cullowhee, but it didn’t work, you know. They went ahead and they consolidated anyway, so. HM: So, you wanted to keep the two high schools like separate. You didn’t want them, because you were going to get a new high school here in Cullowhee? RH: Yeah. With a brand new swimming pool and everything. Yeah, they was going to build a nice school, so the state even got to build at Cullowhee Valley now, you know, that little school. And, of course, so they spend it on Sylva-Webster. Yeah, so, that was, you know, that was hard. Not only for me or for a lot of people, but even for the students, you know, like my daughter. That was, the class was so big, you know, which Cullowhee was on average about 50 some people graduated, you know, and they knew who you were and everything, but when they went over there, and you know, it has changed, so. HM: I didn’t know it was such a controversy, the consolidation. RH: Yeah. HM: That is interesting. RH: Yeah. HM: Well, we kind of run through most of my list of questions. Is there anything else that you have that you’d like to talk about or… RH: No. EM: I have a couple of questions if that’s okay. HM: Totally. EM: So did Wade, did your husband Wade, you said he was the baby of 21 children. RH: Yeah. Rita Hooper 12 EM: And when you moved back here, his mother was still here? RH: Yeah. His mother lived by herself. EM: Okay. RH: Yeah. EM: On the same property? RH: Where I am, yeah. EM: Okay. RH: Hmm-hmm. Yeah. EM: And what did he, had he been in the service the whole time or he worked for the government? RH: No. He worked for the government. He worked for the company that contracted for the government. They painted these big old things that looks like golf balls, you know. I don’t know if you’re seeing some of it along the road like going to Florida, there is some of it there. EM: Okay. RH: But they have these things all over the world. So, he used to travel a lot. And then he finally, he got tired of that too, so he quit and got a job with the Federal Aviation, and he was still traveling, but it wasn’t like him going out of the country. EM: Did he work for the Federal Aviation when you moved back here? RH: Hmm-hmm. EM: Okay. RH: He retired from that. EM: Okay. From them RH: Hmm-hmm, yeah. Yes. EM: And did Rita Marie get married in Jackson County? RH: No, Rita Marie got married in, what is that Rowan County, Salisbury. EM: Okay. Rita Hooper 13 RH: That’s where her husband was from. EM: Okay. RH: Yeah. EM: And then when you came here in 1972 you said that, I mean that was just the very end of the Civil Rights or just a few years, did you face racial discrimination in this community or did as Hooper, as a Hooper you were like in? RH: No. Well, Wade always teased like, I was the first Mexican to come up here which is true, you know. EM: Oh, is it? RH: I mean there was people around here, but you know like there was more affiliated with the University. EM: Right. Right. RH: And, but truly to live here like, kind in person, I guess. EM: Right. RH: I was the first one to come to Caney Fork. EM: But that’s changed because they’re a much larger Mexican… RH: Hmm-hmm. But I had a pastor, they knew a pastor pretty close to the family. And he talked to me and sat me down one day under a shade tree and keep on, he said, “You know Rita, you really fit in real good in our community.” But he said, you know what, he said “That’s because you married a Hooper.” So, now when all this bad that’s going on, you know, I said, well at least I’m safe, my name is Hooper, you know, they won’t look for any funny thing. EM: True. So your daughter had to be one of the first-- RH: Who? EM: Your daughter had to be one of the few Mexican children at Cullowhee and Smoky Mountain. RH: Yeah. You know I try to teach her Spanish. And she said, don’t teach me that Spanish. I don’t want to learn that Spanish. Now that she’s grown, she understands it, but she can’t speak it because I always talk to her in Spanish at home. And so, and her job now once in a while, she gets to use that. Rita Hooper 14 EM: Okay. RH: And I told her, I said, see just take it, but you wouldn’t really listen to me. But that’s mother’s famous words isn’t it, if you would have listened to me. EM: I say that all the time. So, was it the Catholic Church somewhere else that you had a bad incident? You didn’t, it wasn’t here in Jackson County? RH: No. Uh-uh, no. EM: Do you think with all the stuff going on now politically… RH: Yeah. EM: yes, that hasn’t changed in Jackson County? RH: No. No. EM: Not for you. RH: No. I, I am, one good thing, you know when I came to the states, I didn’t, I didn’t have no interpreter, but you know I work for the, I volunteered for the Samaritan Clinic, so I could, you know, interpret for the people. EM: Right. RH: And then the transit was the same way, I, I used to take, you know, people to the doctor and I kind of helped out on that. And they had a line fixed on the telephone where people want to make an appointment, you know to make an appointment on the ride, and they would call at my house, and I would set up the appointments for them for to get there. EM: Okay. And you did that until? RH: Well, when we, you know, until Wade got sick on me. EM: Right. RH: I drove for a while for them. And I also drove for Western. EM: Oh, you do? RH: I drove a big bus, but this happened before they have what they got now. EM: Right. Right. Rita Hooper 15 RH: Yeah, I thought this is the thing. I work from three to eight o’clock at night. EM: Oh, really? RH: Hmm-hmm. EM: And what made you stay on Caney Fork after this is your home. RH: The beauty. The beauty and the quietness. I love to go to the city, but I’m happy to go back home. EM: How far up Caney Fork is your house? RH: Okay. I live, when you turn up here on Caney Fork Road, I live exactly almost six miles. EM: Okay. So pretty close. RH: Hmm-hmm. Yeah. EM: And it’s the old Hooper home place? RH: Yeah, hmm-hmm. Yeah. I live after you pass the Brasstown Road. EM: Right. Right. RH: Right on your left. EM: Okay. RH: So anytime you want to pick up a ride that way. And yesterday, I was sitting in the porch, two little deers was out there frolicking around. HM: Wow. EM: You haven’t seen a bear? RH: No I’ve never seen a bear. EM: Yeah, me either. HM: We saw, we rented this, do you know where the Sinks live? Like used to live I guess. EM: Up Caney Fork. HM: Yeah, up Caney Fork, like up there, we lived in that cabin place that they, somebody was renting when we first moved here and we saw a bear, all of our family is from like New York and Rita Hooper 16 they’re all big Italians and they were here visiting for like Thanksgiving and we were all sitting on the porch and there was a bear and they were like, where did you move to?! RH: My goodness. Well, I’ve never seen a bear, but I’ve seen deer and I’ve seen little, those little cats, bobcat? EM: Bobcat. RH: I’ve seen an elk, came right through my yard one time. It scared, it scared me to death, I said what in the world is that. I know it’s not a moose and it’s not a deer, And I couldn’t see, I couldn’t figure out, you know, but anyway, yeah, she come through right through my yard. EM: Wow. Okay. And when is your next trip to Mexico? RH: The what? EM: When is your next trip to Mexico? RH: Well, I guess whenever my aunt gets ready, yeah. I want to go when she goes. EM: Okay. And that’s your aunt in Milwaukee? RH: Yeah. She’s 92 years old. EM: And she’s your mom’s youngest sister? RH: Yeah, my mother’s baby sister. EM: But that’s not who raised you. Did your mom’s youngest sister raise you? RH: No. My mom, my mother died when I was two months old. EM: Right. So did another sister--? RH: No. She’s the only one that’s living. EM: Okay. RH: Yeah, I don’t have any brothers or sisters, yeah, I’m the only one. EM: Okay. Well, thank you. RH: Well, you’re welcome. EM: I learned so much about you. Fanny told me I would. Rita Hooper 17 RH: And you know through going with Wade, traveling with him, I have been to all 48 states except Alaska and Hawaii that’s the only two I hadn’t. EM: Really? RH: And I got my citizenship in Ashville in 1973. EM: Oh, really? RH: Yeah. EM: You had to take a test? RH: I had to take a test and you don’t know what they’re going to ask you, so you have to learn everything that you can think of. But I passed it. EM: Yeah. And by that time, you’ve been in the US for? RH: About 17 years. EM: Yeah. RH: And the only thing that made me do that was because Wade, when he used to tease me, and he said, I’m going before you, and I got to thinking, I was like gosh, he’s not kidding. Maybe one of these days he will. And I told him, well I said, I take my baby with me, and he said, no you won’t. And I got to thinking and I said I better get busy. So, I went and got my papers yeah. HM: Wow. RH: I could have gotten through my mother because she was born in the states, but it was a lot of red tape I have to go through and I thought it was a waste of time. And so I just said I will just do it on my own. EM: Unless your first husband had lived long enough, he could have gotten through then, I bet, right? RH: No. They didn’t do that. EM: They didn’t do that. Okay. RH: No. You had to be in the country. I think you had to be five years and see, I wasn’t five years, almost yeah, yeah. EM: Okay. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. HM: Yes, thank you so much. Rita Hooper 18 RH: And another thing you may want to know, I’m thinking, it just come up... HM: Yes-- RH: When I first came up here, I came in on a green card and they used to call it alien card, the green card. But I have to report once a year to the government and let them know where I was. EM: Who did you report and how did you do that? RH: I go to the post office and you fill out a card and then you mail it and they send it to . . . HM: And did you do that every year until you got your citizenship? RH: Hmm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. EM: Wow. And it’s Ashville the closest place to do your citizenship? RH: Well, not anymore. Anywhere you have to go either to Charlotte, to Raleigh, or to Atlanta. EM: Okay. RH: I was lucky. I’m glad I went to Ashville. EM: Hmm-hmm. RH: Yeah. EM: I know we’re waiting on you to tell… RH: No, I guess that’s about all that I can think of. HM: Okay. EM: Well, thank you. HM: Yes, thank you so much. RH: You’re welcome. END OF INTERVIEW

Rita Hooper is interviewed by a Smoky Mountain High School student as a part of Mountain People, Mountain Lives: A Student Led Oral History Project. Hooper describes her life growing up in Mexico and then moving to the United States where she faced discrimination and language barriers. She met and married her first husband and shares her experience living with his parents in Lebanon, Ohio while he was serving in the Navy and continued living with them after he was killed in action. She shares her experiences during the Civil Rights Movement and continued discrimination in Ohio. She talks about meeting and marrying her second husband who grew up on Caney Fork. Hooper shares her experience moving to Jackson County in 1972 and working in the cafeteria at Camp Lab High School. She also talks about the consolidation of schools in Jackson County and being a member of the Eastern Star.

• Creator
  • Hooper, Rita
• Contributor
  • Miller, Holly
• Format
  • Sound recordings
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
• Type
  • Sound
  • Text
• Date
  • Date interview: 2019-08-06
• Extent
  • Duration: 0:55:23
  • Pages: 18
• Subject - Topic
  • Civil Rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century
  • Hooper, Rita
  • Immigrants
  • Mexicans -- United States
  • Race discrimination -- Ohio -- 20th century
  • Schools -- Centralization
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Oral History Collection - Mountain People, Mountain Lives
• Identifier
  • HL_MPML_Miller_Hooper_2019-08-06
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library