Barrios Oral History Project

Irene Gomez Hormell was born in 1937 and raised on a ranch west of Tempe. Her father's side of the family included several pioneers in central Arizona, such as Dr. W. W. Jones, a miner and freighter who was involved in the Vulture Mine near Wickenburg, and Jesús Gómez, a cowboy and Apache scout who was born in northern Sonora. Her mother's parents were Mexican immigrants who came to Arizona at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Ms. Hormell has been actively involved in the planning of the Barrios exhibit and many related programs at the Tempe Historical Museum.

In this brief interview, Ms. Hormell discusses her earliest memories of life on the Jones-Gomez ranch west of Tempe. A much more detailed interview was conducted with her at a later date. See interview number OH - 130.

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

Copyright © 1998 Tempe Historical Museum

BEGIN SIDE ONE

SOLLIDAY: Today we are interviewing Irene Hormell. Uh, my name is Scott Solliday and today's date is March 28, 1992. Uh, well, Irene, could you tell me a little bit about, uh, where you were born and your first memories of, uh, Tempe?

HORMELL: I was born February 21, 1937, and I understand that it snowed, uh, that weekend. And it was on a Sunday. And I was born at home, uh, at the Cotter's . . . um, we rented a house at Cotter's. It's at Eighth Street, right over the railroad track. There is Mr. McMillan's home and then that home, and it still stands. And, uh, that's where I was born. At the age of three, we moved back to the family ranch, and, where my dad took management of that ranch, and, uh, we lived there until I was, uh . . . uh . . . second grade. So that would have been . . . made me, like, eight years old, because I started school late on account of when I was born.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Uh, now, you father was Jesús Gomez?

HORMELL: No, that was my grandfather. My grandfather, my Tata Jesús, as we called him, um, was born in Tubac, Arizona, or in that area, and came down here and married Kathryn Jones, and, uh, they had their first born. Floyd Gomez is my father. They had other children, but my dad was the one that, um, took over management of the ranch at that -- you know -- part of the generation, and, uh, he managed the ranch and they built us a home, um, separate from the family ranch home.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Could you tell us a little bit about the , uh, the ranch, where it was located, and what it all looked like?

HORMELL: OK. It was in the west side of Tempe. Um. I remembered when it was even being built. My Uncle Gino, in the Soto family . . . his name was Floyd, also. He and his buddies came and built that house for my mom and dad and, um, they made it out of adobe and then they cemented it, and it really had a real pretty Mexican motif. It even had those little wooden things all around . . . the little posts. It was a square kind of a type home. Uh, it was small. It was . . . it had a great big, large big bedroom where all the beds were, and then, and then, there was a big, large, large kitchen where even I can remember my dad having a humongous desk, and it was in the kitchen. And then it had the living room, and then a small little bedroom, and, uh, I imagine that's where my mom and dad slept. I don't really remember that much on that.

SOLLIDAY: Did you say you remember when this was being built?

HORMELL: I remember when it was being built. I was only, um, three years old when we moved over there -- two or three years old -- but I remember even the day that we moved. I remember, it was in a red pick-up truck, and I remember moving from Eighth Street in town to . . . to the, uh, ranch. And when we moved there, they did make . . . the house was to be built larger, so they, they had the foundation, but only those rooms that I mentioned were built. The, uh . . . We were, like, at the very end of the ranch, away from the big, the big house where the Jones had lived. And we were, like, in the corner of that ranch. It was beautiful, as I recall. We had all kinds of things. Um, we raised chickens. We raised turkeys. We raised rabbits. We had a cow that gave us milk, and my mother used to make cheese and sell that. I come from a family on both sides that were salespeople. They . . . in Spanish, they call them fayuqueros, and that's what they were. They raised the things at the ranch and then they sold it to the Mexican barrio in town. And's that's, that's how we did our living. My dad also raised cattle and, um, started here in Tempe, but then, prospered in Casa Grande, and that's where he later on moved to. We lived there, like I said, until second grade. I recall the neighbors in those areas. See, our ranch ...

SOLLIDAY: Were these other ranchers ...

HORMELL: Ranches.

SOLLIDAY: ... other ranches in that area?

HORMELL: Uh-huh. And there's a lot of interesting things that happened over there, but the most of the things that I remember is the people, because the people always helping each other. That was . . . that was the thing. Our well went dry. The neighbor down miles back would come and, and bring us water so that we would have drinking water. I remember there was, you know, real bad summers that the water . . . the well went bad. Um . . . We kept the ranch going, even when my dad was starting his business in Casa Grande. My mother kept the ranch going.

SOLLIDAY: And what was her name?

HORMELL: Victoria Soto Gomez. And, um, she's the one that really was the strength to keep our end of the deal going, so that my dad could start his business in Casa Grande. Um, he started it with five hundred dollars. They always tell me that ... [laugh] ... that's where the story that they have . . . And the ranch, it was really neat because it went way back to where there was a canal, and that was the canal that was, um . . . that came from downtown. And so, there was beautiful alamo [cottonwood] trees, and I remember there, going and just laying around and just dreaming and having a good time. And then there was great big fields on both sides. So there was a lot of nice running fields. And I remember a lot of those things . . . exploring those fields. Across from us there was another ranch, and I don't even know who . . . reme- . . . who lived there. I knew the lady that lived there was . . . I mean, the owners I didn't know, but the people that lived there was Antonio, and the lady -- I forget now what her name is -- Luz, I think, was her name. But anyway, my sister and I went across there one time when we weren't allowed, and we found a secret opening going towards that ranch. So, evidently it was a tunnel going into their home, but we never told anybody. [laugh] We talk about it now, but we never told anybody, because we would really have gotten into trouble with our family, of going in, exploring that way. But that . . . that area there was just fields. There was ranches all over.

SOLLIDAY: The Jones family had . . . Do you know how long it was that it was first the Jones Ranch in that area?

HORMELL: Uh, they were the first owners and they owned from -- at one time -- from Fifty-Eighth, where the freeway now goes, into -- you know -- One Forty-Three, to Priest. That was all our land, because the Jord- . . . Then, when my grandpa, my great-grandfather died, then they had to sell some of the property so that they could -- you know -- keep on surviving, and so, they sold it to the Jordans, which later, when I, in my generation, they were the Huffacres. But at first, it was the Jordans, and, you know, the very first owners were . . . it was Walter Jones. And so all that land belonged to us at one time. Um . . .

SOLLIDAY: Now, you'd mentioned about some of the other families in that area, also. Do you remember any of the other families that ...

HORMELL: Yes. Yes. On Fifty-eighth, to the left, there was a, oh, just a row of people that lived there. Um . . . Don Solares. See, I remember them only by their first names, and some of them I can look up and get that for you. But Don Solares. Then, a beautiful family that really helped us a lot and that was Morenos, Manuel Moreno, and his beautiful wife, Maggie. And she was a Ruiz, so she was really related to Joe [Soto], my cousin, from his mom. [laugh] So, anyway, um, the Ruizes and the Morenos. And Gonzales, Enrique Gonzales. And I remember he had a daughter, Cuquita, and a son, Johnnie Gonzales. And then, um, the Ruizes -- I mean the Morenos -- the lady had children that were Ruizes because that was her second marriage with a Moreno. I remember they all lived there. It was a big ranch where . . . like, the typical old Mexican style: you had a ranch and then all your kids built homes around it, and you raised animals, you raised crop, and they had a nice big property there that they cropped. I think that they, they're the ones who had the lettuce and tomatoes, and they raised all that . . . those kind of things, and I believe, if I can recall, they had pigs, too, 'cause they, they used to have that to sell. And, um, then we all sold to downtown.

SOLLIDAY: Now, there's . . . in that area there's certainly none of those ranches left any more. Do you know about what time that, that it really started changing right in that area . . . that many of the farms and the ranches were no longer there?

HORMELL: Gosh, I was already married when they, they started buying our ranch. Um . . . um . . . I believe that was, oh, in the fifties . . . in the very late fifties. Because, I remember, well, I got married in fifty-seven, so that was, like, maybe fifty- eight, when we had to go and sign, you know, our part of the property. For the . . . And then, all those other neighbors in the ranches started going. Now some stayed there longer. I remember when one of our real old neighbors there -- Alcaria is her name -- um, they were Ramirez. They lived, like, on the other side of Fifty-Eighth Street. They had a little ranch, raised rabbits and corn, and Pepsi-Cola Company -- when they first established that -- that's where . . . that was where their land was. The Pepsi-Cola Company, right off the freeway. It's very hard for me to determine where things are now, because everything's so changed, and I was away for twenty-nine years. But that part I remember. You know, the landmarks that took over my landmarks, that I remember. [laugh]

SOLLIDAY: Yeah. They usually have changed quite a bit now in time.

HORMELL: Yeah. But there was a lot of nice people there. Rosendo, like I said, Don Solares, across the street. I can get all those names 'cause I have . . . we have them in that . . . in the barrio, you know . . . the reunion. I, I have that mapped out of all the families, and there's still people living there that we can get the names for. You know . . all of their families.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Let's talk a little bit about the . . . the ranch, and, uh . . . Well, as a working ranch, was it mostly the family that did the work on the ranch, or were there employees?

HORMELL: My dad had people working for him. I remember, you know, that he always had people working for him, and, um . . . here and in Casa Grande. And he managed the Casa Grande ranch, and managed the family ranch, 'cause it was always known as the family ranch. It wasn't really my dad's. He's the one that took care of it, you know, but it was always called the family ranch. We just had that little one spot that belonged to our family, but the big house . . . My aunt who never got married -- her name is Mary Gomez -- she was the one who lived there the last, or before they sold. And, uh, she still lives here in Tempe. And, um, the other brother, Ralph Gomez, and his little family, they lived in the back, in a small little house. And that's what I can remember. I remember more of the Soto, because I, I . . . at the age, like I said, when I was in second grade, their divorce came to my life, and my mom and dad divorced, and so my dad stayed in Casa Grande, and then we moved into town, and then we moved into the barrio. And then, then it's when I moved into my mom's culture more, because . . . I remember we spoke more English in, at the ranch than we did Spanish. And I remember when we moved here to the barrio, then my Spanish came in, and I remember distinctly that, because my grandmother used to say, "You'd better read it, learn how to read it, write it," -- and, you know -- "use it." And, um, I remember being ashamed of that, because we were ingrained in school that that was . . . not to use two languages. Um, and so . . . but she always used to tell us, "Be proud of what you are. Be proud of your culture, and be proud of being an American." Because she used to help my nana, Marina, was a very well-known and very well-respected lady. To this day the older Mexican families remember her as Dońa Marina. Uh . . . And she came from a wealthy family, and my grandpa, during the Revolution, liked her and just stoled her and brought her over here. So she, from, from money to penniless, and he was . . . became a miner at, uh . . . in, um -- the family might not like me to say this, though it's part of the story [laugh] -- but he was a miner in, in Metcalf, Arizona. First in Deming, New Mexico, and then they came following the mines to Metcalf, Arizona, and that's where, in that area, they worked. Well, my grandmother and him, um, left there because of the unions, and they were, uh, not allowed to work, and then the unions owned stores, the grocery stores. The unions owned the clothing stores. The union owned everything. Owned them, too. So that, that . . . my, my family, my grandmother and my grandfather Soto, they came down here, and, uh, with, like, the Arroyo family. And they came at night, and with just what they were wearing. They used to tell us that, that just what they were wearing, and they came at night. And ...

SOLLIDAY: That it would be dangerous for them to ...

HORMELL: Because it would be dangerous because they were blocking or making waves for the people that were still there, and it was either you work or you die, you know. That kind of thing. So anyway, they did come over here and the only thing that was available to them was the farming. And then that's where they, that's where the mineros, they called them, and when they came down here and they became farmers. Well, my grandfather came in and, uh, applied for a job with my Aunt Maggie Frank, who is a daughter of Walt- . . . Walter Jones. And that's how those two families merged, you know, with marriage, was that my grandfather and my grandmother Soto came down, got a job with the Franks, and then the Franks, um, introduced my mom to my dad, who is a Gomez, but that's all, you know . . . they were relatives. And, uh, that's where the Franks and the Parras and the Romos, um . . . the Gomezes and the Sotos all, you know, entwined as families.

SOLLIDAY: All those as one family.

HORMELL: Uh-huh.

SOLLIDAY: Well, there are, I know, one name in particular . . . the Romos, was Adolfo Romo that I've seen quite often. Could you tell us anything about that ...

HORMELL: OK. Mi Tio Adolfo, yeah. We used to call him "Babe." He was from Spain, really. He was a . . . his family were from Spain. And they came here, uh, because, you know, they were sheepherders, and a lot of sheepherders also came to Tempe. I mean to the area, not just Tempe. Um, and then my Tio Romo got a job with Walter Jones. See, all these guys were coming in and working with, on the Jones Ranch, and that's how they met the girls, 'cause my grandpa had daughters only, and one son, John. But anyway, uh, Kathryn, mi Tia Quina, um, my Aunt Maggie, my Aunt Laura, and there is another one that I don't remember . . . But anyway, Tia Quina married the Romo. Tia Maggie married the Frank. And, uh, my grandma married the Gomez. And, uh, my Aunt Laura married, um . . . a Curry. And my Aunt Mary, I mean -- 'scuse me -- my Aunt Laura moved to California, 'cause her husband was a . . . in the movies . . . in the movie industry. He was . . . he had all kinds of parts. But anyway, they, they lived . . . and she died at Bel Air. They were, you know, over there. She was the youngest. And then there was an uncle that they all talked about . . . John, the young boy, but he, he died at an early age. But the girls, my Aunt Maggie, had a . . . Her ranch was, let me see, from Rural -- this is Southern? -- Southern, Rural, all this down to Baseline, McClintock. All that was her land.

SOLLIDAY: This whole square mile right here?

HORMELL: Yeah. And, and each time the girls got married, the grandpa gave them . . . they had money aside for their dowry. So they all, you know, had . . . they had their, their land given to them, or, you, know, promised to them. My grandmother stayed with the ranch. I believe my grand- . . . No, I don't know if my grandmother was the oldest, or why she stayed with the ranch, but the family ranch stayed with, with the Gomez, because of my grandmother. And, um, the ranch here . . . My aunt, Maggie Frank, who lived to be a hundred and five, I believe, she died in California. But, um, she left, like, maybe five years before. I think when she was a hundred years old or something, in Tempe, and then she died in California with her son with her, uh, who is Dick Frank. And, let me see ...

SOLLIDAY: And let me go back just a little bit to Adolfo Romo. He had been involved, um, quite a bit, uh, in making sure that his children would be able to go to the, uh, the Tenth Street School. Had you ever heard anything about that, uh ...

HORMELL: Yes, he, he was a man of principles, and I guess because he was not, um, hadn't gone through that much prejudice, maybe, when he was in Spain. I mean, their background was different than ours. Uh, he had, um . . . he was a fighter, um . . . for his . . . for his beliefs. I don't really . . . I don't really . . . I think that the interview from the Romo family would be better, because they, you know, they lived with him and they knew him. Uh, all I can remember, that he always rode a bike all over the place. [laugh] I remember him as an older man, or I remember when they had big parties at the ranch. Then all of the, the family went. But that's the only time I remember him. Um, I don't even remember that much about my grandfather, Jesús, and there's not too much every said about him. But, um, my grandfather was from Tubac, and the Indians stoled him. And, uh, for the longest time . . . My grandfather had blonde hair, blue eyes, and, um, the curly light brown hair -- sort of like yours -- and they . . . he gets, you know . . . he . . . they picked him up and stole him. And what happened was, later on he got away from them, and he came searching for his family and he found some. But he was sort of like . . . he knew how to speak the language, and it was with the Apaches that did it. So, uh, when they had the ranch over there on Blue Point, 'cause they also had a ranch over there on Blue Point. That was part of our family, but I don't ...

SOLLIDAY: That's right over on the Salt River?

HORMELL: Monroe was one of the . . . Yeah. Over there by the Blue Point . . . by the Red Mountain, in that area . . . in Mesa. All that area . . . Buckhorn . . . all that belonged to our family at one time . . . in some part of that . . . in that area. Um, I even remember the ranch there, in , like, a dream. But, um, my sisters remember it more 'cause they were older. I was just a little girl when we used to go over there. But I remember that, uh, that's another part of the ranches. I mean, a lot of . . . another part of the family. And, um, that's, like, another story. Monroe was the one that taught my dad how to be a cowboy, and that's how the cattle business came along.

SOLLIDAY: OK. Well, why don't we take a break right here.

HORMELL: OK.

END SIDE ONE

END OF INTERVIEW

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