Mario Ramirez

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Mario Ramirez

Mario Ramirez is from the town of Armenia, not far from the capital of El Salvador. His mother, fearing for his safety because of the civil war, sent him to Guatemala when he was only fourteen. This began an odyssey that was to last many years and that took Ramirez all through Central America, Mexico and the United States, often just a few steps ahead of the immigration police and sometimes living off the land. At the age of twenty, he found his way to Brooklyn and the Church of the Transfiguration. Ramirez found work in a factory, and then as a sexton in another Brooklyn church, where he also lives. When the interview took place in 1989, he was studying to be a building superintendent.

In the interview, Mario Ramirez recalls his travels, many jobs, and hardships along the way. As a refugee from civil war in El Salvador, Ramirez remembers first entering the United States in Texas. He went back to El Salvador, but the civil war had worsened, and his mother sent him to Mexico City where a brother-in-law was living. He tells of crossing once again into Texas, and eventually finding work in the oil fields of Louisiana, and in agricultural work in the American South. He journeyed back and forth across the United States for six years. Ramirez recounts being helped by a priest at the Church of the Transfiguration when he arrived in Brooklyn. In the late 1980s, he made a trip back to visit El Salvador, and by then was established enough to help his family financially. Interview in Spanish conducted by Marcelo Herman.

Brooklyn Historical Society initiated the Hispanic Communities Documentation Project in 1988. Over fifty interviews were conducted to document the experiences of Brooklyn residents who arrived from Puerto Rico, Panama, Ecuador, and several other Central and South American nations in the latter half of the twentieth century. This collection includes recordings and transcripts of interviews conducted between 1988 and 1989. The oral histories often contain descriptions of immigration, living arrangements, neighborhood demographics, discrimination, employment, community development, and political leadership. Also included are photographs and printed ephemera.

Citation

Ramirez, Mario, Oral history interview conducted by Marcelo Herman, February 02, 1989, Hispanic Communities Documentation Project records and oral histories, 1989.004.24; Brooklyn Historical Society.