Rene Garza Davila, Denise Hamilton, and David Garza

00:03 My name is Denise Hamilton. I'm 52 the date is November 11th, 2011. Where in Los Angeles California and I'm going to be talking to my father-in-law Rene Garza?

00:21 My name is David Garza. I am 46 and I am the son of Renee and husband of Denise.

00:36 Hello, my name is Renee not side.

00:39 I made out of this second. I think we can use.

00:54 I'm Adrian Garza and I'm the grandson of Rene Garza.

00:59 I'm 15 years old.

01:05 Should I do the date in a location to?

01:09 Okay, Renee, you know I know that you came here a long time ago in 1959 from next for Mexico. And so I was wondering what you thought of Los Angeles when you first drove in with your friends.

01:28 Well, I have a friend here working in Los Angeles and another friend of mine bring me to Los Angeles and I like it. I really like Los Angeles that I hear the problem with watch that. I don't have any Yahoo.

01:44 And then and those years was easy to find a job before you pay $10 that you can have it. That's why I get the cook job in Gardena, California E7 buscando trabajo.

02:08 And Esther on Eden the video to live downtown what was downtown like when you when you were living there?

02:30 Was there a lot of crime in like 5 years after you know?

02:38 Night before no not much. I'm supposed to premiere.

03:01 A bad eukaryotic. Dos anos and it did you like the fact that it was a big city, or or was that very foreign to you after you know coming from Mexico and and not being in a giant City Grande para me.

04:01 Game console is dead.

04:09 I'll be on when I when I start showing in spaniola Moss.

04:17 Naughty list beanie aprendiendo poco poco muy bien pero SI me I want to know internet. Yeah, you speak English.

04:40 And what did you think when you saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time? I really liked it. I really liked it and the water was too salty and some people come to Los Angeles and they think it's the promised land was it that way for you to do have hopes or or did you just think I need to go somewhere where I can find work? What will your thoughts?

05:18 Condor Yaki, Yaki miwa. So Los Angeles kamaka in Los Angeles.

05:34 And then how long did it take? Did you want to keep working for somebody else or did you have a dream of having your own business. My dream was ahava my own business and I was lucky I would like to hear us after I came to 1959. I have my own business partner with the guys and then six months later that the partnership disappear on me and I got my own business.

06:09 But I mean how much money did you need to start a restaurant in Argentina? And he says you don't have to pay me a rent. You just give me my lunch and I started with $60.

06:31 $60 you didn't have to pay rent for the restaurant.

06:36 And was that common back then the people help each other like this? Yes. Yes. Yes to years and I still got that $5,000 and I started my own business in 2 years you saved $5,000 less than what did you spend money on? It? Sounds like

07:03 Spend a While. I am I was 20 20 to 30 is what I started to drink mucha cerveza and then say I say I don't want to drink anymore for 10 months. I don't drink and I save my $5,000 in what did you call your restaurant? El Norteno Bucky and Mariela?

07:45 And so and how long did you have as nothing you what happened? Because you eventually closed it or sold it. What happened? Why did you sell enough Daniel on Main on Main because the neighborhood comes with danger 1948.

08:20 78

08:22 And that's why I said because some little diners did anybody where you ever robbed at the restaurant?

08:34 Yeah, one time was somebody broke the door and there and it two times and it what time they break open a hole in the world and they come in but nobody ever came in like with a gun and robbed the restaurant.

08:57 When you say the rest of the neighborhood grew more dangerous, can you tell our boys are sitting here to I'm interested if you could tell us a little more about how the neighborhood changed.

09:09 Yeah, because of that restaurant was told the name was The Lost Boys on 5th in Main and Los Angeles and and then before the people just ask for money than sense that when each other why not just order something after that became a lot a lot of drugs before and after the night-light a 1978 and then that's why I live. I saw the restaurant.

09:48 So and did the David and the kids did you bring them down to work at the restaurant and play around downtown?

09:57 Yeah, they that I remember David and

10:01 I can look at Nana and they were very small or very very kids, you know, and I really I have a very good to have a big basement. We have children over there and then no problem who was sleeping down in the basement of the restaurant and new guy named sexual and one Moreno.

10:42 And the other guy you remember right now in Turkish cake kson. El sotano condos Las pistolas.

11:03 EK ladki I'll be up. I'll be okay in the basement and did it. Did you ever go to the end of the basement or did it just kind of go off under the ground, you know like a tunnel or something into the sewer vs Colores para Novia tunnel.

11:32 City of Pacific in Stockton America Moon Speakeasy prohibition. I think we care policy muy muy terminado.

12:06 Another another day. So yeah, we are most often is he sick or not? Because I will literally saying that the the basements in his restaurant different restaurants in downtown. We're connected like you could go like from the basement of one to the basement of the other so maybe during prohibition, you know, that was remember the amendment where alcohol was banned by the Constitution and there were speakeasies and there were people who had night clubs and they would drink booze down illegally down and and party and have music and have nightclubs down in the basement and they would hide the booze down there too. So, it's you think

13:06 That's what it's

13:09 Will you tell me something and David when you were growing up you remember the oath in you and you remember walking around on Main Street? Did you and you were a kid? Did you just kind of wander around downtown all by yourself was it was it safe? I mean, I don't know that we would let the boys wander around downtown on near 3rd in Maine today. So it was simply a walk down to 2nd Street and then up excuse me down to 2nd Street and then up to Broadway and the point of doing that was to go to the movie theaters there and my mother pay for the way with that she would take my sisters and me to movies and as I got older, you know, I knew the way very well and so it was it was before things started to feel dangerous downtown and I felt it and my parents felt it was not a dangerous thing to do, but as I start

14:09 I became a teenager and the neighbor and the end downtown changed one of the ways that you can kind of see the change was the the homeless people got younger. I think was one thing that you saw, you know, what kind of more desperate seeming and the movies themselves started to change and I guess it was around the time of acting exploitation Cinema in the 70s. And so these these grand theatres on Broadway, you know, it would start to have a lot of I don't know Bruce Lee and other kinds of like Chuck Norris or you know, the low-budget, I suppose but the production values in those days were different and

14:58 And it was a very strange experience going to these very Lush theaters and being in a somewhat empty theater surrounded by people that you wouldn't necessarily want to sit next to you and and and and it you know, I know I was never really approached but I just had a sense that you didn't want to go to the bathroom in the middle of a movie you if you wanted to go between the shows when other people work were, you know, when there was traffic you didn't want to be there by yourself.

15:32 But did you ever get accosted or robbed when you were walking around downtown?

15:39 So you sold enough Daniel and because the neighborhood had gotten bad and and you bought a restaurant and a nightclub right at the park if okay MacArthur Park.

15:55 One night one night. That was you know, looking around MacArthur Park good neighborhood this place. I love so much for sale during the year. And how much was just curious? How much would it cost a little bit of $35,000 1976 a restaurant and a liquor license?

16:32 And then I have it for 3 years and then I saw him for the dollar and so how did you find the musicians who would play at the piano bar? And you know, it's entertainment the nightclub. Did you have a lot of friends who did that or or what just the luckiest $35 for a $4 one guy was a piano a piano player and the Wednesdays. I have a Norteno music.

17:10 And that little dancing over there. So you had a band that would play and so and who was it just local people who went to the restaurant or people from out of town.

17:27 Just look at people and yeah, let me know a lot of artists from Mexico singer and then went to my restaurant. I know a lot of people so entonces is sabinal million-dollar tocando cantando El Concierto de Maria, and was it people like vintage Chipotle Gerardo Reyes la prensa de monteclaro.

18:17 Carlos Martinez

18:43 Ela Gente cuando Vigneron Latisse. Oh, okay.

19:08 And don't spoke a window or a statistic on Saturday, March 11th.

19:29 Separation Pocoyo

19:42 Joven Del Grupo que tenia mucho talento

19:54 Oppo cat food last time gas in MacArthur Park by Gente por que se Cambio El Bueno. So it's kind of interesting to me that you had the restaurant in downtown and you had to sell it because the neighborhood turn bad, right and then you moved to MacArthur Park and you think I'll boy a new restaurant a new neighborhood a good neighborhood. It's not downtown and then what happens it's

20:39 Becomes the same danger everything so I move to

20:46 Olympic and Soto. The restaurant Week over there but not enough business to see it and then the restaurant that I remember you having was thetis place and titas places named after an olive and that restaurant you had a very good lunch clientele there.

21:23 Voynich Nutella body with a Golden Gopher Bristol International Golden Gopher. Lisandra Gladwin hipsters right here downtown in luxury lollipop

22:11 70 Alex, La Mirada

22:21 Yeah, everyone Salon de baile still Medicaid taxi dancers were at titas place the hotel. Was it the hotel and the bar. I mean where they're the people who were there were they dangerous where they criminals were? They really poor people down on their luck. What would you say?

23:17 Watch endangered if you come down here after, you know after years after and then I remember the only good friend of mine. He have to charge a hotel.

23:31 Identify now. It's like I wasn't there a murder at the hotel and I remember the riots the riots. What's up?

23:47 How do people travel in TVs and radios they broke the source in them Broadway? How do you find the guy who work in the front office at the hotel?

24:13 And then the police got him they were arrested. So this was what next door to where your restaurant was. So there was there was danger in this place to write.

24:29 Did you did you open where you open for dinner or just for lunch or breakfast when I first met you with David? I don't think you were open for dinner. No.

24:56 Hera and

24:59 Do you wish you still had to displace?

25:13 Porque by Gaba mil doscientos treinta El Gran yo. Mr. Romero Santos. I got Minnewaska. Tell Santos football game is a lie, but when you were so you were paying $400 a month rent at the end. How much were you making in the in a month? 400 a month working to pay the rent and a little more and you worked really hard. What time did you have to get up to?

26:04 I eat, Ohio.

26:09 Yeah, that's 10 and barely making were you make where you were you would eat breaking even?

26:17 I have only one employee. What's the smartest I have and what I have to close because it was the earthquake and the other states with a big building still there was a big deal and then lot of people were there and they closing it was kind of a sweatshop. They had the clothing industry in I don't know how many five-story building.

26:50 Maybe yeah, why did they have to close the building and I want to or couldn't pay to repair it. And so when all those people left you lost your lunch clientele, is that what you're saying? It was just you just seem to have had very bad luck in the restaurant business your career.

27:27 Mirrors the changing neighborhoods of Los Angeles and you happen to pick areas that went downhill, you know, and and and that they became crime-infested. I mean, it's my life sweaty. But so then you so then you decided what I mean you were in your sixties right at that point and tired of working like a dog and then

27:54 I told him the restaurant lotitas place at closing the night. I work as a security guard because I work 12 hours in the night and all night and they were taking a part of your paycheck under the table and then

28:14 I work early to be for California Community News what happened with that guy for 4 years and I see him that I finally I work in the stadium and very happy for 10 years. I worked there and we got a 19 2011. So I think it's my last year award because I am 75 years. And what do you do at Dodger Stadium exactly?

28:56 Carne asada meat burrito Sushi, most stolen bases allowed on the pencil cases

29:30 No display the sink want you to start in Los Angeles.

29:35 Jordan hit your number way. I needed a special talk to me. I will tell them what they want to say is that I had a gun on my way. I can the way I cast.

30:03 And so the the lore the Allure of of Dodger Stadium was that just because you like baseball or you like the Dodgers particularly or what? Yeah. I remember it when they open today to 7.62. I went to the first game with my brother, where he he is in Monterey right now, and I have a picture 1962 and then go anyway, I am a diaphragm.

30:42 And so do you get to see the games also, are you too tired to go home and take a nap after the view after work? Yeah. Yeah, you say I never get tired Sometimes they come to your games but was dangerous game on a TV writer. What time do you have to get up to it to start preparing the food if there's a morning game the game wasn't a time. I started to work at 3 a.m.

31:12 Wow, can you believe that in your 75 years old? I feel good. And why did you I know that you settled in El Sereno.

31:33 Cuando me Vas a comer.

31:37 Esther baby. I love you.

31:43 When I meet with your email and enable * 2000 mm down you made $140 a month how well and so if you even do you have any questions you'd like to ask him when he still here. All right. Well, then we'll ask him what Leto and see if you have any advice to give these grandsons of yours. What would you say?

32:39 I am very proud to be on fire by Rihanna and Alex looks good. Good running and Ariana Grande really like it. I really like it might be an artist if you have any where does it where does the artistic ability come from? Because I don't think it comes from my side of the family.

33:13 People how does that that big car? And I got a good boy and he loves to draw and I think that that yeah. Yeah and did you know, do you know he's in 10th Grade and he's in eighth grade. Did you how far did you go in school in Mexico?

33:55 Fourth grade fourth grade. Why do only go to 4th grade?

34:04 Anything you want to tell them about working at 8 vs going to school and doing well in school and my other two brothers we have to work. I remember if I make 2 pesos a night 12 hours and I was sleeping all day because I have to work at Saturday at 6 p.m. And get off at 6 a.m. So fourth grade I leave for 9 years old.

34:43 9 or 3 years old

34:47 I'm a very lucky because I never never have nothing happened to me was I was 12 years old. I was out of town working and hear it and the other members but and I can buy the side uterus at 20 years old and I really like it was frightened when you first came here you had no money or did you have money for $24 a week seven days and then he makes $40 here in Los Angeles and then I came here to see him.

35:32 And that I would like to hear my first job in Los Angeles was $30 a week in a week and I don't like it. So second job at $80 a week lot of money in 1957. Did you need a car or did you go out in public transportation as we have ielectrica James in Downton Downton tokens for $0.07 electric car and I'm down in East LA but forgot when I was about 25 cents of us.

36:18 Yes down time ago.

36:21 Anything else you want to say my family here in Los Angeles and then

36:30 What good advice can you give me the boys just like your father started to study and you have to study and the and the only teams to be successful in your own your life is tough to study and do your homework and and

36:54 And try hard try harder. Never give up.

37:00 Okay, anything else?

37:04 Everything else next say something Alex.

37:07 I know but it's amazing that you're 75 and you're still working 12-hour days. You know, what a Dodger Stadium 8 hours 75 years old you've been working since you were nine years old. You're not afraid to work hard.

37:38 I think you look different because I 75 retire a long time ago and I started on April. I'm a want to work again because they say hey we want to hear you everyone we want you to come to work again. I might work again. Is it because you need the money or is it because there's kind of a glamour and a mistake to being part of Dodger Stadium and my house is paid that song. I don't need the money, but I like to go to the ER Stadium.

38:21 And you like to keep busy too, and I know that about you.

38:29 Couple of my ass and then I went to the game and then I got like two I don't like to be sitting there watching TV. I saw the TV for the new Star Wars movie or or the board games or something, but I like to be active. Well, that's probably why you're still alive and still, you know, very vibrant, but I remember once when you got up at 3 a.m. And then you worked all day and then you came to our house and it was about 95 degrees and you started mowing the lawn if you remember that.

39:06 And I said to David you better go out there and stop him. He's going to have a heart attack. He's been up since you know the middle of the night and he's in his seventies and he's just can't stop work. Right? I mean, it's wonderful, but it's it's it's really a testament to your drive, you know and your your willingness to to work into you to do stuff. You're not a nice that comes out that my little town is named China Nuevo Leon and I remember the asphalt.

39:38 At Annette summertime get liquid because it's too hot show the hot weather right? I don't don't forget to me, Right what you mean compared to what it was like him in Mexico, right? So right because I always working there in the kitchen when we have barbecues and sometimes it's 95 degrees in the afternoon. And you're the one in front of the barbecue turning the carne asada with the smoke coming up and I think oh my god get that man a cold drink because he's going to pass out. I don't know how you can do it. I do it all the time.

40:29 No problema.

40:33 William Terry Sante and 30 second version

40:47 Lalala whitening.