William Castillo and Guillermo Castillo

[00:02] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Hi, I'm William Castillo. I'm 59 years old. Today's March 19, 2022. I'm at the Greenwood Cultural center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'm sitting down here with Guillermo, my father.

[00:20] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Okay. My name is Guillermo Alfonso Castillo My age. I'm 88 years old. And today, March 19, 2032 at the Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa. The name of. My. Name of the interview partner, my son, William. And relationship to me. He's my son.

[01:07] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Okay, cool. So I know you're a little bit nervous about this because you're not too sure what's going on. But I feel like you got a story to share with the women.

[01:20] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I feel nervous. I don't. Well, don't know much about what I name.

[01:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Okay, so let's do this. So this is just about telling people about who you are. What I think is interesting about you right out of the box is that you were born in Barranquilla, Colombia. How many thousands of miles away from that?

[01:45] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That from here, 3000 miles from here. He takes me. I got it. Miami. Miami, Baltimore.

[01:57] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So it's kind of.

[01:59] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It's always hot. 85, 86.

[02:09] WILLIAM CASTILLO: It's interesting to me.

[02:10] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: December, beginning of January, debris from the sea comes and somebody complains hard. Because it's kind of hard.

[02:20] WILLIAM CASTILLO: But is it cold?

[02:24] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Cold? Well, maybe it gets to. You have a valentia, right at this moment. They have a.

[02:39] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You're looking up the temperature on your phone. I guess that's one of the things you have plugged in your phone to keep track of, I think.

[02:46] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Yeah, I track the times because I. Well, I don't know.

[02:54] WILLIAM CASTILLO: I don't know.

[02:55] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It's about 85 degrees.

[02:56] WILLIAM CASTILLO: We're gonna guess it's about 85 degrees.

[02:59] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: When the wind comes in the measure of. Of December or January, the place cooled off a little bit and temperature got to very cold, like 75 degrees.

[03:14] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, wow. That's pretty cold. That's kind of funny. So, what I think is a kind of a curious thing is that. So here's Barranquilla, 3000 miles away and we're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It seems like a peculiar place for you to wound up. How did that come to pass?

[03:30] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That's a story. Because the guilty one in this case William be your mother.

[03:36] WILLIAM CASTILLO: My mother.

[03:38] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: All right. Maybe you listen to grandma.

[03:44] WILLIAM CASTILLO: My grandmother.

[03:45] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Maybe because she didn't like me at the beginning.

[03:48] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Uh oh. What's that about?

[03:49] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: She figures out guy I like to. I like to what we call paranda. You know what I mean? Drinking and dancing.

[03:59] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, paranda. So you were a partier, huh?

[04:01] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Yeah, I was. A party girl. My mother in law didn't like me or didn't like the idea that her beautiful person, my lovely wife William be she miss or she took off to the right and there you come. My mother in law, Miriam.

[04:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Miriam is my mom.

[04:29] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: We came to the States. I have to say that my mother in law wants to keep me away from my wife. But she kept the more the mother in law push the closest media against me.

[04:48] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So. That's pretty.

[04:49] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: She bought me for $25. $25 gave me the. What they call the green card. So I come here with this contributor. The only problem I had with it was my english. And still having a problem today. That's pretty funny. I can't complain. I came on.

[05:12] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What year was it?

[05:13] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: July 7, 1957. Was it Tuesday?

[05:18] WILLIAM CASTILLO: How did you get here? Did you. Did you come on a boat? Did you come on a plane? I know you didn't drive. How did you get here? How'd you get and where was here? So if I heard you right, you met my mother and my grandmother wasn't too fond of you, so they escaped to the United States to leave you behind. Meanwhile, my mother paid $25 to get a green card to have you come up to the United States, actually. Where did you first land?

[05:43] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It's good interest because I was in Grigor. We were married for 60 years.

[05:50] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Did you come straight to Tulsa or did you land someplace before you came to Tulsa?

[05:56] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: He was saying, I got. I left Barranquilla about 11:00. On those years, we used to have what they call a constellation.

[06:07] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Is that a.

[06:07] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Just before you have the 707, you know, the engine.

[06:11] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, it's a plane, huh?

[06:13] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: So it took. We stopped in montego bay, Jamaica. That was 2 hours from Colombia. And then 2 hours from montego bay to Miami. And from miami to New York was about 3 hours in Michigan. 3 hours. 3 hours. I went to New York and the first thing I saw. I have never in my life saw so many cars. And I told my girlfriend, push me.

[06:50] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, so your girlfriend was my mom. Right. So I don't want to think he had a girlfriend.

[06:55] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: There must be a wedding. She told me, it's not a wedding. It's just people part across the streets. And then I live in New York. I like New York. New York was very active and very serious. All my day and night. 24 hours plus 725. Seven every day. Every day.

[07:21] WILLIAM CASTILLO: How did that compare to where you came from? You said you'd never seen so many cars coming.

[07:27] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Like, what happened when I came to. I went from my town back in the fifties, there was about maybe 300,000 people, and then it was so big. And then I was working for an airline, and they moved here from the big city. There's more city here. I know.

[08:00] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So what you're saying is that that's when you came from New York. The airline that you worked for brought you to Tulsa. So you went back from being a little place to a huge place, back to a small place.

[08:09] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I came from Marrakea. It was a small town through the big city to the Big Apple. I came back then from the Big Apple. The airline that I worked for moved me to docile back in 75. I bought for America. I had the most beautiful title of my life because my wife was everything.

[08:43] WILLIAM CASTILLO: It's okay.

[08:44] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That's why I didn't want to go.

[08:47] WILLIAM CASTILLO: It's okay. You know what? Just catch your breath for a second. We'll talk about something different. I'll tell you what. I still have a pretty hard time talking about Miriam. My mom died three years ago, and that's been kind of a kick in the ass for lots of different reasons. Well, tell me about Miriam. Miriam was a pretty great lady. So why don't you tell me a happy story about Miriam? Tell me something that makes you happy. When you think about Miriam, your $25 story was pretty funny.

[09:20] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I always say that she was a present to me from God because she listened good. She advised well, she cooked better. No better than me. I cook better than. The only thing I did better than, I was cooked. She was. She was something. She was always there. And whatever you needed, she was there.

[09:48] WILLIAM CASTILLO: How long were you guys married?

[09:51] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I married my wife the first Sunday of November for 1955. And we went to a party, and I still. We had the biggest part. They killed four or five chickens, and they make a big bowl of soup with the chicken. And I stole all the chicken. I put it on a pot. I made chicken. But I. How the hell you do steal all the chicken of you? Because if people started asking, what is your chicken? No chicken left. Only soup. I take all the chicken.

[10:36] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So what was the point of taking all the chicken?

[10:38] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That's pretty funny.

[10:39] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That was pretty funny. It sounds like a bit.

[10:41] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: And that was. I made my wife or my girlfriend or my lover or my life, and I met her on that November 2. Sunday of November, or the first Sunday of November, because I remember on that weekend, what? The day of the Muertos.

[11:08] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You know what's the day of those muertos? Halloween.

[11:11] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: In the Muertos. You go to the Muertos cemetery. And you pray and you talk to the people who.

[11:17] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, it's like a memorial day. It was kind of a memorial day where you go back and visit those who passed before you. That's what you're saying?

[11:26] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Yeah.

[11:27] WILLIAM CASTILLO: I gotcha. That's pretty interesting. So Miriam was pretty awesome.

[11:35] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Miriam was my life.

[11:38] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What's it like without her?

[11:41] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Huh?

[11:42] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What's it like for you without her?

[11:47] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I feel lonely. I feel. You have to excuse me, but I feel like I don't have anybody. I have problems putting my socks on, and she still helped me out. Can we talk about something else?

[12:12] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, let's do that. So let's see. I have some questions I can ask you because. So, you know, it sucks without Miriam. And so now what do you do to occupy your time? What's your favorite thing to do nowadays? Like, if you could go do something right now, what would that be?

[12:29] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Right now I don't have any favorite because I get up, I take care of my dog. I have a dog.

[12:36] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, really? You have a dog? What's his name?

[12:37] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: His name is Nacho.

[12:39] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Uh huh.

[12:40] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Nacho Rosenbach. Nacho sleep all day. If I go to the bathroom, he goes next to me. If I go to my bathroom, he goes next to me. Wherever I go, he goes.

[12:55] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So he follows your.

[12:57] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: The best dog I ever had. He likes to be pet. Like I said, he doesn't work. And if you pet him, he sit next to you and he stays with you all the time. He said, nice dog. Who's the best dog I ever had?

[13:12] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Nacho's a pretty cool dog. I like Nacho. All right, so. But that's not. Yeah, just. That's okay. That's. The mic is just there. That's what I was kind of driving to. Your other favorite thing in the whole wide world. What's your favorite pastime? Because it feels to me like you've grown a pretty specific favorite pastime. What is that that you like doing so much anymore?

[13:34] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have a church that was given to me for Patricia, my daughter.

[13:39] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Sitting in your chair is pretty funny.

[13:41] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I sit in the chair and I put channel 41, CCN CN. Whatever.

[13:47] WILLIAM CASTILLO: It's the news. You put on the news and you watch the news all day. CNN. No, but I was thinking of something. If I could use the spanish word algo. Casi. Casi. Algo. What's the casi that you're so crazy about? Casi.

[14:01] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Well, that's beside the person. That's it. That is vice.

[14:05] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What's that about?

[14:06] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Nobody has to know that you have vices.

[14:08] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, really? So what's the vice that you're hiding now?

[14:12] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I'd rather be in the casino.

[14:19] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So that's the vices, that casino?

[14:21] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Let me tell you. Let me tell you.

[14:22] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Tell me.

[14:23] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: God gave me your mother as a present, and then he took it away from me.

[14:34] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What does that have to do with the casino?

[14:35] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I was happy since the day I met her. The first wedding, September 1955 until December 24, 1918 to 2018. My life ever since that has been. I'm quiet. I don't go much. My kids don't let me drive.

[15:05] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You know that your kids suck, huh?

[15:07] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: My kids, because they don't let me drive. I can brainwash me down. I'm not well.

[15:16] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Look, I'm gonna. For the record on the brainwashing thing, I just want to note that we've idd that you're hard of hearing. So sirens are the things that you normally hear. Oh, you're leaning forward to hear me. You often complain about not being able to see clearly because things are fuzzy. You have a terrible sense of balance. And you have no auto insurance. I don't know, call me paranoid, maybe brainwashing, but I think those are rock solid reasons to take your keys away.

[15:40] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have all that problems, but I'm okay.

[15:44] WILLIAM CASTILLO: But you can go anywhere because you have transportation.

[15:47] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Listen, I know that you try to protect me. You think that I want to fail. I work here, all over there. And that between you and I don't tell anybody, made me kind of uneasy because you. Only by my belt on the back.

[16:10] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Again, in my defense, it's just because I picked you up after you've fallen.

[16:13] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have to be careful with the balance.

[16:16] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had a balance episode recently, like a couple of weeks ago. Didn't you have a balance thing that wound up? She comes to talk to you because of your fall. That's all too violent.

[16:34] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: She's nice. She's self driving, have four kids. The older one is 22.

[16:42] WILLIAM CASTILLO: This is lady that comes and sees you out of curiosity.

[16:45] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: She comes to me every Tuesday for 2 hours and she takes my mouth break around my bathroom.

[16:56] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, she's a healthcare professional.

[16:58] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It's a good time for me because I need somebody to talk to. I feel isolated. I feel long, so I feel like I have. I have a lot to give for. I take complaints of mine. I know I'm uncomfortable these days because I cannot do whatever I like to do. I've been caught. I said that. I don't know, I been curtailed or whatever.

[17:45] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Curtailed. Oh, so you're yearning to play soccer, not getting fulfilled.

[17:50] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I cannot do whatever. But thank God. Thank God he gave me you and Patty.

[17:59] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Who's Patty?

[18:01] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Patty's my juicy sticker.

[18:03] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh. Do you have any other kids?

[18:06] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: We have one which is actually a nephew of Merion.

[18:11] WILLIAM CASTILLO: No, all the details are not necessary today, but do you have any grandkids?

[18:15] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: We kind of help him out.

[18:18] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Do you have any grandkids?

[18:19] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Ricardo. He's our.

[18:23] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Do you have any grandkids? How many grandkids do you have?

[18:27] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have five.

[18:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Five. What are their names?

[18:31] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Well, I have to start with the older ones. Richard is my oldest son. He got too. He got Nathan and Joshua. Then my old son is Willie. And he loves me. Sometimes he loves me too much. He put me down. And sometimes he gets sorrowful. How you go. Ah, when you get. When you get mad or upset, he goes out of his line. But it's okay. I forgive him because I love him very much.

[19:24] WILLIAM CASTILLO: All right, so you. Any other grandkids?

[19:26] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: We're talking about your grandkids. Nathan and Joshua with Richard. Then I have the children I love very much, Ali and Gabriel, which is good. And Paddy has Jackson. Jackson. He's going to Oklahoma State University.

[20:02] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's cool. So Jackson's the one grandkid you have who's still in college. You have Jackson, who's your grandson, who's still in college. And all of your other grandchildren have graduated from college. Is that your children?

[20:16] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Oh, they all graduated from school. They finished. And Richard became an OD. You are the vice president where you work. And Patricia, she doesn't work anymore.

[20:37] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's cool.

[20:41] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: She was in charge of hygiene. No, no, no. But to keep everything clean on a restaurant. And he had a good job. She had a quit, so she quit right now.

[20:59] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's cool. That makes me wonder, what's the highest level of education that you ever had? How far did you get in school? What's the highest level of education that you reached?

[21:10] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have. I have. I started going to school of medicine. Spent a year, but it was too much, too expensive. And besides, I got sick in Bogota. I was very sick with my sinus. I missed classes. And I decided, you know, this is. I went back to. I went back to Barranquilla I went for three years. I studied business administration. When I went medium, I came to the state. I went to a community college in New York. I took some subjects, but I never got here. It just. The fact that I haven't. I worked in a company when I was in New York. I worked for about eleven years. I worked as an assistant or head of account receivables. So I was the one to communicate with the people. That money I was trying to collect, I send the bills every day. It was a good job, but it didn't pay much. So the company that I work, it was the nursing company. So a person that used to work in the company recommended me to these airlines. And I got the jobs in the airline I worked 25 years in the airline I built. I been retired for 25 years. I don't remember a long time. So now I'm here talking about my.

[23:10] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Life, just in general. So that sounds pretty cool. So you have three kids, they're all up and running, nobody's in jail.

[23:19] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It was kind of hard.

[23:23] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What was?

[23:23] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: To come to this country without knowing the language. I came here on 57 and I went to the army. From 1958 on June 22. On June 22, 1958 to June 23, 1960, I was in the United States Army. I finished as a specialist. They call it years. I learned the English a lot better than today. Because when I finished it, the army of English was better than English today. I know between Miriam and I weigh half and half, half Hispanic. And up to this day, I think that Miriam was not able to understand me because he used to ask me, what do you say? What do you say? And I said, well, I don't care if he was a million, he was allowed to work. I can complain. I have never called it unemployment. I worked for the first time that I came to this country. And let me tell you a secret. I got a job at a factory. And one day they told me, you gotta go and clean the toilets. And I hit for a couple times and I said, no, I'm not doing this. That's not the type of job I need. I have a little bit of education and I quit the job anyway.

[25:27] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's the secret.

[25:28] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Then I got the job with the airline. No, I got the job with you, with the company where I was in charge of the. When I walk in the factory, I have the garage, and I look suspiciously, thinking I was. That was difficult. That happened on December 1319.

[25:57] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's one of those things you don't forget, right? You worked in a factory, had an accident, lost your finger, your fingertip.

[26:03] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Yeah.

[26:05] WILLIAM CASTILLO: What happened with all that? How did all that play out? Did somebody take you to the hospital? What happened?

[26:10] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I had a machine that I was controlling my feet. And I put the finger and I put my feet down. The thing came up and took it off. When I finished it, was flat. But every day I lost out here anyway, that was a bad, bad thing that happened to me. But it got better. Then I had a. On those days, I figured, well, on those days, I was kind of, when I left Barranquilla and when I got my, what they call the green card I signed, I said, six months after you get here, you get six months. You have to present yourself to this selective service. So I had the answer, and I said, oh, they want to call me. But they called me. And then, oh, I figured, oh, they don't want to call me. So we got married, and we were living in a little place back, far away from Manhattan, in Brooklyn. I don't even remember the games. We used to take this subway with a little cardinal to do the shopping and bring it back to with two stations from the apartment. It was difficult. I was. But we were happy. I was happy. I can compare my life.

[28:03] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So that's when you were in the army, you left Miriam behind. When you were in the army, you would just leave her in the apartment.

[28:08] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: And you would go, ah, the army was here. Help me with English. I was able to speak better English, but I was in a place near Alexandria or near to about 45 meters from Washington, Fort Belvoir. And I used to go to New York every Friday afternoon at 05:00 we got off. There were a group of guys that come to New York. We stayed on your Saturday and Sunday night at 10:00 we got together on a bar on my 41st or something, and then we took off, and they. We got. It took about 5 hours to go to back and forth. So we left New York at ten, and we got to Fort bevel, about 5515. I used to every week. I didn't just stop because I figured it's too many times to get a chance that this guy could go, can you hear me? Mm hmm.

[29:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You heard perfectly fine. Yeah, it's okay. You don't have to mess with that. That's the mic. Just. You're fine.

[29:35] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I know. I don't. I. I don't. Are you interviewing me or him? Interview me.

[29:44] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Nobody's really interviewing anyone. Like I've been telling you from the beginning, we're just sitting down, chit chatting. That's it. I've asked you questions. You know, I haven't told you much stuff. You've been making fun of your English, so I'm gonna tell you this.

[29:58] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Who's making time of my English?

[30:00] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You've made fun of your English a couple of times, and so I'll tell you this.

[30:02] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Well, he got that million and I, we talked Spanish and sometimes we added English. And without practicing every day the way I did when I was in the army, I lost, you know, the language? The English.

[30:26] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yep.

[30:27] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It's a different language.

[30:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: No, language is a funny thing. I was going to say, I have a hard time saying stuff because I get choked about it. Think I'm such a SAP these days. But of all the gifts you've given me, probably at the top of the list is the ability to speak Spanish. So although we're not practicing right now, I'm fluently bilingual. Because that's what you did for us as kids.

[30:51] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I love you.

[30:53] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's all right. I was just telling you something.

[30:58] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: What was the question?

[30:59] WILLIAM CASTILLO: There wasn't a question. I was just telling you that of all the life's gifts that you've given me, langua la me is the most important. The fact that you taught us all how to speak Spanish, that's a failure that I've had with my children, that I didn't pass them on in the same way. But, you know, that reminds me of something.

[31:16] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: You pay me back yesterday. I don't think to pay me back. You should have helped me with English.

[31:27] WILLIAM CASTILLO: I guess I should have paid you. Now.

[31:28] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: You practice your spanish help every day, and I don't.

[31:32] WILLIAM CASTILLO: And I'm messing up. You know, that's kind of funny. As we're drawn to an end. That reminds me of a story that you've always told that I thought was a pretty funny story about you being able to speak. Speak Spanish when you got here. You always said that. What was a couple of words that you knew when you first got here? You knew how to say what? The breakfast story went to the lasagna.

[31:54] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That was funny. I'm going to talk to him.

[31:57] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You're talking to anybody you want to. Just tell us what was that story about real quick, because we're going to wrap up in a minute.

[32:02] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: We got here on a Tuesday night on 81st Memorial. They were millions. Got the place in a hotel. And there were one quarter here, one quarter here and one quarter here. There were three Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, puerto rican restaurants, and it was two Puerto Ricans and one American. And I added to the American. And I keep on asking the person, I needed breakfast. I wanted wash. I want eggs and Hamdan. And they didn't understand what I said. Him. Ham, ham and eggs. Ham and eggs. I don't know what he want. I said, I want ham and eggs. Ham and eggs. No. Do you want a cheese? A danish cheese. Okay, let me have it. So that was the first time of my life that I had breakfast with something sweet. Because in Colombia we always, you know, the breakfast with tinterness. Salt taco made out with salt? No, no. Sweet.

[33:18] WILLIAM CASTILLO: I've always thought that was a pretty.

[33:22] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That was something.

[33:24] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So out of four corners, you picked the one place that didn't speak Spanish.

[33:26] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Probably wrong restaurant. Every other corner where they have.

[33:39] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's kind of funny.

[33:40] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: It was funny.

[33:42] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's kind of funny. So. Yeah. So are you all right now? You realize this?

[33:48] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I had it. I know when I got a job with a colombian guy. Danny was a friend of mine. Well, the guy was like, to get a job, to get me a job at a fancy restaurant, and I was the boss boy. But when I went there, I didn't have whatever I needed. So they paid me a black pair of pants, a white shirt, a parachute, and they didn't fit me that good. But I'm telling you, I said 2 hours. I couldn't even work. I mean, it got the damn thing. The tray is full of. So I quit. I'm not going to go back. I got. I remember I got $7 and 50 tips on those years. The half a dollar was very popular. Everybody got. Minnie and I, we saved to go to Colombia, 1959. We saved half a dollar. And that money we took, we paid for the. We paid the trip.

[34:59] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Wow.

[35:00] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: That was when I was near me.

[35:03] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's cool.

[35:04] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: On 1959.

[35:06] WILLIAM CASTILLO: See? So, see, all kinds of stuff's happened to you. All kinds of stuff's happened to you on your trail from Barranquilla, Columbia, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, by way of New York, service to the military. Trouble learning English. You seek Spanish. That's a good thing.

[35:22] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I had a good life.

[35:23] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You had a good life. You have a. You have a family that all likes you.

[35:26] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I have my kids. They all finish college. I have you. I have body. I have.

[35:36] WILLIAM CASTILLO: So I'd say that. I'd say that your time here has pretty well been well spent. I think you've done a good job. I mean, I'm your son, and I don't think that I've suffered in any way.

[35:46] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: As I said before, I never collected anyone employment. I worked hard. Then I got the job with the airline and I did okay. I didn't get the right, the correct pay because there were people that making maybe less than what I used to make and I was paying less money. That's besides the point. That happened a long time ago. That's a long time ago, I retired, and I think I retired. 1989. So I William be eleven and 22 William be. I been retired for 33 years. They didn't pay much when I was working, but on my retirement, the amount of money I collected is you made up for.

[36:45] WILLIAM CASTILLO: You made up for, huh?

[36:46] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I checked my car. Make sure that every first of the month I get my pension.

[36:55] WILLIAM CASTILLO: That's pretty funny.

[36:57] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: Cool. They pay a lot of money. They pay money.

[37:03] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Cool. So, you know, I don't really have any other questions for you, Dad. I know that you don't like when I call you Bill. That's Lenny's fault. But that's a tangent.

[37:13] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: An ice cream is filled by. No, I read it.

[37:22] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Go ahead, get it out. And then we'll close the skull.

[37:25] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: You don't call me dad.

[37:27] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, that's what I just said. I said Bill or said dad because I know you don't like me to call you Bill. But I think of you as my best friend. And as my best friend, I think Bill's a good name for you. So that's that. I'll try to call you dad. Although it feels kind of weird calling.

[37:42] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: You dad once in a while.

[37:43] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yeah, all right. I'll toss out a papaya every now and then since you like that so much.

[37:48] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I hate to say that because you get upset.

[37:51] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Yes, I William

[37:52] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: When you want something, you call me dad.

[37:54] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Oh, is that it? Okay. We'll call that the distinction. I've had a ton of fun sitting down with you today. Uh, unless you got. Yeah, we gotta wrap up. We only get so much time before they cut us off.

[38:07] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I I really apologize to you.

[38:10] WILLIAM CASTILLO: I I told you it was gonna be fun.

[38:12] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: I probably. I didn't know what was the sort of audit.

[38:20] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Just gotta trust me. Not gonna tear you down a bad road.

[38:25] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: If I complain about my life in this country, that would be. That I William not appreciate what I really have. Because I have no complaints. I know people discriminate against me for. Because I'm from other countries, but that's. Besides, I don't really encounter, well, the persons I have known that I know appreciate me as a person. Those are what make your life better. The guy that you realize that, it doesn't show you any appreciation. You just get away from him. Stay with whatever you. And be responsible. You have to be responsible. If not, no, you get into it.

[39:28] WILLIAM CASTILLO: Sounds like a. Sounds like a good final piece of advice for us, dad. Sounds like some good advice, dad. Be responsible for yourself. All right? I love you, man.

[39:40] GUILLERMO ALFONSO CASTILLO: My father. If it would have been a life trick.