Interview with Lupe Knott
Introduction
Virginia may not be viewed by the general public as a big immigrant destination, but immigrant communities in the Shenandoah Valley are growing day by day. This demographic change is more noticeable in cities like Harrisonburg, as we have discussed, but still occurs in smaller towns. I was raised in one of these smaller towns – Luray, Virginia. Luray appears to be a predominantly white community with mostly conservative views, so this was not an area I would expect immigrants to come to – and yet, they have. For many Hispanic immigrants moving to Luray, Virginia, Guadalupe Diaz Chavez Knott, or “Lupe” is a welcoming sight – lending a hand to people not so different from her. In the 1960s, she was the one arriving in Luray with little knowledge of what would be ahead of her. On November 30th, 2024, I met with Lupe for this interview in the Luray Christian Church she attends with my mother and grandmother. This place was just what was most convenient but holds more significance to Lupe and her family than I originally realized.
Migration
Lupe Knott was born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and lived in Mexico until she was 11 years old. Being 11, immigration was a decision for the entire family, made mostly by her parents. Her immediate family consisted of eleven people – two parents and nine children. In 1967, they all immigrated to El Paso, Texas. The process of immigrating was long, expensive, and altogether difficult, especially with nine kids. Lupe remembers just how complicated it was with paperwork, shots, health examinations, and background checks including checking for drug dealing affiliations. Their entry came at a large price as well. Her father had to sell his three businesses and a lot of his property including his boot shop to afford the family’s immigration. Once they received their papers, they walked on foot across the border and began their new lives in El Paso. The process was very taxing, but Lupe’s parents believed it would all be worth it. They had been pulled to America with a hope for better lives primarily through economic success and improved education for their children. One of Lupe’s brothers was deaf and mute and her parents believed that the United States may have more opportunities for him to learn and get an education. Additionally, her father’s career as a cowboy bootmaker and upholstery man drew in sponsors who offered him work and housing if he would move to the States. Lupe remembers how hard her parents worked to support their family. Her father had multiple jobs which sometimes kept him late into the night while her mother took care of all nine children. The costs (both literally and figuratively) were high, but Lupe’s parents believed life in the United States would benefit their family in the long run. When Lupe became a citizen, she had to memorize all the presidents and the branches of government which she said “wasn’t easy…but [she] did manage to do it.”
Education, Work, and Integration
Lupe’s first impression of El Paso was that it “was covered in silver.” She watched as children along the river asked passersby to throw coins for them to catch. Some coins didn’t reach the children, so Lupe picked them up and kept them. She was amazed to see that silver and coins were “all over the place” which brought her to the conclusion that this country must be rich. Her economic integration into the U.S. began not long after she arrived. She was able to get a job at only 12 years old where she gained valuable knowledge about business practices in America.
School also taught her a lot, but created many struggles as well. For one, learning English – especially with spelling – was difficult for her and she quickly noticed big differences between American and Mexican schooling. In Mexico, free schooling only went until 6th grade. When Lupe immigrated, she had only reached 5th grade but in the U.S. school system, she was placed in 7th grade. This caused her to miss important lessons especially with “phonics” and English pronunciation. She stated that her comprehension of the English language played a large role in why she didn’t attend college even though she really wanted to. Another thing that prevented this was money. At this point, she was married and she and her husband wouldn’t have been able to pay for college tuition. Despite her inability to attend college, she continued her education in other ways. She finished high school through 11th grade, got her GED, took teaching and nursing classes, earned a certificate from JMU, and became an interpreter. Although she wanted to go to college to become a physical therapist, she was able to become successful in other ways.
From Texas to Virginia
Through her sister, Lupe met a man named Roger Knott while he was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. The two later married and Lupe planned to move with Roger to his hometown of Luray, Virginia. They moved in February and Lupe was not prepared for how far and how cold Virginia would be. Roger had shown her a map to indicate the distance between El Paso and Luray, but she didn’t realize that “seven inches long [on the map] was going to be three days to get here.” About halfway through the trip when they reached Alabama, Lupe thought that it was taking too long and she wanted to go home. Roger convinced her to continue but she remembers it kept getting colder and colder as they went on. Once they reached Virginia, it was “full of snow up to [her] hip” and since she was used to living in the desert, this was the first time she had ever seen snow. She wasn’t sure she wanted to stay – in fact, she planned to leave as soon as she could – but the snow made it impossible for them to drive back. Both Roger and her mother kept convincing her to stay a little longer. Soon she got pregnant which kept her in Luray even longer. Although she does take trips back, she stuck with Luray and this has been her home for decades now.
Lupe has enjoyed joining clubs since she has lived in Luray because she sees them as “cheap education.” She has participated in the garden club and the 4H cooking club which helped her learn valuable information. The garden club taught her how to create corsages for her children’s proms because buying them would have been expensive. She first joined the cooking club because she didn’t know how to cook American food and wanted to learn.
Attending church was also very important to her, although she didn’t join one right away. She did want to, but her husband was always fishing and hunting so he couldn’t take her. She told me that it got to the point where she was ready to leave Luray because Roger didn’t take her to church. Her neighbor was able to stop her and took her to church herself. Later, she convinced Roger to take her to church, this time to Luray Christian Church. Religion has helped her throughout her life and even when things go wrong, she believes that everything goes according to God’s plan for her.
Having married someone who was neither Hispanic nor an immigrant, Lupe and Roger’s lives could have been very different. However, both have embraced the other’s culture even if they didn’t quite understand it at first. Lupe remembers the first cultural misunderstanding for her being “the gravy.” Once she moved to Luray, she initially lived with Roger and her father-in-law. She remembers one dinner when he made gravy and she thought it was going to be food for the cats. She was reluctant to eat it at first, but she has gotten used to it and even learned how to make it. A lot of American food seemed to shock her – especially different foods like gravy and the American tendency to fry everything.
Immigrating in the 1960s, Lupe began her life in America at a complicated time in our history. Pre-existing race relations in the form of segregation created a unique context of reception for non-white immigrants. Even after segregation ended, racism was still prominent in American society, especially in states like Virginia. She remembers that El Paso cared less about segregation because it had a more diverse population and they all intermingled. She felt that people in El Paso “did not see the colors…because [they’re] all together.” She was surprised to see how separated black and white people were in Virginia. A lot of states had a harder time letting go of segregation than Texas and she thought that Virginians weren’t ready to move on because of “the area they’re in.” As a woman with brown skin moving to a town of predominantly white people, she was often mistaken for an African-American. She felt that the community also judged her husband – who had been a part of their community for a long time and as she says “practically raised him” after his mother died – for marrying someone non-white. Lupe married Roger without even thinking about race because she loved him, but some people didn’t see it this way. 
In El Paso, Lupe lived with a population of about 50% Hispanic and 50% White. When she first arrived in Luray, the percentage of white people was much higher and she didn’t meet many Hispanic immigrants. She remembers seeing people with brown hair and speaking Spanish to them, thinking they were Hispanic. Roger had to explain to her that white people “don’t have to have blonde hair,” but it was the first time she realized that having darker colored hair or skin did not mean that they spoke Spanish.
At the time, Luray may not have been prepared to implement Hispanic culture into their daily lives. Lupe’s children in later decades felt similar prejudice to their parents. Estela, Lupe’s daughter, entered a contest and sang “Que Sera Sera.” She felt the judges and audience did not understand and were harsher on her because her song was Spanish. Lupe responded by saying “We’re gonna show them your culture…you will sing for them and I will teach them to dance and they will see how pretty our culture is.” When Lupe arrived, she also found that grocery stores didn’t sell any Mexican food or tools to make Mexican food. Lupe didn’t give up hope of continuing to make this food, though. Roger made tools that she could use for tortillas since stores didn’t sell rolling pins small enough. The weather also posed an issue for Lupe when making tortillas. She had to adapt to the humidity because it caused the dough to become “more aguada.”
Life as an Immigrant Today
Although we can’t change how cold or humid the weather is, today’s immigrants are entering a better, more accepting Luray – largely because of Lupe herself. Lupe’s story is proof that contexts of reception do change based on the area and time that immigration occurs in. Today, not only is Mexican food sold in grocery stores, but Lupe gets organizations, businesses, and the community on board to help new immigrants in Luray. Like her, many of them arrive with few material possessions. Before it closed, Lupe used to watch the Hunt & Peck thrift store next to the Luray Christian Church and would let these people know when cheap, or even free, furniture was available. Lupe would also send new immigrants to the Page One thrift store to fill a bag with clothes for $5-10. Lupe knew that even this could be too expensive for some immigrants so she got in contact with the owner of Page One who allowed them to get clothes for free. For a long time, Lupe has been “on the phone all the time helping them and getting them all jobs.”
She doesn’t only help immigrants, she also helps people back in Mexico. It hurt her to see so many things – “like blankets, shoes, and clothes” – thrown out when people in Mexico could have used them. She would ask, “How can I be given so much and I can’t take it [back].” She lives too far away for taking things to Mexico to be easy, but she does it nonetheless. She had to become crafty to save money and fit everything into one trip, so she would stuff cushions with clothing and her family would sit on them during the trip. She almost felt like Santa Claus delivering everything.
It seems that Lupe’s words to Estela about how pretty their culture is stuck with her. Estela has made an effort to share her and her mother’s culture with Virginian crowds through music and festivals. She became a state competitor in the same competition that at one time didn’t understand her Spanish music. Not only this, but Estela celebrates her Appalachian heritage from her father’s side in her festivals too. She has begun having an annual festival to celebrate Appalachians and Hispanic people in the valley by playing “Mexilachia” music. Her groups, the Lua Project and Music Together celebrate this music and bring families together to learn music.
Into the Future
A lot of today’s governmental practices and policies surrounding immigration leave a lot to be desired in Lupe’s mind. Presidential debates and interactions between candidates quickly become heated arguments to tear the other person down rather than build themselves up. She thinks that children seeing their country’s leaders’ immaturity in this way leads them to become bullies. The only way to set a good example for the children of America is to show respect for each other. For immigration policy, she believes that policies like the Bracero Program allow Mexicans to get what they need to survive and return home to their families. She has personally seen how available food and resources are in America and a lot of them go to waste. She believes that many Mexicans would prefer to be in Mexico, but they are starving and need to come to America in order to survive. She thinks the government should put a policy in place to allow them to come in to get food and then return to their families. She also knows that many Mexicans would be willing to work jobs that are going unfilled among Americans. Many businesses don’t have people who want to work, but Lupe feels that they would be able to get applicants if they look across the border. She thinks employers should be willing to help immigrants who don’t speak English to fill out paperwork and bring over employees for day labor.
Lupe has lived in Luray, Virginia for about 60 years but she will always have important parts of her memories, heritage, and culture from Mexico. She is able to visit her home from time to time, but probably not as often as she would prefer. However, 60 years of life gave her time to create a new home. She has built a family, career, community, and life for herself, even 32 hours away from where she started. I have had the privilege of listening to and writing out Lupe’s story which I hope I have done justice. I would like to leave off Lupe’s story with her own words: “I’m very proud. I’m glad that I got to say my piece – my piece of action. And to be heard what I have to say and I do it to enhance the ability of learning to the young people…I only have probably about lucky 20 years to live. And if I can put my foot in some of it, it will be great.
Katherine Brubaker 0:00
Okay. My name is Katherine Brubaker. I’m conducting this interview on November 30 at 3pm and would you introduce yourself?
Lupe Knott 0:11
Yes. My name is Guadalupe Diaz Chavez Knott. I say all three names because all these three people are my father’s mother and other members.
Katherine Brubaker 0:28
Okay. And how old are you?
Lupe Knott 0:30
I am right now, 76 years old. Yes.
Katherine Brubaker 0:36
Okay. And how old were you when you came to the US?
Lupe Knott 0:40
11 years old
Katherine Brubaker 0:41
So you’ve been here a while, right?
Lupe Knott 0:43
Yes
Katherine Brubaker 0:45
And what country are you from?
Lupe Knott 0:47
I am from Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua, Mexico.
Katherine Brubaker 0:51
And where do you live now?
Lupe Knott 0:53
I live in Luray, Virginia.
Katherine Brubaker 0:57
Okay. So why did you leave Mexico? Did your family choose to come? Did you come with them?
Lupe Knott 1:03
The reason my parents left Mexico at that time, at that age 11, I did not have no choice but to do what my parents said. But my parents wanted to come to the United States to give a better life to us, the children who was nine of us, and one of them was a deaf/mute, and they thought that he was will learn more and get more educated in the United States.
Katherine Brubaker 1:32
Interesting. Did you move straight to Virginia or some other state first?
Lupe Knott 1:37
No, we moved right next to El Paso. Actually, we walk across the border. After our papers were given, we walked across the and we live there in El Paso Texas, which is the border you cross the Rio Grande, and is the border of El Paso Texas.
Katherine Brubaker 2:00
Had you been planning? Had your family been planning to leave Mexico for a long time? Or did it happen suddenly?
Lupe Knott 2:07
No, my father was offered jobs in the United States. He’s a boot – cowboy boot maker and also an upholstery man. And issue of my brother may told him that it would be better if we would come to the United States.
Katherine Brubaker 2:28
Okay, how was the process of moving to the USA?
Lupe Knott 2:32
The process was very long. We had to do many paperwork. We had to have shots, we had to have background checks. We had to have make sure that most of all we’re healthy and make sure that we wasn’t going to engage – engage in any other drug dealing activities or anything like that.
Katherine Brubaker 2:58
Okay, and let’s see, you had to take tests, you had to meet specific requirements. Did you speak any English?
Lupe Knott 3:06
No
Katherine Brubaker 3:06
No? Did your parents?
Lupe Knott 3:08
No, no.
Katherine Brubaker 3:10
No. I guess moving to El Paso, there’s…
Lupe Knott 3:13
Well, actually – actually, in El Paso, about at that time, it was about 50% Hispanic, because it’s the border of El Chamizal, which is, the Chamizal was given back to the to Mexico as the time went on. But they bought – the United States, bought the land from Mexico, and that area there was made as the Chamizal, they called it. But later on, before I got married, the Chamizal was given back to Mexico.
Katherine Brubaker 3:54
Okay, and I forgot to ask, what year did you – did you immigrate? Do you know?
Lupe Knott 3:59
1967
Katherine Brubaker 4:00
1967?
Lupe Knott 4:01
I can, I can tell it.
Katherine Brubaker 4:02
Yeah. And how did you afford immigration? Was it expensive?
Lupe Knott 4:07
Yes, very, very expensive. It cost my father all his businesses. My father had three businesses, lots of property, and his boot shop, which – very nice. He did have a job when he came across, because he had sponsors that offered him home and a job, and there was enough.
Katherine Brubaker 4:31
Okay, so I guess it you expected it to be made up at some point -like the money.
Lupe Knott 4:38
Yeah, well, yeah, my father had had very had about three clients that was buying Cowboy boots at that time, which the family – which the family – It was a family business, and my father left some of the older relatives in Mexico who helped him fill up the orders that he needed to supply these people.
Katherine Brubaker 4:58
Okay, all right, and you already answered that one. Did you move with family members or friends? You did.
Lupe Knott 5:17
No.
Katherine Brubaker 5:17
No?
Lupe Knott 5:17
We was – The papers came in unexpectedly, so we had to rush to El Paso. My father managed to get an apartment of two bedrooms, so all nine of us divided boys and girls in one room, and I mean boys in one room, girls in one room, and we lived like that for about three months until the paperwork for a house. There was one of the one of the sponsors managed to get from the veterans, veterans of foreign awards application, and my father qualified for it, and so we moved down to, oh, I say, about an hour away from from the border. So we had to travel by bus. Yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 6:13
Was that long? Did it take a while?
Lupe Knott 6:15
Yeah, it was long. It was yeah, about 30. What did it say? An hour, yeah, about an hour. And at the time, we did not bring any furniture with us. We did not bring – everything was left in Mexico. We had to get furniture later. Fortunately, my sister was already in California. One of my sisters was already in California, and she came actually, and furnished the house and with credit, and, you know, she had a job and all that, and she went to the furniture store and got the furniture out for three bedroom house. So it was great. Hacienda Heights was the name of the – the what do you call it – the subdivision where we lived on. Yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 6:22
And who did you marry? Is he an immigrant?
Lupe Knott 7:10
No, I happen to marry Roger Knott who lives in Luray, Virginia. That’s how I arrived to Virginia, and how I arrived to Virginia, and we was to marry in June, but everybody was getting married and leaving home, and so I wanted to leave home too. So he’s – I said “not June, we will move in February. We’re getting married in February.” So we got married in February that time, but we did. I when he showed me the map, you know, the map wasn’t but about maybe seven inches long and distance to me was, did not understand it. So I didn’t realize that those that seven inches long was going to be three days to get here.
Katherine Brubaker 8:06
Yeah, wow.
Lupe Knott 8:08
32 hours.
Katherine Brubaker 8:09
Wow.
Lupe Knott 8:10
Is the the upper we went to Virginia. The weather started to get cold and cold and cold. So when we arrived to Minne- no arrived to uh, Alabama. I said, I think we’ve been going too long. It’s already two and a half, one and a half days, and I think we better get back. I don’t think I’m gonna like it. And so he said, Well, if I go back – if I go forward, we will get there in a day and a half. So we’re right in the middle. So I said, “Okay, let’s continue.” So we continue. Virginia was full of snow up to my hip.
Katherine Brubaker 8:56
Oh my. Really?
Lupe Knott 8:57
and I’d never seen snow so I was terrified. I was scared. We had a convertible Mustang, and it wasn’t very, you know, heavily warmed up, but it was and we made it so, sure enough, when I got out of the car, I went under. I slipped under the car. And, yeah, fell down, and so he had to dig me out of it.
Katherine Brubaker 9:24
Oh my gosh.
Lupe Knott 9:26
So it was very, very change –
Katherine Brubaker 9:30
Yeah
Lupe Knott 9:31
A big change from the desert, warm, flowers blooming over there, to snow. It was very and I really was concerned, because I didn’t bring the proper garments, the proper clothes, so I had to borrow a lot of his father’s clothes so I can get warm until we went shopping. So, yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 9:32
Did you want to go back at that point?
Lupe Knott 9:39
Yes, I wanted to go back at that point. I wanted to – I called my mother and I said, “We’re here in Virginia, but it’s full of snow. I’m coming back.” And I told her, “We’re coming back.” But unfortunately, we couldn’t get out because it snowed more. So we didn’t we he keep on asking me just, you know, wait till the spring, wait till the summer. And we did wait till the summer, and we went to visit in the summer again, but my mother insisted that give it a chance, you know, see how things would work. So and then I got pregnant. Then I couldn’t go. About 18 months after my wedding day I got I got pregnant, and then the doctor advised for me not to take a long trip back. So we had to wait until Christmas of that year that 1968 had to wait till Christmas of 1968 because he that’s when he was born. My son was born in 1968 so, yes, it was a big change.
Katherine Brubaker 11:00
Yeah. Alright. And I guess, did you say how you two met? Did he come down to El Paso?
Lupe Knott 11:07
Who’s that?
Katherine Brubaker 11:08
Roger
Lupe Knott 11:09
Oh, Roger and I – Haha – Roger and I, okay. He was my sister’s boyfriend.
Katherine Brubaker 11:20
Mhm – and you took him.
Lupe Knott 11:22
No, my sister had boyfriend before Roger and he was gone home from the service, and she did not know that he was going to come back, so she asked me to entertain Roger, to to see what Don wanted to come for. And so Don proposed to to Licha, and Licha asked me, well, you know, I’m going to marry Roger [Don]. So if you want to stay with Roger, it’s fine with me. So that’s how I ended up with Roger. But Roger was a wonderful man. He was very gentleman. He would open the door for me. He showed his colors before my decision of what I wanted to do. So I decided to stay with him, because he had a Mustang, a convertible -apple, candy, apple red. And my sister got married, and I made a dress the same color as the car, and I look really good in the picture, and so therefore he was a keeper.
Katherine Brubaker 12:32
Mhm. Sounds good to me!
Lupe Knott 12:35
I think the Lord manipulated all of these so I could keep Roger.
Katherine Brubaker 12:38
It all worked out, didn’t it?
Lupe Knott 12:38
Yeah, it worked out. Yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 12:41
And have you shared cultural practices with each other, since he’s not Hispanic?
Lupe Knott 12:46
Yes, very, very much. Our first cultural problem was the gravy.
Katherine Brubaker 12:50
Oh yeah?
Lupe Knott 12:51
Yeah, gravy. We was getting ready to eat dinner because we came to live with his father and the gravy was liver and onions. And my father in law, Elmer, was making gravy for dinner. And so I saw him how he did it. He fried the liver and pork fat, and then he put onions in it, and he toasted it, and did smell really good. And then after he finished, he put flour in the skillet, and then he put milk in the skillet, and I thought he was gonna feed the cats. So he put the he put the plate, the gravy on the table, and when we was about ready to eat, I took it away and put it on the sink, saying, I will feed the cat later. So everybody’s looking for the gravy, and they couldn’t understand, where were the gravy at. So finally, they found it in the sink, and they brought it up. I said, “We’re gonna eat that?” It’s supposed to be the cat food to me, you know? So no, we ate it and I hesitated, and I did taste it, and it tasted okay. It passed. So, but now I have to say that I am a good gravy person.
Katherine Brubaker 14:15
Yeah?
Lupe Knott 14:16
I like to make gravy. And I yeah. Yeah, it was a shock, it was a shock. The shock of the snow, the shock of, you know the weather, I mean, down to 30s, 32, down to 31, down to sometimes zero. It was very shocking to me. The way, no food, no Mexican food in Luray. I had to make my own and my husband had to make tools for me to actually make the food. I have tools made out of – And the whoa, what was big was the rolling pin. Rolling pin is whopper, you know, about two feet. The rolling pin and, well, not two feet, let’s say what is it? About, yeah, two feet, no? Something like that, about 16 inches or so. And then he had two little things on the end. No way I could hold it with the palm on my hand and roll the tortillas, you know? So I said, “I can’t – I can’t do tortillas with this. You have to do something.” So he said, “How long you want it?” And I said I wanted about four inches, four or five inches. And so he had to cut a plumbing pipe. Plumbing pipe on the water pipe. Cut a pipe about that many inches, because when you make tortillas, you hold that little pipe or the rolling pin that we have, we turn the tortilla and roll, turn the tortilla and roll. And I couldn’t do that with a big ‘ole…
Katherine Brubaker 14:16
Yeah, yeah.
Lupe Knott 14:40
And they did not have tortillas in Luray, so I had to make them. And another thing, the weather. The weather is humid, so, so as I was doing my tortillas, the flour was observing the humidity, and it keeps getting lighter. I mean, how you say it? More loose? More aguada. ¿Cómo se dice? You know, it didn’t roll right. So I had to put more flour and more flour and more flour and roll and roll and roll. So it’s – didn’t realize that the humidity would cause that. It’s science, I guess. But it and then when I made tamales. I made tamales and instead of the me finishing the tamales. The dough kept growing, growing, growing. It was rising. Why is this growing? You know? So I had to throw half of the tamales away because it was three o’clock in the morning and I haven’t finished. And I ran out of meat, and I ran out of and I said, Okay, this gotta go. And so it was four o’clock in the morning till I went to bed. Yep. Okay, so now question, I think I’m going too much.
Katherine Brubaker 17:09
No, don’t worry about it. It’s all good stuff. Okay, where are we at? Do you stay in contact with people in Mexico?
Lupe Knott 17:17
Oh yes, yes, I stay in contact with my – I have one sister. She’s actually supposed to be in the United States, but she’s able to go and come back within an hour or so, but she’s allowed to since she’s got her residency passport, I think she’s a citizen now. She told me she had become a citizen so she can just come and visit her kids anytime she wants to, yeah. Yeah, but we have aunts and uncles in Chihuahua. We have aunts and uncles in Puebla, Mexico. So, yeah, yeah, I do.
Katherine Brubaker 17:50
And what was your first impression of the US, other than it’s cold…
Lupe Knott 17:55
Yeah, well, of Luray, it was cold, yeah. El Paso was, El Paso was covered in silver. You know, because when you come to El Paso is silver, silver coins. And kids are in the river begging for coins. You know, they’re in the river, the Rio Grande, and they got these cones on like a broomstick, but it’s really high. They holler, “Hey, throw us a penny. Hey, throw us a penny.” And if the penny or the coin will go under the river, they will go after it. And it was amazing to see them, you know. So we would throw coins, and they catch them. And if they went all the way down, then they will go and find them. And there was a very nice and then so we unfortunately, unfor- No, no unfortunately, fortunately, as you walking through, some of the people, people’s money, don’t go all the way down the bridge. Some of them fall on the bridge. So when I, when they told me that it was silver, and I was walking and I saw some of the silver dimes, I said, “Whoa, this, this country is rich” you know, “It’s, it’s got coins all over the place” you know, at 11 years old. So I picked them up, and I’m in my pocket, bought some chewing gum and stuff like that, you know. Yeah, it was a very good expectation. And also I expected then I was able, at 12 years old, I was able to get a job selling stockings in some of the stores four for $1 and the man that had me doing that, he taught me a lot. He taught me a lot, because being young, I didn’t know how to do that. So I would sit across the door like that, “Stockings four for $1” and then he’ll come and push my hand down, and I would say, “What’s going on?” He said, “You don’t do that. You have to stand still like a young lady and sell the stockings so they can see the stockings that – you’re going to wear them, and they can see them on you.” So he taught me. It was a very nice learning process. Teachers very, very attention. They put a lot of attention on me, and they taught me, you know, a lot – speaking, and also spelling was the hardest. Oh, spelling. Why? Why do you say “ahmbrella”? If it’s umbrella, see how you spell umbrella? “U”. So, how do you say “uhnion”? If it’s onion, how do you do that? But anyway, it was really hard the to switch the language, you know, yeah. So I’m still kind of…
Katherine Brubaker 20:49
Were you nervous or afraid when you were moving here?
Lupe Knott 20:51
Yes, yes. We was very nervous and afraid because we did not – Daddy sometimes wouldn’t come home until real late at night. He didn’t have only one job. He had other jobs, and mom had to handle us most of the time. She would send us to church, but she wouldn’t go because she had, meanwhile we was gone, she would get to do the supper or whatever needed to be done without us interrupting her. So yeah, yeah, she was… We’re Catholic by birth.
Katherine Brubaker 21:25
Did you see many other immigrants when you lived in the USA? Probably more in El Paso than here, right?
Lupe Knott 21:31
Yeah, yeah. In El Paso is, like I said, 50% Hispanic and 50% White Anglo Saxon, that’s what we call them. And in Virginia, no, it wasn’t very many. In fact, I would see somebody with brunette hair or dark hair, and I would come speak in Spanish to him, and they will turn around and look at me, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” So and I couldn’t speak very much English either when I came to Virginia, so it was kind of hard. And I will go to my husband and say, “But their hair is dark, why don’t they speak Spanish?” Because they’re not Spanish. They’re actually Americans, and they don’t have to have blonde hair, you know. So anyway, it took me a while to learn that, that not because I saw the color of their hair or the color of their skin, they could, they could speak Spanish.
Katherine Brubaker 22:33
Did you feel welcomed by the community, or did you feel unwelcome?
Lupe Knott 22:39
I feel – I felt welcome at the beginning, but as time went by, no, I wasn’t very welcome, as you remember in those years, 1967 – it was the segregation with Martin Luther King.
Katherine Brubaker 22:56
Yeah…
Lupe Knott 22:57
And so when I arrived, I arrived to the boonefield in Luray, Virginia. The boonefield is, is 90% Americans. The, at that time, was a segregation with Martin Luther King. So my skin was, is brown, brown, dark brown, so they confused me with Africans. So it was kind of hard for the community knowing that Roger has been their close neighbor, and they have been because their his mother died, and they practically raised him. It was really hard for the community that he had married me being of dark skin. So anyway, later, my daughter and son were having problems in school because of segregation dying. And then Estela, my daughter, who sings very well, she was going to compete at the Share the Fun in 4H and so she competed with a song Que Sera Sera, which is in Spanish and English, and she did not win. So she was very upset to that she didn’t win. She said, “Mom, they don’t understand me. They don’t understand what I’m talking about.” And I said, “Okay, so we’re – they don’t understand you. We’re gonna show, show them your culture. We’re gonna have a fiesta. I will make a piñata. You will sing for them, and I will teach them to dance, and they will see how pretty our culture is.” So it was hard, but now I am the advocate of the Hispanic community in Luray, Virginia, and not only me, but considerably every Hispanic famil- family that comes to Luray, Virginia. They think is my relatives, you know, so and it’s okay with me, but I wanted to put the community in in Luray and us that we are, we are good, we’re fun, we’re we’re going to exchange learning from each other. I’m gonna make beans and tortillas and they’re gonna make gravy and all of this stuff. So it’s fine. You know.
Katherine Brubaker 25:28
It’s getting better?
Lupe Knott 25:29
It’s much, much better. Estela had a – what do you call? A festival, a Hispanic Festival at VFW? They’re actually the dances and the the stuff that I have done many through the years, actually, they qualify it as, as a monument for Virginia. And now they have given Amy Azano – Amy Price and Estela, my daughter, the right to have a festival every year honoring the Appalachians because we’re in the Appalachian Mountains, Appalachian Mountains and Hispanic. So we get it together and we they play bluegrass music and they play Mex… blues. What is it? Blue music? What is it? The blue…
Katherine Brubaker 26:23
Bluegrass?
Lupe Knott 26:23
Bluegrass, yeah, Spanish. Bluegrass music in Spanish. Look it up on lua.com and it’ll show you there what it’s like.
Katherine Brubaker 26:33
I’ll have to find it. Or I’ll have to go!
Lupe Knott 26:35
Yeah, yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 26:36
Good, okay, what were your experiences – we alr- you already kind of said with jobs, but with school and jobs, how are they different from in Mexico?
Lupe Knott 26:47
The schools in Mexico, you only go six, six grades. Up to the sixth grade. From the sixth grade, you decide whether you go to work or do you go for the farther in school, like university and on and on, but you are able to get out of sixth grade and get a job in a store. As a cashier or all of that. By that age, you know how to read and you know arithmetic, to plan it, to give change and to take orders. But if you want to continue, you can become, you know, a doctor, just keep going to school. The schools are free from first to sixth grade – they’re free, but if you go further than, you have to pay for whatever school you want to go.
Katherine Brubaker 26:47
Okay, alright, did other kids at school judge you for being an immigrant?
Lupe Knott 27:48
Yes
Katherine Brubaker 27:48
Yeah? Aww
Lupe Knott 27:50
Yes, yes, they did. Fortunately, I had an African teacher, and she was very, very informative to me. She will get my face, hold my face in her hands, and push my cheeks to pronounce the TH “thh” and she would, she would say, okay, … so, yeah, my the first, the at the beginning, it was, it was the teachers were great. The teachers were great.
Katherine Brubaker 28:24
Oh good.
Lupe Knott 28:24
Yeah, and it was in El Paso. You don’t, you don’t have a lot of a lot of segre- you, you have a lot of segregation, because we have a fort. That’s where Roger was in. Roger came to Fort Bliss, Texas, as a soldier, and he was stationed in Fort Bliss. And we have many nationalities. They come in, German, Indians, Russians, everybody. And in El Paso you see a lot of nationalities. So when I came here, I was very surprised that the blacks were not, you know, together with the whites, I was very surprised and but I understand.
Katherine Brubaker 28:24
Did you go to college?
Lupe Knott 29:22
No, I was, I was in the fifth grade when I left, when I left Mexico, and when I came to the schools here, they put me in seventh grade. So I lost a lot of the a lot of the pronunciation of the letters. I lost a lot of the symphonics. They call them phonics?Phonics?
Katherine Brubaker 29:45
I think so
Lupe Knott 29:45
Phonics. Probably then done over phonics, and I did not learn to the phonics of you know, and it’s very difficult for me up to today, how to read it, how to write. And and read, I stumbled through reading because I never know whether to pronounce the “ooh” or the “uhh” or the “thh”. I, you know, so anyway, it’s kind of hard. I have to think two times.
Katherine Brubaker 30:13
Yeah
Lupe Knott 30:14
I have to think in Spanish, and I have to think in English. Convert it into English. So it takes me a little longer to understand comprehension
Katherine Brubaker 30:24
More work
Lupe Knott 30:25
Uh huh. Comprehension, to comprehend what I’m reading.
Katherine Brubaker 30:29
Did you want to go to college? Or did you want to go –
Lupe Knott 30:31
Yes
Katherine Brubaker 30:32
You did?
Lupe Knott 30:32
Yes, I wanted to go to college. I wanted to go off physical therapy. I wanted to be a coach and but yeah, pedia- but yeah-
Katherine Brubaker 30:44
Pediatrics? Pedi…?
Lupe Knott 30:46
Feet, not, not baby. Pediatrics is babies. Foot, feet, whatever feet. I love to. I love to fix people’s toenails. I don’t know it’s an obsession with me. I like, I like to fool around with it. Yeah, I would have loved to go into college. But no way, it was not possible.
Katherine Brubaker 31:12
Yeah, why wasn’t it? Money?
Lupe Knott 31:16
Well, as you see, my my learning. If it takes me two times to read a book where you can read it one time and I have to read it two times. Time consumption is just very difficult. I had to work two times, you know, and and then money, no money. Roger didn’t have no money. He had a home where his father lived and a job, but college is very expensive, so I didn’t, I didn’t go. I went as far as 11th grade, and then I took my GED, and then from there I took several – I took nurse, everything is teach- assistant- teacher assistant, nurse assistant, everything is assistant. So I’ve been involved with lawyers, doctors – lawyers, because I am an interpreter. I did get a certificate from the James Madison University for medical interpretation, so I did that. But I did that thanks to one of my friends that told me that they were having a course in that and she said it was very nice if you get it, because that way you have some kind of certificate. So then the court sent me to do legal interpretation. Couldn’t, couldn’t do it because it involved a lot of English, but I did get to interpret. You don’t have to be certified to interpret, especially in an emergency, like in the hospitals and somebody that gets detained and the jails and all of that. So I did involve myself into free, you know, free work to learn at the same time. And so the church did pay me $80 an hour, but if you have $80 an hour once a month, it’s not enough to pay even rent or anything like that. But I’m very pleased of who I am, because I help my community, and I help, you know, my church, I help the police, I help everybody and the social services. I’ve been involved in social services for many years. So you know, I’m good.
Katherine Brubaker 33:50
Good, good. Let’s see…
Lupe Knott 33:52
Are you cold?
Katherine Brubaker 33:53
No, I’m good. What organizations, clubs, or groups did you join?
Lupe Knott 34:01
Okay, I love and join – I enjoy being in clubs because it’s cheap education.
Katherine Brubaker 34:09
Yeah?
Lupe Knott 34:11
Cheap education, if you join in a club, like, for example, I wanted when my son started going to and my daughter started going to the prom, they needed … and they needed a little button here, and and the flowers were very expensive, so I joined in the in the garden club, and I learned from them, not only to make arranged flowers, but also learn to tell what kind of flowers they are and all this stuff. Uh, what is it? They call it, okay, I don’t remember the legal name. And then I joined in the club where they were 4H they were teaching people how to the kids that they give, the people they give food to, like the food pantry, you know, but these people don’t know how to cook the food. So I joined with them so they can, they can show me how to cook, because I didn’t know how to cook American food. Up to now, I cannot do very well. But anyway, I learned how to how to do pies, and I learned how to do gravy, and I learned how to do fried chicken. Fried chicken, my God, you have to flour the chicken. First you take it apart, you cut the legs and everything. You take it apart, and then you roll it in flour, flour that has been with pepper and salt on it, and you roll it, and then you put it on the grease, and then you let it fry there for a long time. It was the weirdest thing, because in Mexico, we boiled everything. We boiled – we boiled the chickens. We boiled everything, very little frying stuff. So, yes, I love clubs like so I belong to the cooking club, I belong to the garden club, any kind of club that I am interested in, I go ahead and enjoy it.
Katherine Brubaker 36:22
Did you join the church right away?
Lupe Knott 36:26
The church, the church. I wanted to join right away, but at that time, Roger was so enthused on fishing and hunting. He had come back from four years of service, and all he wanted to do was come home and go fishing and hunting, because that was, that was what he liked to do when he was a young fella. So when he kept going for about six months, fishing and hunting, and I went along with him, but I did not like the mosquitos that get on me.
Katherine Brubaker 36:57
Yeah
Lupe Knott 36:58
And I said, No, no fishing, it’s they fish me, I don’t fish them! And then hunting. I was so so sad that he would kill a deer or kill a squirrel or kill a turkey, so I would push them away. “Shoo! ¡Vete! ¡Vete! ¡Vete! He’s going to kill you!” So he did not think he should take me hunting, because I scared all his game. So, yeah, it took me. It took me a while to understand his culture. So I decided I was going to go home, and I took the money that he was to pay his Mustang payment, and I was going to go home. And I went around and around in Luray, looking for the trailways or whatever bus station to go. Couldn’t find it. A neighbor came out and said, “Are you Roger’s wife?” I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Well, what are you doing? I seen you go by here a couple of times.” I said, “Yeah, I’m looking for the bus station to – I want to go home.” She said, “Why?” And I said, “Because Roger, all he does – all he does is fish and hunt. He don’t take me to church.” And I said, “Okay.” She said, “Come on over. Let’s drink some coffee.” So she took me to her house. We drank coffee. I cried and I you know, and she took me to Mount Carmel Church that was over here on the corner, and we went, and by that time, it was already two o’clock when we get out, and Roger and his Mustang were the door of the church with the door open, and the car for me when I come out. I didn’t want to make any waves, you know that I was mad at him, so I obediently put my head down and went in the car. And then when we got home, I put the money on the table, and I said, “I was going to go home. I took the money from your payment of your car, because I want to go home because your fishing and hunting doesn’t apply with me. I want to go to church.” So after that, next week, we came to church. And we started coming to church – to Luray Christian Church – and that’s how long it’s been. It’s 1968? 1968. After little Roger [Jr.] was one. So there we are.
Katherine Brubaker 39:16
So you got your way, didn’t you?
Lupe Knott 39:18
Yeah, and I’m still here!
Katherine Brubaker 39:21
All right. And did these make you feel more at home here and more part of the community?
Lupe Knott 39:27
Uh yes, everybody in the church was very, you know, very nice. A few people, you know, there was still with Martin Luther King ways, and a few people. But I could take and understood what they was going through. Because El Paso, we did not see the colors. We didn’t see blacks, oriental people, we didn’t see them, because we’re all together, you know, and but when the news will come in and say about with Dr. Martin Luther King, what he was going through, and all of that, they I understood that these people up here, because of the area they’re in, they were more into that, you know, they didn’t want to let go, you know.
Katherine Brubaker 40:17
Mhm, yeah.
Lupe Knott 40:18
They stay over there. We stay over here, you know, we don’t, we don’t want to mix, you know. So I marry Roger with no concept of knowing the difference on the races, yeah. And so he fell in love with me, and I fell in love with him (and his Mustang). And I came and and, you know, I think it was all God-sent. I think God, God needed somebody to to help the community of Hispanics that was going to arrive, which is right – many right now, yeah, we just had, we just got 100 families in the Page County area.
Katherine Brubaker 41:01
In Page County?
Lupe Knott 41:02
Hispanic people and they need jobs, and believe me, I am on the phone all the time helping them and getting all them jobs. So I think, I think it was all God’s movement. He’s our Creator, and he puts things where they belong, and no worries. If he can take care of the birds, he can take care of us.
Katherine Brubaker 41:02
Alright, let’s see. You already kind of talked about this, culture shocks. Are there any other that you can think?
Lupe Knott 41:34
Well, culture shocks were Yes, it was really hard when members of the church will insinuate that I did not have enough money to buy three pounds of tomatoes they were selling at 99 cents a pound, and I did not have enough money. I don’t know what they thought that maybe because Roger didn’t have enough money, or because whatever, but I was able to buy them. And one of the other members raised their hand and said, “she said she was going to bring the tomatoes. Let her bring the tomatoes.” How she’s going to pay for it, we don’t care, you know, but, and it was the time that no tomatoes were, you know, around. So it was 99 cents a pound. So, but yeah, and there was a shock to me, because the church, you know.
Katherine Brubaker 41:34
Yeah
Lupe Knott 41:34
How can you, how can you do that? I mean, I said I was going to bring the tomatoes. They were afraid that I wouldn’t be able to bring them. I don’t know, but God is so powerful there. And I did. I brought six pounds of tomatoes, and it was, you know, $6 and it was, that was that much. Roger was able to help me with it, and I babysitted and I worked and I sewed, you know, I did not just stay home for the good of it. I took in alterations, I babysitted, I did all I could to help Roger make money, and we was living at his father’s house, so we wasn’t paying no rent, you know, but the United States is rich compared to third world countries.
Katherine Brubaker 43:17
Yeah, yeah.
Lupe Knott 43:17
The United States has food given by the welfare. The United States has churches that go and get people to bring them to the church. They have way of moving. And just like when they told us that you come into the bridge and you see the silver, it’s not necessarily that you got silver all over the streets, but it’s very wealthy, you know.
Katherine Brubaker 43:44
Yeah
Lupe Knott 43:44
And I would cry because I would see people throw things like blankets, shoes, clothes, and I wanted to go so bad out there and pick up this stuff so I could take it back home and give it to the people that have nothing in Mexico, you know, they’re, they don’t have clothes, shoes – they’re barefooted. And I would cry, because, how can I be given so much and I can’t take it, you know? So, but anyway, and that’s the way it is.
Katherine Brubaker 44:19
Yeah, people here can be very wasteful.
Lupe Knott 44:22
Yeah, it’s really hard, really hard.
Katherine Brubaker 44:25
Yeah. Alright. Was there anything that was really important to you, especially in Mexico, that people here just didn’t understand, like, maybe holidays or things like that?
Lupe Knott 44:38
Yeah. And like I said, the clothes that I see being thrown away, blankets that I’ve seen being thrown away, that was really hard for me, that I’ve seen in Mexico, that it was over here. But unfortunately, I live 2000 miles, which is 32 hours to get there. Regarding the weather, the weather is in the winter, you’re going to approaching to snow, ice and rain, and then to get there. And if I would have to take them by plane, it would be a lot of money. And then I would rather send them the money, than, than take it to them. So what I used to do, I take the covers of the cushions of my chairs and open the zippers, take the cushions out and stuff them with clothes and put them in my car. And because, see, I couldn’t cut the I couldn’t cut the room in the car, because we had kids and they needed the car space. And then every time I went, I brought one of my nephews with me, one of my nieces with me, one of my brothers with me. I raised 22 people.
Katherine Brubaker 45:46
Wow!
Lupe Knott 45:47
22 people, between brothers, nieces and nephews and foster kids and and when I arrived, it was like Santa Claus had come, because I had brought the brought the stuff with them, shoes, clothes and everything. And I still do that here, when the families come in, when, when families come in, that Hispanic families come in, they come with nothing.
Katherine Brubaker 46:12
Yeah
Lupe Knott 46:13
You know. So I, I the lookout. When we had the Hunt & Peck over here, and they would put free things outside. They like a couch – free. And I will call them, and I said, “There is a couch for you over there. Go get it. Go pick it up.” So other, other people will come in with a trailer and take it to their house and mattresses and clothes and send them to Page One, pay $5, $6, – $10 I think now it’s $10 used to be $5, you fill a bag, trash bag full of clothes.
Katherine Brubaker 46:45
Yeah, yeah.
Lupe Knott 46:46
So I would send a note to the lady that was running it and told them that they didn’t have no money. So she let them pick whatever they want out of there, and pantry they have the- What else do you want? You know, it’s all supplied, but and they are like, oh, you know how we did come to the land of plenty! That’s what they say. We came. We made the right move. We came to the land of plenty. They, they look at like, like the United States is a promised land, you know, and it’s a lot of happiness. And even I’m, I’m cold, but I’m still having a good time.
Katherine Brubaker 47:23
But you’re happy? Good. Let’s see. Have you been able to keep your culture living in the US?
Lupe Knott 47:33
Yes, fortunately, yes, me, being able to teach the children after Estela insisted on, you know, going to Share the Fun and all of that. And she got pretty far with the Share the Fun. She became a state competi- competitor in Share the Fun. And she’s, now, she’s fully, totally in music. She has, she has Lua is a group of Hispanic and Appalachian Mountain singing. And she has Music Together, which is a group for mothers, they’re pregnant, and children, that are tiny. And she teaches them music, uh huh. And they are. They got about 250 members on that.
Katherine Brubaker 47:37
Aw. Wow!
Lupe Knott 48:14
And then she’s got, she goes to weddings, she goes to parties, she goes to churches, and she goes to – so they totally, totally immerse into music. And they do, even do have enough money to support themselves and pay their mortgage. So what else do you want?
Katherine Brubaker 48:41
Yeah!
Lupe Knott 48:42
You know? So, yeah, she’s very successful.
Katherine Brubaker 48:44
Good. All right, did you find it difficult at all to maintain that culture – especially where a lot of people aren’t in that culture?
Lupe Knott 48:55
Yeah, no, no, I don’t find it difficult, because if somebody doesn’t understand it by the time I get to be with them, and I get to show them how my culture is they get happy. Because it is a very happy- I mean, you have fiesta all the time. Fiesta, fiesta, fiesta, you know? And it’s no time to pout. Is that how you say it – pout?
Katherine Brubaker 49:08
Yeah. Pout? Yeah.
Lupe Knott 49:14
It’s no time to pout. Let’s have a fiesta. Let’s sing. Let’s do this, ayayay, you know, cielito lindo, you know? And it’s, it’s, you don’t have time, because, even though it’s a third world country, but we’re full of joy.
Katherine Brubaker 49:35
Yeah
Lupe Knott 49:35
Yeah, we’re full of joy. We have many religions, but each each person to its thing. You know, some are Catholic, some are, you know, Baptist, some are- and but everybody has tamales.
Katherine Brubaker 49:49
Yeah
Lupe Knott 49:50
Tamales, buñuelos, tacos, and that the crunch of the tacos – it makes music, dadada – and then you start singing, and it’s, is, I’m glad to have come to the United States to bring the Spanish culture, because now we even have Hispanic day a year.
Katherine Brubaker 50:11
Yeah
Lupe Knott 50:11
Not only in Luray, but in all the country you know, we have Hispanic month, or Hispanic whatever, you know. And you see the parades, they’re full of dancing people and all that. Puerto Ricans, Puerto Ricans is a Hispanic because they speak Spanish, but they are part of the United States and and they are the best performers, my goodness! They are the best inventors, I mean, composers in music, the best dancers, the best, a lot of stuff. Yeah, and it’s a little bitty island!
Katherine Brubaker 50:43
It is, I’ve been there!
Lupe Knott 50:46
Youv’e been there!
Katherine Brubaker 50:46
Yeah
Lupe Knott 50:47
Okay, then you got to see it! Yeah, very happy, very happy.
Katherine Brubaker 50:48
Uh huh. I went there with school so…
Lupe Knott 50:51
You went to school there?
Katherine Brubaker 50:52
No, I my – Luray High School took a trip there.
Lupe Knott 50:55
Oh yeah, okay, yeah.
Katherine Brubaker 50:58
So, let’s see, how have politics and legislation with immigration affected how you live as an immigrant?
Lupe Knott 51:06
I had to learn, when I became a citizen, I had to learn all the names of the presidents
Katherine Brubaker 51:13
Oh my gosh
Lupe Knott 51:13
And I had to learn the, you know, the cabinet, the all the branches of the cabinet. And it wasn’t easy to learn all of that, but I did manage to do it, and I did pass and I am a citizen of the United States, so it’s it’s hard.
Katherine Brubaker 51:30
I don’t think a lot of people could do that. Well, what are some negatives of living in the US?
Lupe Knott 51:40
Negatives of living in the United States that we have, but we shouldn’t have – that we have Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of being ugly, and I do not like that. I wish we’d come up with another way of telling what the Democrats are going to do and telling what the Republicans are going to do, but not shoot each other down, putting themselves down, because that’s a bad example for the children of the United States. That’s how they grow up to be bullies.
Katherine Brubaker 52:16
Yeah
Lupe Knott 52:17
If our leaders are doing this, we can do it too. And how do we set an example for our kids? We have to set an example that is good. So I think we, if we make an effort, and we will ask our leaders and provide a rule that you are not to say negative things about the opponent, and that way we would grow better kids, and it wouldn’t be so much violence, because that way they will learn to respect each other – R, E, S, P, E, C, T – you know, you want to put it on a song. I don’t care how you put it to those Republicans and Democrats. I don’t care how you put it, but respect should be maintained.
Katherine Brubaker 52:37
Yes
Lupe Knott 52:41
And don’t put them down. That is the way to be, to be a country, democratic country, and we have to set the rules to the point that we are not shooting some, some of the people had got shot, you know? And why? Because of all these negative decisions they make. So if it would be a rule set for that, it would be wonderful. And as far as immigration, if either United States will allow a rule that immigrants could come in and pick up the food, the food is ready to be picked up and let them get back home, because they don’t want to be here. They want to go back home, take their money with them. They don’t want to be here. But the the problem is that they don’t let them come. And they are starving over there, and they have to come and look for jobs. And even I that I’m didn’t graduate from high school, I think I can find a solution of making a a long, long time ago, most about 100 years ago, they used to have the Bracero deal, which immigrants would come, like they would come to Virginia on the months of October and so and so to pick the apples and do that in the month of May and June. They will come in to arrange the, you know, spray the fruits and all of that. And they have their months, and they would go back, and then they will come back. But not now. Now it’s all about crossing the border, because they don’t, you know, how long it takes to become a resident of the United States? 10 years. Their children will grow, and they don’t get to, you know, and so that’s the reason why they are coming across the border.
Katherine Brubaker 55:01
Yeah
Lupe Knott 55:02
If they would give them permission, if a family comes in and say, I want to be a apple picker filing the application, you going to have so many months the apples get done, blah blah blah and then you go back and and they will be glad to go back, because money is more over there than it is over here. You take $100 it’s going to be about $300 or $400 over there, because it’s cheaper over there, you know. And you can buy land, and you can have a house. They don’t want to be away. Some some kids that come here, they don’t never see their parents again, because they can’t leave the country
Katherine Brubaker 55:38
Yeah
Lupe Knott 55:39
You know. And I think, I think that it could be better immigration rules that everybody gets to get a piece of the pie, you know, in this is an apple pie. America!
Katherine Brubaker 55:55
Alright, what are some positives of living here?
Lupe Knott 55:59
Positives of living here? It’s a great country. It’s like I said, we thought we find silver in the streets.
Katherine Brubaker 56:07
Yeah
Lupe Knott 56:07
It’s a great, great country. It’s in the, to the, to the newcomer, that’s what it looks like, you know, to them, but as you go by and comprehend the rules of democracy and and beating each other up. That kind of gets heavy, and the shooting of people and all of this stuff is because the leaders are insinuating it
Katherine Brubaker 56:31
Yeah
Lupe Knott 56:32
And, and they, they took God out of these churches, and that shouldn’t be, because this is, this is God’s country and the money says on God, In God We Trust. In the United States coins and currency they they have In God We Trust. And that’s what it should be in everybody thinks this is the, this is the highest mountain you can climb.
Katherine Brubaker 56:59
Yeah, yeah.
Lupe Knott 57:01
And thank God for America. God bless it, and he will continue to bless it, except for those that are negative people that don’t want to obey what’s supposed to be. And I think that if somebody’s running for president, this is your rules. You do not accuse your opponent. You do not batter your opponent. Everything you’re going to do, you’re going to say what’s good about you, what’s good about you, nothing about what’s bad about him.
Katherine Brubaker 57:29
Yeah, yeah.
Lupe Knott 57:32
Figure what is, freedom of speech. They say they can do that because of freedom of speech. Well, you say you freedom of speech, under behind the walls or behind a door or behind whatever you don’t speak ugly in front of your child, so therefore there’s we have to do the same. You know? Did I answer the question?
Katherine Brubaker 57:55
Yeah, yes, you did. And last question, do you have any advice for young immigrants today?
Lupe Knott 58:03
Yes, the advice for young immigrants today that I see, and I am very much acquainted with them, and I’m very much in in touch with them. I i have two immigrant babies that I saw them being born and and he fulfill, become immigrant lawyers, become lawyers, so immigration lawyers and environment, and one of them is right now in what is where the bridge is? The Golden Gate Bridge? San Francisco. He’s over there. He’s an engineer of the environment. And the other one is actually a lawyer, helping, you know what they can help the immigrants right now, because it’s many applications, and they say they don’t have jobs. Hey, bring those people. I’ll be glad to go file 100 applications, fill them out and to get them out, because we don’t have people that works. Did you go? Did you go to the dollar, general dollar store? The the carts are lined up in the hallway because they don’t have nobody to come and put the stuff away.
Katherine Brubaker 59:17
Huh.
Lupe Knott 59:18
You know, they don’t have no workers, and because they don’t have their visas, they can’t give them work, and because they don’t have the Social Security, they can’t give them work. Sign a paper or something. This is a labor – day labor. And day labors, that means that they hire him for the day, and he made so much money, keep the paper, and then at the end of the year, they can say, we did this. Did we deduct Social Security? Yes, we did. You know, they don’t do it because they don’t know how to do it. They don’t speak English, they don’t know how to do the paperwork, but if the employer will fill it out for them and keep note of how much they pay them they would be paying taxes too, you know, income to the United States. And so I what am I talking about? I’m only 11th grader.
Katherine Brubaker 1:00:18
All right, anything else to add,
Lupe Knott 1:00:20
No, I’m very happy that you asked me to do this. I’m very proud. I’m glad that I got to say my my piece, this piece, my piece is a piece of, you know, action and and to be heard what I have to say, and all I do it is to to enhance the ability of learning to the young people that can probably take this out I only have probably about lucky 20 years to live. And if I can put my foot in some of it, it will be great. Okay?
Katherine Brubaker 1:01:02
Thank you so much. I’ll stop the recording right here.
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