Chapter 12:  Mimi's Life Stories 

California State Fairs and its People, Part 2 

As much fun as it was working alongside my aunts and uncles, primos and distant relatives, the fairs also opened the window to the world of commerce, business, government and entertainment.  I met and interacted with people that under no other circumstances could it have happened.   

Being brought up in East L.A. the opportunity of being around  livestock, such as cattle, horses, sheep,  pigs, chickens, ducks, and the great varieties of rabbits, and even guineas pigs, snakes, and rodents was fun.  I enjoyed talking to the exhibitors.   I admired the dedication and care that the 4-H students displayed for their animals.   Sometimes they would bring blankets and rest in the corrals with their animal.   I think at some fairs, the 4-H kids were allowed to sleep ever-night  in the enclosures with them.  One day while pigs were being moved from one pen to another, I was caught in the walk-way between the enclosures.   The young man with whom I was chatting,  said not to worry.  However, the back of the pig was about the height of my waist, and his skin was covered with hard sharp bristle, which kind of scratched  as they rubbed against me.  I wondered how it could be comfortable sleeping next to these large animals.

During the summers, the Chapa clan would sometimes prepare goat barbacoa.  A deep pit was dug in the backyard, with bricks laid at the bottom.  We kids were not allowed to play with the  purchased goat.  It was surely a wise thing to do.  With all the love that the 4-H exhibitors had for their animals, it was hard to understand  how they would auction them off,  knowing most would be going to the slaughter.  The identity  of being a meat eater came to my awareness. Transition from cattle or pig in the field to my plate began to help me see the animal and human world in a larger frame.

By walking past the chicken cages, the great diversity within each species was clearly  illustrated. A chicken is just not a chicken.  We are a world filled with varieties.  Every day, I was able to enjoy the the worlds of people who passed our booth.

Each fair was enriched by the many, many talents and interests of participants in the fair competitions,  in potted plants  and floral arrangements,  in skilled  handicrafts and fine arts, in glass-blowing and carpentry, in quilts and table settings, in cooking and photography.  

Each fair attempts to mount exhibits demonstrating their County's produce, lifestyle, and social strengths.  It helped me understand the inter-relationship between building on your resources and the required leadership and order for developing a community.  My major was Recreational and Public Administration,  Working the fairs was very much like field study and reinforcement to the principles, I was attempting to absorb.

I enjoyed viewing the new products demonstrated, watching the sales pitch,  observing the crowd.  I would see the same people  at the different fairs  and developed a comfortable friendship.  One young man would take a break when he saw me coming, and we would just walk around or sit and chat.  He lived in a trailer with a male friend who was a boxer, whom I met once.   It was curious, when the boxer  approached us, my friend seemed to be afraid of him seeing us talking. My friend was aspiring to break into Hollywood and gave me a photo of himself.  Years later my Mom saw the photo and commented on how good-looking he was, insinuating, how did I let him go.  By then, I had put all the pieces together  and realized  he was in a homosexual relationship with his boxer friend.  I hope he fulfilled his dreams.

Another performer was the lion tamer. (Fresno)  If I could,  I would take a break  when he came by.  Surprisingly,  He seems so unimpressed with himself and his vocation.   I found it fascinating.  I never imposed  myself on him, asking for special treatment, (like petting one of his lions), but I did enjoy being an only audience sometimes as he tried new sequences.   I also worried when one of the lions would seem to want to get behind him.  He only made the big fairs,  and said it was always easy to find me.

Most California fairs (Pleasanton) have a bit of a cowboy flair, country music is very popular.   Not familiar with country music,  I was surprised  when I would take a break walking around with a local radio announcer.  It seemed that we always had  a group of young girls following us.  He seemed totally nonplused, obviously used to fans following him.  I was a bit embarrassed that I didn't know more about him and his music, so I could respect his role as the local radio announcer more fully.  I did visit his booth and watched him in action.  It was fun. 

There were the cowboys and jockeys. Although I really enjoyed and appreciated their skills, I never did connect with any of the jockeys or cowboys who rode the bulls and roped the calves.  They all wore boots and cowboy hats, spoke and walked a little different than the city boys.  

One image that I have tied to the horse races,  was of an individual, a gambler.  He was not sitting in the stands, he was standing by the race track railing.  Even though he was wearing dress shoes, he had no socks on.  He had on a long black dress jacket, but not wearing a shirt.  It was clear he had placed a bet on that race. He had some tickets in his hands,  which he kept looking at.  When the horses passed the finish line, it was also clear that his horse had not won, or even placed.  His whole body slumped over.  He tore his ticket in pieces and crumbled it up, and the pieces just drop to the ground.  It appeared that he had literally bet the shirt off his back.  My mom had told me once that a gambling addiction was even worse than alcohol and drugs.  This man was beaten.  How sad.  

Another performer, (in Napa) would climb a very tall pole, do a hand-stand on the top, bending  and swaying the pole from side to side.  It was an incredible show of strength.  He started taking his breaks at our booth.  He then asked my Uncle Oscar for permission to take me out for a steak dinner.  I thought that was a nice gesture to ask my uncle and I agreed.   He said there was a steakhouse outside of town that was very good.   We started driving on country roads.  It was dark. He stopped the van and asked if I wanted to get in the back.  I said no.   Then he start talking about how beautiful my body was.   I realized I was in a very unsafe situation.  He was all muscle.  We were on a dark road.   I could see no lights.  I was really scared and didn't know what to do.  I just started to cry (sob is a better description) and pressed myself against the car door.  He stopped talking,  paused and then quietly turned the motor on.  He apologized on the way back,  and stopped coming by the booth, instead, just nodded as he went by.  

Another disappointment (San Jose) was a relationship with a girl, my age.  Her family owned a lot of California property and race horses. They frequented many of the fairs I worked . I enjoyed walking around with her as she shared her privileged life-style with horses, and in tact family life.  It was very different from mine.   

She was so excited when we saw each other at the San Jose Fair.  She was anxious to share with me that she had been accepted at San Luis Obispo College, specialized in farm and livestock studies.  She was so excited and  I was really happy for her.   I had just completed my first year at UCLA.  I had never mentioned it to her, primarily because as a high school senior, she never expressed an interest in going on to college.  When I started to tell her  that I was going into my sophomore year at UCLA, the strangest thing happened.  I could see it in her eyes.  She did not believe me.  

I don't  know if it was because I was a little Mexican girl,  or because she could not believe I would have the grades to be accepted at UCLA.  For what every reason, she could not accept the fact that I was a university student.  Our growing friendship was finished. She never came by booth again. I was sad. I thought we could write and become great friends, and share our college experiences.   My husband suggested I had "bested " her.  The San Luis Obispo campus at that time was a college, not a university. 

Another girl, more a woman, (Fresno) with whom I became a seasonal friend.  She worked in the carnival. Usually she and her partner set up the equipment, booths, etc. In the area of the fairgrounds the carnivals are most always set up where there is dirt and sawdust.  It is difficult to keep self and clothes dust free. However, this young lady was spotless, always.  I so admired her for that.  How did she manage it living in a trailer,  moving from place to place. Blond and beautiful, her partner was a very handsome man, who appeared of Polynesian heritage.  They were a stunning couple.  So it was with quite  surprise, when she came to our booth, and very simply asked me, if I was dating her friend.   I was shocked and said, no, absolutely not!   She just nodded her head, smiled and said, "I thought so."   What a relief to be believed.  She came by the booth after that, but her boyfriend never did.

Fairs always have displays and booths hosted by community groups, service, political, educational, and government agencies to promote their purpose, mission, goals, and activities. 

One booth at the Stockton Fair attracted my attention. It was hard not to be totally aware of it.  It was a display mounted inside of a building right across were our our booth was set up.   When the doors were open, we faced one another.  It was a booth of Navy Frogmen, Underwater Demolition Teams, pre-cursors to the SEALs. They were stationed in Stockton and that time.  In addition to the Fair, the Frogmen did demonstrations at local community sites.  

The Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) were an elite special-purpose force established by the United States Navy during World War II. They also served during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Their primary function was to reconnoiter and destroy enemy defensive obstacles on beaches prior to amphibious landings.

I dated one of the Frogmen during, and after the duration of the fair.  I really enjoyed watching him demonstrate his swimming skills, and to learn what they did.  Even after the school year started, we dated sporadically in Los Angeles.  The last time we dated, he gave me telephone contact information for him, and said, "When you are no longer a virgin, give me a call."  Though I admired his honesty, he never did receive a call from me.  

Pondering my experiences in writing these memories, I realize that most of these misunderstandings may have been based on my curiosity and fascination with people, men and women and their lifestyles.  Apparently, some of the  men mistook my friendly interest in them,  as a romantic interest.  At the Bret Hart Jumping Frog Fair, I was really puzzled with the flirtatious attention of both a father AND son who came to our booth daily.    

Obviously, I was in a world I did not know how to read, try as I did.  Both men and women have surprised and disappointed me many times. However,  I did learn that each individual, man or woman can establish a personal code of behavior, in which personal self-respect can be found.   We choose. 

My husband says, "You believe everyone does something with the same motivations that you have . . and they don't." A very dear friend of mine, Anne Panyagua Mocnick said it this way: "Mimi, you have to be able to describe a person's character, as clearly as you would describe their outside appearance. You are a dolphin, swimming with sharks."  

It is easy to observe that the world is filled with sharks, but "Since dolphins normally travel together in groups, if one of the group is threatened by a shark, the other dolphins will join in without hesitation to do its best to defend the dolphin that is in danger.  The dolphin’s main weapon against a shark attack is its snout, which is made up of very strong and thick bone and has a hard rounded end.  The dolphins circle the shark rapidly from different directions thus confusing the shark and rendering it unable to chase any of the other dolphins."   http://animalquestions.org/mammals/dolphins/can-dolphins-kill-sharks/  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmLYGzlPLj0 

My Uncle Albert, who served in the South Pacific during WW II.  He  told me of many incidences which he personally observed of men clinging to life, struggling to stay afloat in the ocean, being pushed to shore by dolphins.  Being naturally naive and according to my husband, a Pollyanna, I happily choose to swim with dolphins.   

I think I felt that comfort when I was with familia, like dolphins must feel.   A few more primo stories of working the fairs.

Cathy Auclair Vargas, her Grandma and my Mom were sisters.

Thinking about working at the family Mexican food stand takes me back more than fifty years.  “My fairs” were Pleasanton and Santa Rosa, and as a teenager out of school for the summer, I simply couldn’t wait for the fairs to roll around.

I didn’t know at the time that I was learning life- lessons, because I was having so much fun!   I learned what it was to have a good work-ethic, to be paid for a day’s work (I would have worked for freeJ), I unconsciously learned pride in representing the production of a delicious product (some people purchased dozens to take home and freeze), I “got” to learn how to use a cash register (the old cash registers), I was taught how to count change (no smart registers to tell you what was due the customer), and was able to put all those skills to practice, at warp speed, during “THE RUSH.”  

As “our” food was so good, it really was, in additional to the everyday business, race track attendees would RUSH our stand after certain races and during certain peak hours of the day.  Of course they only had a limited amount of time to get back to the track, so it was an onslaught.  I laugh as I think back,  seeing them in my mind’s eye, some running, race track listing waving in the air, yelling before they got to the stand, more than twenty, more than thirty and more following.

We, of course, were ready:  Eva and Josefina had things down to a science in the kitchen, my brother Miguel and I giddy with anticipation,  everything prepped that could be prepped… and then they would come.    Over the years, it was a delight to see race-trackers and families return again and again.

Most importantly, I got to know some family better, some people better, than I would have otherwise.  To this day I have memories of Eva and Josefina, their heads peeping out of the open interconnecting kitchen window to see the goings on, Josefina munching on something, laughing among them as they diligently prepared the food.  Aunt Dora lived in Pleasanton, and one summer I was blessed as I got to stay with her and spend the evenings with my cousins.  I got to know, and see who my Uncle Oscar was, one of my grandmother’s youngest sibling, a prince of a man, and his precious wife, my Aunt Alice, that I still see today.  I worked hard with my brother and we shared time that I still cherish today; and, I learned a work ethic that seems to be in the DNA of my grandparents’ entire family when they emigrated from Mexico for political reasons a lifetime ago, as evidenced in their descendants today.

Cathy Auclair Vargas
Miraflores, Peru         
elialenice@aol.com

Eric Chapa, M.D.  His Dad and my Mom were siblings.

A letter to my Family:

My father, Oscar Chapa was born in Monterey Mexico on December15, 1917. His family came to El Paso, Texas to escape the turmoil of the Mexican revolution* when he was about five years old along with his siblings.

My grandparents moved the family to Los Angeles were my father completed only the 8^th grade, before he had to leave school to help support the family, once the depression came. He continued his education under his older sister who had been teachers in Mexico.  Self-teaching himself auto mechanics, and later aircraft mechanics.  He joined the California National Guard in 1939, and when war broke out, transferred to the Army Air Corps. During the war he rose to the rate of Master Sergeant. By the end of the war, the family had moved to the Stockton-Manteca area.

In 1947 two things happened that shaped his life and that of most of my generation,  as well as many our children. First my father and two of my uncles Gilbert and Chuck built the Mexico Café and second; the Manager of the newly restarted California State Fair (it had been suspended during the war years until 1947) stopped for lunch; liked the food and asked my dad to be part of the new fair. From 1947 until he was 75 years old, he ran the business and we all grew up cleaning beans, selling tacos, tamales, as well variety of non-Hispanic foods from time to time. The State fair grew to two more, and then to at least 9 California fairs that we worked.  The concession still continues in the hands of one of my father’s workers, who later became a partner.

The fairs were the center of our family life, but only a fraction of what my dad was doing in our community.   He was a pilot in the Sheriff’s air patrol, was one of founders of the San Juaquin Lion’s club, helped with feeding the volunteers at many Su Salud events, Saint Mary’s Kitchen for the poor, organized and cooked at most of the Lions Cub fund raisers.

From the age of 12 years I worked at the fairs during the summers. My Dad was my role model, and felt I had work harder for him.  He did not have the chance for a formal education, but he made sure that I always had the opportunities, to pursue my interests. Even though out college and Medical school, I tried to help out, whenever I could.

While interning at the San Juaquin General Hospital, I had a chance to give one of the workers a break working the front counter when the Medical Department head, Dr Zener and the Assistant Director happened to come up the stand.  I could see he recognized me and was confused him and not sure.  I served his meal but avoided letting him ask me any questions.  I purposely turned away when he it appeared he was getting ready to ask me anything.

             The Assistant Director knew the score and played along.  The next day at checking in for morning report, Dr Zener asked if a brother?  I said, “No, but I did have sister and a cousin, who was kind of like a bother.” My cousin, Richard Spaulding, always called my Dad, Dad.

              When I could not hold straight face.  I told him “Julian if you paid your residents better we would not have to” moonlight”.  Dr Zener being on the bashful side started apologizing, and I was shocked I had addressed my Department Head by his first mane.  (This was actually one of the better paid residencies.)  Julian and I have been good friends to this date, but I still call him Dr Zener. Working with my Father was great.

Between collage and medical school was the Viet Nam War and Navy.  For me it was an adventure for my father it was not.  I did not learn or understand that until my sons, after the 9-11 attack, asked me if I wanted them to go into the military.  We serve is the motto of the Lions Club and how my father's entire life was lived.  

                

Whereas, Born on December 15, 1917, in Monterey, Michael Lyons, Mexico, Oscar Chapa  moved with his family to Texas in 1921 and, four years later, they relocated to Los Angeles, California;  and

Whereas, First serving in the United States Army National Guard, Oscar Chapa also enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, where he obtained the rank of Master Sergeant;  and

Whereas, Moving to Stockton with his wife, Alice Reynoso, and children Dena and Eric, Oscar Chapa  open the Mexico café with his sisters, Elia and Estella, in 1947;  and

Whereas, Operating top of stands in various county fairs over the years, as well as the California State fair in Sacramento, Oscar Chaka owns Oscars catering service, which open for business in the mid-1940s;  and

Whereas, During his 47 years of service to the Stockton San Joaquin Lions Club, Oscar Chapa  has chaired by raising projects which include tamale and enchilada dinners, the Cioppino  Feed and St. Patrick's dinners;  and

Whereas, Committed to improving the quality of life for others, Oscar Chapa has served the community by removing the old roof of the Blind Center, driving truck loads of donated food and clothing to orphanages in Mexico, contributing used ambulances to small towns, and annually chairing a project started in 1977 which provides lunches for the volunteers of the Su Salud Health Fair; and

Whereas, For many years, Oscar Chapa  served weekly at the St. Mary's dining hall and, as a member of the San Joaquin counties shares air posse, he made himself and his airplane available in times of need;  and

Whereas, Oscar Chapa is known to frequently increased the Stockton San Joaquin Lions Clubs contributions to various charities and, as a lifetime member, he continues to advise and inspire all the members now, therefore be it

Resolved by Assembly Member, Greg Aghazarian  and Sen. Charles S. Poochigian,  That Oscar Chapa be commended for the significant contributions that he is made to the people of the local community and throughout the state, and extended sincere best wishes for continued success in the future.