{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/nc5s75868d/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Interview with Joe Gonzalez"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/004/original/ISULogo.png?1601681107","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["Interview with Joe Gonzalez, RS 13/37/5, Latino / Latina Studies Program records, RS 13/37/5, Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives. Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9j679410"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Iowa State University. Special Collections and University Archives"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["This item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by Iowa State University as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from Special Collections and University Archives.\nhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Gonzalez, Joe Anthony (interviewee)","De Avila, Oscar (interviewer)","Suárez, Lucía M. (creator)","Iowa State University. U.S. Latino/a Studies Program (sponsor)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["2020s (temporal)","Iowa (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Oral history interview conducted by Oscar de Avila with Joe Gonzalez for the US Latino/a Studies Program Oral History Project, directed by Lucia M. Suarez, focused on Latinx Education in Iowa, as part of the USLS 377X Class, Latina/o/x Life Stories: Memoirs and Oral Histories."]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["video/mp4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2024-04-30"]}},{"label":{"en":["Relation"]},"value":{"en":["Latino / Latina Studies Program records (RS 13/37/5) (part of)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Mexican Americans (topical)","Education (topical)","COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-) (topical)","Police (topical)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Moving Image","oral histories (literary genre)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["RS 13/37/5 (call number)","https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9j679410 (permalink)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Oral history interview conducted by Oscar de Avila with Joe Gonzalez for the US Latino/a Studies Program Oral History Project, directed by Lucia M. Suarez, focused on Latinx Education in Iowa, as part of the USLS 377X Class, Latina/o/x Life Stories: Memoirs and Oral Histories."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["This item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by Iowa State University as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from Special Collections and University Archives.\nhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Iowa State University"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Iowa State University"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/004/original/ISULogo.png?1601681107","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/250/074/small/Joe_Gonzalez_Interview.png?1743803023","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - 1725506214_JOE-GONZALEZ-ORAL-HISTORY-FINAL-OSCAR-DE-AVILA-Laura-Sullivan.mp4"]},"duration":2616.7141,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/250/074/small/Joe_Gonzalez_Interview.png?1743803023","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-iastate.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/250/074/original/1725506214_JOE-GONZALEZ-ORAL-HISTORY-FINAL-OSCAR-DE-AVILA-Laura-Sullivan.mp4?1725506318","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":2616.7141,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074/transcript/70578","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["FINAL_Oral-History-Transcript_Oscar-De-Avila.txt [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074/transcript/70578/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Oscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHello, today is Tuesday, April 30th of 2024. My name is Oscar. I'm interviewing Joe Gonzalez for\r\nthe USLS 377x class, Latino life stories, memories, memoirs, and oral histories at Iowa State\r\nUniversity. Please know, Mr. Gonzalez, that this recorded interview will be placed in the Iowa\r\nState University Parks Library, and it may be made available online via YouTube or a similar\r\n\r\nplatform. If there's anything you do not wish to answer or talk about, especially given that your\r\nrecording may appear online, I will honor your wishes. Also, if there's something you want to talk\r\nabout, please bring it up and we will talk about it.\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nOkay.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nUSLS 377X class wishes to archive your interview along with other photographs and other\r\ndocumentation. At the Parks Library at Iowa State University, we will retain copyright of the\r\ninterview and any materials you donate to USLS 377X class. Uh, these next few questions, just\r\nyes or no answer.\r\n\r\nDid you give, do you give USLS 377X class consent to archive your interview and your\r\nmaterials at the Parks Library?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYes.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you grant USLS 377X class copyright over the interview and any material you provide?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYes.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you agree to allow us to post this interview on the internet where it may be viewed to people\r\naround the world?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYes.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nAwesome. Let's get things started.\r\n\r\nWhat is your full name?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nJoe Anthony Gonzalez.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow old are you?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\n71.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nWhere were you born?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, born?\r\n\r\nUh, I'm from Yurecuaro Michoacan, in Mexico.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nWhat do you do for work?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, we, well, I'm classified as retired, but I'm actually the director of the Latino Heritage Festival\r\nin Des Moines, Iowa.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nCan you tell me a little bit more about your heritage at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYeah, uh, Born in Mexico state ofMichoacan.\r\n\r\nI came to the United States when I was five years old. So I don't have tons ofmemories ofbeing\r\nthere. Uh, it was the same path, the same journey for my folks as far as bringing us up, you\r\nknow, for to better our lives at that time. And so, uh, it was easy at that time because not as\r\nmany people traveled compared to right now, right now, you know, it's really, really difficult to\r\ncome up, but, uh, it was a fantastic opportunity for us at that time.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nWhere did you go to school?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nI went to school at McKinley Elementary. Middle school, Weeks. And I was supposed to go to\r\nLincoln, but I opted out to go to Tech High School, which is right now Central Campus.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow was your time in those schools?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nMy time was good. Actually, you know, elementary was good because that's where I learned\r\nmost of my English.\r\n\r\nYou know, as a kid, I mean, a young kid in, in kindergarten, I mean, any, any kids like a sponge,\r\nyou learn fairly quickly. So that's why it kind of got everything started as far as learning the\r\nlanguage and learning uh, a lot of the culture what and what was here in Des Moines, Iowa, uh,\r\nmiddle school continued to kind of grow, figure out my path, uh, high school, the reason I went\r\nto tech instead of Lincoln is to learn a, um, a job.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nAnd did you graduate?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYes, graduated in 1971. Actually the area, they called it a core area, this is what you went in\r\nthere to learn. Because they had carpenters, they had electricians, they had auto mechanics.\r\nMine was auto body repair, repairing cars after they were involved in accidents and for whatever\r\nreason that kind of struck me as, you know, something interesting to do.\r\n\r\nI went and took that through all the time I was in high school. But ended up taking a class\r\n\r\nduring high school that was criminal justice that kind of struck me. Got me interested in a\r\n\r\ndifferent pathway.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nGive me a little bit more about your criminal justice side and how that influenced you to go to\r\nyour next steps.\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm, first, you know, the teacher that was teaching it was a former Des Moines police officer.\r\n\r\nAnd part of the curriculum was that twice during that semester, we got to do right along with\r\npolice officers and So, just the interest in, uh, serving, civic engagement, you know, got me\r\ninterested. That just seeing, you know, when you went on the ride along having the connection\r\nwith the teacher, then it just really kept building my interest during that year to where that's what\r\nI decided I actually wanted to do rather than the auto body repair.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you have any kids at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYes. I have three girls and two boys.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nAny grandchildren?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nOh yeah, I've got, uh, nine eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDid they go through the Iowa education system at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, the majority, yes. Yes.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow is the experience of having kids in the Iowa education system?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nThe experience is good.\r\n\r\nUm, you know, as a grandfather, even way back when as a, uh, as a parent, you know, you\r\nthink about the education system, you think about where, what school.\r\n\r\nYou get kind of picky as a parent and even as a grandparent, I think about the majority of them\r\nhave gone through the Southeast Polk system, which is good, you know, but sometimes you\r\n\r\nthink about, okay, you know, which schools are better than others, even if it's just within the\r\n\r\neducation system, um, fortunate enough to, you know, to have that because Southeast Polk is,\r\nyou know, a good system.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nUh, did your identity as a Latino or your children's identity as a Latino affect their education or\r\nchange their education at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nNot mine and not theirs as far as I know. I haven't heard any complaints ofanything, you know,\r\naffecting them. Um, People ask me about that even when I went through the school system,\r\nyou know, would they ever have problems, you know, with their school system, even at work\r\nand whatever, and I really don't recall, you know, there might've been some people that kind of\r\nsometimes try to chime in on things, their feelings, but ifyou let them say something that gets\r\nyou, then you've already kind ofgiven in.\r\n\r\nSo most of the time, you know, it's kind oflike you would smile and just kind of, you know, Not\r\npay attention to what people say. It's all about what you do, what you are, what you believe in\r\nyourself. So I didn't recall that much of that. Every once in a while, yes. Did I kind ofsee a little\r\nbit or you sensed it?\r\n\r\nYeah, maybe, but I didn't let them, uh, you know, went over me and affect me.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nTell me your experience with COVID 19.\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nExperience with COVID 19 was kind of a difficult one. It was, um, it was worrisome, you know,\r\nwith the way things were handled, handled on the national level. Um, it's true that, you know,\r\nwith the flu and everything else, you know, we lose a lot of people that pass away.\r\n\r\nBut with COVID 19, there were so many things that could have been prevented, you know, uh,\r\nso many deaths. So, so much that could have been prevented. And unfortunately I got\r\npoliticized way so much, way too much, way too much. And then the losers are a lot of times,\r\nyou know, you're minorities, you know, um, because they don't have, The opportunity to go or\r\nknow where to go to get the vaccines or it's not in their language so they can at least go.\r\n\r\nUh, and then we have the unknown as far as our own people within the Latino community were\r\nafraid of it because we're hearing all the symptoms and all this stuff, negative things about if you\r\ndid get the vaccine. So we lacked information within our community to say, okay, everything\r\nyou take. It has effects, but it can still help you, right, to prevent the more serious effects of the\r\nCOVID itself, because if you have underlying medical conditions and it can be very devastating.\r\n\r\nAnd so that was kind of a difficult thing to kind of maneuver. I know that our organization\r\n\r\nthrough our marketing partner for the festival, since we weren't going to do the festival because\r\n\r\nof COVID. partnered with Polk County Health to get all the information out to Latino community\r\nin Spanish to make sure that they took care of all the different negative, uh, things that were\r\nout there for people to be afraid of doing it.\r\n\r\nAnd so all the myths and everything. And so with that, and then another organization, Knock\r\nand Drop got created during that time. And it was more for vaccinations to educate them also.\r\nAnd to be able to provide and get the supplies that were needed at that time that were always in\r\nshortage, you know, like you talk about toilet paper or sanitizer, uh, different things that were\r\nimportant to have the whole household to prevent because at that time it was just so unknown\r\nthat you, you know, people were, you know, I saw videos ofpeople, you know, this is how you\r\nsanitize your, uh, your food when you bring it back to the grocery market, you know.\r\n\r\nYou take these towels, you know, these sanitized towels and just wiped all the packaging and\r\neverything with it because it was unknown. You know, they didn't know how to park, what\r\nextreme you had to do all that. So just to educate our folks so they weren't out of the loop. And\r\nso it affected us that way.\r\n\r\nAnd then also as being, uh, the director of the festival. Our planning, we knew that we, we had\r\nto keep checking the news, checking, um, uh, the government to see what they suggested for,\r\neven if it, even though it was an outdoor activity, uh, and checking with our sponsors to see if\r\nthey felt that they wanted to sponsor it or not because you know, they didn't want people, you\r\nknow, even outdoors to be in a, in a gathering.\r\n\r\nSo. It affected us quite a bit and we were able to navigate it. We did end up canceling the\r\nfestival during that time. It was probably just the best decision just to avoid confusion.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nYou talked about working with Polk County Health. How was that interaction?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nThat interaction was good. Uh, and it was mostly our marketing guy.\r\n\r\nWe have a company, marketing company that does our work and they're the ones that kind of\r\nled the charge there. And then I believe the director of that knock and drop. Did some stuff with\r\nthem. Um, the only thing we did was just be able to provide them access through our\r\nFacebook as far as, hey, if they're going to have something to announce it, to get the word out\r\nmore as far as where they can get the vaccines and how important it was.\r\n\r\nAnd then all the myths, facts and myths about the vaccine and why, why it was important.\r\n\r\nSo, the main goal was to educate Latinos and educate the community. What other steps did you\r\ntake to educate the community at all over the pandemic?\r\n\r\nUh, just the masks, obviously. Wear your mask, you know. Um, even if you don't believe in\r\n\r\nthem, okay, you might not believe in them, but you're going to still save somebody else that\r\nmight get sick.\r\n\r\nRight? And getting sick is one thing, you know, if you can kind of withstand the disease, but\r\nwhat if they have an underlying condition and it made them so terribly sick, maybe they could\r\ndie. So don't just think about yourself. Think about the whole picture and that it's about\r\neverybody else and do everything that you can to, you know, protect them and protect your\r\nfamily if you believe, your family, if you believe in it.\r\n\r\nBut if you don't at least protect everybody else that you're around.\r\n\r\nSo what was your initial reaction to the whole pandemic and started seeing all the deaths and\r\nyou talk about minorities, how did that all like affect you when you first saw it all go down?\r\n\r\nYou know, it was disheartening because the political thing, downplaying it.\r\n\r\nThe vaccines weren't available in a timely manner because they had been stopped.\r\n\r\nWhat a year prior to everything, you know, when you have the center for disease control or\r\npart of the government, you know, they're working on that to see any other up and coming, um,\r\nillnesses or anything so that they can kind of work on it ahead of time, prevent it, you know, and\r\n\r\nso that was stopped quite a while back so they kind of had to play catch up trying to get it right.\r\nUm, and so it was frustrating in that regard.\r\n\r\nI'm not gonna, I wouldn't be willing to argue with somebody to say, okay, you don't want it then.\r\n\r\nYou should, you should, you should, but it's a choice and it should have been available sooner.\r\n\r\nAnd I think in my own opinion, people that got cheated out and kind of got left out because the\r\n\r\nway it was handled, everybody got cheated and left out, but even more so your immigrant\r\n\r\ncommunity.\r\n\r\nIt was discouraging and just seeing the numbers all the time, you know, we see the deaths and\r\n\r\neverything in a far so past. Deaths from the flu. Yet everybody was saying it's no big deal. You\r\nknow, the governor was saying it's no big deal. It would be about the same as the flu. When you\r\ncompare it with all the deaths, it was wow.\r\n\r\nIt's a lot more.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow did it affect your family?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm, everybody was nervous. Um, as far as you know, we contacted each other, make sure\r\n\r\neverybody got masks, make sure you kept up to date. As far as What type of masks were safe,\r\n\r\nbecause you know, people were doing cloth masks, they were doing all kinds of stuff, so.\r\n\r\nIt was a little nerve wracking, okay, this is, okay, you're wearing something, but it's really not\r\nhelping, so you got to do this. Same thing with distances, same thing with, if you do get it, how\r\nmany days, you know, because it started at what, seven days, and it kind of went down towards\r\nthe end at three days after you confirmed you got it.\r\n\r\nAll that kind of stuff, so there were so many things that were going on. Within family, you're\r\nalways checking with each other, because you want to make sure that you're all well. Right. And\r\nwhere they're going, making sure they're not getting exposed, um, you know, that type of thing,\r\num, preventing being able to gather.\r\n\r\nIf you do gather, they said, if you just gather and it's your, the immediate family, it's okay, but\r\ndon't be gathering and extended at that time, then it kind of changed into something else. Okay.\r\nIf you do gather, it's okay. You can have more people, but you got to do this, that, whatever. And\r\nso. It was a little nerve wracking at the time, you know, to kind of think about that.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDid it affect you and your family's mental health at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nOh, yeah. Oh, yeah, because a lot of us were talking about that. We're so anxious, anxiety, a\r\nlittle depression, a lot of a little bit of everything because you're thinking, okay, anytime you felt\r\nsomething. Is it that or not? I know that I've had issues, you know, like with a little bit of, of, of\r\nallergies.\r\n\r\nSo that's one of my daughters. And so every time we felt something, you're thinking, Oh, is it\r\nthat? And who have I been around? And uh oh, I don't want to have to have been around\r\nsomebody to give it to them. That type of thing. Um, anxieties as far as, like I say, the mask they\r\ninvolved in which one is good, what you should have and anxiety.\r\n\r\nUm, if you get it, how many days? You know, or at one point, whatever you're feeling as far as\r\nsymptoms, you go check, get checks to make sure that's, if that's what it is or something\r\ndifferent. I did get COVID once, uh, but if truth be known, I think a lot of us probably got it more\r\nthan that. You know, it was just at one time I happened to be around a friend that tested\r\npositive.\r\n\r\nThen another one did. I decided, Oh, I better go. And sure enough, all three of us tested. Yeah.\r\nYeah. Yeah.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nYeah. Does COVID still affect the way you and your family gather today?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nNot as much, not as much. And I think, um, you get complacent over time since it's not\r\npublished enough as far as out there, as far as all the stats, everything is going on.\r\n\r\nYou, when it really spikes, you hear it a little bit. Other than that, You don't, people are still kind\r\nof cautious, but probably not as much as they used to be.\r\n\r\nSo how would the, you talked about not being able to meet with immediate family. How was the\r\nfirst times being able to meet up with your family during the pandemic?\r\n\r\nIt was good. It was good to be able to kind of get together, but you know, you try to be careful\r\naround each other.\r\n\r\nAnd, uh, the timing when we got together, you know we kind of talked about you know, making\r\nsure that you're not getting outside your immediate circle because that's the what they were\r\nsaying, don't get all out of your circle . Especially like for, for uh, gatherings such as the\r\nholidays.\r\n\r\nThat's where it kinda really got you a little bit because you're used to, a lot of times families.\r\nSome families don't see each other until the holidays, you know? Or that's just a special time\r\nwhere you kinda do special things and so, that's when it kinda was, really got you and, ok,\r\nshould we or shouldn't we get together.\r\n\r\nThat type of thing or keep it a smaller gathering or just the same size gathering. So it's just,\r\n\r\nyeah. So it was mental health aspect of it was just crazy because there were so many\r\n\r\nunknowns they were playing, uh, catch up from, uh, the vaccine, all kinds of things that you\r\n\r\nknow, just, you were very wary. And then, you know, I think sometimes when you're trying to\r\n\r\nkeep up on all the information, all the statistics, all the deaths, all that kind of stuff.\r\n\r\nHow heavy it's hitting one county or another. It's good to know, but on the other hand,\r\n\r\nsometimes it's bad to know, too. Because the heavier, the higher the deaths and the number of\r\npeople that have it, the more nerve wracking it is for you thinking, oh, where was I? Do I have it?\r\nAnd if you start having some kind of symptom that kind of mirrors some of them, oh, do I have\r\n\r\nit?\r\n\r\nShould I stay home? Should I go get tested? That type of thing. Then it came out with the home\r\ntesting, which kind of helped out, even though they're not 100 percent, they got better and better\r\nas they kept, you know, advancing, uh, the tests themselves. And so people would always have\r\ntests at home, you know, just so that if you have the symptoms, you test and at least get peace\r\nof mind.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow, um, did COVID change the way you and your family receive education at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm, well, I talked to my daughter, you know, and of course they were doing a lot of, uh, at first\r\nthey were doing mostly, um,\r\n\r\nthrough social media, right? And, uh, which worked, but sometimes you have to have that\r\nother stuff. Then it would evolve to ya know, a combination of in person, combination of, you\r\nknow, on social media and everything so the hybrid version. And so when it was. It was a new\r\nway of learning things, you know, for students, I think. Um, if the student already is doing fairly\r\nwell, I think it's not going to affect them too much.\r\n\r\nBut the students that needed a little bit more one on one attention, I think they kind of lost out.\r\nUm, and it's hard for them to keep up, you know, during just Zoom type of education. Because\r\nthey needed more of that one on one. Um, and so it, it did kind of affect, you know, my daughter\r\nwas talking about it all the time and then of course, okay, you're doing it at home and soon, but\r\nnow when you're going to school, now make sure you take your mask, make sure you do this,\r\nmake sure that, you know, you're wearing it at all time. Did you take care of yourself? Make\r\nsure that you disinfect your hands, all that kind of stuff. Make sure you got a hand sanitizer in\r\nyour backpack.\r\n\r\nSo so yeah, so it affected.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow do you think education itself was handled during the pandemic, especially with governor\r\n\r\nReynolds and handling kids education. How did that affect your family and seeing everything go\r\ndown with that?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nDisgusted.\r\n\r\nDisgusted because you know, it's kind of crazy because the Polk County Health Department,\r\n\r\nyou know was, You know giving us, in my opinion, you know most of the right information In\r\n\r\nthe state, obviously there's controversy What they were getting there was about a, What they\r\n\r\nwanted to give out that was okay and you can do this and there was no big deal and that kind of\r\nstuff.\r\n\r\nSo, and then I remember there was a director of the health department or assistant that got\r\nfired because she was trying to put out the right correct information. She got fired and it was\r\npolitically motivated obviously because that's not the message that they wanted to say, to say\r\non the, on the thing.\r\n\r\nAnd so hearing those two perspectives were kind of totally opposite, so to speak.\r\n\r\nOne of them, don't worry about it. The other one just take precautions. Um, and it's not like\r\n\r\npeople are going to be preyed on or it's just like educate, you know, education is the best thing\r\n\r\nwhen things are going down. It's educate the community, educate folks on what they should and\r\nshouldn't do.\r\n\r\nSo that's, It was very disheartening to see that. And it's like, wow, again, two different\r\nmessages.\r\n\r\nSo yeah. And the governor, she's the one that fired the gal. Governor, her message was just\r\nkind of completely way out of bounds. She was going along with what Trump's wishes were, or\r\nthoughts were on COVID, which was like, it's no big deal, and everybody back to work,\r\neverybody to do things as normal. So yeah.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you still feel as ifthe Latino Heritage Festival is affected today by the pandemic?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nNo, we were fortunate. We were lucky. Prior to the pandemic, we were growing. Fairly well,\r\nthen the pandemic hit and we had to lose a year.\r\n\r\nWe were worried about picking up that momentum that we had prior to canceling one year,\r\nbecause in retrospect, you look at everything, a lot of things after the pandemic, you know,\r\nbusinesses, there are different things that kind of either went out of business business or\r\nweren't the same afterwards.\r\n\r\nAnd that's what we were thinking that after one year and everything else that people might be\r\nafraid and it might affect us and we wouldn't pick up where we were before as far as the growth\r\nand how popular it was and everything, but you know, to our surprise, it grew even more and it\r\ncontinues to grow even more, even ever since, uh, the one year that we missed.\r\n\r\nSo each year is better than the last after missing one. And I think there's some small festival,\r\nsome small events that took a hit. After taking a year off to where they didn't continue anymore\r\nor they lost their attendees a little bit. The main ones haven't. The big ones like Asian Festival,\r\nWorld Food, Art, no, some of the smaller ones did but we were fearful of ours, you know.\r\n\r\nCause you never know.\r\n\r\nBut, thank god you know. It didn't happen. We just picked up where we were at.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow did that affect your like community then within the Latino Heritage Festival? With all the\r\nsmall businesses you work with, all like the advertisement you work with, how does that, how\r\ndid it shape it to what it is today?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYou know, I could see like different businesses, you know, that were hurting, you know, that I\r\n\r\nwent to personally, uh, where they weren't getting probably as many customers.\r\n\r\nI wasn't involved with it close enough to know, you know, what specifically might have shut\r\ndown that. After COVID because they lost, you know, so much customer base. Um, but that\r\nwas at a time where we, as an organization, our festival, our group with our marketing\r\ndepartment, you know, we put out messaging about, you know, make sure you support your\r\nlocal businesses, you know, especially during that time because they were hurting, you know,\r\nthey were needing more and more people to come out.\r\n\r\nBecause you're losing a lot of customers and support the local small businesses and not just\r\nus, but a lot of folks who are even private individuals who post on Facebook and Twitter\r\nmessenger, whatever, you know, to make sure that you support. And so that's, it was our way of\r\nkind of helping to get the message out.\r\n\r\nI don't personally know of any specific businesses that might've gone out of business before\r\nbecause of it, but uh, But I know, like I say, that when I would go pick up food because I wanted\r\nto support them, you didn't see as many people, you know, in line to pick up food. Or even\r\nwhen it was a little safer to kind of be in there, I didn't notice.\r\n\r\nI don't recall noticing, you know, that really stuck out. But I know there's places, you know, that\r\ndid have to shut down because of that.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nHow did it all change your view on politics, even today? The COVID pandemic and Black Lives\r\nMatter movements during that time. How did it, how did everything dwindle to what you feel\r\ntoday?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, just, uh, once again, just kind of disappointment, you know, because the way things are\r\nhandled and what goes on and it continues to go on right now. I mean, some of it, you know,\r\nwith COVID and other things and you know, it's conspiracy things. All that is just mind boggling.\r\nUh, depressing. It's kind of disappointing how people can.\r\n\r\nYou know, and I understand that there are a lot of people that want to have beliefs, have certain\r\nbeliefs or whatever, but the beliefs are really way out there things and the percentage of people\r\nthat are out there believing it is a lot higher than one would, would have even known, right?\r\nAnd, uh, I have people that I know that believe that kind of stuff.\r\n\r\nIt was like, wow, It's mind boggling, like I said, as far as the beliefs that people have and\r\neverything. And so when people still think, you know, that. Trump won and, and tons of people\r\nstill support him and that he could, that guy got a shot of coming back as president. That's pretty\r\nscary to me.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDid it affect your relationships with your family at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nNo.\r\n\r\nNo, just, um, you know, we weren't a family that got together like constant, constantly, we just\r\nget together on special occasions. I think, I think sometimes it, it might've brought us closer.\r\nTogether just a little bit more because we kind of, you know, tried to do everything that we can to\r\nkind of protect ourselves to make sure that everybody was okay and, uh, let you know how\r\nimportant it is, you know, to have that family because things like that could happen.\r\n\r\nYou know, uh, the pandemic and then the political climate, you just, uh, a little bit of everything,\r\nuh, can happen and so, Hey, you gotta cherish your, your family and everybody that you have\r\naround you and make sure that they're appreciated. It just makes, you know, it brought\r\neverything back into perspective as far as what is important in kind of today's world.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nBeing a retired officer, how did, you know, the Black Lives Matter movement and then also the\r\npandemic itself, how did that shape your way, your view, your time as an officer? How it is\r\ntoday? How did it change it all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm, Black Lives Matter, the part that was that, you know, I understand what people are saying.\r\n\r\nOkay, yes, I believe that. You know, and there's other people that want to say, well, all lives, yes,\r\nbut you got to look at the context of what it is.\r\n\r\nContext of what it is.\r\n\r\nUm, what was disappointing was that groups, minority groups that don't want to be lumped into\r\n\r\none thing, don't want to be stereotyped. All of a sudden, lumped police officers, all of a sudden,\r\nstereotype police officers as the majority being bad, being the enemy, being the evil ones.\r\n\r\nInstead of saying the message, you know, these things that happen are horrendous, look at\r\n\r\nthese cases. Uh, the majority of police officers are fantastic, they're doing the job, they're doing\r\n\r\na good job. These things that happened though, we cannot tolerate as a society, we gotta figure\r\nout how to do it.\r\n\r\nNever, that messaging wasn't there and people that tried to send that message were targeted\r\n\r\nthen by the movements because nobody wanted anything positive to be said about the majority\r\nof police officers. They wanted to lump it all together. It was all or nothing. That was very, very\r\ndisappointing to me.\r\n\r\nAnd then I saw it over and over and over again, and I heard stories about people, like I said, that\r\ntried to, you know, talk about reality.\r\n\r\nYou know, hey, yeah, these things happen. One incident's way too many, but overwhelmingly,\r\n\r\nyou know, the majority are out there doing their job. You need to, to have them and then they\r\n\r\nwere, uh, be ostracized and they would be, you know, put down, that type of thing.\r\n\r\nSo, that was very, that part was very, very discouraging. You know, to me, and then defund the\r\n\r\npolice and everything. And crime isn't getting any better. Crime is getting even higher and\r\n\r\nhigher. And I can imagine defunding. And on the other hand, the people that I know that don't\r\n\r\nunderstand what defund the police means, um, the groups that use defund the police, that was\r\npoor terminology, that they used, right?\r\n\r\nDefund the police. Not good. It should have been something else, you know, it should have\r\n\r\nbeen, you know, reallocation resources, you know, through the justice system or through the\r\n\r\npolice or whatever, or add resources, whatever, you know, more mental health, more response\r\n\r\nto things where the police necessarily isn't needed, but that somebody could intervene.\r\n\r\nBut ever since then, I don't hear about a whole lot of programs that were instilled that are\r\n\r\nworking because, like I say, crime keeps going. You know, especially in bigger cities. It keeps\r\n\r\ngetting worse and worse and worse. It does not get any better. So, and then, uh, all across the\r\n\r\ncountry, there are a lot of shortages of police because a lot of them ended up quitting.\r\n\r\nAnd so my personal view was that the ones that quit aren't the ones that you would consider\r\n\r\nmaybe there are bad, that maybe shouldn't have the job there.\r\n\r\nThey're the good ones because they get frustrated. Think I'm out there doing my job. I'm not one\r\nof those. I do my job and I'm still getting criticized.\r\n\r\nI'm still getting lumped in and it's just, the job is not worth it anymore. So I think a lot of them left\r\nthat way. You probably had a few, yeah, bad ones leave, but I think the majority aren't, the bad\r\nones aren't going to care. You know, they'll stick around for whatever. And, uh, there for a while\r\nwe went through a phase all across the country and even the Des Moines where you couldn't,\r\nuh, get enough people to apply to fill the void of the officers that retired.\r\n\r\nYou know, or they just quit because they didn't want to have to do it anymore. And so there's\r\n\r\nshortages all across the country. And then when you do have emergencies where you really\r\n\r\nneed somebody out there, it's taken forever for them to get there because they don't have the\r\n\r\nmanpower. So that's been a big effect that I've seen.\r\n\r\nAnd I've seen that on a lot of news reports and different things that I've kind of seen, you know,\r\n\r\nstories on YouTube and different things.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you feel as if this was like these, this was. Like conversation of politics was instilled into your\r\nchildren's education as well. Do you think this was a conversation that your kids and like\r\ngrandchildren had in school at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nI don't think so.\r\n\r\nI don't think so because a lot of the stuff, you know, it started out, I think back then where there\r\n\r\nare certain things that were taboo to talk about and later on, it turned into obviously the books,\r\n\r\nwhat you could have, what you could learn in school. I think it, it wasn't really talked about as, as\r\nmuch.\r\n\r\nI think it started where they refused to talk about, uh, obviously, uh, pandemic and the facts and\r\nfiction or Black Lives Matter movement, facts and fiction, all that kind of stuff.\r\n\r\nI don't think it was, in my view, I don't think it was really talked about. In some areas, yeah,\r\n\r\nprobably. But I think overall, I don't think it was so that people could be more informed on both\r\nsides, not just one side.\r\n\r\nAnd then after that, then it's kind of started changing to like I say, banning books and everything\r\nelse is my goodness.\r\n\r\nI mean, go back to the times of the Nazis and everything. Yeah, there's books that maybe don't\r\nneed to be in there, but, you know, you should teach all history. It's like what's that old saying,\r\nlike, if you don't learn about history or history, then you're bound to repeat it.\r\n\r\nRight? Um, and so that's how we learned and that's what we move on. And that's how we get\r\nbetter is by not hiding it, but just talking about it and seeing what we can do to prevent that. And\r\nnow, going right back into it, and I feel that the majority of people don't want what's happening,\r\nbut they're the silent majority.\r\n\r\nThe ones that are the squeaky wheels that are afraid of immigration, or books, or what they\r\nlearn, or whatever, or driving it, and everything. Um, and that's what's disheartening, because\r\nit's always the silent majority that doesn't say enough to put pressure on to say, Wait a minute,\r\nlet's think this through.\r\n\r\nThey're just okay with the status quo, and this personally affects them.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nDo you feel as if this conversation will be like a never ending conversation than? Do you feel like\r\n\r\nthere'll be more leverage, especially with, you know, Gen Z being a huge talk, like conversation\r\n\r\nand politics, especially during COVID.\r\n\r\nDo you feel like this conversation will just be something never ending, but also something that's\r\ngood for us to not to talk about that makes sense.\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm, I would hope it would be never ending just because you got to need that conversation\r\ngoing on.\r\n\r\nAnd from there, then you can talk about other things instead of just hiding, not wanting to learn\r\nanything, you know?\r\n\r\nUm, I think we're going through a cycle. That's my hope, you know, of people. Um, uh, you can\r\nsee that because of abortion, no matter what you believe personally right, there when you look\r\nat the law in general, a woman gets raped, a woman's having a miscarriage, different things,\r\nthey get punished.\r\n\r\nThat's just way out there.\r\n\r\nThatis crazyso ifyou're going to have a law, okay, fine, butalso protectthatpartofitinstead of\r\npunishing them, because if it happens, they're still, they're going to be the ones that get\r\n\r\npunished and can get put in jail and everything, or can be refused, uh, healthcare, uh,\r\n\r\ntreatment, whatever.\r\n\r\nAnd so all these things that are going on. Well, now that women have driven. More, um, are we\r\nwielding more power again because what happened? You know, because those rights are being\r\ntaken away from them. So if the majority of them voted and hopefully we can get to the point\r\n\r\nwhere\r\n\r\nNo matter what kind of law you have, somebody is going to be forward against it, but yet you\r\nhave to have common sense, you know, one of the people I used to work with at the police\r\ndepartment used to have a saying.\r\n\r\nIt says there's a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Right.\r\n\r\nAnd a lot of things you have to have the spirit of law meaning, okay, this law is there, but the\r\nspirit meaning there is a little leeway, protection, discretion, because not everything is the letter\r\nof law in black and white, right? Not everything is all exactly the same and so my hope is that it\r\ngets back to that and that more and more people work together and that the silent majority gets.\r\n\r\nUm, involved in and gets their ideals be known, their thoughts be known instead of just sitting\r\nback.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nYou talk about unity quite a bit. Do you feel as if the pandemic affected just the entirety of Des\r\nMoines, like the education system? Do you think that brought people together or did it separate\r\npeople?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nBoth, it depends on the circle you're running and what you believe in and what your true beliefs\r\nare and if you could see through the smoke screen of the other stuff and look for the truth, right?\r\nThen it would unify and unify because things were happening to divide us. And if you really\r\nbelieved in each other and different things and how can you stay away from that so you don't\r\nget divided?\r\n\r\nIt strengthen people up because they don't want it to happen.\r\n\r\nThe other ones that divided even more because you already had those that believe all these\r\n\r\nway out things, they were kind of in the shadows there. They were out there, but they weren't\r\nout in the open as much. Then all of a sudden this happens.\r\n\r\nAnd now they gave them a way to kind of come out and be known, right. With all their views and\r\nconspiracies and, and, and everything, you know, as far as even the parts, you know, in the\r\nSouth, you know, with the Confederate flag and the confederate generals and all that kind of\r\nstuff, you know, and so It kind of did a little bit of both.\r\n\r\nIt just depends on which circle you're around.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nThat being said is there any stories you would like to share at all? About the pandemic, your\r\n\r\ntime as an officer that really shapes the way you think today?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUm. In time of the pandemic, it just, like I said, I was surrounded, I surrounded myself with\r\n\r\npeople that cared and so brought us all together.\r\n\r\nIt got us a sense of, you know, of, uh, be unified, more unified because there are so much force,\r\nso many forces out there trying to divide a lot of people and so it was the time to be even more\r\nunified, uh, to not let that happen and to not waste your breath with the people that believe\r\n\r\ncertain things because you'll never convince them.\r\n\r\nBecause sometimes you run into people that think they can kind of talk and preach to people\r\nand convince them and all it is is an argument and it's nothing.\r\n\r\nJust work on the people that you know that you trust and there might be some people on the\r\n\r\nfence that you kind of trust a little bit, you know, and I did this before with people that kind of on\r\n\r\nthe fence with immigration. You know, that everybody that came over were criminals. No, they\r\n\r\nwere not criminals.\r\n\r\nThey were breaking the administrative rule. It's not a crime, an actual crime. And, uh, but now\r\nit's gone back again where because they've been politicized so much that anybody that comes\r\nthrough that border is a criminal.\r\n\r\nAnd yeah, you have people, some bad people that go through that would happen no matter\r\nwhat.\r\n\r\nEven in general society, there are people out there that are bad. But just everybody that's\r\ncoming over isn't bad. I mean, they are looking for a better life and if they were even just truthful,\r\nokay, they're undocumented immigrants, they're not illegal because that makes it seem like\r\nyou're breaking, you know, committing a crime. It's not a criminal offense.\r\n\r\nThey're here breaking an administrative rule.\r\n\r\nand, uh, they're undocumented, and therefore they don't have permission to stay. Um, that type\r\nof thing, but no. To get the votes and to scare people, you gotta talk the other way and talk\r\nabout everything that is going on, so yeah.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nAre there stories or experiences about, like, any more experiences about the education system\r\nat all that you have you'd like to share at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, nothing else that I can think of.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nWith that being said, are there any final remarks you'd like to make of this interview? Anything\r\nelse you'd like to share at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nUh, just that it's really important right now.\r\n\r\nI've been talking about a lot of unity and everything that's really, really important. Unity and then,\r\nand then just to be informed. Make sure that your, you check out things and inform yourself on\r\nboth sides, not just one side, one side, but both sides to see this side's thinking this, this is\r\nthinking that.\r\n\r\nThe truth is most of the time they say somewhere in the middle, right?\r\n\r\nUm, and we need to do that so that we can kind of move forward and get away from this and get\r\n\r\nback to where we can kind of work together, all of us. Whether we agree or not, have different\r\n\r\nopinions, different beliefs, but we can still. Um, when it matters the most to work together on\r\nthings for the better of our city, our country, everything.\r\n\r\nSo that's a really important piece.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nThat being said, um, ifthat's gonna, is there anything else you'd like to add at all?\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nI think that's it.\r\n\r\nOscar De Avila:\r\n\r\nAmazing. Well, thank you so much for your time, Joe and this will conclude our oral history\r\ninterview. Thank you so much.\r\n\r\nJoe Gonzalez:\r\n\r\nYou're so welcome. Thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2981/collection_resources/135080/file/250074#t=0.0,2616.7141"}]}]}]}