Name/Title
Gil Mesa Oral History InterviewEntry/Object ID
RLG_106Scope and Content
This interview is part of the Represent Los Gatos Oral History Project series. Watch and listen to Gilbert Mesa's story of growing up and living in Los Gatos. Gil talks extensively of his family history, childhood, experiences with prejudice, graduating from Los Gatos High School in 1960, experiences conducting business, and the mark that his family has left on the Town of Los Gatos. Enjoy listening to Gil's story. Read a complete transcript of the interview below. Daniel Keough: [00:00:00] Alright, we're recording, so if you want to say your name and the date. Gilbert Mesa: [00:00:04] My name is Gilbert Mesa and the date is September 16th, 2020. Daniel Keough: [00:00:12] And so we're here to talk about your life and your family and Los Gatos. And I just wanted to start by asking, where were you born and what year? Gilbert Mesa: [00:00:24] I was born in San Jose County Hospital, the only hospital around at the time in 1941. Daniel Keough: [00:00:32] Ok, and where was that located? Gilbert Mesa: [00:00:35] That that basically Valley Med, now on Bascom Avenue. There was just a couple of hospitals in the valley there with O'Connor in San Jose and the county. Daniel Keough: [00:00:48] Ok, and who were your parents? Gilbert Mesa: [00:00:52] My parents were Mary and Rudy Mesa, they lived here in Los Gatos. Daniel Keough: [00:00:58] And how long had they lived in Los Gatos before you were born? Gilbert Mesa: [00:01:02] They came here in 1938 during the Depression as the depression was ending. Daniel Keough: [00:01:10] Where did they come from? Gilbert Mesa: [00:01:11] They both came from Arizona. My dad was from Wickenburg and my mother was from Morenci Mines. Daniel Keough: [00:01:20] Ok, do you know why they decided Los Gatos? Gilbert Mesa: [00:01:23] I think my mother followed the I guess the farming community as far as the labor camps and she was going with her father and her brothers from labor camp, the labor camp up the San Joaquin Valley. And my mother really liked the Santa Clara Valley. And that's where she decided to stay here in Los Gatos because they were working on the ranch this year. Daniel Keough: [00:01:54] And what was their I guess, what was your father's profession? Gilbert Mesa: [00:01:58] My dad, My father's profession was at that time. He was like a traveling barber. He would go from labor camp, to labor camp, cutting hair for the migrant workers. And that's how he met my mother through her brothers because she was cutting both of her brothers. I think she had three brothers and he would cut their hair and then somehow they got hooked up in some labor camp and then moved here. Daniel Keough: [00:02:36] And you know where abouts that was? Gilbert Mesa: [00:02:40] I think they met in Half Moon Bay in that area. There was a labor camp out there, but my dad was probably traveling pretty much by rail. He was, I guess you could say, a hobo barber. He would go, like I say, right. There are tracks going to these different labor camps. And there were all pretty close, like Mendota, Fresno and all that area out there. Daniel Keough: [00:03:08] So he really, like, moved around. Gilbert Mesa: [00:03:10] Yeah, he moved around. He was like a gypsy, I guess. Daniel Keough: [00:03:13] And and then your mother. So she was she was already here more or less when they met. Gilbert Mesa: [00:03:20] Yeah, she was already here. They did not mean in Arizona. My grandfather was from Mexico. I kind of hate to say this, but he was in the Mexican army and he didn't like the way they were treating the recruits. So he I guess he was a deserter as far as I guy got. And he went to the United States, to Arizona, which was a small town called Morenci Mines. I never knew my grandmother, but they had like six kids in Morenci Mines, my mother was probably the second oldest. She had an older sister and then my mother. And then she had a lot of younger brothers. Daniel Keough: [00:04:05] And did she, did anyone else move out of here with her? Gilbert Mesa: [00:04:08] Yes, she had most of her family moved over here in the San Joaquin Valley or the Santa Clara Valley. My dad, half of them stayed his family, half of them stayed in Arizona. And he had three brothers that all came with came with after he got here, he told them about Santa Clara Valley, how there was a lot of work here and stuff like that. So his three younger brothers before the war came here. Daniel Keough: [00:04:42] And they were all there also in Arizona. Gilbert Mesa: [00:04:45] Yes. One was living in, actually. They all lived in Los Gatos at one time. But they the war broke out and two of them got drafted. My younger my my godfather, my other uncle and after the war, they moved to one, moved to Santa Clara and one moved to East San Jose. Daniel Keough: [00:05:08] Where in Los Gatos where they living? Gilbert Mesa: [00:05:10] One was living on Park Avenue right here by where the old park was. And the other one was living on Monterey Avenue behind the drug store. The Walgreens. And and then he moved over to Austin Corners, which is where the brick road is up where I live now. There was a gas station and he lived down there below the gas station and when were kids we used to go visit him there. And it was a lot of fun because they had a creek, you know Daniel Keough: [00:05:45] I guess so. Do you have any brothers and sisters? Gilbert Mesa: [00:05:52] Yes, I have one brother which is still alive. He lives in Patterson, California, here. He's now moving in the transition now to move to Banning. And then I have a sister that moved back to Arizona. She used to live in Washington. They both left the valley well probably about 35, 40 years ago. They went out of their ways. I never left Los Gatos, so I just couldn't part. Daniel Keough: [00:06:24] What was your what was your childhood like? Gilbert Mesa: [00:06:27] My childhood was very it was difficult because we were raised right by where the train depot is, was actually where the post office is now that was my front yard and we used to play around there and then down at the creek at the memorial pool. But when I was, I guess, about six years old, my mother had contracted tuberculosis through working in the I guess the ranch and all these farming communities where they had these labor camps. There are a lot of the people got TB because of the living conditions. So she was taken from us and put in the sanitarium here in Santa Clara County for four years so at that time.. It's kind of hard for me to say, but they took my sister, my sister away to live with my aunt and my brother and I stayed with my dad, which was fine. We lived here in town and everybody in town pretty much knew what the situation was that my brother and I were didn't have a mother. But we knew everybody in town, all the merchants and everything we used to live right downtown. So other than that, it was kind of difficult because we didn't have we didn't have a mother, but we did have a father. And he did everything he could to raise us. And he knew one day that sooner or later she had to come home. We were allowed to see her. We used to go once a week to see her at the county hospital there. But we weren't allowed to touch her because she was in a room by herself. And she could see us and we could see her. And we visited her every Sunday. And and we picked up my sister to take her there. And it was a difficult time for all. Daniel Keough: [00:08:51] I apologize, that's very hard. Gilbert Mesa: [00:08:55] But we survived the community really helped a lot because we knew, like my brother and I, we used to run down the streets and we knew all the merchants so when we got birthdays they would give us gifts, they would give us Christmas gifts. They would, you know, help us out. Yeah. And I think when I was about nine, 10 years old, my mother was going to come home when the county came out and said, well, the house that you're living in now is not really up to standard their standards, I guess. It was great for us. We loved it. It was right downtown. And my dad quickly had to buy a new house so my mother could come and live with us and my sister, too. So he found a house in Campbell, which we lived for a few years, and he quickly bought that house. And my sister came and it was kind of strange because all of a sudden I had a mother, I had a new sister, which I wasn't used to. I wasn't the baby of the family anymore. I was the middle child. So I kind of leaned on my brother up for a lot of things in school. He was my leader. He would like, you know, nobody really messed with us because we were kind of different. We were, you know, different color. We were Mexicans. There weren't too many Mexicans around. And so people would look at us strangely sometimes, but we were able to defend ourselves and and get along with pretty much all the kids in school. And they all respected us and never felt that I was any different until I got to high school. Daniel Keough: [00:10:49] Yeah. Do you remember, like in your childhood, did you speak Spanish at home? Gilbert Mesa: [00:10:54] Yes, but we were taught basically Spanish when we were younger. And I remember the lady at the Los Gatos market, her name was Leva. She would tell my mother, you know, you should teach your kids English because when they go to kindergarten or first grade, they got to know English. But my mother refused. So we went to school not knowing any English, but we survived. And they didn't have bilingual teachers then, and that was unheard of. Funny thing, now my daughter is a bilingual teacher. So anyway, we we we survived. We both flunked first grade because of that. Because we didn't understand the language, recess was not a problem. You know, we played really well with all the other kids, but it was difficult to once we commanded the language. By the time I was in second grade, I pretty much, you know, knew what was going on as far as the English language. Daniel Keough: [00:11:58] And what was your father doing? Gilbert Mesa: [00:12:01] My my dad, when he first got here, he went to work for a gentleman named King and Mr. King had a ranch. That's where we first lived or I didn't live there. My brother did. It was over in National Avenue and that's where all those streets are called King Road, King Street and all. They were off of Curtner there and he lived there and he used to work on his ranch, pruning the trees and taking care of the ranch. And and there is a shopping center named after that man. It was called King's Court. It's right on Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard. So when the war broke out, we were living in Los Gatos at that time over by the post office. My dad went to work for a well he met a gentleman at the I want to say drinking hole there and Los Gatos that said he could get a job working at Permanetti and he could give them a job there. So my dad went to work for Permanetti and then he got his brothers. Both his brothers got it. But then they got drafted and then my grandfather worked there and my dad worked there for like all through the war. And he was in charge of distributing cement to the different contractors and they were on a ration so they could only get so much. And there was one contractor that really took a liking to my dad and he said listen, you know, after the war, I'd really like for you to work for me. I want you to help me make some bricks and stuff. So that's what happened after the war. This gentleman your name was Arnold Holmes. He hired my dad and he went to work for him and he became a hot carrier and then a brick mason. Daniel Keough: [00:13:55] Wow. OK. And and so you said as you went to high school and you had a harder time around other kids. Gilbert Mesa: [00:14:06] Yeah, I had to... It was difficulty. I didn't notice it. I would I think about it now. There was a lot of prejudice, some of the coaches were prejudiced of me because I had certain talents that I didn't really have to work at. But I had natural speed. I was quite quick, probably the fastest guy at the school and yet the smallest guy. So I did have like when I went out to the track team, you know, we had a relay team and the track coach said, listen, I know you want to be on the relay and you're pretty quick, but in order to be on the relay, you got to beat all of these guys, just not not one. Cause there were four guys in the relay. And I figured, well, if I just be one, I'll make it. But no, I had to beat all four of them and I did. And that kind of rubbed me the wrong way because even my friends said that wasn't right. And there was another time, I think when I was about a junior in high school, I had, was asked by this girl to go to this certain dance, and it was called the Foothill Formals. And I'll never forget this. And it was held by, I want to say, the high echelon of Los Gatos, I guess you would call it. And I told my dad hey, I'm going to the Foothill Formals, I'm going to have to get a suit and whatever. And but my cousin Johnny, which he was a couple of years behind me was a freshman. He said, Gil you're not going, they're not going to let you go, you know? And he was right because it wasn't but a few days later, the girl had asked me, come up to me and kind of looked at me kind of sad. And I said, what's wrong? And she says, I'm going to have to ask you, you can't go. And I said, Oh, OK, I understood. So I didn't go. But the thing was, is when I was about 10 years old or 11 years old, I used to work at the Rinconada Country Club and I was like a caddy, you know, carrying golf clubs for all these guys that were members there. And there were pretty nice guys, give me a tip, you know, for shagging their balls and stuff like that. But I got a, I got a job there. When I was about 13, I was washing dishes and waiter, bar back, bartender did all kinds of things. I worked there for 11 years from 13 to about 23, 24 years old. So the funny thing about it, is they were going to hold the Foothill Formals at the Rinconada, so I asked my boss, hey, can I work that night? He said of course Gil, you can work. You got a supervise and make sure nobody gets in the behind the bar and don't do, you know, get into any mischief. I was just kind of like a a little security guard. Right. I had a blast. I danced with all the girls and, you know, I felt like, you know, they were there. I was comfortable. But yet some of the parents that were there were kind of looking at me kind of funny, but I didn't care, you know. You know, it was just, that's the way it was, you know. Yeah. But I that, there was a couple of times that I did feel prejudice here in Los Gatos, but on the whole, it was a nice place to live, you know, I wouldn't change it for anything. Daniel Keough: [00:17:49] Yeah, I think that's pretty common. I think a lot of people saying, like, you know, I might have encountered some prejudice, but generally the people around were nice. Gilbert Mesa: [00:18:00] Yeah, they were you know, I didn't have any people that really made any remarks. We used to joke about it, you know, and they usually dirty Mexican, they considered us all Mexicans were dirty. But I guess I don't know, maybe cause we were tough as nobody messed with us because of a while later, as more Mexican people moved into town, there was the other part of town there by University Avenue down there by Roberts Road. We had my uncle moved down there and I had several other families moved down there. We used to call it "The Barrio". So but we wouldn't let the Italians or the or any other nationality come down that street. That was our territory. It was just like, you know, it was kind of fun. But it was, it was different. It was, you know, we played together and but we also mixed in with the the other kids, we were just had a lot of fun here in Los Gatos. Daniel Keough: [00:19:05] Yeah, it's interesting because I heard someone else mention a part of town where a lot of Mexican families lived. Gilbert Mesa: [00:19:12] Yes. Daniel Keough: [00:19:12] So I wondered, what was that area like, you say Roberts Road. Gilbert Mesa: [00:19:16] From Roberts Road down to down on on University Avenue at the end of University Avenue was the dog pound and the dump. I got to tell you a quick story about the dog pound. We used to go down here to visit my aunt. She lived down the end of the road and had this dog pound down there and the guy would catch a dog and put them in. But you could walk around and see all the dogs. Well, one time my brother and I were down there watching the dog and the dog catcher showed up and he backed up his car by the back door. And we're kind of watching what he was doing. And he kept his car running and he came out and got one of the dogs and put them in this box. And we realized that he was gassing the dog. You know, I guess the dog's days were numbered and he had to go. And so then he would take the dog out. And I don't know what he did with the dog, but my brother and I were just kind of wow. And there were probably about 10 or 12 dogs in this kennel here. And they all seemed like they were healthy dog and they would vet them and everything. Well, that night, my brother being as mischievous as was he turned all the dogs loose. So the next day, the paper, the Los Gatos Times it said somebody let all the dogs loose. Nobody knows who it was. But I do, kind of funny, but I don't know whether they ever got all the dogs. But they didn't kill too many dogs after that. Daniel Keough: [00:20:54] That's good, that's interesting about how many families do you think lived over in that area? Gilbert Mesa: [00:21:02] Well, there was the Montaño's, the Arena's, the Archibeque's, and the Mesa's. There was four families there and out of those four families, there was quite a few kids, you know, the Montaño's, had I think had five kids. The Arena's five or six. The Archibeque's maybe the same amount and my aunt, which was like my second mom, because I used to walk from the post office all the way down there when I was a little kid just to go see my aunt and stay there for the day while my dad was at work during, you know, when school was out. But that's about as many people that I can remember. And then when in high school, more showed up. But this was during grade school that we had our own little community down there. Daniel Keough: [00:21:53] Do you know why they chose that part of town or was it...? Gilbert Mesa: [00:21:58] Well, one of the reasons why is, as I recall, the little village right there with Double D's is now and that little road there behind Double D's, they used to have these little quonset houses there for the cannery that was right there where Chase Bank is. There was a cannery there. So the cannery workers would live in these little homes. Well, after the war, they were going to move all those homes and for some some reasonable price, I guess they moved them down University Avenue down to the end where nobody else wanted to live. Right. It was kind of like the end of the road down there by the dump, by the dog pound, by where the undesirable area of Los Gatos, which is not that way now. But so they would move these homes. And I think the Arena's and Montaño's and the Archibeque's, they all bought these houses for I don't know how much money, but they had to move there at the empty lots down there. And just that's how it started. Daniel Keough: [00:23:07] Do you know if a lot of the workers at the cannery were Mexican? Gilbert Mesa: [00:23:13] That I don't know. I know my mom didn't work there and my dad didn't. There were probably some people that did, you know, they probably came in because we used to pick all the prunes and the apricots and there was the ranch. One big rancher was named Mr. Nino. Us kids. He would, you know, come down to "The Barrio" there in a flatbed truck and he said "I need some prune pickers" and we'd all jump in the back of the flatbed truck and he'd take us to the orchard and we'd pick prunes, you know, and it was a lot of fun because we did it all together, you know, wasn't like, you know, it was the it wasn't slave labor or anything like that, but it was just a lot of fun, you know, my mother would make us lunch, she knew that the guy, the farmer was going to come so he would pick us up and take us to Saratoga or Los Gatos Boulevard. They had ranch out there. Daniel Keough: [00:24:08] Where, where was that? You said Mr. Nino, where was that? Gilbert Mesa: [00:24:12] Well, he had property right there by Vasona Park, the county park. That was all his he had property over by the Los Gatos Cemetery. He had property in Saratoga. He pretty much had property all over. And then we worked for different ranchers too in Saratoga also. Daniel Keough: [00:24:34] Ok. Was that through high school or before? Gilbert Mesa: [00:24:37] That was way before high school. That was like when we were like ten, nine or ten years old. Daniel Keough: [00:24:47] And did your did your family also enjoy, like your other family members, did they enjoy going out? Gilbert Mesa: [00:24:55] And yeah, my my dad didn't do much working in the field. What he would do when they were picking prunes, he would go early in the morning and shake the trees and now they have these automatic shakers. But he had a hook and a poll and he would come and shake all our trees for us. And then my mother, when she got out of the hospital, then we would go and in the morning and, you know, we would pick the prunes that the trees that my dad had shook, you know, so but it was a lot of fun, you know, we didn't think it was work. It was just like going out on a picnic because mom always had good food to eat at lunchtime or or we would have prune fights, you know, we'd have our little fights. But it was, we had a goal. You know, my mom would say, once you pick so many boxes we can go home so we worked really fast so we can go home and play with our other friends. Daniel Keough: [00:25:57] Who else did you hang out with around that time? Gilbert Mesa: [00:26:00] I hung out with one guy named Walt (?) , Bob Moore. They were my friends and Eddie Di Ferrari, which is deceased, he died very young. He died like 21 years old. It was very tragic. But I had a lot of friends in high school and girlfriends too. So, yeah, it was just a lot of fun. Los Gatos high school was a lot of fun. I hated to leave when I graduated as a senior. What am I going to do? You know, what's next? And I decided to get into an apprentice program. Daniel Keough: [00:26:37] For what type of apprentice program? Gilbert Mesa: [00:26:39] I got into the floor covering and went to San Jose City College. Basically, I went down there to try to get into a plumbing. I wanted to be a plumber. But at that time they said, no, if you're not related to a plumber or anything like that, it's hard to get into electrician, same thing. But they have openings in the floor covering. Well, I'll try that. And I took the test and then they enrolled me in the school and now you got to find a job. So I found a job with this one gentleman called Tony Pacelli. He had that Anthony Interiors in San Jose and I worked for him for a while. Then I went to work for another company called Stuart Floors in Redwood City. But there was a lot of work around at that time. This is like the early sixties. I mean, this whole valley was booming. They were tearing out the orchards and putting in homes. It was just you could buy a home fairly cheap. There were tracks all over the valley. So as far as work at that time, then you didn't have any trouble working. Daniel Keough: [00:27:58] And and and did you keep living in Los Gatos? Gilbert Mesa: [00:28:03] Yes, I lived in Los Gatos over near Fisher School, bought a place on Mitchell Avenue, a big old Victorian there, fixed it all up and lived there for quite a few years, started a business close by about a block away on Los Gatos Boulevard, which I still own. I don't own the business because the business is no longer there, but I still own the property. Going into business in this small town was difficult at that time when I started because the economy was down and I didn't know anything about starting a business, but I knew how to lay floors and I knew a lot of people in town. I knew a lot of realtors. I knew a lot of just a lot of people. So. I opened the store there, the Old Adobe Barbershop, which is now the barbershop. That was where I started. And not knowing that, you know, it was going to be difficult and I couldn't find a bank that would lend me any money. I needed a few thousand dollars to buy a forklift or whatever I needed. But I couldn't get anybody to lend me money because they were saying you're new you don't know anything about it. So I didn't get a loan, which I really didn't need it because my business did quite well for I was in there for 40 years. Daniel Keough: [00:29:32] And that was what was the location? Gilbert Mesa: [00:29:35] It was right on Los Gatos Boulevard next door to Louise Van Meter School. And it's the Old Adobe barbershop is where we started. And then we moved into the the two story, that piece of land, there's about one acre and it's got several buildings on it. But I bought it on a fluke. I rented the Old Adobe Barbershop was for rent. Well, this is it, two blocks from my house. I'll rent it and start my business. Well, after signing the lease and then working for about a month trying to set up a business, the owner of the property told me that I couldn't have a little forklift there. And I told them, well, I needed to unload carpet when the carpet comes in, but it wouldn't be there overnight. I just put it away. I only have it there when a new carpet was coming. So we got in a big argument and he said, well, you think you own this place, why don't you just buy it? And I asked him how much you wanted me and he told me and I said well okay I'll buy for that price, which is probably overinflated. But I said, I'll buy it. And I did. And I talked to my cousin, which was in real estate at the time, and said well you only paid a little bit too much. He paid about ten thousand dollars too much for it. But, you know, it'll work out. And it did. You know, we he we finally got a loan on it and bought the property and from there it just went up, you know, from there, just about the first five years. I worked every day for five years, if it wasn't on the business it was on the property. And after five years, I knew that we were going to make it. You know, we never did advertise. We did it with word of mouth. And we had six good employees and a couple of nice ladies that worked inside. So it was a good time. Daniel Keough: [00:31:40] Yeah. Who were some of the people that you worked with? Gilbert Mesa: [00:31:44] One of the gentlemen. The first gentleman I hired was an Italian boy called Don Benedetti, and then Ralph Herrera. And then Juan Hermenta and Gary Robelard, and my son Jason Mesa. And there were a few other people, but the office was Sharon, she was like my second wife, you know. Yeah, she knew everything about me and who I wanted to talk to, who I, you know. But anyway, she was with us for over thirty five years. Daniel Keough: [00:32:21] Wow, wow. Gilbert Mesa: [00:32:23] That's a long time. Daniel Keough: [00:32:24] That's a very long time. Gilbert Mesa: [00:32:28] But those guys really did a good job. Yes, they all called customer would call. When could you drop it? I want you to send Ralph. They knew my customer, my mechanics by name. Or they'd say send Don. OK, ok. I'll send Don. So it was always, you know, we always got jobs from that job, which we tell somebody and I used to tell my guys, you know, you do the job right, they may tell two people. You do it bad, they're going to tell ten, OK, so you got to do it right. And they did. Daniel Keough: [00:33:04] Wow. That's amazing that you were able to expand your business just through word of mouth. Gilbert Mesa: [00:33:10] Yeah, word of mouth. We never advertised a penny. We did advertising on our vans. I bought vans and we painted them all up. And everyone said I saw your van, you must have 10 or 20. I only had three. But there were always running around town. So they figured I had a whole lot of them. But I didn't you know, it just they just saw them around town driving around. Daniel Keough: [00:33:31] Where were most of the jobs that you're doing? Gilbert Mesa: [00:33:34] 90 percent of our work was in Los Gatos, Campbell was long distance. We did a few commercial jobs, we did some in Santa Cruz Mountains. We did do some jobs, you know, for people that in Los Gatos that owned other like cabins or, you know, they wanted us to do their house in Tahoe or they wanted us to do their house in wherever, and we would do it. But I would say 90 percent of our house, our jobs were right here in town working with the consumer, with the merchants. You know, they needed floor covering, because when I started, there were seven of us in this town selling floors. Well, ten years later, there were only one, and that was me, you know, because I usually tell them, how do you how are you making it? And I said well, I don't have a landlord. When you open a business, you're working for the landlord. And they would all say you're right. They had payments to make and I didn't. So now. Daniel Keough: [00:34:39] It's a great thing you were able to get that building. Gilbert Mesa: [00:34:40] Yes, I was very fortunate. And but I stuck my neck out. It wasn't given to me, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:34:48] Yeah. Do you know, like off the top of your head of any of the, like older buildings downtown that you might have done? Gilbert Mesa: [00:34:56] Oh, well, I did all the dealerships, car ... [truncated due to length]Collection
Represent Los Gatos Oral History ProjectOral History Details
Interviewee
Mesa, GilbertInterview Date
Sep 16, 2020Primary Language
EnglishRecording Media
MP4Oral History Notes
Creator: Los Gatos Library
Publisher: Los Gatos Library
Video recordingCopyright
Notes
Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. For private and non-commercial purposes you may reproduce a single copy (print or download) of materials from this Website without prior permission.