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Once upon a time, the six children of Roberto and Celia Cabrera played out their childhoods at the Southside Road Migrant Housing Center. On May 10, Mother’s Day, they gathered to celebrate the happy recollections of those youthful adventures and to honor their parents by dedicating a tree to their memory.
“We are out here today,” said William Cabrera, “to do something small in honor of our parents’ hard work and their sacrifices in raising the six of us. I hope this tree will grow and flourish, and be a reminder of their courage and hope and the inspiration that they both exemplified.”
Roberto and Celia, according to Robert Cabrera, came to the United States from a small town in Michoacán before any of the children were born. Both Roberto and Celia worked in the fields and orchards and lived at the center at 3235 Southside Road in Hollister during the summers for about four years.
The center currently provides subsidized housing for up to 250 migrant agricultural workers and their families in 67 housing units. It’s funded by the Office of Migrant Services and administered by the County of San Benito Health and Human Services Agency.
The idea for the ceremony came 10 years ago when Irma Cabrera Albright was visiting the center’s office to drop off donations from a community service project led by her son, Chris.
A large photograph on display from the mid-1960s caught her eye: five smiling children balanced precariously on a makeshift teeter-totter. Irma told Migrant Housing Center Manager Elias Barocio Jr. that she thought the picture on the wall was of her family.
“It stopped me,” she said. “Elias said, ‘Miss Albright, that is not your family. I found that picture in a storage shed.’ So I took a picture with my cell phone and sent it to my siblings. They were not sure. Kind of, but maybe not. Keep in mind that we don’t have pictures of us as babies.”
Irma’s sister, Leonor Cabrera, agreed to come to the center to view it in person. Her reaction was immediate.
“She calls me clearly emotional,” Irma said, “and she told me, ‘It is us. That’s us.’ And she’s the oldest, so she would have a better idea of what we looked like when we were kids, and whether that was even us.”
Indeed, Leonor not only confirmed the kids in the photo, but she also identified all five family members—brother William Cabrera, sister Irma, herself and two aunts, Teresa and Lydia—as well as the accordion-roofed buildings in the background where they lived at the camp.
‘We were happy there,” Leonor said. “This is proof: we’re smiling. And the picture smiled right back at me. We were smiling through the dirt.”
Because they didn’t have a camera when they were younger, it’s the only existing photo of any of the children from their years at the camp.
“I think that in that moment of seeing us,” Irma said, “what had once been only scattered memories for me, brought that nostalgia to reality because I was young when we were here. It was validating and, since that day, my family has had more of a connection to the camp.”
Sharing the memories sparked by the photo brought the family closer together as they remembered the camp as a “safe and beautiful place,” of buying Moon Pies and flower seeds at the on-site commissary, of the ladies’ man who drove the water truck, of the preschool they all attended, and of the late-night dinners with their aunts, singing into the evening.
There were also memories of the ghosts they thought rose from a nearby pet cemetery, the communal restrooms and showers that offered little privacy, the breakfast cereal served by pouring milk directly into the cut-open box, the happy discovery of peanut butter and jelly, and the bike rides through the dusty camp that occasionally ended in crashes at the bottom of the hill.
But mostly it reminded them of the strength and courage of their parents and how they were not allowed to think of themselves as poor.
“They were very good to us,” Robert said. “They were family-oriented. They were very loving. And even though my dad suffered from a really rare disease, he would work the fields. It was killing him, but he still managed to work.”
Irma remembers her mother as always encouraging the children to do their best and celebrating their progress, however small.
“She thought our biggest strength was that we spoke two languages,” she said. “She always reminded us about that. She was very resourceful, and I credit her with my own resourcefulness. If I have any sense of style, it was my mother’s.”
William Cabrera said that even though some of the memories of the migrant camp had faded, they all remembered what their parents taught them there: that the circumstances of their birthplace would not determine the outcomes of their lives.
“These were long lessons about the importance of being a person of excellence,” he said, “of being an example of your community, striving to do your best, of being compassionate and thoughtful and caring of others.
Out of those memories came the desire to plant the tree in front of the center’s office, which Barocio readily agreed to. Next to it is a small replica of the seesaw in the photo.
“This shows that the migrant center is a step stool to help you achieve your goals by having a safe and affordable place to live and use that to your full advantage to grow as a person. It is very important that other families who live here see this opportunity as well.”
The ceremony was attended by the five surviving Cabrera children, Robert, Leonor, Irma, William and Gabriel, with their deceased brother George there in spirit.
In his remarks at the dedication, William said that the planting of the tree was a “symbol and representation of the hope, optimism and inspiration” that they had for their children’s future.
“We hope that this is a good example for the people of our community,” he said, “that no matter where you come from or what your background is, you have the opportunities to do well in life, to be a good member of your society and community, and to carry that forward for others.”
Postscript: The Cabrera children, post-migrant camp.
Gabe earned his Master’s degree in Public Policy from UC Berkeley and became a Budget Analyst for the City of San Jose.
George was a self-taught mechanic and became a Food Processing Equipment Engineer.
Irma earned degrees from UC Davis and San Jose State and became an educator at San Benito High School.
Leonor earned a degree in Cosmetology at Gavilan College and became a business owner.
Robert earned a Mechanical Design degree at Hartnell College and worked in staff maintenance at San Benito High School.
William earned a Master’s Degree in Engineering Design from Stanford and became an Intuitive Surgical Engineer.
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