Henry Rodriguez
By Hope Teel
Out of work with eight mouths to feed, Henry Rodriguez’s family left California in the early 1930s during the beginning of the Great Depression.
For Rodriguez, the family’s youngest member, the trip marked his first experience with racial discrimination.
“People didn’t know anything about backgrounds,” Rodriguez said. “People thought there were only Anglos and Indians, and we were Indians.”
As the family traveled across several states, Rodriguez watched his parents persevere, despite weather, racial and financial obstacles.