WEBVTT 00:00:00.079 --> 00:00:04.936 to say just for archive. This is Forra Solis interviewing for Creative 00:00:04.969 --> 00:00:11.326 Push on December 15, 2016 at 2 p.m. Can you tell us your name and your age 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:17.366 ? My name is Jamie Peralta and my age is 4. Awesome. So, um, tell us about 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:23.407 your first pregnancy. Were you, 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.227 I was only 19. 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:32.967 Um, I wasn't expecting it, um, it happened, um. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.356 I didn't know that he was with another girl because I was living in San 00:00:39.389 --> 00:00:44.385 Anedro with my mom and I moved back to our the house we have another house 00:00:44.418 --> 00:00:50.307 on the bottom so but my brother stays there and um it happened and you 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:55.746 know my mom was, I was scared to tell my mom, but you know I had to tell 00:00:55.779 --> 00:00:59.936 her so yeah. 00:00:59.969 --> 00:01:06.516 He just, he likes, he, no, and then he um he um he likes making messes too. 00:01:06.549 --> 00:01:10.717 So, uh, anyway, um, she told me keep it, you know, when we're not one to 00:01:10.750 --> 00:01:18.197 , abort, we don't believe in that so we're I'm Catholic, so. So I kept him 00:01:18.230 --> 00:01:26.230 and he's 21 now. He um graduated high school. Um it was just like hard 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:31.596 being here with his with his father because he was like In and out back 00:01:31.629 --> 00:01:35.326 and forth like with her and me and it's just, it was hard but I have 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:41.555 family and my family was supportive. So you grew up on this reservation 00:01:41.588 --> 00:01:45.605 um how many siblings do you have? I just have one. I have one with my 00:01:45.638 --> 00:01:48.135 mother. 00:01:48.168 --> 00:01:53.245 He does. I have one with my mom and then I have um. Um, two half brothers 00:01:53.278 --> 00:01:57.316 , a half sister, but those are like my dad, and they're, they're full 00:01:57.349 --> 00:02:03.977 Spanish. They live in Albuquerque and also. I rarely get to see them. 00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:06.897 Get down. 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:11.366 It's not funny. Hey. 00:02:11.399 --> 00:02:17.457 So anyway, um. So I grew up here, um, everything was good. Um, I just, 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:22.335 there's a lot of cultural stuff that goes on here. Um, we're limited to 00:02:22.368 --> 00:02:27.116 the things we can say, like I said, um. 00:02:27.149 --> 00:02:29.446 Um, 00:02:29.479 --> 00:02:36.906 My family, my, my aunts, um. They graduated at um big colleges. Um, one 00:02:36.939 --> 00:02:42.495 was a um pathologist. She's gone, so she, she's a speech pathologist. And 00:02:42.528 --> 00:02:48.577 then um my, my other aunt, she's a social worker, so I had, you know, good 00:02:48.610 --> 00:02:54.156 backup and cause his family was trying to take me to court for. You know, 00:02:54.189 --> 00:02:58.916 it was just it was just a lot of BS, but we've grown up now and I still 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:02.316 keep in contact with the dad. Well, he stay, he lives here too, and then 00:03:02.349 --> 00:03:07.906 I've had two kids with him, the oldest, the 21. And then the 18 year old, 00:03:07.939 --> 00:03:13.505 he's a senior now in school, so. So were there any, um, you know, 00:03:13.538 --> 00:03:17.467 traditions around birth that you guys had growing up or what was the 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:21.626 practice of birth on this reservation? Did you guys have a home or there's 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:24.427 a lot of things that they say that you can and cannot do while being 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:29.866 pregnant. Like you can't watch scary movies, um, because of the fact that 00:03:29.899 --> 00:03:34.866 you never know how your baby, you know, will come out looking or something 00:03:34.899 --> 00:03:37.886 like that and then like there's a lot of things like they see you can't 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:45.919 use scissors or so. Because you um you might so. His eyes shut or there's 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:50.876 a lot of things that they say, um. 00:03:50.909 --> 00:03:55.077 Mm, what else? There's, there's just a lot of tradition and stuff that go 00:03:55.110 --> 00:03:59.677 go on with it, but I'm like, while I was pregnant, I was going on my 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:02.916 Spanish side like I'm not even gonna think about. I gotta cut stuff. I 00:04:02.949 --> 00:04:06.886 gotta sell stuff, you know, like that's the least of my least thing on my 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:11.475 mind, you know, like that happening to him, um, so it kind of goes both 00:04:11.508 --> 00:04:16.575 ways for me though, you know, I'm just strictly not. Traditional wise, you 00:04:16.608 --> 00:04:19.805 know, like I said, I was living in Albuquerque, but, uh, it was just 00:04:19.838 --> 00:04:23.817 didn't work out. So that's a good thing, you know, we have somewhere to 00:04:23.850 --> 00:04:29.916 come home to, um, that's the good thing about it, um. And we and living on 00:04:29.949 --> 00:04:33.995 the reservation we have family we have a lot of family like it doesn't 00:04:34.028 --> 00:04:39.995 just, it doesn't just go like from mom to dad to kids. It goes to aunts to 00:04:40.028 --> 00:04:44.467 uncles to cousins to grandmas to grandpas, and that's the extent of it 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:49.437 here. I mean we, we have like 3 or 4 family houses like that's how it goes 00:04:49.470 --> 00:04:56.955 , but with my boys it was kind of hard. um, I wasn't with their dad um 00:04:56.988 --> 00:05:04.988 being a male, he. Um, They have a lot to learn and do with all the um the 00:05:05.238 --> 00:05:09.995 traditional things that go on uh with me being a female, there's a big 00:05:10.028 --> 00:05:16.187 role that females play here too, big, big roles, um, and in some families 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:22.036 like with my family, they rarely um spoke the language, so I wasn't 00:05:22.069 --> 00:05:27.187 fortunate to, to pick it up or speak it. Some of, some of it I understand 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:35.220 but I don't, but. Um, my kids, their dad's family like is really um. Um, 00:05:35.778 --> 00:05:40.697 Into their native their roots, so they, they know pretty much a lot of 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:42.786 stuff. 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:49.226 And I'm still going. I'm done after this one. I am so done. 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:53.575 It's up to my boys to have girls now. See, he's terrible. He just wants to 00:05:53.608 --> 00:05:58.856 be. He does, he does, he does. And then um it's been like about 2 months. 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:02.697 We're going on 2 months since we left his dad in Albuquerque. Um he is 00:06:02.730 --> 00:06:05.575 Navajo. um, 00:06:05.608 --> 00:06:08.776 he met up with his old friends and he started going back down that wrong 00:06:08.809 --> 00:06:11.776 path and I just couldn't see myself going down that path with him so I 00:06:11.809 --> 00:06:17.007 said. We gotta go. I'm taking my son home and we're leaving and, you know 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:24.637 , take care and we came home. That's so brave and you have a support 00:06:24.670 --> 00:06:30.817 network here. Yeah, well. It's kind of like that, it's just some people 00:06:30.850 --> 00:06:34.467 are just bad, like with. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:37.127 Especially on the reservations where you go, somebody's gonna say 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.546 something about the way people treat other people, you know, like, 00:06:40.579 --> 00:06:45.067 especially if we're like um not full-blooded, if we're half free. Yeah, 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:49.437 they have a big thing about that and um. But then there's just some people 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:54.596 that will share what they know, just so you, you know, you won't literally 00:06:54.629 --> 00:06:57.676 look stupid when you're, you know, you're trying to help out and stuff, 00:06:57.709 --> 00:07:02.145 but there's a lot of tradition that goes on here that Yeah, but we can't 00:07:02.178 --> 00:07:06.906 speak about it now. There's only one way in, one way out, so if something 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:12.116 goes on and you know what I mean, that's just. It's hard, but There's 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:15.796 peaceful. 00:07:15.829 --> 00:07:20.736 It's very peaceful, get away from the city and stuff, but yeah, so, so did 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:25.055 you have all of your births in the hospital? Were they in? I've had, I've 00:07:25.088 --> 00:07:30.736 had them um in Albuquerque, yeah. Um, 00:07:30.769 --> 00:07:38.676 Yeah, all 4 of them. Were you by yourself? My mom. My mom, the 1st 2, 00:07:38.709 --> 00:07:44.805 And that day. The other two, so was that helpful having your mother there 00:07:44.838 --> 00:07:52.305 ? It was helpful, but she's like, um. 00:07:52.338 --> 00:07:57.836 She needed more attention than me. She just was like. She was, she wasn't 00:07:57.869 --> 00:08:01.515 having it. Well, she was, she was, she was OK with it. It's just she was 00:08:01.548 --> 00:08:05.616 like um trying to calm me down and it started getting her cause she had an 00:08:05.649 --> 00:08:13.649 aneurysm. So she's like not her same self anymore so she like freaks out 00:08:13.928 --> 00:08:20.717 and so the first two was like pretty much um her giving birth cause she 00:08:20.750 --> 00:08:27.075 was like passing out and I'm like, mom, it was bad, but, but it was nice 00:08:27.108 --> 00:08:32.196 having my mom there so the, the, these last two, their dad was there. So 00:08:32.229 --> 00:08:36.755 did you have a plan of like if you wanted drugs or if you wanted to. Oh, 00:08:36.788 --> 00:08:44.596 my, my 1st 3, I had them natural. I didn't wanna have to um have them go 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:48.875 through that, you know, like with the epidural and stuff, but. I could not 00:08:48.908 --> 00:08:54.446 take it with this 10 my god, I had to have an epidural. He's a big head. I 00:08:54.479 --> 00:08:59.157 had to have an epido. 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:07.190 See, I couldn't take the pain. Firstly, I. I, I took the pain, but this 00:09:07.808 --> 00:09:11.816 one I had to get the epidural done. So how did you cope with the pain 00:09:11.849 --> 00:09:18.217 before? Just breathing, just breathing and just knowing that it's only 00:09:18.250 --> 00:09:22.816 gonna happen for a little much much longer. I'm not doing this no more 00:09:22.849 --> 00:09:29.537 type of thing in my head. I did it 3 more times, but, but yeah, it was, it 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:33.765 was the pain was really bad. So first, my first one I had him on my knees 00:09:33.798 --> 00:09:37.616 on my hands, so it was easier for me to push like that in the hospital, 00:09:37.649 --> 00:09:42.015 yes, on the bed, yeah, well, they kind of like put the bed down for me to 00:09:42.048 --> 00:09:49.255 have them, so yeah, that's great. I had them on my hands on my knees so 00:09:49.288 --> 00:09:52.816 I tried on all three. They just wouldn't they just, they just wouldn't 00:09:52.849 --> 00:09:58.417 take to match and. It was not maybe maybe the latching, but I needed to 00:09:58.450 --> 00:10:02.696 get back to work also too so and it's kind of hard pumping and doing all 00:10:02.729 --> 00:10:06.346 that. I just was like I'm just gonna use a bottle. It's just as good as, 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:10.875 you know, best man just depending on what kind of formula I use, but. And 00:10:10.908 --> 00:10:16.486 then we have the work program with the tribes, so. They give, they would 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:22.206 give us like maybe 13, about 13 to 17 kinds of milk on, on a little 00:10:22.239 --> 00:10:30.239 voucher, so. You know, being, being native, it does, it does, um. I guess 00:10:30.428 --> 00:10:35.509 Help out, you know, with the, with some of the programs that we have um. 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:37.779 Other than that, um, you just, but you felt some prejudice because of the 00:10:40.940 --> 00:10:45.407 Spanish. Well, well, they're finally getting, you know, because my boys 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:51.096 are well known here and um. Some people like they still, you know, shy 00:10:51.129 --> 00:10:54.875 away, but I'll still say hi. I'm like uh whether you wanna like me or not 00:10:54.908 --> 00:10:59.076 , you know, I'll still say hi and smile, but you know it's not my my fault 00:10:59.109 --> 00:11:03.236 who I am and who my parents are and you know I'm back on, you know, I'm 00:11:03.269 --> 00:11:07.866 back here and I try to, you know, do what I can and. 00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:11.265 That's just my mentality here, like, I don't bother you, you don't bother 00:11:11.298 --> 00:11:17.385 me. Oh God And you have your hands full. I know, and then I'm like I've 00:11:17.418 --> 00:11:20.866 been trying to get this house clean cause we're gonna be here for for 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:25.936 Christmas and Everybody comes in and they're like you're still right there 00:11:25.969 --> 00:11:31.375 at that point and I'm like dude like you gotta come see what how he is 00:11:31.408 --> 00:11:35.226 during the day like nobody knows. I gotta put a video camera there to 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:39.047 literally show them what my day is with him because I'm serious. He'll get 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:42.775 , I had a bag of laundry the other day because I'll put them in bags until 00:11:42.808 --> 00:11:47.265 I can get to fold them. And um he had a cup of Kool-Aid, so I had to get 00:11:47.298 --> 00:11:52.746 him lied. He literally poured the whole cup in the laundry bag and he sat 00:11:52.779 --> 00:11:57.946 on and jumped as high as do that whole laundry again. And when he has um 00:11:57.979 --> 00:12:02.706 juice he'll jump on the bed and I'll go all over. He had a cup of milk the 00:12:02.739 --> 00:12:06.547 other day and he spilled it on his head because he thought it was water. 00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:11.505 He just, he just like that. He just, he's trouble, yeah he is and then he 00:12:11.538 --> 00:12:14.986 had funs of the day and he was throwing them like little frisbees and then 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:18.696 he'll go step on them to smash them. He thinks it's funny. Yeah, he does 00:12:18.729 --> 00:12:23.461 and irritating. And he, he knows he's getting to me, you know, um, I'm not 00:12:23.494 --> 00:12:27.302 one to really spank my boys. I never done that because I think the more 00:12:27.335 --> 00:12:30.581 you spank them, the more naughtdier they get, the more you yell at them, 00:12:30.614 --> 00:12:35.351 the more worse they'll get. So I try to talk to him good and or I'll just 00:12:35.384 --> 00:12:39.851 go ahead, do it. I'll wait till you take a nap, clean up, so I clean up 00:12:39.884 --> 00:12:45.106 and he wakes up and then it happens all over again, but. That's just where 00:12:45.139 --> 00:12:49.586 I'm at now. Are you working now? I'm trying to get him into childcare. 00:12:49.619 --> 00:12:53.385 There's like a waiting list here because of lack of employees and stuff, 00:12:53.418 --> 00:12:57.826 so I need to get back to work. I mean, I rarely get out. My mom, she lives 00:12:57.859 --> 00:13:03.275 in San Esidro. Like I said, she's had an aneurysm, so. 00:13:03.308 --> 00:13:09.047 And then my stepdad, um, he's Spanish also, um, they found out he's got 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:13.057 two forms of cancer so she's dealing with that. I got to help her out with 00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:21.090 , you know, both of them and. My works just never. Never done, but. When 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:24.326 we need to get out and go get groceries or something, you know, she comes 00:13:24.359 --> 00:13:32.125 and she, she stops by and she takes us other than that I care. Yeah 00:13:32.158 --> 00:13:36.496 So do you have kids that have kids? Are you a grandma? 00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:40.625 Tell me, were you at their births? I was at birth, but she she had a 00:13:40.658 --> 00:13:46.167 C-section, so we couldn't go in. We're in the waiting room. Um, he was 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:50.515 born July 1st, um. 00:13:50.548 --> 00:13:55.275 My oldest, my oldest is 21, um, he went to Job Corps for welding, so I'm 00:13:55.308 --> 00:14:00.275 glad he's, uh, because there's, there's a lot of kids here that that don't 00:14:00.308 --> 00:14:04.395 extend their school, you know, they just wanna be around here, be bums and 00:14:04.428 --> 00:14:08.236 hang out and do stuff, but I try to instill in my boys, you know, I think 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:13.116 I did a good job being a single mother with my boys. Um, he, he finished 00:14:13.149 --> 00:14:18.515 at Job Corps in Albuquerque for welding, you know, he's got a good job now. 00:14:18.548 --> 00:14:22.436 Um, he's back and forth with his girlfriend too, so she comes and she 00:14:22.469 --> 00:14:28.515 goes, and, but my grandson usually comes and stays here, but. 00:14:28.548 --> 00:14:31.275 Him and his mom don't really like staying here cause he'll be up crying at 00:14:31.308 --> 00:14:36.316 night like, oh my God, we we're both kind of trying to get off of the our 00:14:36.349 --> 00:14:43.125 sickness we had the flu and stuff and. But he just. 00:14:43.158 --> 00:14:48.116 See the way he sounds, we were both sick. Actually the other kids were 00:14:48.149 --> 00:14:52.726 sick too. I know it's just that comes around. It's a tough season. Yeah, 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:58.765 yeah, she's my cousin, um, Julian's girlfriend, Bianca, she was in there. 00:14:58.798 --> 00:15:03.047 No, she's probably at work. She's my cousin. She's my second cousin. Her 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:08.407 mom and my mom, their dads are brothers. So those are like my, those are 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:13.927 my nieces that Julian's nieces are Julian's kids are my nieces. And then 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:20.476 TJ he just his girlfriend just had her baby. Um, that was kind of like 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:25.135 unexpected too because she's like not the type to 00:15:25.168 --> 00:15:28.826 it, you know, 00:15:28.859 --> 00:15:31.956 do you think there's, you have any other questions? I was gonna ask if 00:15:31.989 --> 00:15:34.996 there's anyone else in the neighborhood that you think would be good for 00:15:35.029 --> 00:15:39.066 us to knock on their door. 00:15:39.099 --> 00:15:42.456 Who's nice enough to open the door, um, and sometimes, you know, even if 00:15:42.489 --> 00:15:46.616 they're not. Uh, 00:15:46.649 --> 00:15:50.875 normally we can convince him that, you know, 00:15:50.908 --> 00:15:54.116 like what? 00:15:54.149 --> 00:16:02.149 Trying to see who's who's who's at home with the kids too. Hey. 00:16:02.798 --> 00:16:07.686 You could go up to the to the mesa on that side. Like when you get to the 00:16:07.719 --> 00:16:13.366 bridge, the end of the bridge, you'll just take a right and then um. 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:19.375 There's a bunch of houses up there. Um 00:16:19.408 --> 00:16:23.736 Midwives. I'm actually, is it recording? OK, that they had midwives in it. 00:16:23.769 --> 00:16:28.096 So had you considered a midwife or a homebirth or anything like that? 00:16:28.129 --> 00:16:31.976 I've never heard of anybody doing that here in a long time though, you 00:16:32.009 --> 00:16:36.255 know what I mean? Like, even, even when she had her line of midwives and 00:16:36.288 --> 00:16:43.706 stuff, um. See her, her, her son's um daughter or daughter-in-law, Bianca 00:16:43.739 --> 00:16:48.186 , my cousin. I don't know why she didn't go go with her, you know what I 00:16:48.219 --> 00:16:53.167 mean? Like cause I know she had her baby so. And in the hospital, but then 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:56.486 again her daughters or her daughters were premature, so she needed that 00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:02.167 care, so, um, and she had them teach her um 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:07.127 I don't really know. It's not part of the culture anymore. no, I don't 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:11.085 think so, but because, um. 00:17:11.118 --> 00:17:16.847 You would think that that that it would be, but there's there's, I guess 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:20.726 not too many midwives that are really like young that will really go 00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:25.367 around and like go see the people that are expecting, but I haven't heard 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:32.476 that in a long while. It's been a long while but then we're doing that. 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:37.189 All right. OK, that's the last question I wanted to ask when it stop.