Paula Gonzalez on the first South Bend Hispanic Heritage Month

A Texas native who moved to South Bend in 1948, Paula Gonzalez saw first-hand how our city's Latinx migrant and immigrant community grew.Paula spent her childhood working day and night in a tomato packing house in Edinburg, Texas. When she moved to South Bend, she followed the path of many migrant workers, first laboring in the fields of the Martin Blad farm. In 1957, she began working in the dining hall at the University of Notre Dame, a position she held until her retirement in 1992.Settling in a Polish neighborhood on Western Avenue, Paula faced the challenge of learning English "the hard way" while navigating a community that was just beginning to transition into the predominately Latinx neighborhood it is today.As a dedicated community advocate, in 1979, she led the first celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in South Bend, ensuring the history of the Latinx community would be recognized.In 2004, Dr. Les Lamon and David Healey sat down with Ms. Gonzalez to record her life story. They talked about her experiences as a migrant worker, her journey to South Bend, and how she helped establish a sense of community for the city's Latinx residents.This episode was produced by Caleb Matz from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend, and by George Garner from the Civil Rights Heritage Center. Full transcript of this episode available here.Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.Title music, “History Repeats,” from Josh Woodward, used via CC-BY-4.0-DEED. Visit his website at https://www.joshwoodward.com.Additional music:“Lighthouse” by Ocean Bloom, https://freetouse.com/music/ocean-bloom/lighthouse.“Pida Vida” by u_w2a63gd7ea, https://pixabay.com/music/latin-pista-vida-480813/.