Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 1, numbers 1 through 10

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INTERVIEW: Senor Santos Cabrerra Page 5 MC: There were only four or five---a half a dozen that I can remember. There weren't very many at all. Yes, I came up from Texas in 1918 while the war was on in Mexico, and there were very few families here in Salt Lake City. A few from Old Mexico and a few from Colorado and New Mexico, but very, very few families. VM: And Mrs. Cabrerra, how did you get along here in Salt Lake City? MC: I got along well. We didn't have any problems at all. VM: Mr. Cabrerra, just tell me more about your early days here in Salt Lake City. SC: It's difficult for me to remember. I'm so old now. You know, I've had four operations and I'm very old and can't remember very much. But, I remember the work was very hard. We worked on the railroad. Just ask your father. There were no trucks to carry the rail and the ties, only the pushcar that we could use, and sometimes the motorcar. But in the yard, we could only use the pushcar, not the motorcar. Here in the yard, we couldn't use the motorcar for all the traffic of the trains, passenger trains. Then there was a lot of passenger service. Now there is very little. They've taken out half of the yard here. I don't know how many passenger trains, two or four are left nowadays. I remember before, there used to be a lot of traffic, Number One that would come in, and the Number Two and all the others, in and out. There was much more traffic than there is today. But all the railroad traffic has been reduced by the trucking, the busses, and