Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Adán (U.S. National Park Service)

Many people in the Tri-Cities have origin stories that include migration, dedication to family, hard work and contributions to the community. The origin stories of Latinas and Latinos are no different. The Hanford Latinx Experiences oral history interviews share the experiences of just a handful of the many Latinas and Latinos who have contributed unique skills to the development of the Manhattan Project, to Hanford and to the Tri-Cities. These stories reflect the lives of many people who helped build a place that hundreds of thousands call home today.

Adán has lived with his family in Pasco for close to half a century. Born in rural northwestern Washington and embodying a lifelong commitment to giving back to his community, he excelled in education and eventually became an educator and counselor at Pasco High School and Columbia Basin College after working at Hanford for seven years. During the 1970s and 1980s, Adán worked in a variety of job roles while at Hanford. He conducted psychological evaluations for people working with fissionable materials at the Hanford Mental Health Foundation and eventually progressed into a human relations managerial role at the Washington Public Power Supply System. Now in retirement, Adán finds hope in the future for Latinos/as in the Tri-Cities and beyond, even if he feels there is still a long way to go.

Listen to audio clips from Adán’s interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024

Adán moves to the Tri-Cities in 1977 and Pasco in 1978
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Adán discussed moving to the Tri-Cities in 1977 and Pasco in 1978 in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa:

When did you move to the Tri-Cities?

Adán:

I moved to the Tri-Cities in 1977, 1977. I remember that year, because that was the year my son was born. Our son, I should say, my wife and I. We've been here a long time—almost 50 years. 47 years. We lived in Richland for a year. I may have shared with you, that first year in Richard was really, really tough for us. We had our house egged. We had the kids drive by yelling racial epithets at us, throwing things into our yard. We were spending most of our time in Pasco anyways, so we finally just said, “Let's get out of here before somebody burns our house down.” We moved to Pasco and never regretted it. We've lived in Pasco since 1978. It was really interesting. When I first moved to the Tri-Cities, I was told not to move to Pasco, because that was not the place to be. A lot of Mexicanos and blacks there. Thank god. [laughter] That's why I moved there.

Adán’s main focus is la familia
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Adán discusses his focus on la familia in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

By that time, you had like children?

Adán

We had our first child in 1974, and I moved to Pullman in 1972. And then, our son was born in 1977. During that time we had our two children. And again, the main focus was La Familia, which is still our main focus. Now we've got… Our kids are grown, and they have kids and grandkids. I'm already on my third generation. We have nine grandkids and three great grandkids. That's still the same focus. We have our grandkids and kids with us every single week, at least 1 or 2 days a week. They stay with us. That's just the way it is. We try to pass our values on to them. I wish I could tell you they were bilingual as we are, but they're not, you know. Somehow that got lost in the process. Unless you really reinforce it, it's more difficult, but I'm working on that now still with them. As a matter of fact, I just talked to my son. Our son, I should say. My wife and I, we do the same thing. To our son yesterday. He lives in New Zealand, and we have four grandsons over there. They're 21, 19, 17 and 15. The 21 year old, he's a Latino living in Thailand now because he's a martial arts fighter. What I'm trying to say is that it's not only a national thing, but we are all over the world now. Okay. Our other grandson there, the 19 year old, just won a contest up for being the number one chef in the capital of New Zealand. Now he gets a long, fully paid internship as a chef in Australia. We're going to go visit him. We're going in December. We're going to go to New Zealand for a month, and then we're going to go to Australia for a week, and then we're going to go to Thailand for two weeks. Okay. The Chicanos are not just in our hood anymore. We're all over the place. There's lots of people that look like us in New Zealand. They have taco trucks, you know. They have restaurants. Our other one, our other grandson, he's going to come spend some time with us this winter. He’s a finalist in an internship with a major accounting firm. I'm just saying the world is a lot different 50 years ago from what it is now. It's scary, but there's still a lot more opportunities. These kids, I call them ChiKiwis. Yeah, Chicano Kiwis. ChiKiwis. They are who they are. They are very proud of their Latino heritage.

Adán talks about his role at Hanford
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Adán talks about his role at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

For Hanford and stuff, can you just describe what your role was?

Adán

I sure can. I'd mentioned I worked for Hanford Mental Health Foundation. I was there from ‘77 to ‘81. I did the psychological evaluations for people that were working with fissionable materials. I also did career counseling for people throughout Hanford that wanted to either improve their careers, change careers, or wondering how they could feel more comfortable with what they were doing. I also did stress management workshops for the four years. Eventually again with that mentorship, it was time for me to move on. I did that for three years. In my last year, I was the human relations manager—but manager only if I went through my boss. I finally decided it was time to move on. I needed to go on. Still at Hanford, I mean, directly related. That's when I went on to the Washington Public Power Supply System. I mentioned at the time that it was primarily a nuclear project. That was when they were building, WMP-1. They were still building WOLF-1, number two, and number three, which they eventually stopped, because of all the stuff that was going on. Now, it's only the number two that's out there active. But, my first year was as an employee relations specialist, just working with workers and training, management training, supervisor training, career planning. I did career planning and training. Eventually from there, after one year there, I moved over to work out physically on the project, training the trainers that worked around fissionable materials, trainers who work with the Hanford reactor operators, trainers who worked with hazardous materials, making sure that everybody was following regulations, teaching people how to put together training objectives, teaching them how to put together lesson plans, teaching them how to teach and train.

Adán discusses his professional experiences at Hanford, Pasco and CBC
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Adán discusses his professional experiences at Hanford, Pasco and CBC in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

For Hanford, how were the initial experiences working there?

Adán

Once I got my feet wet and once I really got “professional,” then you started making your own decisions, and then you're made a manager, and then you actually try managing. But, I was the only Latino manager that I knew, at the time… Then, I established myself at the supply system. It didn't take long before I became… And, I'm not glad handing. I'm just saying that it took a while to establish that you were not an affirmative action hire, that you actually knew what you were doing. You really had to work twice as hard as anybody else. But I got through it. Wasn't easy, a lot of resistance, but once you got through that, there was a lot of support, too. It was really interesting. Most of my bosses have been women, and I don't mean that to be sexist. I'm just saying that there wasn't that sense of competitiveness all the time. I think we had probably more in common with the sexism and the racism, because when they weren't, there was always that struggle, that competitive struggle… Anyway…

Drew Gamboa

And, that would probably align with the experiences that you had…

Adán

Mhmm. I worked there for four years then I went on to work for the supply system. When I came back to work, I finally decided to work at Pasco School District, which I really loved. I did four years as a counsel advocate, working with bilingual kids, and then coaching soccer. I loved coaching. Most of my players were Latino and Vietnamese kids. They really… You know, they learned. The Vietnamese kids, “Hey, vato!” They were learning Spanish, and not the nice words… [laughter] But, I loved it. Then I went to CBC, initially came in as a counselor, but after a year… I don't know if you're familiar with Trio, student support services, Upward Bound, I became the director, and I loved it. I loved it. I did 16 years on that particular job plus one year as the counselor. I just decided it was time to move on. I had a really, really great student that worked with me, who then went on, got her degree, and came in to work for me as one of my counselors. She was ready to take on the directorship. There's a time to bow out. There's a time to move on or leave it to younger kids like yourself. That was my time. But now, I'm on the board of directors for the group that establishes scholarships for the campus, CBC Foundation, and I love it. I'm back in the mix again, making sure that I can help students, and not just Latino students, but first generation, low income, disabled students. I happen to be all three. Part of me is still very much part of that environment. I just never stop being that.

Adán always looked for raza
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Adán discusses always looking for raza in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

Outside of work.

Adán

Oh, outside of work, I always looked for Raza. We lived in Richland for the first year. Fridays, we were in Pasco. Why? Well, because they had restaurantes. They had the tiendas. They didn't egg us over there. After a year, we said, “Hey, we spend all our weekends over here. We go to church over here. Why don't we move over here?” That's exactly what we did. Because the first year here, it was survival more than living. When we moved over there, I'm not saying that things were perfect, but they were sure better. We've been there in Pasco since 1978, so that's quite a while.

Adán volunteers for children’s education
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Adán speaks about volunteering for children’s education in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

Have you seen any types of changes in the community, too?

Adán

Well, the school districts. I'm so delighted. There’s going to be a new high school in Pasco, another principal that's Latino. There's Latino principals left and right all over the place in the Tri-Cities. Not all of them but more and more. As a matter of fact, one of the things that I'll be doing this week, if not this week then next week, is I'll be going over to where my great grandson is going to be going to middle school. I'll be seeing if I can volunteer there to help the kids there in any counseling capacity. That's what I did last year over at McLaughlin Elementary School. I had a great grandson in kindergarten, so my role was to get those kids up in their reading speed. My great grandson was able to… He's reading at the third grade level after kindergarten and a whole bunch of other kids. Why? Because if you can't read, you're going to have a hell of a time. I had a whole bunch of Latino kids, several black kids, just kids from all backgrounds. And to me, that's really important still. I do see some changes. I see much more involvement. If you go down to Pasco, it's like little Mexico, which my wife and I spend a lot of time down there, en los restaurantes, buying chicharrones, all the stuff that we need for survival. Lots of changes…

Adán shares advice for youth
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Adán shares advice for youth in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 5, 2024.

Date created:

01/29/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

I guess the question that I did have about your work with students and stuff is how your experiences have informed the way that you connect with folks?

Adán

Okay. Two things that I believe in very, very strongly. One is the sense of work. Hay que trabajar. Si no trabajas, no comes. If you don't work, you don't eat, okay. The other thing is, it's important to know who you are and not to forget your identity. That doesn't mean you don't get along with other folks. That just means that we have an obligation to work strongly for our ethnic communities as well. I think that because they need the mentoring. They need the support. It definitely has had an impact. Every job that I've had has had that element, and I try to encourage the kids to be involved in a situation, where they can give back to the community in some fashion, not just their ethnic community, but helping poor folk, because that's where we came from. I when I was growing up, I knew two things that were one of the most important things that I knew and still to this day. I did not want to be poor. I worked very hard. I think it's incumbent upon us to help people out of poverty, and especially into your next generation do better than yourself. I take great pride in that. I think it's working for your community and helping people get to a different level—very, very important. That's basically what I've done all my life. I probably will do it till that last nail on my casket. I try to encourage kids that work with me to have that sense of community responsibility—really, really important to me, not just ethnically, but just to your sense of community. We owe something to our community…