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

Magdaleno Gamboa in the Army, c.1960

Photo courtesy of Paul, Kristina, Mary, & Magdaleno Gamboa

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.

Magdaleno Gamboa is part of a family that consists of seven brothers and four sisters. His family followed the crops as migrant farm workers during the 1940s. During the Cold War, Magdaleno served in the Army. He shares with his grandson—Drew Gamboa—his experiences in the Army, where he was stationed in Germany and trained as a mechanic. After serving in the Army, Magdaleno eventually found work at Hanford, doing overhauls on buses, trucks, and large vehicles. Magdaleno spent about twenty years as a mechanic at Hanford from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. By the nineties, his wife opened a daycare in Sunnyside, and he retired from Hanford to help his wife run the daycare center.

Listen to audio clips from Magdaleno's interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024

Magdaleno describes his family and life growing up
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Magdaleno describes his family and life growing up in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

My name is Magdaleno Gamboa, and I'm being interviewed by my nephew, Drew. The first question that he asked me was where I was born. I was born in Edinburg, Texas, April the 16th, 1937. Our family consisted of eight boys and four girls, plus my two parents, which made 14 in the family. My parents were born in Mexico, and they came to the United States in the 1920s. They fixed their citizenship in the 1920s. Drew is asking to describe my family, my brothers and sisters. We were pretty close—my aunts and uncles, and we were very close. We were a very united family. We had a lot of cousins on my father’s side and on my mother's side, and we were pretty close to both sides of the family. We all get along together real well. My next question that you asked me was how the family ended up in the Northwest, Pacific Northwest. We were migrants. We followed the crops in different states. We worked in the cotton fields in the state of Texas, in different towns in Texas. Then, we started to migrate to different states. We got as far as Lake Erie, Ohio, and Toledo, Ohio. We were working the fields, picking tomatoes. During the 1940s after the war, the Second World War, we used to pick tomatoes with the prisoners of war, the German prisoners of war. They would work on one side of the field, and we would work on the opposite side of the field. We never got together with them, but we respected them and they respected us. The places that within… While I was growing up, we worked in Ohio, Mississippi, in Oregon, California and Washington. We followed the migrant route as other families did during that time because of lack of work in Texas. I attended school in Sunnyside [Washington] and California.

Magdaleno enlists in the Army
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Magdaleno discusses enlisting in the Army in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

When did you go into the army?

Magdaleno Gamboa

I went in December 1959. I enlisted for three years, because they had a benefit. If you enlisted, you had a choice to stay here in the States or go overseas. I chose to go overseas just so I could visit different countries that I knew I would never be able to visit, because I didn't have the funds to go down there just for a trip. So, I benefitted by going overseas. I got to visit Germany, Spain, Denmark and Holland. I always wanted to go to Italy, but I didn't have the time at the time. It was a good experience in the Army. I enjoyed it. I made a lot of good friends in the Army.

Magdaleno describes traveling in Europe while in the Army
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Magdaleno describes traveling in Europe while in the Army in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa How is it?

Was there any difference from growing up in the United States and then being in Europe?

Magdaleno Gamboa

Yeah, it was kind of… Well, the towns that we visited, I always wanted to go to different… Not the big cities. I wanted to see the countryside like our towns here in Sunnyside. But, they were pretty poor. But, that's what I like to see how the people lived out in the country, not the city people. But, there in Spain, I didn't dare go out in the country, because I didn't know how the people would accept us or not. I just stayed in the big cities where I was… Paris was pretty interesting, because I got to go up the Eiffel Tower and visit some of the cathedrals there and walk through that arc. They call it the Arc of Triomphe in France. There was a lot of interesting places to see there. There's an art gallery there where they got the Mona Lisa. But I never got a chance to get down there, because it was too far away from us. You have to take the subway to get to different places in France. But, you buy a map and you find your way up there, what subways you take and stuff. In France, the Army has a special place that the military can use for lodging and stuff. And, they had different American food that you could… Delicatessens that you go visit and get American food. There in Amsterdam, it's like a dairy country, mostly milk and cheese, different kinds of cheeses. They eat a lot of cheese there. Pretty tasty, but I'm not a cheesy person. I really enjoyed my trip over there. On Saturdays, they had a tour. The bus could… You could sign up for a tour that would take you to different places to visit. We ended up in this town that they were doing some excavating, and they found the Colosseum from way back when the gladiators were… It was already cleaned up. They were still working on it, but it was still cleaned up that we could go visit it… In Spain. We got to visit a lot of bullfights there. I didn't care too much about killing the bull, but that's part of the plan.

Magdaleno shares what he learned while serving in the Army
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Magdaleno shares what he learned while serving in the Army in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

I guess, were there any significant things that you learned through serving in the Army that that kind of transferred over into what you ended up doing afterwards?

Magdaleno Gamboa

Oh, yeah. I took some training as a mechanic there in Fort Benning, Georgia, before I left for Germany. I was a mechanic over there in Germany. That was my job over there, but at the same time, you were trained to drive all the vehicles, like tanks or APCs. APC is a unit like a tank that travels on land or water but carries personnel inside the shell. They trained us how to drive and how to fix them and stuff. You had to learn how to drive the tanks in case, you know, they needed you as a driver. We learned how to drive the tanks and how to fire them and stuff. But I ended up in the carpool just fixing semis, three-quarter ton trucks, jeeps. At the same time, you were able if they needed you, you could fix a tank or something or APCs. It was pretty… That helped me when I got to JM Perry because I already knew. I just wanted to get my certificate, so I could apply as a journeyman and to get out of there. Eventually, everybody started coming back one by one, and they made the family whole again. It was easier for my dad and mom, now that everybody got home safely.

Magdaleno finds work at Hanford
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Magdaleno discusses finding work at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

How did you find out about work at Hanford?

Magdaleno Gamboa

About the job?

Drew Gamboa

Yeah.

Magdaleno Gamboa

This friend of mine that I knew here from Sunnyside was a friend of mine and started working there as a patrolman, the security. He would come up there by the garage to visit me. We would spend some time after work, because he'd get home about 3 o’clock. He said, “No, Why don’t you…? They're hiring, after this strike. Apply over there. It's not as hard as is the garage job here. You don't have to work as hard.” I didn't believe him at first. You got to make and show some work. But when I started working at Hanford, they got not just one car. They got a fleet of cars, a fleet of trucks, busses. If one breaks down, they take another one in its place, and you fix the one that's broken. They don't care how much longer you take fixing it, as long as it's fixed. They just replace the broken one with a new one that's running. It was pretty easy for me. They don't push you. “Hey. You're not doing your job.” “Just do it right.” They put me doing overhauls in the busses, the big engines. That would take me about a month, because those are huge. There's a lot of parts on those. You had to go through the whole motor, as long as it comes out right. You have to test it… Make sure that the horsepower that that motor is supposed to produce, you fix it to produce that horsepower. That there's no leaks, no nothing. You take your time, but you do it right. They don't tell you, “Hey, you're taking too long.” They would never interfere with your work, just as long as you were in your job and doing it. The supervisors, they were ex-mechanics, so they knew what was going on. They didn't push you or anything. They just made sure that you do it right and that you didn’t get hurt.

Magdaleno describes starting at Hanford in the mid-1970s
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Magdaleno describes starting at Hanford in the mid-1970s in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

… When I started there, there were no tool boxes for us to work from. Most of the people that I worked there were from Oklahoma, Arkansas, people from the South. But, they had been working together for a number of years, since Hanford started. At that time, there were no Spanish-speaking people there. So they kind of… They were not prejudiced, but it was kind of hard for them to get along with me, because they didn't… They've been together for a number of years, and I was a newcomer there. I was a Spanish-speaking person. At first, they didn't accept me. I had a feeling they didn't accept me, because I was Spanish speaking, but eventually they got to know me. They didn't have any toolboxes, so I asked the supervisor, “What am I supposed to do?” “Well, just walk around with the mechanics and use their tools.” But, they didn't want you to use their tools, so I didn't bother. “Well, I don't like to bother with their tools, because they're set in their ways. They don't want people to mess around with their tools.”

Magdaleno works at Hanford for twenty years
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Magdaleno discusses working at Hanford for twenty years in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

My coworkers would get together in their little groups, and I would walk through there, but they never invited me to sit with them or nothing. They would have their conversation and I would approach them, and then the conversation would end. They would say, “Oh, here comes the spy. He's writing something.” [laughter] They thought I was a spy there, because at the time, they had a person that would go to the home. People working there at Hanford, they would call in sick, but they weren't sick. They just wanted the day off because you still get paid. There was a lot of that going on. The people that were working there says, “Oh, Hanford is hiring spies to spy on the workers, make sure they're producing.” They thought I was hired as a spy, so they didn't trust me. I had a hard time getting for them to accept me. But eventually, they got to know me and we got along fine. Drew Gamboa When did you start? Magdaleno Gamboa I started in 1976 or 1977. I spent there about 20 years. It was a really good experience, a lot of benefits. It helped us a lot. That helped us to… We started saving some money. My wife always took care of children. She opened a daycare, but it was mostly at our homes. And then, she decided that she needed a bigger facility. We invested in some land and built a daycare to accommodate more children. She had a facility that would occupy 150 children, babies and different ages. She had a group of teachers, a nurse, a cook. We did real well with a daycare…

Magdaleno features in the Hanford News
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Magdaleno discusses being featured in the Hanford News in an interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024.

Date created:

01/30/2025
Audio Transcript

Drew Gamboa

I know that my dad has a picture of you working on a truck or like…

Magdaleno Gamboa

Oh. With a hoist. [laughter] Yeah, I was working on that big dump truck there, and I had to go to an underneath the frame, so I had to pick up the bed with the piston so that I can have room to work underneath. This photographer went by and says, “What are you doing?” I say, “I'm trying to fix this.” “Do you mind if I take your picture?” Because they had a Hanford News, a newspaper. They would write stories and stuff in there and different places in Hanford, they’d take pictures of the people working there for the paper and write a little story. That's how I ended up there, getting a picture taken. And then, we started with old buses back in the 40s that had no heat or air conditioning. So, we learned how to install air conditioners in the buses, the old buses. He came by that one time and got our picture taken with a group of people there. I think there's still some of the old buses still there somewhere.

Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Magdaleno Gamboa

Listen to audio clips from Magdaleno's interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024

Magdaleno describes his family and life growing up

Magdaleno enlists in the Army

Magdaleno describes traveling in Europe while in the Army

Magdaleno shares what he learned while serving in the Army

Magdaleno finds work at Hanford

Magdaleno describes starting at Hanford in the mid-1970s

Magdaleno works at Hanford for twenty years

Magdaleno features in the Hanford News

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Listen to audio clips from Magdaleno's interview with Drew Gamboa on November 11, 2024

Magdaleno describes his family and life growing up

Magdaleno enlists in the Army

Magdaleno describes traveling in Europe while in the Army

Magdaleno shares what he learned while serving in the Army

Magdaleno finds work at Hanford

Magdaleno describes starting at Hanford in the mid-1970s

Magdaleno works at Hanford for twenty years

Magdaleno features in the Hanford News

You Might Also Like

The Untold Story of FDR's Valets

Volunteer Archivists Decipher Thousands of Untold Stories from the American Revolution

Two Federal Grants Help the National Canal Museum Share the Untold Stories of the D&L Canal

First African Baptist Church Beaufort

Archeology This Month: Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage

Reckoning with Slavery's Legacy in St. Louis

Tags