Leon Mallada
My name is Leon Mallada. I came to Guam on July 4, 1951, about 9 o‘clock, from Iloilo on the Navy transport ship General Aultmann. My work category was a laborer and I lived in Camp Roxas.
After six months, I cried. I didn't know why I came to Guam. But after I stayed a little bit longer, I decided that this place is good since I was wearing shoes to go to work.
About a year later, I worked for the Army Signal Corps in Naval Station and they changed my work category to telephone installation mechanic. I asked the Army captain: Why? He said: You know how to speak English. I worked for them about three years.
Every day at Camp Roxas, you eat at the galley. The first time they fed us, I don’t know what kind of food it was. They had rice, but it was full of small worms. I asked the Army captain: I don’t want to stay in the Camp Roxas no more. He said: Why? I said: Because the food is no good!
There were a lot of people cooking outside and we bought our own food. About two years later, the company took away all the small cooking stoves.
I told the Army captain: I don’t want to stay in Camp Roxas any more. He said: What do you want? I said: I want to stay in somebody’s house. He said: No, you’re supposed to stay with the Army over there, near Andersen. I stayed there about six months.
The captain said: Where do you want to stay? In your house or in the barracks? I said: In the house of my wife in Agat. I married my wife in 1955 and now we got nine children.
In 1957, I got my green card. The Army captain said: You want to go out or stay in this work? If you are American citizen, I can recommend you as a telephone installation mechanic. I said: Okay, and I became a U.S. citizen. I worked outside Camp Roxas at Faraday Company as crane mechanic and then crane operator. Then I worked at Foster & Wythe as a crane operator.
I decided to stay on Guam because I stayed in Janiuay village, far away from the town. I’m thinking that if I go back, I still have to work in the field. If I stay in Guam, I am wearing shoes and I can operate all types of equipment. The first time I went home to the Philippines was 15 years later.
I am speaking Chamorro, even in my work at SRF. I worked there for more than 25 years and I retired from the federal government after 33 years.
- - - Excerpted from 8/16/08 video interview by
Bernie Provido Schumann and Burt Sardoma Jr.
Transcribed Dec.15, 2008 through Jan. 3, 2009 by Josephine M. Garrido
