Host: Emma Torres and her husband Rogelio both grew up in migrant farmworker families. They met in the early 1980s near Yuma, Arizona… but love was the last thing on their minds… She reached out to him because she needed a pickup truck, and he had access to one.
They came to StoryCorps to talk about their unlikely love story.
Emma Torres (ET) and Rogelio Torres (RT)
RT: You were not the type of woman I was looking for.
ET: And you were not my type of man either [laughs]. The last person I would look at, it was you [laughs]. But we started being friends.
RT: Mm-Hmm.
ET: Then I saw that you were very good with kids. And I had two kids.
RT: Yeah. You use me as a babysitter [laughs].
ET: That was my first interest on you [laughs].
RT: Yeah.
ET: You know, when I was in my twenties, my first husband died of leukemia. I was so angry, so upset at life. I was afraid that if I married you, you would die also and then I would be a widow again and I would have to go through the same cycle.
But I just thought, when life hits you like this, you have to be strong. You have to stand up.
I dropped school in sixth grade, so my goal was just to speak English and get my GED. And then I would have achieved more education than my family ever had. And the more I would go into night classes and learning, the more I saw the value of education.
That’s why I kept telling you, ‘Come on, go to school. Learn to speak English, you know, education is what breaks the cycle of the poverty that we’re in.’
RT: You know, as soon as I finish my elementary school, I start working full time. And I do love to work in the fields. But uh, for me it was an obstacle because if I go to school, I stop working. And in our family we were proud that we never go to unemployment.
ET: So that was a hard conversation, but agarraste la onda. You, you understood.
RT: The most important part for me is that you realize your dreams and they become my dreams, too.
ET: After pursuing a bachelors and then a masters degree in social work, which was beyond my wildest dreams, we decided to serve our farm worker families and help them improve their lives.
RT: And life is to serve, serve others, help others. You know, I admire you as a woman, as a mother, as a leader. You got your pants on [laughs].
ET: Los calzones bien puestos [laughs].
RT: [laughs] Yeah.
ET: As we had agreed, before anything we would be always friends. And I think that’s, that has worked.
RT: Mm hmm. We are very fortunate to have each other.