Friday May 17, 2013
Howe Library – Hanover, NH

Me: So I guess, to start off, I know we talked a lot about hard work and good work ethic and good attitude, but I guess I want to ask how you would describe yourself if you had to describe yourself. And maybe even how you changed, maybe, when you came here or something like that.

Mr. Salazar: Well, my expectations changed because I told you what I expected you know, Norman Rockwell United States. And [unclear] in about six months I realized it wasn’t that, how the students in the school were not smart as I expected them to be. You know I expected Americans to be really bright you know this is the place you know. But boy some of them were as dumb as a rock, and never took books home to study. They did their homework in a forty-five minute homeroom period or whatever they call it, study period. They went home they put the books in their locker and that was it. And I said I don’t know I had to do a lot of work when I went to school, I had to take a lot of notes, then I had to go home and take more notes and cause they give you an outline of what they want and then you gotta go home and expand on that. And you know, over there [in Venezuela] if you didn’t make it you flunked – you flunked, you flunked. You’re set back they’ll put you there, a couple of times I had to make up classes, and then you go to, when you have to make up a course that you failed you have to wait like doing the summer. They have a date where you go to a particular school it’s not your teacher. They go by the whole curriculum they don’t go by what your teacher taught you from that curriculum, they pick anything. So you have to study the whole curriculum and sometimes you lucked out cause it was a panel of four teachers sitting in the room watching you do this. So, twice I had to do that, didn’t enjoy that much – painful.

Me: Was that, that was back in Caracas.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, yeah all my schooling was done it was done in Caracas. I started private schools, most of them, most of the time. Only one year I went to a public school, but most of the time I went to Saint Francis of Sales School, ten years there, a Catholic school. And before that my first through sixth grade, after sixth grade you go into high school basically, that’s why it’s five year, we don’t have a middle school. So I went to private school and that’s how I learned English, from my first, I went to Montessori school when I was a little baby, I don’t know five or six years old. I don’t remember anything about that school except for the first time I got a bottle of Coke out of one of those machines – I had never seen one of those machines. Those little bottles of Coca-Cola that’s the only thing I remember about that school. I don’t remember being there.

Me: Anything else but that yeah.

Mr. Salazar: So, but, I was there gone from one school to the next school to, until I came here.

Me: So what type of things did you do outside of school? I know, I remember you saying that you walked the city with your grandfather often…

Mr. Salazar: Oh God, very often, from end to end.

Me: So you guys were pretty close?

Mr. Salazar: Oh yeah, my grandfather and I, the one in the picture.

Me: This one here?

Mr. Salazar: Yeah. That one is the same one as this one. I was his favorite.

Me: You were his favorite? What else did you guys do? Or do you have a certain memory or things that you talked about or can you describe kind of the bond you shared?

Mr. Salazar: Like what…I had a regular bond together. We grew up in the street, you know go run in the middle of the street. We used to, one thing I remember fondly is that we used to go roller-skating in the streets at Christmas time there was a period of, from the seventeenth of December to the twenty-third where they have what they call it Misas de Aguinaldo is a midnight something, it’s a rooster mass in the morning. So I don’t know what they call it but I know that we used to go in groups roller-skating in the streets and during the day we d to do the same thing but in the middle of traffic and dodging traffic and something. But at night they had those things that you go in and from ten o’clock to six o’clock in the morning you roller-skate and they have venders in the street and they have the streets blocked. They did, they don’t do that anymore. And then at six o’clock there was a mass, which I always missed. I was, after ten years of Catholic schooling and the regimen, cause it was like seven days a week. So, I knew they weren’t gonna get me on that one. But that was one and another thing I enjoyed, my father was the Vice President of the boxing federation in Venezuela for many years, and I used to go with him almost every Monday night to the fights the amateur fights. He was an international judge and all this stuff.

Me: Right, cause I know he went to Miami right for the…

Mr. Salazar: Well he went just to see the fight, he didn’t go, as a matter of fact I brought him up when I was in Miami. He came up to go, I got some tickets for a fight and he flew up just to come with me to the fight and I was already in Miami. And that was like a routine that I enjoyed, watching the fights and I use to spar with the fighters sometimes in the gym. And I was good in swimming, I was lousy at all the other sports I because my father was so much into sports I could go into any sports venue in Caracas and I didn’t have to pay cause everyone knew my dad. So, but practicing the sport myself, when I was younger I had asthma and I played basketball in school and I could last like only a half an hour. After that I was wheezing like you wouldn’t believe, I had to sit down. Baseball I was lousy at, I played it but I was not, I was never a star. My father was any sport that he played he was always the star. I could never come up even to, oh my father used to find me and my friends hanging around the corner talking. That’s when we was, I was about fifteen, sixteen, and he’s driving home for something and he sees us hanging around the corner he says, “Get in the car.” He would take us to the stadium to watch a track meet or a game but anything had to do with sports. He didn’t like, to this date I don’t know how to play poker or any of those kinds of tables because he didn’t, he thought those were things for people that drank and you know raunchy people. And he was not prude but I mean that’s the way, billiards and stuff like that he said, “Those are bar-room things.” And so I stayed away from that, he didn’t drink so I don’t drink. I have a drink once and a while, I’m gonna have one tonight but I don’t remember when was the last time that I had a drink.

Me: Staying out of trouble though that’s good.

Mr. Salazar: I never really got into trouble. We were, my friends and I, we’d hang out and we used to play the guitar or something, but we were never mean or not rowdy anything. We liked to chase the girls of course, see the girls and *whistling* still do *laughter*. So but other than that I don’t know it was just a regular, I think I had a happy childhood.

Me: Yeah, it sounds like you did, so was it…

Mr. Salazar: We were not rich, but we ate every day and we took vacations when the vacation time came. We used to go to the part of Venezuela with an ocean one of my uncles owned a hacienda and – the coco hacienda. We used to go there and just play around like sometimes at one time I spent a month there and the only thing that I remember that I wore during that month was a bathing suit; no shoes, no shirt, nothing just running through the jungle there, picking up fruit, catching crayfish and whatever we can find. The river, we find tubers or something in the ground put them in a pot cook them you know like living like the Survivors.

Me: But I mean that sounds perfect right…

Mr. Salazar: It was what it was you know I never said, “Well that’s gonna be something good to know in the future.” So I did enjoy my youth and I enjoy my grandchildren immensely, I’m gonna see them tomorrow again.

Me: Oh that’s exciting, how old are they?

Mr. Salazar: Um, my grandson is gonna be twelve forth of July he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy, my granddaughter Leanna, that’s my daughters kids, she’s going to be eleven in March, or in February, no no it’s Lincoln’s birthday. Oh Valentine’s…no Lincoln’s birthday yeah February twelfth that’s her birthday to. So they both have some patriotic connotation to their births. My son has two daughters, and we’re gonna have another one, I just found out last week.

Me: Aw congratulations, congratulations!

Mr. Salazar: Thank you. He has two girls one is four and a half, the other one is, just turned three. And, I’m going to a recital tomorrow the older one, but it’s not a really recital, she’s a gymnast and she has gymnastics.

Me: So she has a, that’s fun.

Mr. Salazar: And I went last week to the little one that had a ballet thing.

Me: The three year old?

Mr. Salazar: Yeah.

Me: So are they in the area too?

Mr. Salazar: No, they’re in Massachusetts.

Me: They’re in Massachusetts okay.

Mr. Salazar: Like just on the border with New Hampshire, yeah hour and a half, hour and forty-five minutes.

Me: That’s not bad.

Mr. Salazar: So we get to see each other.

Me: So then I guess the next question is how did you transition and how did you kind of find friends and find people here once you got here?

Mr. Salazar: I mean, I never find it difficult to make friends. I think I had an approach that I was not afraid of talking to anybody – I talked to a wall. Like I told you I sole insurance when my English was really bad, I was top salesman within the company cause to sell anything you gotta sell yourself first then you sell whatever product. If you have, attitude again, if you have the wrong attitude and wrong presentation and you approach the situation like *ahhh* you not gonna sell anything I don’t care. You could sell, you know you could give them gold for free and they won’t take it because they’ll suspect you of something. So that’s, I think it was easy, I was pretty handsome too you know, I mean I was…I just arrived from United States and didn’t get a haircut [referring to the photograph pictured below].

Me: Yeah but this one here…and this one

Mr. Salazar: But, I did get, that’s me skinny a hundred and forty-nine pounds or something like that.

Mr. Salazar: And, I tried to get along with people, listen to them you know. One of the worse things you can do is like I’m doing now is just talking.

Me: I mean, but well but I’m trying to get your story.

Mr. Salazar: I know, it’s not easy

Me: We’ll have to we’ll share stories later

Mr. Salazar: You’re coming up with things I didn’t even…

Me: That’s why I didn’t know, oh, the other thing that I didn’t think of before at all, citizenship. Was that an easy, how was that process for you?

Mr. Salazar: It was very very easy. When I came here, I came basically as a tourist because I was coming in the middle of the school year already so I didn’t have time to go apply for the applying for the schools here ahead of time. This is why I encountered the problem with the college that wouldn’t let me in cause you know there’s some business or something that goes on when you enroll overseas there’s some commission or something going on I don’t know. But anyways, so I came and I was here for I don’t know few months and maybe three or four months, my visa was still valid, and I went to the immigration department and I said, “I’m gonna be going to school over here so, what do I do?” So the guy liked me to so

Me: Yeah, of course!

Mr. Salazar: He said, “Well, you could become a resident.” And in those days Venezuela was top with regards to immigration, we didn’t have, there were no problems at all so I applied for a resident’s visa. I could have applied for a student visa and I said, “No give me the resident” and he said, “Sure no problem.” You know it’s not like it is now, “We don’t want you in this country, there are too many of you people.” So, I applied and he said, “The only thing you have to do is you have to register for the army.” I said, “Sure, alrighty.” I said alright that’s the Vietnam War I said, “I don’t care, I’m here now and I’m gonna, whatever it is.” So I already registered for the service in Venezuela but I was deferred because I was a student. So I said, “Fine.” So I had to go to Boston to the navy yard or something in Boston and go through the tests and they failed me because I had a bad eye, retina detachment in my right eye so they gave me an F and in those days apparently they didn’t need so many people for the Vietnam thing cause I was willing to go whatever you have to do you do. I said, “The Army, sure, better here than going into the Army in Venezuela, bunch of jerks.” So I mean the Army in Venezuela the people are from the shantytowns so they go in and at least they get a meal out of that – I didn’t want to be with those people.

Me: No.

Mr. Salazar: I mean I discriminate too you know, there’s discrimination and there’s discrimination. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t want to hang out with them, they weren’t gonna bring anything to uplift me so what should I better be doing for them, which I wouldn’t mind do it but it wasn’t…

Me: It has to be a mutual relationship…

Mr. Salazar: I didn’t want to be dragged down I wanted to be brought up. There’s one thing I have to say that my father said one time

Me: Who said?

Mr. Salazar: My father said that to me one time, I never forgot it he said, “Orlando, if you have a dollar and you gonna drink a bear and in that bar across the street they give you two beers for one dollar, and in this one here it costs you one dollar for one beer, which one will you go to?” “I’d go to get two.” *slap* “Idiot, you go to that one you pay, you meet a better class of people you see.” And that stuck with me I mean I probably do whatever, do what I want but that does make sense because people that are looking for a cheap thing they go to that, but this one over here if you’re willing to pay a dollar you must be a better class of people so you go pay the dollar. So that’s something I,

Me: Stuck with you?

Mr. Salazar: Stuck with me.

Me: Yeah, yeah.

Mr. Salazar: So try to meet people that are better than you cause they might not do anything but at least you learn something from them so.

Me: But then you still have that same mentality were you try to bring people up definitely

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, I was born that way because I always wanted to help somehow that’s how I got involved because when I went to somewhere, even in Miami, I went in there with no job and my job was to look for a job and as soon as I found the job I tried to get into to go into things with the Chambers of Commerce and things you know. Once you associate like that people know you and you have some place to go. It’s very lonely to be in a place where nobody wants you.

Me: I was gonna say it’s always networking.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah

Me: Trying to meet as many people as possible that’s just the way to go. So then, I think my last probably my last question for you; you see the light at the end of the tunnel it’s coming

Mr. Salazar: Yeah! Fin, f-i-n fin! *Laughter* so a fish has a fin but that’s fin

Me: Fin, fin

Mr. Salazar: Fin, not even I don’t know how to pronounce it in Spanish fin, fin.

Me: Fin, fin de semana – finally it’s Friday ohh, aw man

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, we don’t have a TGIF translated

Me: No, well, that crosses languages barriers.

Mr. Salazar: Oh God yes.

Me: But I guess the last thing I want to ask you is how, how do you identify yourself, or whom do you identify with?

Mr. Salazar: Roca no no he was queer *laughter* who I identify myself with as a symbol?

Me: Or what is your like what is your identity like who are you?

Mr. Salazar: I’m me

Me: I know, so what’s that mean to be you? What does it mean?

Mr. Salazar: I don’t know whatever my parents and my life brought me to be to where I am today I don’t I’m not looking for…

Me: Big mixture?

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, collage of hopefully good things

Me: Yeah

Mr. Salazar: But no I haven’t molded myself to anybody’s way of being or anything like that, I wouldn’t know.

Me: Yeah

Mr. Salazar: I don’t like to copy anybody

Me: No, no but it seems like you’re very, you are very dedicated to following, I don’t know you say that you don’t really have a mold, but I feel like there’s almost like a passion that you definitely have for working hard.

Mr. Salazar: To breathe *laughter*

Me: *Laughter* that’s not what I was going for, I guess like you said the story with your dad with the bar and that story stuck with you like those kind of things. Like what type of things define you?

Mr. Salazar: My father was no genius either, or he’s still not a genius he’s still alive but I was a child he’s ninety-five years old.

Me: Yeah

Mr. Salazar: But no I never tried to mold myself of any particular character I mean I don’t read as much as a I used to, I do read I do like to read but I don’t you know historical characters or something like that but only for their character not because, “Oh I would like to be like him,” no he’s dead *laughter*.

Me: No, you want to be you.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, so I don’t know what the question meant anyways so

Me: Just how, I guess seeing that you have Venezuelan background and you were brought here and you worked hard here and you’ve been successful here

Mr. Salazar: This is the only place I ever worked hard *laughter*

Me: You had to get there you had to get there somehow

Mr. Salazar: I think I worked for six months in Venezuela selling Styrofoam now I own a Styrofoam boat how do you like that huh? Boy did I advance in forty-nine years. But, no that’s the only work I ever did in Venezuela I worked for my father selling Styrofoam in a company he managed so then I came over here and then I worked in the mills and worked in the mills for at least what four or five years I would guess. Then I went into selling insurance, then I went into community development, then I went into industry, then I went into banking and basically it then into economic development big-time with the state of Massachusetts that was it. But these were all accidental things; I didn’t prepare myself for any of those jobs. It’s not like I said, “Well I’m gonna study so I can be this.” I mean when I went to the bank I didn’t even own a checking account so, I knew nothing about banks, I can look at people and feel people that’s one thing I think I have is that I can, you know…

Me: Well, you seem to connect, very well.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, I think, well I used to anyways but when they said get the job I said, “Holy [shoot] I cannot learn everything,” that’s why I started looking for books and said, “Oh, this is what a bank is, okay now alright.” And then they sent me to places by accident because somebody got sick and offered the situation and I said, “Well I have a job, if I don’t do this I’m gonna lose a job and I have a family so can’t loose a job.” So you spend the time and you know twelve hours whatever however long, bank closes and you’re still there reading and looking at old contracts, that’s how I learned I used to look at all the old things and I went down and I said, “Oh this is how they fill these forms okay.” So I picked it up I guess.

Me: Yeah, well that’s like you said, “If you give me a plane and you believe I can fly it I’ll fly it.”

Mr. Salazar: Sure, I fly a helicopter now.

Me: Really, wow.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, it’s a little electric one that you, when I have nothing to do I don’t feel like ready, I don’t feel like watching TV I just fly my little helicopter *zzzzz* I try to land it and *laughter*. I can’t stand doing nothing. I was, right now I was trying to iron my shirt for tonight and but I was watching

Me: It’s a Dartmouth event?

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, my daughter is the alumnus she’s involved with the alumni thing she used to be the President of the alumni thing.

Me: Okay.

Mr. Salazar: Another thing she does, she was the treasurer for a while, back to I don’t know, I can’t keep up with here.

Me: Yeah, yeah

Mr. Salazar: So, but that’s basically I didn’t mold myself into anybody. Maybe when I get home I say, “Oh yeah, George Washington.” I was thinking of George Washington because he has broken teeth. I just broke a tooth and another found broke over here too, fell off, the filling fell off. So, gotta go to the dentist next week and keep going…oh I hate that.

Me: Yeah, I hate when something happens and it’s the only thing you can, you’re tongue always goes to it.

Mr. Salazar: Well when you get older everything starts breaking. I bought another boat.

Me: The big sailing boat?

Mr. Salazar: Aw it’s not that big fourteen-footer, but it’s wider than this table so it’s gonna take some learning; I’ve almost exhausted all the YouTube videos of sailing.

Me: I was gonna say, did you teach yourself how to sail?

Mr. Salazar: Yeah and I was, I went yesterday but it was so windy that when I got the, and I didn’t go with the big boat cause I don’t have the sails for that yet. And I took my little one and went out there I said, “Eh, I’m gonna go.” There’s nobody there, not even a boat in the water – nothing. And I got the boat, put it on the water I said, “Okay, let me go.” When I tried to raise the sail *phhhh* no, it happened to me once.

Me: Not today, yeah not today.

Mr. Salazar: And I lost the sail, it ripped I said, “This is my new one so I’m not going.” So I came back home and I was hoping to go today but it’s too cold anyways.

Me: So is this something you do by yourself or is it like a?

Mr. Salazar: I do everything by myself now a day. I always did I was never, except for the time I lived with my friend after then I got married then I haven’t had too many friends, friend friends.

Me: Friend friends – a lot of acquaintances.

Mr. Salazar: Acquaintances, oh God, acquaintances got acquaintances I go in Lawrence, even not so much now, but I used to go in the city and, “Hey Mr. Salazar, hey Orlando.” I used to take, to meet my son in Boston when he was working in Boston I was working in Boston I said, “Oh let’s go for lunch.” And we walked down the street and somebody say, “Hey Orlando how you doing?” “Dad, who are these people?” *Laughter* I don’t know!

Me: Yeah, yeah

Mr. Salazar: So, and sometimes happen with him to that he met somebody saw him in the street and he’s very personable kid, kid, he’s a man thirty-five years old. So, but at least he has something what I think is positive for me inherited so except that he has his own smarts and my daughter has her own smarts they are both very, pretty smart. But my son is a little lazy in the studying thing cause he could have gone to Tuck over here; I mean this is the first school in the country, in the world actually top. But he said, “No, I went there for so many years, I don’t want to go back there.” He went to, what’s the name of that stupid school, it’s a very good school too but it’s not, it’s not Tuck – he went to Babson. Cause his wife was going to Babson too, cause they were working and they were going to get their masters.

Me: I mean you need a change of scenery.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, but I mean get a change in your pocket it’s more change in your pocket if you go to Tuck, so it’s a difference.

Me: Yeah but he seems to be doing well.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah, he’s doing very well.

Me: Yeah, seems to be doing well. I think that’s everything.

Mr. Salazar: Yeah.

Me: That’s everything.

Mr. Salazar: You can always call me if you need to.

Me: I was gonna say yeah if anything comes up while I’m writing.