Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Ruben Lemos

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.

Ruben Lemos discusses his experiences growing up as a child of migrant farm workers. During the 1950s, Ruben and his family traveled year-round to places for work in Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona. Ruben remembers picking strawberries in the Skagit Valley, asparagus in the Yakima Valley, and cotton in Arizona. After completing beauty school and serving in the military, Ruben continued his education at Columbia Basin College, Central Washington University, and Washington State University. At Hanford, he worked for the Department of Energy, the Washington Public Power Supply System, Westinghouse, and Boeing Computer Services from 1977 to 1988. Ruben investigated cases of discrimination while at Washington Public Power Supply System and Westinghouse. Ruben co-founded the Hispanic Academic Achievement Program (HAAP) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. HAAP has offered scholarships to students who are part of the Tri-Cities community for over thirty years.

Listen to audio clips from Ruben’s interview with Drew Gamboa and Saul Bautista on August 13, 2024

• Ruben discusses his family traveling from Edinburg, Texas

  
  

  Ruben discusses his family traveling from Edinburg, Texas in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  How did your family initially migrate to the Pacific Northwest? What did that look like? Did you all know people here already?

  Ruben Lemos

  Our family, my mom and dad and I think there were nine of us at the time. My mom's brother, immediate older brother, had a car in Edinburg. And so, his family and our family drove up from Texas up to Washington. I asked my mom, “How long did it take us?” I was still fairly young. I can't remember., if it was 23 or 26 days on the road. Back then, we didn't have freeways like we do now. Interstate-5 or Interstate-90. Back then, it was basically a two-lane highway. With two big families, it took us quite a while.

• Ruben describes his family’s migrant route and schooling

  
  

  Ruben describes his family’s migrant route and schooling in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  When you were growing up, what year did you end up migrating to Washington? Where in Washington initially?

  Ruben Lemos

  Where did we go to harvest crops?

  Drew Gamboa

  Yeah.

  Ruben Lemos

  Okay. Like I said, from 1951 until 1961, which is the last year that we migrated. Our usual route was we would cut asparagus in Washington state. And then when the spring season was over, we would go to the Skagit Valley—north of Seattle—to harvest strawberries. When the strawberry season was over, then we would go to south of Seattle to the Puyallup area to pick raspberries and pick cherries. And then, we would come back. Sometimes we would come back to the Yakima Valley, but sometimes we would go straight down to Oregon. Independence, Canby, some of those communities to pick cucumbers and green beans. Then, we would come back to Washington and back to the Yakima Valley, where we picked potatoes. And then, we would start school. We would be in school for about 2 or 3 weeks, and then we would move to Idaho. In Idaho, we lived in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Marta, Canby—not Canby, Canby was in Oregon—Oakley, those areas. We would pick potatoes there, and the potato harvest would… We would be there until about the 20th of October. By that time toward the end of October, the farmer could not dig the potatoes out for us to pick because it was so cold. The ground was basically frozen, and the digger could not dig. So then, we would leave Idaho, where we would pick potatoes for six cents a sack. Normally each one of us would pick 200 to 150 sacks. From there, we would travel down to Arizona to pick cotton. When we were in Idaho, we never went to school, so from the beginning of the school year until late October, we had had like two, two-and-a-half weeks of schooling. In Idaho, it was no big deal for us not to have to go to school, because a lot of the kids didn't go to school anyway. The farmers were allowed to keep students out of school, so that they could help with the harvest. Once we got to Arizona in late October, usually about the 25th of October, close to the 30th of October, we would live in migrant camps. There, we would go to school in Arizona. But on weekends and sometimes after school, we would pick cotton, and we would stay in Arizona. Sometimes we would go to California, but I think it was only 1 or 2 years. We would stay in Arizona until like February, and then we would come back up to Washington State, to the Yakima Valley.

• Ruben describes farm labor in the mid-twentieth century

  
  

  Ruben describes farm labor in the mid-twentieth century in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa 

  Was there a difference between what you would prefer to do…?

  Ruben Lemos

  Well, it was all farm labor work. Picking potatoes by hand. That was before they invented, before they had the potato digger machines. You picked potatoes by hand. That was quite backbreaking. You would put normally about 15 sacks on each… We used to wear a belt, a real white belt. Then in the front, we had a piece of wood about like that [hand signal], with some hooks in the back of the belt. There were two big hooks, and each hook had like 15 or 20 sacks. Then, we would go down the row, grab a sack, put it, tie it, hook it to our board that that was right in front of us, bend over and pick the potatoes, fill it up. We had to fill it up to the brim top, to the great top. It was like 70 pounds, 60 or 70 pounds. Each sack was worth six cents. Each of us would normally pick 200 or 250 sacks. And then in Arizona, they had machines. They had cotton-picker machines that would go through the rows and pick the cotton. But, they were not very efficient. A lot of the cotton would drop. What we would do, pick what they referred to el tirado, cotton that laid on the ground. We would put on a long sack, usually 12-14ft and put it around your shoulder and go down the row picking all the cotton that was on the ground until you fill up your sack. Then, you would take it to the scale. At the end of the row, there was a trailer and a scale. You would weigh it, and if it was 100 pounds, then they'd give you three dollars. If it was 50 pounds, they'd give you $1.50… Of course, we picked up asparagus. We would cut asparagus before we went to school. Normally, we would start cutting asparagus at five in the morning, 5:30 at the latest. We would work two hours, and then we would come back home. Clean up, eat breakfast, change, and go to school. Sometimes the asparagus, depending on how hot the day was, sometimes we had to go back in the afternoon after school. We did that all the time that we were migrating. Also, after the asparagus season was over, then we would go pick strawberries. I don't know if you're familiar with picking strawberries, but you basically have your two strawberry rows, the person is on hands and knees between the two strawberry rows and picking the strawberries, the ripe ones. I was trying to remember how much we used to get paid. I think it was like twelve dollars for, like, I'm going to say like 12 crates. Each crate was like 2-pound boxes. They were like six, and you would fill that. So, we would pick crates and then we would take them to the end of the row, and we would get them a cart. For every crate that you would pick, they would stamp it. I was trying to remember how much we got paid, when I started picking strawberries, but I can't remember. The same thing once the strawberries were over, then we would then pick raspberries. We did that for a few weeks, and then we would go down to Oregon to pick green beans or cucumbers. We'd come back up to Washington, and the cycle would start over again.

  Drew Gamboa

  At what age did you start? Ruben Lemos I started probably… I know that I was probably in first or second grade, so I would have been 6 or 7 years old picking asparagus and picking strawberries and raspberries and all of that, picking potatoes. I started probably when I was 6 or 7 years old

• Ruben remembers grade school

  
  

  Ruben remembers grade school in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  How were your teachers? Do you remember any specific teachers that either you connected with or had difficulties?

  Ruben Lemos

  For the most part, they were good teachers. They were nice teachers. Although they were not… I remember when I was in high school, I think I must have been like maybe sophomore in high school. Like I said, we used to go cut asparagus every morning in the springtime. When spring season was on, we would go cut asparagus usually two hours, two-and-a-half hours before school started. And then, we'd come home, get ready, and change and clean up, and go to school. Of course, you know, when you do that asparagus grows all the time, so you have to cut it seven days a week. There's no, “Today's Saturday or today's Sunday, and today we don't do that.” It grows. I remember I was in U.S history class or one of the history classes, and I was kind of dozing off because I'd been… It was probably late May. I'd been cutting asparagus for the last two months or so, every day, every morning. It was hot in the classroom. I started dozing off. All I remember that there was this teacher, Mr. Smith. He took an eraser like that eraser over there. He grabbed it, threw it at me, and I mean, I didn't see him throw it at me because I was kind of dozing off. All I remember is waking up because there was a lot of laughter. You know, “why are people laughing?” That was because he had thrown the eraser to keep me awake. But for the most part, teachers were good, and they were nice teachers.

• Ruben goes to beauty school and gets drafted

  
  

  Ruben discusses going to beauty school and getting drafted in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  … Once I got into high school, I did other odds-and-ends, like working in canneries. Because by that time, we were not migrating. Although, we were still cutting asparagus, because I cut asparagus until my senior year in high school. Starting from the first grade until my senior year, I cut asparagus. But, we were not traveling to Idaho. We were still going to the Puget Sound area to pick strawberries. We were not going south of Portland-Salem area to pick green beans or that. So, I got odd jobs, working in canneries or working for farmers, driving trucks and the beets. That's what I would do. When I graduated, when I was graduating from high school, I was talking with one of the counselors and he said, “So, what are your plans?” I said, “I don't have any. I just want to graduate.” He said, “Well, you're not college material, but there is the beauty college in Yakima. Mr. Lee's Beauty College. If you want, I can put in a recommendation, and they can gave you a scholarship.” I said, “Yeah, I suppose so.” He did, and I got a scholarship to go to Mr. Lee's Beauty College, and I did that. The program is almost a year. At that time, it was for one year. When I graduated, when I finished my hours at the beauty college, I took the state board exam and became a licensed beautician. I did that for a couple of months, three or four months, and then I came home. There's a letter that says, “Uncle Sam wants you.” That was during Vietnam. I got my draft notice. I went into the military—to the Army.

• Ruben continues his education

  
  

  Ruben discusses continuing his education in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  My date of separation was November 29th, 1968. I told my wife, I said, “I can get out as much as 90 days if I go to college.” And of course, I didn't know anything about college. My wife says, “Well, you know, there is a college in Pasco, maybe you apply there.” I applied and sure enough, they accepted me. I had my letter in hand that says I've been accepted to Columbia Basin College. They said, “Okay, well instead of getting out in late November, you're going to get out in early September.” Because the school semester started in late September. That's how I started college. I started working. I was going to college full-time, working full-time. My wife was working full-time. And then, she started taking part time classes at CBC as well. We both managed to finish our two-year program, our AA degree in two years, working full-time and going to school full-time. And then, my job transferred me to Yakima. We moved to Yakima. At that time, Central Washington was bringing classes to Yakima. I signed up for classes, and I managed to get my bachelor's degree out of Central Washington. And then, my wife got her bachelor's degree out of Central Washington. I got moved back over to Pasco with my job. Once we were here, I worked for the state for about another eight years. And then, I went out to work at the Hanford site. When I was out at the Hanford site, I ran into the person. He said, “Are you interested in a master's program?” I said, “I never thought about it, graduate work, but yeah. Why?” He says, “Well, our company is sponsoring people who want to go pursue a master's degree. It's called tuition reimbursement. You pay upfront, and if you get a C or better grade, we give you your tuition back.” That's when I got my master's degree out of Whitworth University in Spokane. My wife got her master's degree out of WSU Pullman…

• Ruben works at Hanford in human resources

  
  

  Ruben discusses working at Hanford in human resources in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  … Initially, I worked at the Department of Energy. I went to work there in 1977. I think it was like March or April of ‘77. I was with DOE for a little while, like maybe two or three years. And then, I went… At that time, the Washington Supply System was doing a lot of hiring. They asked me if I would be interested in coming over, and that's when I went over to Washington Public Power Supply System. That's where I found out about a master's program. And then, the Washington Public Power Supply System was doing a lot of hiring, and they were growing by leaps and bounds. But then all of a sudden, everything came to screeching halt. They start laying off a lot of people. I called my previous boss at Department of Energy in the federal building in Richland. I said, “Scott, they're going to be laying me off.” I was one of the very last to be laid off in the Human Resources office. He said, “Don't worry. Come back to us. We'll create a position for you.” So, I went back to DOE, and then the work that I was doing with DOE got contracted out to Boeing Computer Services. I ended up going to Boeing computer Services. The work that was being done by Boeing Computer Services was coming to an end, so then I applied at Westinghouse Hanford. I ended up going to Westinghouse. When I was at Westinghouse Hanford, there were two CBC board members, board of trustees members, that asked me if I might be interested in applying at CBC. They were creating a brand-new position to open a human resources office. I applied, and I got selected. I opened that office from scratch.

• Ruben recalls his roles at Hanford

  
  

  Ruben recalls his roles at Hanford in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  How were your experiences initially?

  Ruben Lemos

  It was very good. They treated me well. I moved up the ranks quite rapidly. But then, this other opportunity showed up at Washington State Public Power Supply System. 

  Drew Gamboa

  Could you kind of share about that, too? What was that like at Public Supply?

  Ruben Lemos

  When I was working with DOE, like I said, I was doing recruitment for professional positions. And then when I went to work at the Washington Public Power Supply System, they asked me to do a lot of mostly affirmative action. Basically, that entailed, if somebody came in and said, “I feel like I'm being discriminated against. My boss or my manager is discriminating against me, because I'm a woman or I'm a minority, or I'm a disabled person, or I'm whatever.” If they felt that they were being discriminated against, then I would investigate. If I found that they were in fact discriminated against as an individual, then I would tell the manager, to show the manager how to fix it. Or if my findings were that they were not discriminated, I would tell the person. Sometimes the manager would call me and say, “Ruben. Can you talk to so-and-so? Because, she's just not getting along with her coworkers.” I would talk to so-and-so and say, “You need to correct these things.” That's what I did. I was at Westinghouse.

• Ruben talks about changes in the Tri-Cities and Pasco

  
  

  Ruben talks about changes in the Tri-Cities and Pasco in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  I guess, other questions that I have remember in relation to the community in the Tri-Cities and how you have seen that community change as you've lived here.

  Ruben Lemos

  I've seen it. Like I said, when my wife and I moved here in ‘68, the Tri-Cities was a small community, and there were very few Mexicanos, Latinos. In Pasco, there were probably, maybe, five or six families. Now, it's the majority. Latinos are the majority. I tell the story about… My wife and I rented, when I first came out of the military and started going to the CBC. Across from the Pasco City Library, across Hopkins Avenue, or Hopkins Street and one block down, we rented a one-bedroom apartment. And back then, my wife and I had nothing basically. We didn't have money. We didn't have anything. Sometimes, we'd just get out and just walk around the neighborhood. You talk about changes. And as we were walking, I told my wife, “Oh, look. There's an apartment for rent.” She said, “We should check it out.” We went and rang the doorbell. The apartment house that we were looking at is just like one block south of Sylvester and about Ninth Street. I rang the doorbell. A lady came out. “May I help you?” I said, “Yeah. I noticed you had a sign out for rent, that you had an apartment for rent.” She said, “Yes, I do.” “Well, can I take a look at it? Can my wife and I take a look at it?” She said, “No.” “Why?” She said, “Because you're Mexican.” I said, “What does that have to do?” She said, “All Mexicans are drunks and fighters and drug dealers and all of that.” She said, “No, I'm not going to rent to a Mexican.” This was in ‘69. Now, all the apartments are full of Mexican, all the houses down in Pasco, the majority of them are Mexican. That's a change that I've seen. The same thing in Kennewick. In Richland, there were no Hispanics in Richland. Now, they're everywhere…

• Ruben co-founds the Hispanic Academic Achievement Program

  
  

  Ruben discusses co-founding the Hispanic Academic Achievement Program in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  … if you could share about HAAP, how it formed, what it is, and your involvement with it…

  Ruben Lemos

  Yeah. Well, as I mentioned, my wife and I, after attending the 13th Annual African American Association dinner, we thought that this would benefit the Latino community. We need to recognize our students, get them motivated, to reach, to offer something good. We got the program started in 1990, and we were recognizing any Hispanic student who, starting with the fourth grade through the twelfth grade, who had a three-point GPA or higher. Starting in their second or third year, we started awarding scholarships. What we would do is, we would go to various major employers like the Potato Commission or different agencies, companies and ask for donations, so that we could find a scholarship. We would say, “The Potato Commission scholarship.” Back then, they were from $750 to $1000 to $1500, goes to so-and-so this year. We did a lot of going out to the various employers… The students who are in the fourth grade or fifth grade, when they would see this person getting this $10,000 or $12,000 and $15,000 or $25,000 scholarship, “I want to get that. I'm going to study hard. I'm going to get good grades.” That motivated them. So now, we have a lot of really bright kids. Some of our HAAP students have come back as engineers, MDs. They have professional degrees. It's turned out to be a good program. Other big companies or banks, credit union started getting involved. “We want to participate in your program.” Over the years, like I said, I lost count, but up until probably six or seven years ago, we had offered like $150 million in scholarships. I think we're over that $200 million, $250 million. That does not account for the matching. If we give you $1,000, $5,000 to go to Eastern, for example, Eastern, they say, “Well, we'll match that.” The student comes out with $10,000. And yes, tuition is expensive, books are expensive and all of that, but it's a good match. We also got the colleges involved. We got the University of Washington, WSU, Central, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga and the universities. It's turned out to be a good program. A lot of students have participated. Their parents have been very proud of them…

• Ruben shares advice to younger generations

  
  

  Ruben shares advice to younger generations in an interview with Drew Gamboa on August 13, 2024.

  Date created:

  01/31/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Drew Gamboa

  If you could share advice to a younger person that may have similar experiences you had growing up, what type of advice would you give them?

  Ruben Lemos

  Well, for anybody. Coming from my experience as a migrant farm worker, very little education, my parents didn't have any kind of education. My mom never went to school, my dad neither. So then we come, my dad wanted us to get an education. My advice would be education is your way out. It doesn't matter where you come from, if you're picking cotton or if you're picking potatoes or picking cherries, apples, apricots, pears, peaches, strawberries, whatever it might be, if you're at the bottom of the bottom, if you're as poor as dirt, strive for an education. There are ways. Somebody wants to be a nurse, try to get a job at Kadlec, because they will sponsor you through a nursing program. If somebody wants to be a teacher, try to get a job in a school district as a teacher’s aide. Sometimes they have money to sponsor you to become a certified teacher. So, once you get your education, things are a little bit better at home...