Oral history interview, David Toledo, 1978? (audio file and summary)

David Toledo came to this country in 1923 from a town near Morelia [Michoacán], Mexico. He was 20 years old at the time. He worked in a variety of jobs doing field work and later in coal mines, traveling around in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. He was working at the Columbine Mine, near Erie, at the time of the 1927 strike and shootings but worked mainly in Frederick. In 1943 he and his wife (from Walsenburg, Colorado) moved to Boulder, where he could earn more money and get a better education for his children; he worked as a barber on the side. Later in his life he came down with Black Lung Disease and received some compensation. He describes the sociability between men working in the mines, regardless of their nationality; now people are more divided. He stresses the importance of dressing well (clothing) to create a good impression.