Rivera, Lupe Peralta

About | Abstract

About

Employment as a clerk at Camp Lordsburg during 1944.

Interviewee	Lupe Peralta Rivera, female, born in 1919
Date Range	1944-2000
Date & Location	July 28, 2000, Lordsburg, New Mexico
Project	Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Region	Southwest New Mexico
Number of Tapes	1
Transcribed	November 17, 2000
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Abstract

Lupe Rivera was a clerk at the prisoner of war (POW) camp near Lordsburg during World War II. The camp first housed Japanese internees, then German POWs. She worked at the camp in 1944. Some POWs did janitorial work in her building. She saw the trucks taking prisoners out to the farms early in the morning and returning them late in the afternoon.

She felt some of the military personnel were very "military" in their approach to her work.

She enjoyed dancing with the American soldiers at the camp mess hall. The camps formed their own bands. Around fifty, or half, of the soldiers attended the dances.

She worked only six months at Camp Lordsburg. After, she became the city secretary for Lordsburg for thirty-eight years.