b'Wow, that must have been a workout.I was blessed to get it, yeah. It took four years for them to hire me. I believe I took the exam in 78 and I was called in 82.Did anyone influence your decision to go work for the city?No, just the need to work, a safe and secure job for myself and my children with medical coverage, dental and allthat. Every benefit like welfare gives you, but at least I\'m getting it because I\'m working for it. So, I did that.Do you have any friends or family that work for the City of New York?No. I wanted to work in construction, but construction was temporary. I rather have this job which was more stableand secure. And I stayed with the New York City Housing Authority.Once you were working for the city, was there someone on the job, a coworker or a supervisor who influencedyou?Mr. McGill Peterson Sr. and Mr. Roman. Mr. McGill Peterson was my assistant super and Mr. Ruben Roman was thesuperintendent. Since I was the first Latina working in housing and then I was working under them, they encouraged meto move up, to study and do better for myself. I came in and I took the exam for foreman of caretakers. Within threemonths of starting to work, I took the test.I passed the exam. That\'s quite amazing. So, you did have people who helped you along and encouraged you. You were the firstLatina in your position? To my knowledge, yes, at the time. And the first female Caretaker J too. Every other female that used to come to ourlocation would quit. They couldn\'t handle it, but I am a person who perseveres, you can\'t tell me I cannot do it. I will showyou that I can do it. By the grace of God, I could do it.Tell me more about being the only woman in your position and getting your job done.Oh, that was an experience when I first came. I was welcomed by one of my coworkers, John DeLeon. He was a Caretaker X. He was so proud and happy that I was the first Latina there to work among them. There were a lot of AfricanAmerican and maybe two or three Irish, Italians. I was assigned to a building, a senior building, 20 stories high. The hallways were long. My responsibilities were to maintain the building, keep it clean, service the compactor, the basementareas, police the grounds, and clean the roof. Everything had to be maintained. My supervisor would not take anythingfor granted. He was very strict. He was in the service, so you could imagine how he was. Very firm. Any cigarette butts onthe sidewalk, he\'ll make you go back and clean it. It\'s not like now. Years ago, you had to do your job. And once I learn it, I got the flow of it and it was very comfortable for me. But I had to deal with rodents and all that stuff, I did it. I maintainedmy building nice and clean.So, he accepted you as a female in that position?Yes. And he was hard on me. It wasn\'t like, just because you are Latina or a woman, no. He taught me, You took thisjob, you\'re earning the same money, you\'re going to do the job. I said, "No problem". I can carry the weight.135 '