Nancy Miramontes, born in Nebraska in 1925, moved with her family to California just as the Great Depression was starting to take hold. Her parents migrated from Mexico to find employment in agriculture, but they eventually left the cold weather to move to California where her father and uncle found work for a railroad. As a child, Spanish was spoken in her home, and in the interview she discusses learning English as a small child. She details her parents ideas about politics, patriotism, and language. Miromontes also describes the foods she ate growing up. When the Second World War arrived, she and her sister joined her father at the Moore Dry Docks in Oakland, where she became a welder. She offers insight into the racial and ethnic diversity of the shipyards and the surrounding community. Before the war, she and her sister worked in the thriving cannery industry in Northern California. This interview concludes with her reflections on her upbringing and changes in California community and social life.