Little Alex Wins a Washing Machine

I did a new oral history interview today with Alex Arroyos. He had great stories to share, and he really has done some amazing things for his community starting in high school. One of the funniest stories was about when he was something like eight years old and living in Edna, Texas. They were having a raffle for an electric washing machine. This is like in the 1940s. He saved up soda bottle caps and turned them in for tickets. On the night they announced the winning ticket, he looked in his notebook to see if one of his tickets was the winner and it was. He raced home and woke up his mother and said, "un mexicano gano!" He then started describing himself. When his mother realized that he had won, she was so excited she started crying. Only later did he realize that they couldn't use the washing machine since they didn't have electricity.