Cannery Women at Work

Preface

Introduction

Cannery Women at Work

Getting to Work

On the Cannery Floor

Leadership & Labor

CANNERY PHOTO GALLERY

Community

San Pedro & the Harbor

Free Harbor Fight

Cannery History

Newcomers

Fishing & Culture

Celebration!

Consumer & Kitchen

A Taste for Tuna

Changes in the Kitchen

PROMO LITERATURE GALLERY

Resources

Ernestine "Tina" Ursich

Goldeen Kaloper

Margie Falcone

Mary Oreb

Cannery Women in History

Bibliography

Author Bio

CANNERY WOMEN AT WORK
COMMUNITY

Ernestine "Tina" Ursich

former Star-Kist employee and local property owner

 
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TINA URSICH WAS BORN IN LOS ANGELES IN 1925.  She is Mexican American and grew up in Wilmington's Spanish speaking community.  Her father was laborer and her mother worked on and off at the Terminal Island Canneries and also invested in property in Wilmington.  During World War II, when her father was unable to find work, he moved the family to a small farm in Torrance.  The family grew vegetables to sell at wholesale markets.  As young teenagers, Tina and her sister were responsible for driving the produce truck from Torrance down to the harbor for daily markets.  After the war, the family moved back to their property in Wilmington and Tina started working on the cleaning floor at Star-Kist, then French Sardine. 

Tina married young and had a troubled first marriage.  She met her second husband at Star-Kist.  He was a lead foreman on the cooking floor and popular in social circles.  When Tina and her husband began to date, his strongly Croatian parents did not immediately welcome a Mexican woman into their family.  The couple waited many years before marrying, which they did in 1983.  Despite cultural differences at the beginning of their relationship, Tina is clear that relatives on both sides now are all one San Pedro family. 

Tina has invested in rental properties for many years.  She attributes her business saavy to her mother.  As a single woman in properties management she met with some obstacles, but as she persevered, she was accepted in the business community.

LISTEN Tina talks about the pace and the minimum requirement.The Pace and Minimum Requirement. READ TEXT
 
LISTEN Tina remembers Mexican HollywoodMexican Hollywood READ TEXT
 
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     ←  CANNERY WOMEN AT WORK
     ←  COMMUNITY
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San Pedro History Project

Between Catch & Can:
The Cannery Women of the Los Angeles Harbor, 1930-1960

Taran Schindler
San Pedro, CA
2008


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