The Cardinal Chronicles

Interview with Eva Holguin (b. 1934)

By Becker Husbands and Charlie Torch, on November 8, 2025

 

So I think we should all probably just introduce ourselves. ... I'm Becker Husbands… I'm Charlie Torch. I'm Eva Holguin. Okay. Then everyone's ready to get started. We just have a couple questions for you. Okay, sure.

 

So could you share…with us a major historical event that made a big impact or impression on you? Well, I don't know if it made an impression on me, but certainly on my family. I was born in Germany in 1934, just at the height of the Hitler coming to power, and my family knew that they had to get out of there. And we had applied for visas to the US, but because of the quota system, they weren't forthcoming, and my dad didn't want to wait till the other shoe dropped. So he had an opportunity to go to Colombia, South America. And he went there and checked it out and then we followed…my mother and my uncle and two of my sisters and myself. We followed six months later, and that's where I grew up. So your dad went first and then you guys. My dad went six months earlier. Wow. And then we followed. Wow. And you lived there for? I lived there. I had my elementary school, high school there. And then I came to the US to go to college. And so how old were you when you moved to Colombia? …I was 2 1/2 . Oh wow. And I left when I was 17. 

 

Where were you, if you remember, during 911? I was in Mission Viejo, California, and sound asleep and a friend called us and he said, have you turned on the television? And we said, no, it was like 6.30 in the morning. And he said we're under attack and I immediately flipped on the TV and that's when I saw the whole thing. 

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That was kind of a big jump. What was the rest of your story between the time you were in Colombia and then… to California.? ..... So… where did you go from Colombia? Then you moved to the United States…Los Angeles… With your whole family? No, I went by myself. I had an aunt living here. And I lived with her for a couple of months and then she was a nurse and worked the swing shift. So she figured I was alone too much. And so I went and lived at a college dorm. And finished my college and then I went back to Colombia, waited for my US visa to come through and then I came back here and stayed permanently.

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So how old were you when you moved to the United States? Well, when I came to go to college, I was 17, when I moved permanently, I was 20. 

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What was … your career like? Okay, long story. I majored in college in business with an emphasis on foreign trade. And...something interesting. I speak 3 languages, English, German, and Spanish. And I figured I could get a better job if I sold myself as being bilingual or trilingual. And we're talking about the 50s. There was even more discrimination in a way than there is now. So I was automatically offered less money for the same job because they thought I was Mexican. And so I ended up not mentioning that point. And I started out as a secretary, knowing that I would have to move on from there, and I did, and I eventually went into banking and became a financial analyst…in corporate banking. I started with Wells Fargo and then I moved on to a Swiss bank and that's where my career ended. 

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Did you…move to Switzerland for that…? No, I stayed in California. I started in the San Francisco office and then was transferred to the LA office and then eventually, in 1993, they closed the LA office and I was offered an early retirement, which I took. And then my son was living in Portland at the time, and we moved to Portland. But then after eight years, he changed positions and he moved to Minnesota. My husband decided Minnesota was too cold. So we moved back to California and then my husband passed away 3 years after that. And I stayed in California for 17 years. And then my son retired in Minnesota, moved back to Portland, and I moved back here. What do you mean…moved back or he just moved here? He didn't live here before? Well, he lived here. That's when we came from California to Portland in the 90s... And then he moved from here to Minnesota. …When he retired, he moved back. And then since I was living alone, I moved back here.

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So we interviewed your boyfriend ... Arthur... Oh, word spreads. And you both seem to be quite active still. What is something that is still on your bucket list in the future? Unfortunately, it's gonna have to stay there. I love to travel. I did travel quite a bit. But I didn't make a safari and… that remains on my… but I won't be able to do that anymore. So it's got to stay there….

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Well, we know the second part to this question. You… clearly have your smartphone, but as technology has become more advanced, has it been hard to transition into that? Well, one thing that I learned early on with technology is just, you know, keep on trying. And many times when I'm stuck with something, that's about the only thing I have patience for. I just keep on hitting buttons…until I finally either get it or go for help. But I, you know, I can manage everyday things. .... Like I am active online and I can take pictures and send pictures and just the basic things. Nothing near what you guys are. How much of… your generation? Like, I know my grandpa, he does not even have a phone, refuses to have a phone or a computer or anything. How much of your peers and friends, would you say, have a phone or…I think just about every one of them. Really? But then I also have friends, most of my friends are a lot younger than I am. Especially the ones I left behind in California. 

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Well, so you've said that you've clearly moved around quite a bit. What was… your favorite place you've lived so far? Favorite place I’ve lived so far. I would say Mission Viejo in California. Well, that's because I made very good friends there and had a very active social life. So it was very nice. .... 

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I guess this is kind of a random jump, but is there any advice if you could, you'd give to your 16 year old self? To my 16 year old self. ... I certainly would. Don't go into the career that your parents want for you, but figure out what you want, even if it's later in life, and follow that. Because I fell into a career, but I would have much preferred doing something else. ... What would you say…is that regret? What career would you have liked to transitioned to? Well, this is interesting. I would like to be, would have liked to be in law, but I love politics and I probably would have wanted…. that's why I went into foreign trade because I thought it would give me an opportunity to deal with a lot of foreign affairs and things. And that's where I would really have liked to be….

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What would you say are some of the biggest differences? Like, pretty general or as specific as you want, just in the world between when you were a younger kid and now? Loaded question, kind of. Well, I think I will start when I move to the States in the 50s as a teenager. Things were a lot more restricted in a lot of ways, especially for women, but it was also a lot safer. Like, I wouldn't think anything..with my roommates, we'd go out and go to a movie downtown LA by bus and wait for a bus at 11, 12 o'clock at night. Thought nothing of it, which is something that I don't think anybody at that age would do anymore today. ...Really, so safer back then. It was safer back then, but it was also, you know, a lot more restrictive as to what you could do and you couldn't do. But it was sort of a kinder world, especially like right now. I shouldn't let everything be colored by the situation we're going through right now. But unfortunately, that's all that's on my mind right now.

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Well, I guess this is also kind of just a pretty general question. …Or, I mean, a hard question, answer, but who in your life would you say had the greatest impact on you? I think my aunt, the one that I mentioned when I came to California. .... She was influential. My parents had left Germany, my dad didn't have..neither one of them had much of an education. My sisters missed out on getting an education, because they were quite a bit older than I was. And they had to leave school in Germany because of the situation. And when we got to Colombia, there wasn't any money for them to go to school. Things were different there. They didn't have public schools that were available to everyone. So they weren't able to finish their schooling, and I was able to go to school and to high school, and my aunt was very influential, convincing my parents that I should. Let you come to California? Let me come to California, to get, go to college. So how did you receive education in Colombia when your sister's could not? Oh, I went to, by that time, my parents were able, by the time I got old enough. …. They were able to.. afford to send me to a regular school, a private school. 

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And how long did, when you moved to California, did the rest of your family stay for like the rest of their lives? ... No. One of my sisters, my middle sister, and her two children and husband moved to Florida. And then my parents followed to Florida, and then my oldest sister stayed in Colombia, then her husband passed away, and we sponsored her to come to the States, but she moved to Florida as well. And I'm still very much in contact. My sisters both have passed away. My parents, of course, have.. but I'm very much in touch with my two nephews and my niece. Are they in Florida still? ... One is in Georgia and two are in Florida.

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So I have a question. You had said that your career, you thought, was largely defined by your parents’ wants. Right. So was that your parents or your aunt? No…my parents. Your parents? .... It was a compromise…So that I would be able to come here….Right…with the terms of you have to do this kind of thing. … something that would earn me a living. And of course, in their minds, women didn't do anything or be a teacher, nurse, or secretary, that was that. .... Obviously a big change from kind of how the world was back then.

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This is one that you may have to think on. It's kind of a tough question, but what invention do you think came during your lifetime that has…had the biggest impact on… your life now, like the biggest helpful change, I suppose? Well, I would think the…smartphone…. Because all of a sudden, everything, you know, you don't have to, you have a question in your mind. I wonder and you don't have to question it, you just go on your phone and get the answer immediately and it's getting more and more so with AI and everything else. I mean, you obviously had like many years where you're not, you lived in a world without a cell phone. Like we have never really been without a cell phone or anything like that. How do you think it…changes the world or …how you think when you can't …wonder anything anymore and…when you wonder something, you can get an answer pretty quick? Well... being a curious person, I'm the one that if I don't know the answer to something I think about it, never comes to me and then it comes to me at 3 in the morning. But when I wake up, I may or may not remember. Now that doesn't happen anymore. I like to find answers quickly and that's one thing I enjoy doing with the new technology. So you think it helped you a lot? Yes. And, you know, I know there is a downside to it, people being on it all the time. It sort of desocializes people when you go to a restaurant and you see 4 people where a restaurant used to be a place that you went, not just to eat, but to socialize, and when you see that picture, you say, oh, God, that is, that's not cool. … So I guess I would ask with that do you think that the way social interactions have become with cell phones has been kind of a very negative change? Like the change in social life. Yes and no. I mean, my generation, I don't think, is quite as bad as being on the phone all the time, but it's also great because like I have relatives in Israel and we talk on the phone at least once a week on WhatsApp. And in my days, you know, with long distance calls being expensive, you were lucky if you talked on birthdays. .... And so now it's nothing to just call somebody wherever they are. So obviously a lot easier, cheaper to stay in touch with people. .... I think it's different, especially because…. we have social media and stuff… all that…is very… disruptive to your mind, especially if you're on it a lot.... I think it's definitely… kind of different uses for different ages, but ...it's good points. And then what is really bad is this…Because it tells me every time I have a message.... And I can't help but go like this no matter what the situation, and I know it's not very nice to do that, but... No, I feel the same way. 

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I mean, completely off topic from what we were just covering, but are there any significant celebrities you met in your life that you had found interesting or anything like that? I'm not really a celebrity chaser. I lived in LA. I used to go to a place where you supposedly could see them all the time, which was the farmer's market there. But I guess I wouldn't have recognized them behind their hats and eyeglasses and everything..fake mustaches and everything. ... the only person that I can think of a celebrity maybe, not to anybody else, but was the governor of California at the time. Pat Brown, who was the father of Jerry Brown. I don't know if you know Jerry Brown - he was before Gavin Newsom, and also before that and Pat Brown was his father. This was in the 60s…

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Well, I think we're gonna finish up pretty soon. I'd say last questions that are… just anything else you'd like to say, like your takeaways. You obviously had some big decisions that you made early on in your life that kind of changed your life a lot, so any takeaways from those that you'd like to share? Well, one of the big decisions was moving back to... to Oregon… And it happened because my kids were not very happy with the idea that I was living alone in a 2-story townhouse and the stairs bothered them and so on. And then I came to visit my son the first holiday that they were here and I managed to fall down the stairs at their house. And the next question was, so mom, when are you moving? .... And I really wasn't very happy about the whole thing, but things have settled down and I'm quite happy I'm here. ... Your son is still here? ...Yeah he's still here. As a matter of fact, he's coming over at 4 o'clock. .... I mean, my grandparents always had a…, we wanted to move them out of their big house for a while with lots of stairs to a retirement home as well. They both kind of resisted for a few years, and then finally, one of them fell a couple times, and they did move, and they really enjoyed it as well. Where do they live? … They lived in Buffalo, New York. Oh, okay. .... quite far away. 

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…I guess last thing to wrap up on our, do you have any questions for us about, you know, our life as a high school student in, you know, today or anything like that? Okay, what is this project that you're doing? .... We're doing, it's called the Cardinal Chronicles Club, and Cardinals, the mascot of our high school, Lincoln. Anderson, Becker and I just wanted to, we founded it to kind of give kids a chance to just connect with generations above them and kind of see like, obviously you guys have been on the earth a lot longer than us, a lot more experience, and we kind of just want to see like how your perspectives are and just any kind of notable impacts you've had or you can share with us. And how are you going to present this? So we take the voice memo. And then we kind of, we look through that, we generate some of the best pieces that we have, and we share it with our group that we meet with, which is every two weeks, I think, for two or three weeks. We eat at lunch and we talk about it, we share who you are, what your story was, what some of your advice was. And then we did... they ask questions to us, and then we'll send some more interviewers out here in a few more weeks. Oh, okay. Sounds like a very interesting project. Thank you. You get credit for it? It's not exactly like a thing that we're meeting. It's just kind of like. But it's no, doesn't give you any high school? No, no, no. It's just more of a passion product. Maybe we can get like some... hours maybe. Oh, okay. I'm not sure. Okay, community work. ..., but it's more just like that we like the idea. kind of interested in it. Okay, that's great. .... Thank you so much. ... Of course. ... thank you so much for coming...Thank you for meeting with us. Thank you. Thank you. Great meeting you. You mind if I take, like, a picture of you for the newspaper of the school? No, I don't mind. Okay, thanks.