Pastor Roberto Calcano on Reverend Julie Ramirez

Pastor Roberto Calcano on Reverend Julie Ramirez

Reverend Julie Ramirez

Pastor Roberto Calcano speaking about Reverend Julie Ramirez. Reverend Julie Ramirez was the founder of Faith Temple of the Assemblies of God and was a senior pastor for 53 years. She cared immensely for the Latinx population of Hartford and specifically Latinx immigrants of Frog Hollow. Her accomplishments include but are not limited to: being one of the first Latina senior pastors of a church affiliated with the Spanish Eastern District of the Assemblies of God and being the first Latina principle of a branch within the affiliated Bible Institute system. Additionally, she was the host of “The Hour of Faith” a weekly radio show. She provided numerous Spanish-speaking religious services for the Latinx population incarcerated in Connecticut. For this line reference Pastor Roberto Calcano’s interview recounting Sister Julie’s legacy.

Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team

Interview

Trinity College Liberal Arts Action Lab

November 4, 2021

Frog Hollow Oral History Research Team

M4A, JPG

English

Interview

Templo Fe, Frog Hollow, Heroes of Frog Hollow, Reverend Julie Ramirez

Heroes of Frog Hollow Project

Emeline Avignon, Catherine Doyle

Pastor Roberto Calcano

Templo Fe

Reverend Interview.m4a



Speaker 1 [00:00:00] OK, so we are here today, Templo of it's November 4th, and we're here with,



Speaker 2 [00:00:10] Um, could you introduce yourself?



Speaker 3 [00:00:12] Yes, yes. The Reverend Roberto Calkin or Robert Cal Cowen,



Speaker 1 [00:00:19] and we will be interviewing him today about his work at Temple of his relationship with Reverend Julie Ramirez and his and the impact and her legacy on the Frog Hollow community. And yes, we'll start off with the interview now. So just starting off, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?



Speaker 3 [00:00:43] Sure. I came from I'm Puerto Rican. I came, which was born in Puerto Rico and came here. I was brought up by my mom, single family, you know, single mom back in 1966. And basically most of my life, I've lived in this area. We moved into Wadsworth Street, which is right up here, close. And from there, after about three or so years, we moved to Madison Street, where we we lived for for many years there. I make basically at age 17. Then I moved actually to this building here, and I was here to reach about 20, 22 or so, 21, 22 ish when I got married. So basically, my life has been in this area. We did move out to my wife and I bought a house in New Britain and we moved out there. But I worked here on Park Street and Ace Park Hardware and worked there for 28 years, and I delivered newspapers for 25 years. And yeah, so I'm a product of this area. I've seen a change through the years. You know, if you go back in 1966, back in 1966, there was a store actually across a pharmacy in the corner of Buckingham and Hudson Street. And I remember back then that outside the pharmacy, nine hours after they had closed, maybe about nine o'clock or so, there was a little little machine in it. It was dispensed milk. So any time we wanted milk, we could go there. And I think for about 35 cents, we put the coin in there and book out came a quart of milk. Yeah, and that's something that you know, and at that time also they delivered milk at the house and stuff, you know, these little glass containers. But I do go back a while and it was a small kid. I mean, I felt, you know, Partridge was a special place for me and my faith and my relationship with them of it goes back to about age 13 or so when I visited the church, basically interested in the children's ministry. They had like something called Royal Rangers, which is the equivalent to the Boy Scouts. And that's one of the things that really pulled me to the church. And then I had other kids come up and what after we made our son, you know, friends and stuff. And so, yeah, I just continued visiting the church and became part of the member for the youth ministry at the church. And I like to be, or I am, I want to see a hands on type of person. I like doing things I like to to constantly wish I got involved in working with the church, you know? For me, it wasn't just visiting the church and then forgetting about church. It was just part of me. It was just it became a part of me and that I attribute to having a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's it's called Born Again and and so I think Sister Julie saw in in me that that passion to help and stuff like that. And when in 1977 we, the church moved into this property, I was asked by her, You know, first, of course, she asked my mom and then asked me in about two other young kids that are older than me. I was the youngest if if we wanted to stay here and see that she was a single woman. And so there was another guy, you know, young man and a young girl. And the three of us came in and we lived here, you know, on the property. And that was quite an experience. Sister Julie motivated us in many ways, you know, and I think God, I mean, that helped me stay away from trouble. Keep myself, you know, my mind focused on on things that will protect. And stuff like that, and well, now I have the privilege of of following her steps and following her legacy after her pastoring this church for 52 years. She's also founder and pastor for that amount of time, and she passed away on October the 21st 2016. And and so she did see me succeed her, and she had the privilege of seeing me pastor the church at least six months before she passed on. And for me, it's it's it's an honor. It's an honor to be able to follow her legacy. I'm just going to be here 50 two years, but you know, I'll do the best I can to to continue her legacy.



Speaker 1 [00:05:59] And can you talk a little bit about what you do now as a reverend here? Sure.



Speaker 3 [00:06:06] First off, problems in the old people, which is it's always interesting and never and never say is a problem. But there's a problem. I just call people interesting because you have different personalities and stuff. What are the disadvantages I see in pastoring a church? And I think that has helped me in a smooth transition into what I you know, I do in my style of leading is that, you know, I'm all grown. You know, I I've been in the church for many years, knows, I know, I know it's inside and out and and the membership as well. Membership has been very, very cooperative, very, very good so far as the ministry, very faithful and that that helped me. I remember the beer the day it was actually an Easter Easter Sunday 2016, when the there was a vote for the pastor of the church to succeed the the previous faster. And they have 99 percent of the of the vote and I was the only candidate to succeed her. And that was that was really special to me. And I've had it. I've had good cooperation from from from the people, from the parishioners. We have new people come in are older. People have passed away. As a matter of fact, just two days ago, we had one of the older parishioners passed away at the age 90 96. I think he was here for over 50 years. And it's it's been good. I mean, of course, you always have bumps in the road when you deal with people and stuff like that. But I love quiet list them and with the mentoring of the pastor and, you know, religious education and and just people skills, it's helped me quite a bit. So my style is totally different from the previous pastor I gained from her knowledge and the mistakes she made. I learned from them. So as not to do them, you know, and try to find other avenues or other ways of doing things. And of course, I get burned too. But it's it's a learning process. But one of the interesting things, and I think one of the differences in our style of reading is that she was like a hands on type of person. She was always hands on very. She was very, you know, a personality type of personality, but also very hands on she. She was into everything, you know, she just wanted to make sure everything ran the way she wanted to. My style is a little different in that I I looked at the different people, people who have potential leadership abilities in the church. People have that experience in the face of the Lord and and so why I brought them to my side. And so they helped me run the church. I have supervisors, three supervisors and three directors. And basically what they do, they basically run the church for me so that I don't have to be running after anybody. Basically, they deal with most of the issues that are where the church runs itself. Actually, they don't necessarily need me, but that's because of the the way I run the church and I've empowered them. They have, you know, freedom to do whatever and, you know, whatever decision they have to make them necessarily have to see me. I do meet with them on a regular basis and and we discuss things that there are things that I see that need changing or that need addressing. And that's what we're here for, you know? But I try to always back them up even if they make mistakes, because that's the way they learn. And I try to develop the. Their leadership in that in that area, so that at my age, you know, I'm not 30 years old, I'm not 40 years old, so I don't have the strength, but having these people come alongside me and help me lead has been great. And the church in the five years now that I've been pastoring, you know, we've had, we restarted our what we call our Bible Institute, which is education, Christian education. It's a four year accredited institute with Global University, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. And also, we have a seminary that we also have started in this time and again, they're accredited as well. And and so we do have people with the call that it's been a little difficult now. It has been a little different. We're now a lot of things go virtual, go through Zoom and stuff like that. But it's it's it's interesting that we've started those ministries and we we've had, you know, people come in and educate themselves, you know, in the word of God, which is one of my passions and I like to to have people in power and empower people in knowledge and then whatever. I know a lot of knowledge, you know, I didn't have a lot of education on just about high school graduate and my outside of high school graduate education has come, you know, through the Christian community and indeed in the Bible Institute, a seminary as well. But we've also started a food pantry because again, another vision I have is to give to this community. Now I am in a position to help the community as pastor of the church. And so we've opened a pantry that has been great. I mean, it's been a great blessing. We were kind of I think I want to say and I usually say it was God opening doors because we opened it up thinking about the right time. We opened it a year before the pandemic, and that year helped us figure out how to best run the pantry. Mm-Hmm. And then when the pandemic hit and then we were there, we were open and we've helped hundreds of families, you know, that have come in through through the year or now, two years almost. And so, I mean, we just happened to open it at the right time and know people come in a pantry basically, as is with food share. We partner with them and in other organizations, and we have people donate and that kind of stuff. I mean, it's been it's been. It's been great. It's been great. And then we partner as well with Hispanic Health Council, and at times they sent some of their clients over to pick up stuff. What does help is that one of my parishioners, this is one of the secretaries there. So as she runs my pantry as well, you know, I might as well use her. And so it's been great. And I think the I just have a I just recently had a parishioner start work at the Hartford Public School System, and she was very instrumental in putting that in your calendar as well. I mean, our food pantry, so that that's one of the things that people are aware of. So parents are in the area. Can, you know, access the pantry? We're looking into expanding the pantry as we're working on trying to get funds to open like a soup kitchen type of thing to also get prepared food. But all that has been because I've been wanting to give back to this to this area I love. I love Frog Hollow. I mean, I mean, I'm a product of it for for so many years and I think of going anywhere else. You know, my wife at one times out of Puerto Rico, I want to go to Texas or whatever. I said, No, I want to stay in Hartford and look at this. I mean, I have a house and you've written a passionate church. Where do I live? I live right upstairs. I love the area.



Speaker 1 [00:14:23] So you talked, you talked about it being nearly unanimously voted to become the new pastor. Can you talk about how Reverend Julie Ramirez kind of impacted you in that process in transition?



Speaker 3 [00:14:37] Uh, yes. Uh, I it's it's it's it's interesting because I I don't consider myself. How can I put it I? I as a young kid, I never would have thought that I would have this, this responsibility of running. And especially a larger church like this, where the responsibilities are way more than, say, a storefront church, you know, have more people and then just meeting, you know, our little payroll here and it just maintaining these buildings, which is a challenge. It's a real challenge. You know, and this is one thing that I never aspired to do. Never. I never sat down and say, you know, I want a patch of the church. That's not something that I necessarily wanted to do. I really had a lot of them got out to deal with me quite a bit with that because it wasn't something I wanted to do. I. I am a hands on person in the sense that I love my family. You know, when I worked in the church as well, you know, after my school, the church employed me, so I cut the grass. I mop the floor as I cleaned the toilets and all that because I felt it was perfect. I had no problem with that. But transitioning to something like this was, was was, was a little harder. But I think Reverend Ramirez saw something I don't know if she saw something tangible in me that down the road it would. And don't get me wrong, now I am actually someone someone the other day was commenting one on a pastor. I'm not going to say the name, which is well known in the city. He had a meeting here with a few other pastors, and I toured him around. It was his first time in this building. And so as we're talking and he's looking at the different, you know, areas of the building here, he commented to me and he said, you know, sister Ramirez should parcel of mirrors was ahead of her time, you know, in many areas. And that was that was so right. I mean, I never thought of it that way. But she was she wasn't in her time. As far as coming to Hartford from upstate New York shingle at one time, especially when she was trying to start a church. You know, she came here as a missionary sent by the Assemblies of God. Her first language was English. She was going to open a Spanish church. Oh, yeah. Again, she was single issue stepping into an arena or an area of professional clergy with which was dominated by men. She was a man's world. And it did not go over very well with a lot of the ministers she was trying. And, you know, she first stated or worship as she was getting, you know, trying to survey the city and whatever. She looked at the North and the north and had a house of restoration that looks quite differently. That was there. And and so she saw this itself into the city would be probably the best place to go. Well, again, not many Hispanics were in this area, no more, you know, French, Italian and other nationalities. And so she started the church in this area, and she she, especially during her sermons, is stuff that she's as she spoke about or, you know, her beginnings here. She mentioned every time she, she said, where she had to just sleep in her car because going in New York was just a little tough. So she would pick a spot somewhere in the city, just snow and make sure again she was single, roll up the windows and stuff and just stay there overnight. And so it's not to go all the way to to New York. And, you know, she faced a lot of a lot of racism. If you want to say that because of her race being Hispanic or Puerto Rican at times, radical was tough. And I mean, she she would she would see empty units and they would not rent to her and stuff. But she, you know, she enjoyed her stuff. And then when it came to clergy, men did not want to recognize her, and she struggled for many years because they understood that they would not see her as a leader. And one of the things with, I'm going to say with clergy back then, it's changed so much now. I mean, you don't see much of that. But back then, in the 60s, early 60s, mid 60s, especially in the Hispanic community, that was not private. I mean, you would not accept a woman being telling men what to do. You know, that was that was a terrible thing to that. And so she she she she was lying. I mean, she was she was strong. She stood her ground and she was firm about it. I remember a story when we had outside service systems as she was trying to get the congregation, you know, out in the public to have street side or street corner services and stuff. She she came out or she tells a story once where she was setting up with members. She had setting up the speakers and everything, the microphones and everything like that. And so a couple of gentlemen stood, you know, there were after the church, they just stood there to criticize and just to pass or whatever. So one of them tells her, women are not supposed to be preachers. You're not supposed to lead congregation. That's a man's job. And so she looks at her and said, Oh, really? Is it a man's job? Yes, it's a man's job. You're a man. Do you want to preach? Oh, no, not me. Then let me preach if you don't like. So those are the type of confrontations at times you have to do, but you have to stand your ground. You have to be strong. So she was ahead of her time as far as being a woman in a man's world. Opening up this, this or purchasing this property from a warehouse, rat infested warehouse, literally. And we're not ashamed to say Reverend, that infested warehouse over the corner of Main Beginning of Main Street and brought in Park Street, those new buildings there at one time or older buildings. And it was like between the building where the shelter



Unidentified [00:21:35] is, where the cell phone can shelter it. So far, I think this neighborhood shelter, there's an older building there with with



Speaker 3 [00:21:45] and we call it a tunnel. It was like we have like an opening and you walk all the way back and it was like a warehouse back there. That's what the church was. That's when I came in back in the early 70s when I was converted. That's such a huge event. And I remember, yeah, women would stretch their stockings because of the droppings of the. It was terrible. We tried cleaning that place the best we could. I was like, Well, you know, this group of kids, we can't rebound constantly clean to try to keep everything in the best we could. But we moved here and when this place became available and we had challenge challenges, we had opposition in this, probably trying to purchase it again. A Hispanic church Pentecostal on top of that known reputation of being loud, noisy and all that kind of stuff. Sheer raking in whatever. So you had a Hispanic, a church woman, pastor and Pentecostals on top of that wanting to purchase this property. So we had opposition from the residents in the area who mostly were white, you know, Caucasian and didn't want a Hispanic church in the area. I mean, this used to be a Catholic place here, a Catholic school next door, and this used to be the convent. And so people were comfortable with it. But, you know, the church wanted to buy the property. We had the city, some city officials that were opposed to to it as well. Some of the city officials who tried to help our church and we have to go to City Hall a few times for public meetings, you know, because they were trying to to sell us the property. Nick Bowen, Barbara Canali, which which were leaders at that time and there were not even state leaders, there were city officials were instrumental in helping, you know, in standing with the church and saying, Listen, let's give them a chance. But other other council people did not want to say there was no opening there, you know? But finally, we were able to purchase the property. I remember sister Julie at one time. This is just another little story that she thinks it just happened, you know, I mean, think about when we were dealing with the lawyers and trying to purchase the property. I remember that one night she had told the church, Listen, the following I think it was like, I forgot what day of the week it was here so many years ago. But she says, You know, we're going to we're all going to come together. We had some, I think at that time we had like three school busses and a couple of hands. So she said, let's all get in in the and vehicles or whatever, and let's go to the property again. The whole thing was our vision was to buy his property, so we aren't part. And she said, we're going to do like the ancient Jewish nation did the ancient Israelis when they were going to invade or take over Jericho, where they going to walk around the city. The walls are going to be bright, you know, falling and whatever. So that's a story that you read in the Book of Joshua, where the ancient Israelites went around the sea because they were saying will not displace a woman to proclaim in the name of God or whatever. So she says, you know, there's it seems like short. There's there's opposition and stuff, but we cannot see this only as you and me. It's it's something spiritual, something in the air again, that's that it's fighting this and we have to overcome it. And so she thought of the idea, Well, let's go for a let's march around the property just one time. Let's just walk and everyone be quiet. As you would tell the parents, keep your kids, you know, all the way there and keep them quiet. We're just we're not going to make a fuss. We're just going to one time around, get in our vehicles and turn back to the church. And that's precisely what we did. Well, the next day, oh my God, what a commotion the lawyer calls her. And there was a commotion that the church was terrorizing the area and they were breaking windows and everything. It was, and the lawyer should never do that again. Never do that again. But it was just part of the the, you know. But it was just interesting, you know, but we did have our, you know, there are different stories or other stories. Also put the whole thing is that, you know, again, going back to what I was saying, she was ahead of her time in that area were going to purchase a huge property, something not seen especially by. Once you get into the property, then the television came into play where you were one of the first churches in the area who were broadcasting and and they have a television program, a Hispanic television program, which we have for over 20 plus years in Telemundo and whatnot. Now, you know, once I became pastor, the the Telemundo was here on people after they moved to channel that were NBC is now a Channel 30 there at the FSB. And everything changed because the money just went sky high. And I should not forget this. I'm going to continue doing this. So we stopped doing that. But now with the internet and everything and like, we don't have a problem. But we purchased cameras. We spent thousands of dollars getting edit, edit editing material, state of the art, basically a camera's top quality. And we we broadcast it had services for many years before a lot of the churches started doing that. And it was something that was not unheard of. Her vision was very clear and and the church when we got into this property. So she was on a number of times in many areas. So I think that that's importance which it needs to be said. Yeah.



Speaker 1 [00:28:05] And how has that impacted you? Like, how do you think of her on a daily basis or how does how does her legacy impact your place here now?



Speaker 3 [00:28:17] Sure, I I think that it's it's important for us to continue this legacy because it's bigger than us. You know, that's the way I look at it. It's bigger than for her. It's bigger than me. And. And the reason I say that is because we're not just doing something just to have a business. This is not a business this is working for again. And our religious conviction in what we understand in the Bible, in scripture is the kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is way bigger than any particular person. We may say the church has a pastor, the church has a leader and sometimes mistakenly, and I don't care who tells me differently. Mistakenly, we say it's my church. This is much. I'm the pastor. I'm the one that runs the show. It's my church. Never. It's never your church. It belongs to Christ practices my church. You are a steward of my church. Dear for be faithful and do as I'm as I'm leading us. I impact you as I impress upon you what to do. And I've always looked at it that way. It's it's bigger than me. It's bigger and I'm here for a first time as long as he wants me to be here. And while I'm here, I'm going to do the best I can to help this ministry continue and do as much as it can. And again, I came into this as an older person. Now I'm 62 and again, I don't have the strength of the younger person. I wish I had more time, but I am. I doing the best I can and I'm, you know, I'm spending as much energy as I can using my my, my helpers and in so spending my time in trying to to scripture, to educate the church to to empower it to to give it insight and help the church so that we can we can continue so that, you know, once I'm gone. You know, another person can take the church. Hopefully, a younger person can just go right into the next decade, you know, and not the church, you know, be here, you know, as as as an institution in the city. Again, we've been in this property since 1977, so that's 40 plus years. And I just hope is here until the Lord comes through.



Speaker 2 [00:30:54] Now that you mention 1977. Can you tell us some dates, like when was when did and Reverend Good, your revenues are right in the neighborhood?



Speaker 3 [00:31:07] And I believe it was 1966. Yeah, we have. Matter of fact, we have our Assemblies of God denomination. They're running. One of the students in there in their seminary is writing a thesis and he's writing it for. He chose a few women who've impacted our our district and our district. Back then covered actually ran the whole eastern. Eastern part of the United States all the way to Puerto Rico now. You know, after years and it's just so, so large right now, our district is composed of about 500 churches going all the way from Maine down to our district extends to Tennessee and Kentucky in that area. So that's about five hundred churches. And and so the the student contacted us and said, Listen, I'm writing these days, and it's been about four months to treat three female three women in our district who have impacted our district. So he interviewed me just like you guys are doing right now, and that's he sees. He did promise promises before his church that in first he's going to give us, you know, the the writing for us just to make sure all the details are, you know, accurate. And and so he he was impressed. I mean, we walked him around the building and stuff, and he wants to write a book on her. One of the things with this is Julie, and I don't know why we always wanted her, especially toward the end of her, you know, three years and she was up there in age. We wanted her to write a book or something, you know, because I wanted, in fact, especially young women and influence ABC as influence women. Women have come into the pastoring because of her meeting. I mean, the district really, really held her in high regard because she was very instrumental in that single. On top of that, she was not an issue single. I mean, she just she's a warrior. And so he wants to write a book. And so we're waiting to see what happens. So she she she's impacted us in these in so many ways. So 1962 is more or less the year that she came here to Hartford, and again, the church opened up. I forget I think it was in 60. It was incorporated day. I stand corrected. I think it was in 65 or so it was incorporated and I believe it started off here on Broad Street further up. I mean, by let me cast. So I believe the apartment was like a little broad, little building there with different colored flats. I think it's I don't know if it's an Indian or whatever. And that's where the church began to had its beginnings and we moved to other two and two other places. I think on Main Street or rather the 250 Main Street is which is a corner of Buckingham and and Main Street. There were a couple of little buildings there, whatever. We had a little storefront there and I think there's another place. And from there we moved to like the three main street, which is that we're talking about where I spoke about before. And then from there we were here



Speaker 2 [00:34:46] in the 1930s.



Speaker 3 [00:34:47] In 1977. Yes.



Speaker 2 [00:34:51] And Vera and Julia Ramirez passed away in 2016.



Speaker 3 [00:34:54] In 2016. Right. August 21st century. I'm sure I've talked to over touch her. Sorry. Okay. I did say October 21st. Yeah, just celebrated five years. Yeah, we uh yeah. We had a little remembrance of those last week. Yeah, we had a little church wish percent a slideshow. Just remembering her and what that year?



Speaker 1 [00:35:25] If we could go back a little bit to I'm interested about what was what was it like to live with Reverend Julia Ramirez Jr. What do you remember particularly about her?



Speaker 3 [00:35:36] She was a strong woman, you know, just. And just imagine a teenager that was the youngest of the three, you know, of the three young people who were here, they they had me by, I think, five, six years, you know, but I think I when I was the one who got into more trouble than just doing kids things, you know, one of the things that she was always after me for was high school because again, I graduated from high school. For one thing, I used to hate, it's if people see me now and the way I talk to my congregation and I urge them and whatever. They would never think this of me. But when I went to high school, as a matter of fact, I went to Berkeley High School. Hmm. My favorite subject, my favorite time in school, was lunch. I didn't hear anything and second sports. That's it. I was not interested in any studies. English. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I did not like school. Yeah. And you know, she was always after me. You have to bring up those grades, you know, and well. And it was just like my mother, you know, she just like my mother, you know, and she was always after me. Get those grades up, you have to bring those grades. And so I graduated, but my favorite subject was lunch. Yeah, that was it. But so and another thing I used to do because I didn't like school, I would just get there. I was always, always late to school, always late, you know, and I would I would actually walk or run from this property all the way to Berkeley High School, and it was something that I just I just did not see. I could not see. This is my young, young person's thinking mentality. I would see kids early in school because, you know, you're original. You don't want to be late to school. You hang around or talk to your friends and stuff like that. My mentality is, how dumb can you be? How could you be in school and property for so long? I mean, that was my mentality. Absolutely not. I mean, I wanted to get to school right with the other, the bell rings or whatever, and it's time to go in. And that was my problem, because then I would do that and then I would sleep. And my my tardiness was, what, two minutes, three minutes. But then I had to go to the office and after a while I would get back. Then they had their quality detention where I had to stay after school, you know, because I was late. And so telling was, I don't want to get to school early and, you know, stay after school because I was late. So it just didn't make sense. But that was that was it. So one of the things that she was after me always was for school. I mean, just get your grades up and stuff, sometimes just the plane around, just horsing around as soon as a young kid. Sometimes I would break things and I could see her get upset or whatever. But you know, she always model that had a mother figure in Iran. I love my mother and she was always there. But at the time, they would get so busy into working in the church. I had to clean this. I have to cut the grass, I have to go to school and all that stuff. At times I even forgot I. My mother worked here on Madison Street. And sometimes two weeks would go by. Never get to see her mom. So she would come by by the property looking for me, and she would carry a little back with her typical mother. She knew what my life. I have a sweet tooth. I want my Twinkies, my cupcakes, my stuff. So that bag was full of all those candies. And so she would she would have committed suicide. You know, she wouldn't come in looking for me or whatever. She would make a big fuss, which my son would never know, but she would walk around the property, just stand around, see where I was. And I, oh, mom. Hey, you know, whatever it is, I'm talking about two weeks ago. So, you know, whatever mom is or whatever. And she I just want to bring you these candies and whatever and then mean, I'm going back. I think of it and say, it hurts me because, you know, I should have been more more aware of that, and I should have cherished her because I lost her about going out 38 years now. So to her, while I was in my 20s, when I when my mom passed away. But it's it's it's an experience that, you know, again, if you go back, you want to change something. That's something I would want to change, which. She was always very supportive. She was very supportive of me, and she knew, you know, I was in the best place possible. I was here in church and a pastor looked after me. And another thing I remember of our schedule was that she would cook, You know, you hear me, you know, she had food made for us and stuff like that. If she didn't, then she would. The the girl that was the the young lady who stayed there and she will continue to take turns cooking Christmas. I remember we, the church, are talking about going back to being ahead of our time. This church also had a band, a brass band played, and we would go to different churches and times. We'll play every Sunday, the Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon for church and stuff, and you will hear that. And then the thing about her was that she ran the band. She directed the band. She spent hours riding by higher notes and everything, and the scores of the of the different instruments that we had trombones. We had Trump as we have bearings on the bass, and she would take the time spent hours writing all of that and measuring everything and whatever. She was very meticulous about these things. She was when it came to these kind of things. So she spent hours writing music, you know, printing or not pretty, but writing the notes, the actual notes and whatever for each instrument. We did have one of gentleman that really was into music and he would help her, but she dedicated herself to helping. She loved her music. She when she was younger, she had a beautiful voice. She always played an instrument that she loved to play with sort of accordion. She had no the. She was known for throughout our district as the woman that played the accordion, so you can hear about. But she had a second instrument as she loved to play, which was the trombone. And that was my instrument. I cannot that instrument. But she also would sit next to me and to play the trombone and a couple of us, you know, whatever. But she was really into the music part of it and whatnot as well. So I remember one Christmas, I had a little old trombone that the trio, the church had bought a lot of instruments. And, you know, we just kind of passing along whatever. But my trombone was so old it had leprosy. It was a whistle. And one Christmas morning we were here opening presents and she gives me a box. And when I opened the present, she had bought me a brand new trombone that was so special. Oh my goodness, that was so nice. And yeah, I treasured that. I still have it to this day and you talking about many years, but that was something special from her. She would look at people and, you know, she could help them. She would. She would. I remember I had stopped coming to church for a while. You know, again, I think when I look back at it, it's because I was trying to avoid this patchwork type of thing. I say, No, no, I do not you. You know, you just I just had to take some time off and never got a deal with. But when I came back, I remember, like I told you, I had my primary job, which was a hardware store. I will say 28 years for 25 years. I grew up in newspapers and my family, but my wife and a boy or girl. And we lived in New Britain and deliver newspapers. Not the easiest thing for the simple reason that it really does. You know, I used to deliver like house to house and cars, get a B that stop and go stop and go transmissions, disco or whatever. So I had my issues with my vehicle, you know? But um, so I remember when I came back and whatever I had, I had just bought a car specifically for delivering newspapers. I call it a flintstone type of car because it was rotted in the side. You know, there's I mean, I just wanted to try to do the papers say no at any time you just roll over and die on me. You know what? I would stack it up with pH paper or whatever, but it looked funny because it was all corroded and designed to stop. And then the the the inside also had like a hole or whatever patch it up or whatever. So I remember she when when I came or started coming back to the church, she had asked me, You know, Robert, I need someone to. Back in the the church for making you do that, oh yeah, no problem, pastors will have to afterward to come back here, whatever, and she was doing it just to try to, you know, get me back into and and she would have said the car. She says, You need a car. I say, Yes, Pastor, I'm saving up. I'm saving up. But this car, I understand it's not like I have another vehicle. You know, it's not a new car, but it's much better. This one, my wife, we use that for my kids, you know, school or whatever appointments or whatever. But I don't want to use that car because this just this newspaper delivery is tough. So I just want to use this car for my papers. But she just kept buying new car. You can continue to drive that car. So one day she comes up to me and says. You need to get a new car, and I'm going to make sure that you get one. I'm going to give you $10000 for you to buy a car. Hmm. I don't. Yes. Yes. And I want you to go to a dealership and give them $10000, don't make it out. Who does that? Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. And it, you know, it's she had a heart and and that's what she did to me. You would hear what she has done for me. But you can hear testimonies of so many different people throughout the congregation who she has done things for. That's why they were so faithful. I've noticed a lot of things I like learn is when you do something for someone and you go out and just help. Some people appreciate many people appreciate it and they'll be faithful to you. I've after that and I voted for her. You know, any little gesture. You do it. Take, for example, this gentleman that I mentioned earlier that who just passed away 96 years old when we learned he had cancer terminal cancer and they finally told him, you know, that told the family, you cannot do anything else for him. He said hospice, they want to speak to the dials as soon as the children called us. You know, his daughters and whatever, and they said he doesn't have long. My wife and I have been at the house every single day and this is now going on two weeks. They have not much time. Every single day have the house and we were at the House the day he passed away. We waited till the funeral home, came to pray with the family, and the wife of 60 plus years is still alive. She's 91 92 years old. It was very difficult to just stay here with them. And it's a matter of fact after hour after hour interview on go back over there to speak with the family. But these things, I don't see a lot of you were just there. We just want to be with you. But you see people remember these things and it's it's special because these are special, intimate moments when you lose a loved one and whatnot and you want to find you when something like that will be with you will back you up, you know, and will will. Well, as anyone says anything wrong about you, you know the answer in a minute. He or she has been there for me and Reverend Julie always did this. She was. That was the type of person who was this one of the things that she instilled in me. One of the things that I learned from her doing these gestures for people. And so that's that's the way she impacted me. And these are some of the stories that whatever and that I can share with you because these are things that I personally witnessed. But the other people that lived with her, especially the young lady that you she was our secretary to for many years, she could tell you many stories about her. Yeah.



Speaker 1 [00:49:56] Can you talk a little bit more about how you think Frog Hollow will or does you remember Reverend Julie Ramirez?



Speaker 3 [00:50:05] Well, yes. And again, you have. I think it's bittersweet with her bittersweet because again, she was not a person who would back down. She would not back down. And if she stood for something or convictions. She had convictions about if she would not budge. Even if you know and people sometimes have trouble that they have problems with that because they wanted her to, then she looked that bad and that was her person. Because she stood, she had strong convictions and do what she says she wants. And so the whole area always respected her and even her enemies, if we were to call it, respected her for that. Yeah, yeah. I think that maybe one of the things that perhaps maybe people might remember for remember her for in a negative way was you see our churches again, especially a Hispanic church. I don't know if you're aware of it, but you have two kinds of churches in the Hispanic community, especially the Pentecostal. You have a more conservative traditional church versus a more liberal church. So we started off based on, you know, our whole district, very conservative conservative. Dressing your dress code. And just especially the dress code and that kind of stuff, again, Ramirez, Pastor Ramirez, being ahead of her time saw a change is so she also adjusted with the times. And that didn't sit right with some of the more conservative churches. And so they can put her out there. That's the person that is not, you know, has has turned her back into the type of religion that we should we should exercise. But again, she saw she foresaw the change and more more churches are understanding that it's OK to change. It's OK to change. We're not going to lose salvation over a dress code because God did not come to save us because of the way we're dressed. He came to see Castle see what's inside of us, our motives. And so she understood that she understood that and she was one of the first. And she made that change by making that change, who gave a lot of enemies. But again, she stood her ground. She's loved by many here to Fort Collins. She's respected by many. And as matter of fact, I was in the meeting just I think it was two weeks ago with some area pastors. We were for four of us pastors of the churches that have been in the city the longest. And as one of the passengers striking, it's I just thought it was funny because again, I don't take offense and we said, You know, why am I done? It takes a lot from you to get it. And then at one time, I was told I was interviewed in a radio station almost in the past and after about a year after passing and becoming a pastor. And they said those who had big feet of big, big shoes to fill. I mean, after succeeding, the pastor was there, a founder, whatever, for fifty two years. That's it. I never intend to fill those shoes. I'm going to be my person. I'm never going to be filling those shoes. And I got a tip, too. OK? Yeah, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way. You know, each person is different and, you know, God uses whoever, whichever way it is, but going back to these pastors. So what we're talking about is look at each other and say, Well, our church is the best known in the area and and our institutions and the pastor. And so the pastor says, you know, your church is well known, especially in the South, and you might not be well known. Ramirez's, you know, because you actually have more on the rise in, you know, you just thought it was bad. Yes. Yes, yes, I said. And he said, Well, you know, I don't know. He tells me, the person tells me, I don't know. It is powered by pastoring the church. Was that something you planned to do or did you just kind of fell into the mess that I think it was more the falling into it, into this kind of ministry succeeding a person? There was a pastor for so long. But I just I just thought it was funny when they said, Oh, she had more notoriety than they used to as a Yeah, it's funny. But you know, something, I take advantage of people in the church. So let's move the church on. I'm not important. It is not a matter. It's not about me. It's about this church and this ministry and this legacy continues. So I thought it was that was interesting. But it's respect that she has been respected throughout the area and people that I talk to always they they know I get different reactions with people. It depends who I talk to. You know, at times I go to different places and and they look at the old pastor or someone that knows me introduces me and he's pastor so-and-so. OK. So a lot of these stories of seriousness are doing. Oh, I don't. I don't get that. You know, it's just like this. But hey, that's what it is. That's I know. That's that's something that's going to be it is what it is. But I think the area, I think, as has embraced her, has understood that she is a woman of deep faith and she's a woman who starts to thrive during their lifetime to her convictions. Mm-Hmm.



Speaker 2 [00:56:12] Now that you talk about her convictions, could you talk a little bit about her political convictions and you know how you communicate



Speaker 3 [00:56:23] when she was younger? Mm hmm. You know she was not politics. She was not into politics, just that she didn't feel that was her, you know, but she. Was respected on the air by the establishment, I remember one day she invited me to go with her to the Hartford club. I don't know what you're going to do around prospect Chamber of Commerce had some kind of gathering of support and just get together with the leaders in the city and whatever. Initially invited her to be there because again, the city saw her as, as you know, a religious, you know, figure that they influence people. And so they invited her to go and she was she can have any one of those. She asked me to go with her. So you're right. And I, I yeah, she invited me to go with her at different times. But we went it was my first and then partially to just put on your suit and jacket with whatever it was. And so we went by. It was the first time I was a teenager, the first time I have the mayor of the year disruption, and I was like, Well, you know, that's with these people, you know? And if at all, I seen this person on TV or whatever. And so I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I know it a chamber of commerce, and now I know there was they wanted it to be their new presence there, but she always tried to stay. I don't know why. She always tried to stay away from the political because I think she didn't want to be perceived as someone that had like a political agenda insofar as that's concerned. Now she was again in her younger, a younger age. She was very passionate about education. She was killed in us, the young, contemporary and me, especially with all of my stuff, you know? But she was very, very passionate about that. She was passionate about trying to get a Spanish community perceived as people that are uneducated, a little unethical in certain areas, not being proper, you know? And she went as far as even showing us taking time to show the congregation table manners. The goes here with the spoon here. This is the way you serve your your plate. This is the way you set the table. She went as far as doing that to the congregation because again, she says, You know, you're perceived as Hispanics uneducated. Listen, we have to show the community. We have to show people that we can also fit in with society and we know what it is, how we conduct ourselves. So something big for her. And she she always taught us that. And many people, I mean, even to this day, say, you know, many things from her. So she would know she would delve into whatever and trying to educate her church, not only spiritual leader on the scripture, but also to normal things. And again, like I said in school as well, I mean, she would get involved at times in actual school to whatever, to represent whatever. So so far as that's concerned, she she always was there, of course, as she got older. I guess the energy was just not there. So she kind of backed off a little bit and she was just just basically just kept to her church and whatever, but didn't get involved too much about said it was too much of the time. But as a younger person, she was always very passionate about trying to get the Hispanic community. And I don't think she was big time Hispanic. The Hispanic community has a bad reputation of saying seven o'clock and four. Then seven o'clock is at 7:30 or eight o'clock and they start showing up at that time. She was very meticulous about that. If you say at a certain time, because at that time, at times, you know that she she went as far as saying, Listen, if the service doesn't start slightly at seven o'clock, well, what it's supposed to and someone who is running late, she will get out and she should begin to serve. She says the service has to start at 7:00. We are Christians in the way she would put it. We are Christians or Hispanics, or we have to be examples. So let's begin things on time. People's time is valuable. So let's do this, you know? And so the church you learn and she was, you know, if you made a mistake, she'll she'll tell you, she will tell you before. If you did something incorrect, yeah, she would correct you. She would go. As far as telling you this in the toilet tissue is not place the way you placed placing would be with she from. It should come up from the top of our table. You don't put toilet tissue like that, it's wrong, but not from the top. That's how particular she could be.



Unidentified [01:01:48] And she would teach a publication that and and teach us this kind of thing so that



Speaker 3 [01:01:54] it's been so right. And so it's it's something that she's it's a passion in her. Again, the whole purpose of it was to educate, you know, the Hispanic community. Listen, you can do better. We're in a foreign country. We've come here. Show these people that we can fit in the we know, you know, that we are educated and that we can we can learn. So tell us something. When she was younger, I guess it was, she got older. Well, you know, it was a little tougher for her to get around. So she just, you know, she understood her limits and she is kind of concentrating on her church until the laws got decided otherwise. As I've come in, I've tried to once again try to put the church out there in again, using the advantage of the Church of the name, and I'm more involved when it comes to these kind of things, you know, community activities and stuff like that. And I'm trying to lead the congregation, understand this and we have to get out of the four walls. It's time for us to start branching out and being more proactive in the community and getting involved with the different issues that that pertain to, especially in our cities for people. We just have this faith and blue activity. That's an activity that was something that the police departments around the country is celebrating. This is their second year, and basically the whole point is to try to get to the the police department to be more, more community minded and let themselves be seen in the community in these activities helps them in their community. They reach from break and enter or mingle. And so we we had that. I was part of that, that that program that can move in and try to recognize that. But again, most of the people that were organizing it again because especially the black community having a lot of issues with that, with the police in that kind of stuff, most of it was centered around the north of a town, which is more where most of the black community lives. This side is more Hispanic, so it's probably the only Hispanic pastors here. And basically the only representative from the South here and in our meetings and said, Listen, we have to you have to understand I'm willing to go with this and I'm willing to take part in this. So long as you also include the Hispanic community, this is not, you know, I'm Dark-skinned, so I had no prize. This is not a matter of a Black Lives Matter. This is all lives matter. And we as this as a Hispanic community also have our issues and we have to carry them out. So it's it's fine that we do these things well. We we starting to do was doing we're doing marches as well, leading up to that faith and led to the English, which was a one day type of thing. But we decided a month before to have, like every Monday, have a march will go round, um, a couple of streets in the area, especially where there, you know, violence had occurred. And basically what we were doing is it's just voicing our our our opposition to violence and whatever. So we went to Barber Street. I think it was Memorial Street. I think it was one of our first marches and there on the street, there was a day they had just killed 16 year old brother Martin Street. We stopped where the the the actual shooting was and then a couple of houses up the street. The parents lived there, so we stopped there. We prayed with them and encourage them. And then one of the other streets adjacent to where the three year old was shot was was killed and then another, I think, 15 year old in that same Martin Street area was also shot and killed. And so the whole point of these marches was to march around the areas where violence had occurred. And just voice her opinion as far as the faith community marching against violence, against drugs and stuff like that in the south. And there was just one March and it started here in the church and we went around this area and again, the bush opinion. But again, my thing, what I'm trying to say with all of this is simply that again, I feel that I am called to to serve the Hispanic community, the Hispanic community, and that's what we do. I mean, our church is primarily Spanish, and we do have our English programs, you know and whatnot. I interpret myself what I preach to try to keep our young kids more focused because there is this issue. But to to to work with the Hispanic community. And so when I go to these, these these meetings and stuff, I. You know, you can't say, listen, you you. I'll put in the time, but you have to remember we are a people as well. And we proposed about 40 percent of our population in the city. So we're not, you know, three percent, we're 40 percent almost half the population. The city is this Hispanic. So, you know, I'm here as a Hispanic voice.



Speaker 2 [01:07:55] You know, I was thinking, no, no, no. You were. I mean, do you know the range of the IS is has been nominated as a hero and she is going to have a mural in her honor. And we wanted to know and it would be good to hear from you in your words. What do you think if you think she's a hero for the parafilm community?



Speaker 3 [01:08:21] Yes, she is. Yes she is. She is a girl. You know, once they had spoken, spoke to me about it and what I thought was a great idea. The first person, of course, I was ever embarrassed, but thinking about it. And you know, and I'm very happy and very honored, you know, for her for being able to to participate. Reverend Ramirez should be one of the heroes. She's one of the nominees. But, you know, I think that this area has been here because many Arabs and I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's too bad. It's a shame that it's only just a few feet buret. I mean, if we can have all those 35 originally, we're going great. I think I've been in places. I think it was a new I think it was a meeting in Washington, D.C. I was just there a few months back and I went by my wife and we kind of got away from the capital area when we started driving around and we saw a few murals and a few people. As you see, this is what we got to do overnight, but we got to have a mural of Lawrence because there's so many fewer heroes and we saw this in this area. There are people that have done great things for this area. So just about wrap this just a few. But I am honored. I feel happy for for our pastors matter of fact, talking about this is how much we appreciate the work that she has done for us. The Reverend Robertson, our church, we we have dedicated clash with upstairs. We had a room dedicated to her. We have her desk. We had her library. The books she had in the house, whatever and those we have just moved to recently moved to the other building. It is just more accessible to the membership of the church. And so our second floor in our second floor, once the public library closed your building, your old building here. And I had asked them if, if, if, if we can get by their bookshelves, whatever. And so they said at first they said no, and we used these things for use of a new building here. Oh sure, we have to use the little once they are, but we left it alone and a few about a month later, they called us and said, Are you still interested? Professionals say, Yes, I am. So I went over there and so they said, Oh, I said, How much? You know, we're going to donate. So how many do you want to sell one or what? So, you know, we have next door, we have a library. Again, we were using it for our Sunday school, which, by the way, we have to have a Sunday school for about a year or two and just the country, everything. So we're looking to open it now in January. All the months, January. But it's it's huge because of the COVID protocols and stuff like that. But we are also using it for our our our Bible Institute and just this kind of stuff. So we're we have a library and we're using her books and books that she had her study books. They're all over there along with other books that we have. And so we you see those those bookshelves, I mean, we use them to the backs. It's looking like we're not quite done. But that's a dedication to in our past and in there in that in that library, we have some of her memorabilia and some of the awards and stuff that she did in years ago. So we have a cow. Holy cow is there with with her things on display. And we also have the history of the church there, you know, in picture form, in some of its beginnings and its memberships and stuff like that and the newspaper clippings of all the opposition we received in the area, not from the Hartford Courant. And so we have all of that, and that's all that's part of what we have the library of best for the membership or whoever wants to go, buy and just take a look at, you know, the history of the church and especially of its founder, the Reverend Ramirez. So that's how much we appreciate. And when this other stuff came, it's like, Well, that was like the icing on the cake.



Speaker 1 [01:13:03] Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Is there any other ways do you think that the community does honor her legacy or could in the future, like, for example, this this library?



Speaker 3 [01:13:16] Yeah. Eventually it would be nice. I mean, to to have to have some kind of recognition as to the labor of the ministry, the of the church event. Yeah, it would be nice. I would be willing to sit with people if they have ideas as well, but we don't base in year.



Speaker 1 [01:13:39] Is there any way we could look at this archive of material for that is documenting the history of the of the church? You can be



Speaker 3 [01:13:49] sure you want to. Yeah, well, you know, you can. Certainly, I can show you some of the pictures of the church and beginning and stuff like that. Sure, I'll be right next door. If you want to do it now, it's welcome to do it now.



Speaker 2 [01:14:01] Really? Okay. It's up to you. Yeah. OK, before we do that and thinking about very and Julia Ramirez and would you have shared with us on her legacy in your life and in the community? Is there anything else that you think we should kind of record your thinking of her?



Speaker 3 [01:14:28] Uh, yeah. You know, not really, but just statistics. I think that one of the I again, I was speaking for her. I know not that I wouldn't consider myself. The person qualified to do that, but I think one of the things she would want to be known for is is her love for God, for Christ. She has done it all for him. You know she. He was willing to put her plans aside. She she had come she hoped she would back them for IBM. IBM at that time was launched a big yes or whatever. You know, they're the alternative technology, whatever company and and she had a good paying job in her time there. Yeah, yeah. But again, her education. You know, she she was she dominated the language and this was your first language and she blended well, you know, and she had the people skills. And again, she had the drive focused on leadership qualities to go far in the company. But she put that on hold, as well as her personal life of a marine because she said, I'm married to the Lord Jesus Christ. So she dedicated all her life to to doing what she her convictions where she thought she was going to do. So I think the one thing that, you know, it's nice recognition stuff. I think when you come down to it, I think that she would want to be remembered as a woman and love Christ and dedicated her life to.



Speaker 1 [01:16:09] Just a small detail, do you remember what age this was? How old she was when she made this decision or when she came to Frog Hollow?



Speaker 3 [01:16:18] I think she was 30. This is dirty thirties when you do the math. Yeah, her thirties.



Speaker 2 [01:16:25] Yeah, yeah. And another small detail that she learned Spanish in the process. Yeah.



Speaker 3 [01:16:32] Yeah. Yes. Yes. She she she she she dominated the language. Well, OK. And she worked hard.



Speaker 2 [01:16:42] She worked hard. I bet she worked hard at first.



Speaker 3 [01:16:45] Again, it's like everything, you know, after she had her issues and things were set wrong in people. But she kept. She kept, she kept her that, that. That's the way I am to my dominant language for studying, for reading this English grew up, you know, but in expression, Spanish is my language. I might kill it, but I feel more. I want a more expressive. That's interesting. Yeah. And but, you know, and that's the thing. So when I step in the pulpit, I I have much made my speech or, you know, my sure, but it's all in English. And so I'll do English. I'll read it in English, around Typekit English and then a question in Spanish. And they tell me, I don't know. They tell me that you have a pretty good ability. You have pretty good. Not normal was not a normal. Some you have, you know, a little more a little better than normal ability to be able to interpret yourself. Hmm. Why did you learn English from these little? It's not for me. It's harder for me to express myself in English. Interesting. So my key is I'll start talking English. Yeah, and then whatever I can see in English, Spanish. Yeah, right. And follow me a little better. And so and I think I've got I've been I've been injecting in some of the parishioners that same thing that I'm doing and I see them. I sit down. I kind of proud because they're they're all right and they're interpreting themselves and whatever. And it's it's just it's it's it's nice as they see that a little bit you do doesn't back to the people.



Speaker 2 [01:18:40] So, well, Reverend, on my behalf.



Speaker 1 [01:18:44] Yeah, so, yeah, yeah. Are we done here? Thank you so much.



Speaker 3 [01:18:49] You're welcome.



Speaker 2 [01:18:50] And I learned a lot. Yeah, and thank you for your generosity with all this information



Speaker 3 [01:18:56] and this we're here for to.



Speaker 2 [01:18:59] So yeah, if we could take a look at the great.

Audio Recording

79 minutes