In 1987 when Liz Ruvalcaba moved to Hollister she didn’t really
want to be here.
”
There was nothing here,
”
she said.
In 1987 when Liz Ruvalcaba moved to Hollister she didn’t really want to be here.
“There was nothing here,” she said.
Today, this mother of three wouldn’t leave for the world.
“My life is here, I love the neighborhood and there is no reason for me to leave,” she said.
Before moving to Hollister, Ruvalcaba spent her childhood and early twenties living in Watsonville. One of six children, she spent her summers helping pick strawberries for her father who was a share cropper. Her mother died when she was only 13 years old, and Ruvalcaba dropped out of school and got a job at a nursery to help the family.
“I didn’t have much of a high school or teenage life, which is why I have always encouraged my children to get involved and do as much as they can,” she said.
To this day, Ruvalcaba gets tears in her eyes when speaking of the close relationship she shared with her father until he passed away when she was 26.
“We were so close I could tell him anything,” she said. “He was my mother and my father.”
While working to earn money for the family, Ruvalcaba attended night school and earned her General Equivalency Diploma (GED). With a diploma in her hand, she attended a secretarial training school and learned how to work in personnel. While working for the Center for Employment Training Act of Santa Cruz County, she met a co-worker named Evie who would soon become her brother-in-law.
“He introduced me to my husband, Bobby, and in two months we were married,” she said. “It must have been fate because we just celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary.”
While Ruvalcaba said she has no regrets about rushing into marriage, she was a bit concerned when her daughter Regina, 22, shared her own nuptial news.
“After two months she decided she was going to get married,” she said. “At first I was worried because in two months you really don’t know someone that well, but they’re very in love and I’m glad to see them happy.”
With her children raised and her husband retired, Ruvalcaba is looking forward to slowing down a bit. She still works 3:30 a.m. shifts doing payroll for Birds Eye Foods in Watsonville, but is enjoying the free off-time at home with her husband.
“We enjoy going to movies and just spending the day together,” she said. “We finally have the time to do what we want to do.”
