(birds chirping)
(gentle music)
- Now if you see this pile of stuff like this,
don't step in it. (laughs)
You see the straight back, you see the wide flanks,
the muscles that carry down through the legs,
all that's on purpose, that's why these cattle are here.
You could not go out and put together a herd like this
because of the genetics.
But we've been working on it for many years.
I've always liked the land. I've always liked animals.
It's a completely different type of life
compared to what I do every day.
(Dr. Wong and patient speak in Spanish)
I'm Dr. Mitchel Wong
and I'm the founder of Austin Eye Clinic.
We established Austin Eye in June of 1969.
I'm a third generation Chinese.
My grandfather migrated to Mexico during the time
when the transcontinental railroads were being built.
So he was in Mexico but he came with his wife,
which was very unusual.
His name was Dun Wong
and my grandmother's name was Lee Shee Wong.
They came from the border area in China.
I mean it was Canton Province.
Specifically, the village is Toisan
and they speak Toisanwa.
At that time in that region, economic times were rough
and there was famine so they came to try to make money
to send back to their families in China.
(soft guitar music)
When Pancho Villa was involved with the Mexican independence
and Mexican revolution, he made a foray
into the United States and so the United States
sent General Pershing to bring Pancho Villa in line.
General Pershing pursued Pancho Villa
for about three years in Mexico.
My grandfather was a baker.
He was part of the group that was supporting Pershing's army
and cooking for them.
So he came to the United States with Pershing's army,
came back across the border and settled in San Antonio.
My grandfather raised his family in San Antonio.
There were seven children.
(soft piano music)
His grocery store was called Sing Chong.
I can remember him telling me the grocery business
is a good business because people always have to eat.
My dad's brothers all opened grocery stores in San Antonio.
My dad was the only son
that went away from San Antonio to start his life.
I think this could have been related
to my mother's influence.
My father's name was Fred Wong
and my mother's name was Rose Chin.
She was never satisfied with the status quo.
Her mind was always thinking of new things to do
and new horizons to conquer.
She was from Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Her dad wanted to separate himself
from the big group of Chinese that was on the West Coast.
And so he went all the way to the East Coast
and he opened up a hand laundry.
The charge was 19 cents per shirt,
that's all they did was shirts.
But he raised a big family on hand laundry.
My mother and dad initially wanted
to open a store in Corpus Christi.
When my dad was preparing the store, he got a visit
from a certain group of people that kind of told him
that they didn't want him to settle in Corpus Christi.
They did not want an influx of Asians
and so they took up the welcome mat
and then my parents decided to come to Austin.
(gentle upbeat music)
Austin's motto was "Austin, the friendly city,"
and it was a friendly city.
Their first store was at 714 Red River.
This was the era of the family grocery stores.
So you could open a small grocery store
and it would be a neighborhood grocery store
and you could make a living for your family.
(soft gentle music)
Initially, when we came,
they were very few Chinese families.
And so I grew up as one of the few Chinese in Austin.
In those days, they would call you, "Chinaman."
And my mama said, "No, no.
You tell them you're an American Chinese."
And she would quote, call their parents, end of issue.
I don't know if she ever called them or not, (chuckles)
but at least she had my back so I wasn't worried.
And I grew up during the war.
There was a period of time I think when we went around
and we wore a little sign that says we were not Japanese.
But I didn't know that there was prejudice,
I didn't know we were fighting the Japanese,
I was just a young child growing up in Austin
who wasn't looking for prejudice, wasn't looking
for any animosity and didn't see any animosity.
It was a idyllic childhood.
My dad, he eventually had four or five stores
all on the east side.
As a matter of fact, my dad was fluent in Spanish.
That was necessary for the customer base that he had.
So we were actually kind of cosmopolitan.
At home, we spoke English.
So most of the Chinese that I spoke
was actually with my grandmother.
She always told me to marry a Chinese girl
because I couldn't speak Chinese that well. (chuckles)
(gentle serene music)
My mother, she began painting later on
and she actually became very well-known for her artwork.
Her main forte was portrait painting,
but she could paint landscapes, flowers, birds,
she just saw something and she just painted.
That was just her natural ability.
Growing up, my mother and father never emphasized
an education, but they did instill us with principles
of honesty and hard work.
I knew the grocery business, I knew every aspect
of the grocery business having grown up in it.
A mom and pop store worked seven days a week,
every day of the year.
I wasn't expecting any holidays
'cause we never had any holidays.
I'd been working about 15 hours one day
and I was kind of home resting
and my dad came in and he said,
"You can be in the grocery store business
or you can try school."
And so I thought for a few seconds, didn't take me long.
And I said, "Well, I think I want to try school."
On the first day I attended University of Texas,
somebody mentioned that they were having a get together
at the Baptist Student Union.
And on that particular meeting,
that coordinator had invited some other students
from Mary Hardin Baylor there,
which is an all-girls school up the road about 60, 70 miles.
And I walked in being the first day of school,
just looking around.
I was more interested in the food, but lo and behold,
there was a young lady there named Rose,
the same name as my mother.
And I just,
it was love at first sight.
So I introduced myself and we started talking.
We didn't go out together for a date for two years.
She was not interested in me.
She went out with me, first date, as a lark
because she was from China and I was from America.
It's very unusual for foreign-born Chinese
and locally-born Chinese to get together.
But things developed from there.
It's just serendipitous.
I only know two Roses.
Both of them have thorns. (laughs)
So you better be real careful how you handle them. (laughs)
(gentle music)
As I was getting close to the end of my degree, was zoology,
I applied to be a game warden
because I really liked to fish.
And I really liked to ride around the lake
in a boat with a motor
and have somebody else pay for the gas.
And I remember making the second round of interviews
and they said, "Don't call us, we'll call you."
And I'm still waiting for the call.
But when I realized I wasn't gonna be able
to be a game warden,
then I decided I was going to medical school.
And I was with some really smart guys
who were interviewed at medical school.
They were talking about answering world problems,
solving this problem and that problem.
And they asked me and I said,
"Well, I don't know too much about world problems
and how to solve but I do know about the grocery business."
That was just honest answer.
So I got admitted to medical school.
(gentle serene music)
Rose and I, we have four children,
two of which became ophthalmologists
and Shannon, my youngest son and I practice together.
If somebody asked me who I was or what I was,
I would say that I'm an American Chinese,
Austin's my home, Texas is a state I live in,
and the United States is the country
that I belong to and am loyal to.
But we have not forgotten our roots from where we came
and the values that our family instilled upon us.
(gentle serene music)
My father was 90 and my mother was 96 when they passed
and they loved Texas.
And so,
we gave their final rest here.
This is where they'll stay forever.
They have a nice view.
We made this area
so that it can be our family plot. (sniffles)
They actually worked pretty hard all their life.
So that's how all this came about.
If I didn't go to school, I wouldn't have the opportunity
to get a professional degree or to establish the ranch.
But it all came from the grocery business.
Even to this day, I know how to work in a grocery store.
I just walk in and I feel very at home in a grocery store,
but that's not my job anymore.
(gentle music)