Harvey girl
Former Harvey Girl had waitressing in her blood

Mary T. Montoya poses for a portrait at her home Saturday. Montoya worked as a waitress at the El Navajo Harvey House in Gallup until it closed in the 1950's. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — Mary T. Montoya is amazed at what passes for service at restaurants today — even at so-called upscale restaurants.

Once upon a time, Montoya admits, she thought she knew all about being a waitress and what was involved in offering good service to diners. But during World War II she became a Harvey Girl, and her perspective changed. “I found out that I thought I knew it all,” she said with a wry smile, “but I didn’t know anything.”

In an interview on Saturday, Montoya, 92, recalled her experiences as a Harvey Girl at Gallup’s Harvey House, the once elegant El Navajo that was noted for its unusual use of Native American art and design motifs.

Inevitable path

Perhaps it was inevitable that Montoya would become a Harvey Girl. According to Montoya, her mother fled Mexico to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution and ended up working as a waitress in a restaurant in El Paso, Texas. Her father, a native of Yokohama, Japan, had been sent to the United States by his family after he suffered injuries in combat against Russia. He wound up working as a cook in that same El Paso restaurant.

“He was running from the Russians and she was running from Pancho Villa,” Montoya said of her parents’ meeting.

At the time, Montoya’s mother spoke only Spanish and her father spoke only Japanese, leaving Montoya to wonder how her parents managed to get married.

Apparently love conquered all, and Mary Toki Mochimaru was born in El Paso on Oct. 23. 1916. Montoya said her father wanted to name her Toki, but Catholic Church authorities wouldn’t baptize her with Toki as a first name.

Montoya’s family later moved to Albuquerque, where her father opened a restaurant on Second Street, but hard economic times eventually forced the restaurant’s closure.

Montoya’s father then hitchhiked to Gallup, where he got a job as a cook at a Gamerco mine. The family then settled into Gallup’s Japanese camp, which was located near the downtown railroad tracks.

Harvey Girl

Montoya began working in a restaurant herself at age 13, at the Miyamura family’s OK Cafe. Montoya said she worked at the cafe before and after school, a situation that sometimes caused her to be late to the morning Mass at Cathedral School. During her junior year in high school, an aggravated nun locked a tardy Montoya out of the Mass, causing Montoya to quit school and become the only child in her family to not graduate from high school.

Montoya went on to work at other restaurants in Gallup, including several owned by Japanese families, and at 21 she married Louis Montoya. Although her husband wasn’t “much for the woman working,” Montoya said he agreed to her working outside the home because of lean economic times. With her background in restaurant work, Montoya said she mistakenly thought being a waitress at Gallup’s Harvey House was going to be easy. She soon learned that she had a lot to learn to become a Harvey Girl.

“They had to train you from the bottom up,” she recalled.

At first, Montoya explained, she was only allowed to serve Harvey House employees. After she had mastered those basic skills, she was moved up to counter service. Then she was moved up to the coffee shop, and finally to the dining room.

Everything in the Harvey House was spotless, she said, including the Harvey Girls — from their neat hairstyles down to their immaculate shoes. The Gallup Harvey Girls wore all white uniforms — stiff with laundry starch — with neat black bows at the neck, Montoya recalled. The only time they wore a different outfit, she explained, was when they wore Southwestern-styled outfits during the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial. Harvey Girls were trained to stand at attention near their tables so they could give flawless service to their customers.

In the beginning, Montoya said, being a Harvey Girl paid less than other jobs in Gallup, but the tips were good and raises came regularly. There were other perks as well. Montoya said a number of traveling Hollywood stars stopped in Gallup’s El Navajo, including Clark Gable who was traveling by train with his wife.

Sad closure

The nationwide decline of rail travel led to the decline of the Harvey Houses, including Gallup’s. According to his recently published book “Fred Harvey Houses of the Southwest, author Richard Melzer writes that with the advent of Route 66 and the rise in automobile ownership, “Harvey Houses literally faced the wrong direction, toward the tracks rather than towards the roads that best served modern motorists.”

That was the case in Gallup, Montoya agreed, where not enough Route 66 travelers made it through the front doors of El Navajo. After working at the Harvey House for so many years, Montoya said El Navajo had become a second home to her. It was hard to see it close and even more difficult when much of the building was demolished. “Part of my life was gone,” she said. “It was very sad.”

Today, the part of the building that wasn’t demolished has been renovated into the Gallup Cultural Center and houses Angela’s Cafe con Leche and the Southwestern Indian Foundation’s gift shop, museum, and art gallery. Along with a collection of historic images, Montoya said it also houses an old photograph of her husband’s grandfather, Dan DuBois, shaking hands with the Navajo leader Manuelito.

After El Navajo closed, Montoya went on to work at the Ranch Kitchen, where she eventually took over the managing responsibilities. Now retired, Montoya enjoys the company of her two daughters, Inez Giron and Rose Marie “Shorty” Sandoval, and her five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Looking back over her years of work experience, Montoya said, “With me, it’s been restaurants, restaurants.”