Natividad Two Years Old

"When we had to leave Morenci and we went to El Paso [was the most significant thing that happened to me as a child]. It was scary, cause we didn't know where we were going. But then after we got there we got adjusted and we adjusted well to everything that happened. Yeah, [we had relatives in El Paso]. We went [to El Paso] with Mr. Rodela. He took us in his truck. We didn't go in the train like some of the other families. Cause the other families that went in the train had to go all the way to Mexico. It was arranged that my dad got Mr. Rodela and he just took us to El Paso. We stayed three months. [We came back] because Chelino had come back by himself. He was staying with my grandma, with my Pepa, and then I guess that's when President Roosevelt started all these programs about WPA and they were giving the people that were left in town, they were giving them commodities. So Chelino wrote and told my dad that he was going to send Mr. Onate, in fact Chelino came with him, to get us to come back. So that's how we got to get back. He [my dad] owed Mr. Vidales, cause he had a store and we used to buy groceries off him, I think he owed him, I don't know how much he owed him, anyway, he traded the house for what my dad owed the groceries we had gotten for that month and we left everything behind except my mom and my dad's bed and some of our kitchen pots and pans. We left everything else.

We just helped my mother when she asked us to do something. She didn't assign duties or any of that. When we turned to be teenagers, [we helped with washing the clothes]. Much less them [the boys]. My dad did everything. All that repair work on the house. In fact the house that we came back to, because Mr. Vidales wouldn't sell us back our old house, it was a big huge house real pretty, and he told my dad he could have that one. It was like all dilapidated. You could see through the kitchen, you could see to the outside. So what my dad did was cover it with the cardboards from boxes, he covered it so we wouldn't be cold, that was the kitchen. The other rooms were fairly well but my dad didn't like the way they looked so he put sheet rock. He painted it and he fixed the roof. He kind of rebuilt the house. [Our other house] it was in good shape. It was the best house in the neighborhood. That's what I thought. (laughs) My dad was always working painting and everything, the yard and the outside. My dad [disciplined the children]. He scolded us and nos decia (he told us) bad words. (laughs)

Chelino was working for PD. I went through the Longfellow Tunnel. I think I was about six years old. Chelado didn't show up to take Chelino's lunch and my mom said I had to go. Josie had to go with me. When we got to the tunnel, the night watchman said, "Only one of you can go." I told Josie, "Aquí me esperas y no te muevas de hay." (Wait here for me and don't move from there.) I'm two and half, almost three years older than her. I crossed the tunnel and I crossed the road and I crossed the tracks. Chelino was there waiting for his lunch and he was surprised because I showed up with the lunch. All the other guys [said], "Ooh, su hermanita le trajo su lonche!" (Ooh, your little sister brought you your lunch.)

When I got back, no Josie. I got scared and I ran all the way home. There she was. She'd gone home by herself. I guess she remembered it. It must have been traumatic for her. My mom kept her because she was there. She crossed the tunnel, the one that all the people cross to get from one end of town to the other. [The Longfellow Tunnel had lights like that one] but it wasn't as wide, it was more for the railroad, where the trains go by.

Yes, I was scared. I had gone there with my grandma. My Pepa used to take us to pick acorns and there was this thing up there on the hill I don't know what it was and she told us this story that machine would blow little children away when they didn't mind their elders. When I got to that place, I climbed up on the hill, went all the way around that thing, it was circled with a fence, cut down again and went back to the road. I followed the railroad. I was scared to go in front of it because it would blow me away. That's the story she had told us. I guess she didn't want it for us to get separated from her when she'd take us to the acorns. I went around it. I went all around it. I guess that's it [my earliest memory]. Yeah, [it was traumatic] I remember. (laughs) I knew the lunch had to go to Chelino.

She [Josie] brought one of the girls from A Hill and this girl was a nervous wreck anyway. She came crying and crying. My mom got mad at her, "Why did you bring this girl?" "Well, she wanted to see where the little Chinaman got killed." (laughs) She'd get us into so much trouble. We had to go to Confession every Saturday. From there we'd go to do travesuras (mischief) and get in trouble. One time there was this cable from one level down to the ground and then she said, "Ya saben lo que es la que no se deje ir." (You all know what the one who doesn't let go is.) Can you imagine for us to slide down that cable? It was a steel cable. Down below where they had it tied to the ground, there was like a pipe, a tall pipe like that. (demonstrates with her hand) All of them went to it real good and I was the one that was scared so I was the last one to go down. When I got down there, I cut my wrist. Blood was spurting all around. All of them got a scarf and they tied it around my wrist. It was just flowing out like water. We were all scared. We went home but we didn't tell my mother. I had all these scarves wrapped and they were all full of blood. She didn't care. (laughs) Finally, she saw all the scarves full of blood and she said, "¿Qué pasó aqui?" (What happened here?) So we told her but she didn't spank us or nothing.

It was all right [having six sisters in the house and one bathroom] it didn't bother us. No make-up. Just baths. I never wore make-up. Nothing. No. When I was 12 years and Miss Chucha, we used to call her, made me go wash my eyes. She said I had Maybellene. I was wearing Maybellene because I had long eye lashes. The boys said, "She's just a little girl." All of them defended me. I cried. I went down to the restroom and was crying there when Margaret Rodela showed up and she said, "Let's go tell Mr. Gutz." "No, no, no. I don't want to get her in trouble." She [Margaret] followed me. She comforted me and we went back to class. But nobody liked Miss Chucha because she was so mean. She was an old hag. [Her real name was] Shuesen. She was a teacher even when Chelino was in school. She was our math teacher, Algebra."