She Had No Choice (16 page)

“
You’ve had enough school, muchacha. We need you in the fields. You need to help support this family!” Carlos answered in his usual gruff manner. His face was now wrinkled and weathered from the years he spent drinking and working in the sun, and his hair was beginning to gray.

“
No, I
need
to go to school,” Eva implored him.

“
Silencio! That’s enough! I said no!” he yelled as he leaned forward and raised the back of his calloused hand to her as a warning to stop pressing the issue.

Eva sat in stony silence during the rest of the meal and helped Mama clean the dishes when they were finished. She just
had
to go to high school, she told herself.

With just an eighth-grade education, she knew she would never escape this cycle of poverty. Eva was determined to find a way to go to high school. Summer would be over soon, so she didn’t have much time.

On a sweltering Saturday afternoon near the end of August, after picking prunes from early morning, she and her brothers were given a break during the hottest part of the day. She took that opportunity to walk a mile or so from their camp to the tiny grocery store on a dusty country road.

She had taken a little white envelope from her mother’s well-worn chest of drawers and a scrap of brown paper torn from an old bag. She scrawled a short note on the paper that said, “Please help me go to high school. My father Carlos says I have been to school enough, but I want to go to high school. I live at 57 Tres Pinos Rd., Tres Pinos – Eva Gonzalez.”

She folded the paper and gently laid it in the envelope. She licked the flap of the envelope with hope and anticipation and wrote her return address on it. She didn’t know where to send the envelope, so she simply wrote “School Superintendent, Hollister, California.”

Eva had been clutching a shiny copper penny in her sweaty hand to pay for the stamp.  She opened her hand and looked at the penny for a moment, remembering back to when she had found it and how she had a strange sensation deep inside that this penny could someday change her future.

A month or so before, she had gone to town for cooking supplies with Mama. The penny had been lying on the sidewalk. Eva noticed several young white girls, about nine or ten years old, in crisply-ironed summer dresses step right over the shiny copper coin.

What’s a penny to them? she thought. It seemed to her that they got whatever they wanted. Why would they ever stoop down to pick up an insignificant penny? They probably get a big allowance, she thought to herself. Once they were past, Eva stepped in and quickly scooped it up. She felt that one day she would need it. As it turned out, this was the day.

She walked up to the small counter, crowded with displays of cigarettes, candies and an old cash register. The elderly, gray-haired storekeeper had seen this petite teenager in the store a handful of times, usually with a younger brother or sister on her hip. He had gentle blue eyes and always treated her kindly, often wondering what kind of future this bright young girl would have in this poor farming community. Leaning on the counter and peering over his wire-rimmed glasses, he looked at her inquisitively.

“
Can I help you, señorita?”

She held out her hand and displayed the precious coin that she hoped could change her life.

“
One stamp, señor, por favor. I mean, please.”

He handed her the stamp as she requested. She licked it with excitement and affixed it carefully to her envelope. She walked over to the mailbox in the front corner of the little store, closed her eyes, whispered a quick prayer, and dropped it in the box. It was in God’s hands now.

Early one evening, almost two weeks later, a large black sedan pulled up near their row of shacks, and two men in black suits and hats got out of the car. A large man emerged from the driver’s side and then a tall, thin man got out of the passenger side. Eva heard the car pull up from inside the shack. She quickly tiptoed across the room and peeked out the corner of the window from behind the dingy curtains.

Five or six young children in tattered hand-me-downs were playing out front. They stopped their play and stared in awe at the shiny new car and the looming white men in black suits. This was a sight these little Mexican children were not used to seeing.

“
Do you know where we can find Carlos Gonzalez?” the tall man asked the children. The children spoke some English, because they were learning it in school, and some of them recognized the name. One boy pointed up the dirt driveway.

Carlos was standing with a few of the other field workers, drinking beer and talking. He turned toward the children when he heard his name. He knew enough English to know the men in suits were asking for him.

Carlos sheepishly walked toward the two white men, afraid he was in trouble for mistreating his children. The men looked to him like they could be from social services.

“
I’m Carlos Gonzalez.”

“
Mr. Gonzalez,” the big man said sternly, “I have been notified that your daughter, Eva, did not start high school last week. You, Mr. Gonzalez,” pointing a large, fat finger at Carlos, “could get in a lot of trouble if she doesn’t get herself to school on Monday morning. Comprende? Do you understand?”

“
Sí, but I didn’t know,” Carlos feigned, shrugging his shoulders, acting innocent. “I make sure she is there.” He was glad that was all they wanted.

“
See that you do, Mr. Gonzalez. We don’t want to have to come back here again.”

And with that, the two men in black suits climbed back into their car and slowly drove away, leaving a trailing cloud of dust. Eva’s heart leapt in her chest as she turned away from the window and tried to take in the enormity of what she had just heard.

“
Gracias a Diós!” is all she could say quietly to herself. She wanted to shout it out loud, at the top of her lungs. But, for fear of what would happen, she kept this exciting turn of events to herself.

Eva’s future had been changed.

Chapter 13:
Carlos
’s Mean Trick

It was summer, 1948. There was a lot of work to be done in the fields, picking tomatoes, harvesting onions, and picking apricots in the orchard. Carlos had decided to move the family to the farm camp near Tres Pinos for more than just the summer. He had found a farmer to hire him on his large farm to work full time, and he gave them another rundown, old house to live in. At least, this one was a little larger than the last.

Carlos thought moving the family to the farm was a great idea because then it would be easy to have the older kids help him work the farm on the weekends and school breaks, not just the summers. This meant the children would be working more, would be isolated, and they would have to ride the school bus from Tres Pinos to Hollister when school resumed in the fall.

It was August, which was an especially hot part of the summer. Eva had just turned sixteen. She and some of the older brothers had worked hard all week in the fields. Carlos told them he would take them to the movie theater in Hollister on Saturday because they had worked so hard and brought a good week’s pay into the house.

“
Really? Are you really going to take them to the movies, Carlos?” Mama asked.

Mama was surprised by the offer, but she was glad to see her older children would have a break from the work for awhile. She wanted them to simply be happy kids, if only for a few hours.

“
I said I was, didn’t I?” Carlos replied, acting irritated that she questioned him.

Eva and her brothers spent the morning getting ready and looking forward to going to town for some fun. It wasn’t often they were allowed to spend the family’s hard-earned money on such “foolishness”, as Carlos would say. Of course, he never described his drinking as “foolishness”, but he thought there was no need for the kids to spend money on anything fun. However, for some unknown reason, he offered to reward them for their hard work.

The movies started at noon on Saturday, and they would be showing some news reels and cartoons before the double feature. Eva and the boys excitedly looked forward to this day off.

About eleven o’clock on Saturday morning, they piled into Carlos’s pickup truck, with Eva and Carlos in the cab and the five brothers in the back. Mama stayed home to watch the younger children. It was about half an hour’s ride to Hollister from Tres Pinos.

On the outskirts of Hollister was an old bar called “Johnny’s.” This was one of Carlos’s favorite hangouts after a long week in the fields. Unexpectedly, instead of driving past the bar, Carlos pulled over to the side of the road. The kids were surprised that he stopped here since the plan was to get to the movie theater before the show started. That’s what Papa had promised them.

“
No, we can’t stop here,” Eva said. “We’ll be late for the show.”

“
Don’t tell me what to do, girl,” he growled. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said as he climbed out of the truck.

“
You boys stay here, and I’ll be right back. I’m just going in to get a beer, and then we’ll go to the movies.” And with that he ducked into the darkened bar.

Eva stepped out of the vehicle and leaned on the side of the truck bed. She was mad, but she didn’t want to show it.

“
He’ll be right back,” she told her brothers. “He said it would just be a few minutes.” She tried to assure them, even though she wasn’t sure herself that he would be. Carlos wasn’t known for having only one beer.

Eva and the boys tried to wait patiently, but time passed slowly in the afternoon heat. It had been almost an hour since he had gone into the bar, and they were all becoming irritated and impatient. It was getting hotter as time went on, and they were afraid they would miss the beginning of the movie.

“
I’m gonna go and see if he’s almost done,” Eduardo offered.

“
No, I’ll go in,” Eva said. “I’m the oldest. Maybe he’ll listen to me.”

She tried her best to muster up the courage to go into the bar. She was a sixteen-year-old girl going in to confront a mean and likely already-drunk man. She had to be strong and try to get him to do what was right. He had promised her and the boys the movies as a reward, but now it seemed he would rather drink away the money and the afternoon.

“
Papa?” she called out as she entered the dark bar. Her eyes had not quite adjusted yet from the bright summer sunshine outside. Slowly she could make out the figures at the bar and found her father half-way down. She hadn’t called him “Papa” since she learned he was not her real father. But she thought, for this purpose, maybe it would soften him up.

“
Papa? Isn’t it time to go now?” she asked in a low, soft voice, but received no response.

“
Papa?”  she said with a little more volume and force. “I think it’s time we go now.”

Her eyes adjusted to the dim light just in time to see the back of his hand and then feel the sting of it on the side of her face.

“
I’ll go when I’m good and ready! You don’t tell me what to do!” he snapped.

“
But Papa, you promised,” she said quietly as she turned to go.

He grabbed her by her hair. “Don’t talk back to me, muchacha,” he yelled and then pushed her away.

Tears started to fill her eyes, her cheek still stinging, but she was determined not to let her brothers see her cry. She took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and held her head up high as she walked through the doorway out into the bright sunlight.

Eva didn’t want to share what just happened with her brothers. She tried to put up a facade and keep her emotions under control. Though she was furious, she decided to let Carlos get away with it this time, but she told herself she would never let a man hit her again. Not ever.

“
Is he coming?” Eduardo asked. “It’s really getting hot out here. My shirt is starting to stick to me.”

“
Yeah. And the movie has probably started already,” Arturo added, as he shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked the dirt.

“
I know, guys. I’m sorry, but he’s drinking in there, and I don’t think he’s coming out for a long time. I’m so sorry.”

The boys were angry and disappointed. How could their father do this to them? They had worked so hard, and he’d promised to take them to the movies as a reward. Now this. Drinking away the day and the money they worked so hard to earn. Not caring about them, only about his drinking.

“
I’m gonna go in and make him come out!” Eduardo declared. “We can’t let him do this to us.”

Eva knew Eduardo would feel the wrath of their father even more fiercely. Eduardo would likely come out with a black eye or worse, she feared. Even if he was Carlos’s favorite, the alcohol would blur any distinction between the children. Carlos was an angry man who, on rare occasion, would show a glimmer of kindness. But he didn’t have enough goodness in him to see a good deed through.

“
No, Eduardo. Please. He’s been drinking for more than an hour, now. You know when he drinks it makes him even meaner than usual.” Eva was trying to protect her brother.