Mi Mochito Sephardim from Northern New Mexico by Jo Roybal Izay

Author:Jo Roybal Izay [Izay, Jo Roybal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466933422
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2012-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

School for the Children and

El Mochito

The year was 1939. My triplet cousins and I couldn’t wait to start first grade. El Mochito got up early the morning of our first day of school and sounded el kuerno six times for good luck. I panicked and didn’t want to go to school. I refused to get out of bed. When Mami and Papi came to get me ready for my first day, I covered my head with the sheet and would not budge, no matter how much they pleaded.

El Mochito went to get Padrecito. Everybody gathered around my bed.

“Don’t worry,” Padrecito assured me, “Tía Antonia will be your teacher and she’s your best friend. She’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“Jita,” Papi begged, “please get up. Mami made you a pretty dress and you have new shoes and pretty socks with lace. You can’t just let those things go to waste. Please get up.”

“Look, darling,” Tío Gibi tried to explain, “the triplets are not afraid of going to school. Their mommy is the teacher. They are practicing how to say ‘Mrs. Benavidez’ to their mother.”

Words of encouragement kept on coming, but I wasn’t going to get out of bed. Soon, tears streamed down Padrecito’s cheeks and then the triplets started crying, too. Papi and Tío Gibi looked as if it was the end of the world. Like Padrecito, they were such babies. Tía Antonia looked at the men with disgust.

“The problem is solved,” El Mochito announced. “I will go to school with Yisraela. Would you like for me to get an education with you?” he asked me. “I promise to teach you everything I know.”

“You can’t go to school, Mochito,” Padrecito tried to reason with him. “You’re too old.”

“You stay out of this, viejo loko. So far as I can see, you’re the only old man around here,” replied El Mochito.

“You never grew up, you viejo mamón!”

My poor grandfather had to take the insult because El Mochito was un inocente and a gift from G-d. Papi, Tío Gibi, and Tía Antonia all went into hysterics.The rest of us joined in the laughter and soon even Padrecito started to chuckle. Madrecita and Mana Timia ran into the bedroom to see what the commotion was all about. Mami related the story to them.

Madrecita’s response was mild. “Muy bien, Mochito. You have every right to go to school. Everyone needs an education.”

Padrecito turned to Tía Antonia doubtfully, “He can’t go to school, can he?”

“I have no objection. He’s a citizen!”

Mana Timia gave Padrecito a look of victory. “El Mochito needs to go to school to be with his little friends. Are you jealous because he is not a gambler like you? ¡Viejo loko! You are nothing but a milksop!”

That didn’t sit very well with Padrecito. He walked up to Mana Timia and told her to leave the house immediately.

Mana Timia simply told him that he was not the boss.

“Doña Marina es la jefa akí.”

“This is my house and you are not welcome anymore!” replied Padrecito.

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