The Children of Sanchez by Oscar Lewis

Author:Oscar Lewis [Lewis, Oscar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-74454-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Marta

IN CRISPÍN’S HOUSE, MY MOTHER-IN-LAW GAVE THE ORDERS, THE CHILDREN paid no attention to my father-in-law. Crispín was very mean to him, and acted like his equal. Once he scolded his father for coming home drunk, as though the father were the son and the son the father!

My mother-in-law pampered Crispín, who was the youngest. He was the type of man who was always taking sides and who didn’t like to be left behind in a discussion. He quarreled a lot with his older brother Ángel and when his mother intervened, Crispín would say foul things to her.

This brother, Ángel, was married by church and civil law, to a woman named Natalia. They separated and got together a few times and being so Catholic, they really carried the cross. Ángel got a job in Acapulco and took her there to live. His work kept him away from home a lot, and once, when he came home early, he found her in bed with another man, a fruit vendor. He beat them both, although to my way of thinking, he was to blame for leaving his wife alone. Ángel spent three days in jail, and then he brought Natalia back to Mexico City.

My mother-in-law wanted Ángel to kick Natalia out, but he kept her for revenge. At night, I could hear her crying and begging to be allowed to go home. Then came a slap or a blow and more howls. This went on for fifteen days, night after night. Crispín, too, let her have it. He was a great admirer of the fair sex, but when he heard of a woman betraying a man, he wanted to wipe her off the map.

During the day, Natalia was not allowed out alone, not even to the bathhouse. When she went to see her mother, they accompanied her. She was just like a prisoner. I asked her why she didn’t leave, once and for all, and she said they had threatened to take away her son, her only child. She and Ángel are still together and have two more children.

Crispín’s eldest brother, Valentín, also had trouble with his wife. At sixteen, when the family still lived in Puebla, he had married a woman much older than himself. They were married by both laws and had two children, but that didn’t mean a thing because when they came to Mexico City she took up with another man. She finally went off with him leaving her children with Valentín, which was unusual, because most women who go off with another man leave their children with their own parents. So Valentín took the children to his mother-in-law and got a divorce.

Crispín’s family never liked me because I didn’t know how to do a thing. I helped my mother-in-law very little. She was one of those exaggeratedly clean housekeepers who changed the bedsheets every eight days and was always scrubbing and dusting.

I found it hard to attend Crispín properly. He was very fussy about his clothes and his meals.

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