MARIA’S LOT AND GABRIEL

For now, this will be the heading of our entry. It may change. Tomorrow will tell. Gabriel, the important gov. official, will be going to Maria’s room. Important people do not visit squatters like Maria. This will be an education for him, our friend Jim, and the dentist. We have prepared Maria for their visit; put on an old dress, no makeup, and most of all, cry when you feel it is necessary. Of course, we are not trying to fool anyone; one look at her circumstances and you know. The dramatics could not hurt her cause. She laughed at these instructions, but the intent she grasped immediately. Remember the episode in the DIF office over her i.d card?

I’ll end this part of our story with two points: Maria has saved $600 in 5 months for her lot. Is she doing her part? Today, a hot 16 of September I took 2 showers. Maria Martinez Gomez has never had a shower.

Marge, Jim, and I left RB early to meet Dr. Martin Campo in downtown Tijuana. I drove and Jim was the navigator. This is a part of the city with which I am not familiar. Martin was waiting and we left immediately for Denny’s near the airport. Sn. Gabriel Preciado was a bit late. Marge and I were feeling anxious that he might not make come. A very smiley, young man rushed in and made his apologies to Martin. We all introduced ourselves. He does not speak English. Yet, his sincere manners easily overcame language differences. We left and this time I led the group. This was familiar territory for me.

When I saw Maria standing in her doorway, I felt a pang of foolishness. Yesterday I told her not to fix up and were an old dress; this lady may be poor, but she is a proud person. She did fix 80

up and was wearing a nice dress. The same dress she wore to meet our church group. I was instantly pleased that she had disregarded my rash advice. I will surely apologize to her for this. Proudly I introduced her to the three men… “our friend, Maria Martinez”.

Jim knew Maria from our house. Martin and Gabriel took to her immediately. From the top bunk bed, I bought down one of brother John’s card chairs for Gabriel. The two had a long conversation about her years at this address. In the midst of all these people, she was articulate and answered all of Gabriel’s questions. Marge and I are still amazed at her transformation these past several months. That rusty door of Maria’s life, shut tight all these years, is now open. She is happier now, in spite of her living conditions, and is in pursuit of her great goal; “mi lote, mi lote!”

Martin explained to us the conversation between Maia and Gabriel. Maria has lived there for ten years and paid land taxes for several of those years. She has accrued some property rights. The title of the land has to be cleared. This is the same process in the US. Mexican records are not as accurate. Gabriel promised he would start this task right away. Marge and I cried for happiness; finally, we are taking this first important step. Gabriel put his arm around Marge and said in English, “don’t worry, if not here, we will find Maria a lot of this area.”

Before he left I asked Gabriel for his card. He hesitated, his cards were in his office. Instead, he gave me another card. Not only is he a government land official, but Gabriel is also a clinical psychologist! And, Martin told us, he works with the homeless children on the Tijuana streets. Both of these fine men have come from poor origins. Senor Gabriel may very well become Maria’s, Angel Gabriel. Before he left I gave Gabriel our introduction to Maria’s life. He reads English.

As we were saying our goodbyes, Jim went back to see Maria. He gave her a gift toward her lot and said that they share the same 81

birthday. “I do not understand English, Jaime,” I explained to Maria that she and Jim have the same birthday and that we wanted to come up to SD and celebrate together. Of course, she would be delighted! This will be another project.

21 September Sunday

Today Marge and I made a long-overdue visit to Patricia Chavez’s house. Patricia lives in El Lago [the lake near the Sony plant where she works. We first met when she lived in Mariano near the Carter project. Cuca’s sister took me to her house one day to meet the family. Gloria knew we were active with Shriners and Patricia’s son, Jose Luis Enrique, had a badly deformed leg and foot. The poor child had five operations and the leg was still in bad shape. He literally walked on the side of his foot. Several visits to Los Angeles and one operation and our friend, Luis, walks perfectly. He still has some pain when standing for several hours. Minor compared to what he suffered before. We have been close to the family since. When they moved to El Lago, we followed. Patricia is on our Christmas list for turkeys and food. Her four children, Patty, Christian, Luis, and Jorge, have all grown tall and handsome in the past years. All are very intelligent and have attended school. Christian graduated from high school last year with high marks. In no time he had his visa and came up to visit us. He loves airplanes and so we took him to the aerospace museum at Balboa Park. We have been hounding his mother to get her passport. Finally, her mother visited her, brought the necessary papers. Yesterday, we met her mother, Maria de la Luz, for the first time a lovely, cultured lady whom we took to immediately. Patricia comes from a middleclass family; her father was a career pilot in the Mexican airforce. Why she came to the outpost of Tijuana I do not know. What I do know is that she is as poor as the rest of our Mexican friends. 82

Like one of our visits, Marge made tuna and egg salad sandwiches. Our Mexican friends go wild over this type of food. Salted peanuts in the shells, potato chips, and home made lemon bread rounded out the menu. Also, our usual bottle of wine. Between four of us and the kids, the wine does not go very far. Next time, two bottles.

We had not seen Patricia since her birthday lunch in April. We had a lot of catching up to do. She remembered my upcoming birthday and invited us to a celebration in November. Chiles relleno and the red rice. I need say no more. It’s a firm date. Maria de la Luz will make the cake. She is very talented. Knitted each of us a sweater. Very good work.

Patricia and her kids are like many of our other Mexican friends, they understand quite a bit of English and gladly helped me when I get off the track with my Spanish. In this way, our conversations always move right along and are entertaining. Those who are lesser educated, can not help me when I am in trouble. Maria does surprisingly well in this category. Our visit went swiftly and ended all too soon. We promised to keep in closer contact. Patricia always walks down with us to the car. She lives on the 4th floor. This time Maria de la Luz came also. Before I forget, Maria’s mother, Maria Luisa, lives in Anaheim. We have visited her and talk often on the phone. She also is a lovely lady. She lives close to two of her sons, both retired from Disneyland. Anyway, we all embraced and kissed goodbye and told each other, “we love you.” It was like we had known Maria for years. I suppose she has heard much of Patricia’s friends from RB.

As we neared the Otay border I saw the familiar umbrella up ahead. Don’t go home yet, my friend. She did not and soon saw me waving. We have no money for you, Maria, only our love. “I love you and Magie.” The sun and fumes were fierce, yet she looked good. She was wearing a very nice outfit and was proud to tell us that it came from one of our RB donations. Our Mexican friends

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love clothing sent down from the US. They always mention when they are wearing something donated.

“I will be with you and Magie on Thursday for our lunch date.” The first time was very difficult for her since I misunderstood the time and she was entertaining Americans for the first time.

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