yoga studio, a playground. She loved her new route, its bends and twists. She tried to memorize the names of the streets even though they looked blurry. She looped around the playground again. This time she stopped. It took her a moment to recognize what was making her blink.
It was the rain. It was the sky opening up and letting go. It was everything she wanted to learn and become.
This is what life is about: feeling in my body and being in the present moment. I thought to myself, “Well, I guess you’re running in the rain today.” And then, from somewhere else inside of myself, I said, “No. Run WITH the rain.”
“I saw my parents working hard, my dad, my mother, and my dream was to one day… treat them like king and queen.”
~ Maria Suarez
Everyone Is Family
Maria grew up in a small village in Mexico called Timbuscatio, Michoacan. There were only about 500 or so people in Timbuscatio, and most of them were related to one another. Maria was eleventh out of fourteen children in her family. When her brothers and sisters were too busy to play with her, she could always knock on a door nearby and find a cousin ready to play hide and seek in the cornfields. Even the people she wasn’t related to knew and loved her as if they were family, too.
Maria’s father was a farmer. He worked long days, up before dawn planting corn, calavasa , pumpkin, sugarcane, cucumber, tomatoes, corn, and guava. His hands were thick and stained from pulling through the earth. His rectangular face was always flushed from the sun. Maria’s mom was always working, too. She took care of the fourteen children and the house, not to mention feeding their chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and goats. The only time Maria saw her sit still was in church on Sundays. Maria’s mom sang all the psalms and listened to the priest with her eyes half-shut, a smile taking up the rest of her face. Maria loved watching her mom so serene and happy. Maria sat next to her in the pews, a matching smile taking up her face, too.
When Maria was fifteen years old, her father announced that he needed to go to Los Angeles to get an American residential card.
Why can’t we live here forever? Maria wondered.
Her parents would never tell her, but it was getting harder and harder to feed the family. Her father didn’t want to leave Timbuscatio either, but his fields were looking thin and dry. He promised he would be back in a few weeks; he just needed to see if it was possible to get some steady income in the States.
Maria begged her dad to bring her on the trip. She promised to stay out of trouble and bring her schoolbooks so she didn’t miss any lessons while she was away. He agreed. When they got to California, Maria and her dad stayed with an older sister living and working in Sierra Madre. Maria decided that if she really wanted to help the family out, she should look for work, too. It was harder than she expected, though. She didn’t speak any English, and she didn’t know exactly what work she could offer.
A kind-looking woman walked up to Maria on the street one day and asked her—in Spanish!—if she was looking for a job. Maria was so grateful to hear her native language and immediately said, “Si.” The woman was searching for a maid to help out in an old couple’s home. Maria was thrilled and tried not to laugh out loud while she said, again, “Si! Si!” She was so excited, she even forgot to ask how much the job paid.
They set a time for the woman to pick up Maria and take her to the couple’s house. The woman said Maria should keep it a surprise and not tell her family.
Maria didn’t know why it had to be a secret, but she was too excited to ask. She was already dreaming about coming back to the farm with a wallet full of hard-earned cash. Maybe she would buy her mom a new dress, or her dad a hat to protect his eyes from the sun …
FICTION:
Witches wear black hats, ride broomsticks, and have warts.
FACT:
Brujo is
It was the rain. It was the sky opening up and letting go. It was everything she wanted to learn and become.
This is what life is about: feeling in my body and being in the present moment. I thought to myself, “Well, I guess you’re running in the rain today.” And then, from somewhere else inside of myself, I said, “No. Run WITH the rain.”
“I saw my parents working hard, my dad, my mother, and my dream was to one day… treat them like king and queen.”
~ Maria Suarez
Everyone Is Family
Maria grew up in a small village in Mexico called Timbuscatio, Michoacan. There were only about 500 or so people in Timbuscatio, and most of them were related to one another. Maria was eleventh out of fourteen children in her family. When her brothers and sisters were too busy to play with her, she could always knock on a door nearby and find a cousin ready to play hide and seek in the cornfields. Even the people she wasn’t related to knew and loved her as if they were family, too.
Maria’s father was a farmer. He worked long days, up before dawn planting corn, calavasa , pumpkin, sugarcane, cucumber, tomatoes, corn, and guava. His hands were thick and stained from pulling through the earth. His rectangular face was always flushed from the sun. Maria’s mom was always working, too. She took care of the fourteen children and the house, not to mention feeding their chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and goats. The only time Maria saw her sit still was in church on Sundays. Maria’s mom sang all the psalms and listened to the priest with her eyes half-shut, a smile taking up the rest of her face. Maria loved watching her mom so serene and happy. Maria sat next to her in the pews, a matching smile taking up her face, too.
When Maria was fifteen years old, her father announced that he needed to go to Los Angeles to get an American residential card.
Why can’t we live here forever? Maria wondered.
Her parents would never tell her, but it was getting harder and harder to feed the family. Her father didn’t want to leave Timbuscatio either, but his fields were looking thin and dry. He promised he would be back in a few weeks; he just needed to see if it was possible to get some steady income in the States.
Maria begged her dad to bring her on the trip. She promised to stay out of trouble and bring her schoolbooks so she didn’t miss any lessons while she was away. He agreed. When they got to California, Maria and her dad stayed with an older sister living and working in Sierra Madre. Maria decided that if she really wanted to help the family out, she should look for work, too. It was harder than she expected, though. She didn’t speak any English, and she didn’t know exactly what work she could offer.
A kind-looking woman walked up to Maria on the street one day and asked her—in Spanish!—if she was looking for a job. Maria was so grateful to hear her native language and immediately said, “Si.” The woman was searching for a maid to help out in an old couple’s home. Maria was thrilled and tried not to laugh out loud while she said, again, “Si! Si!” She was so excited, she even forgot to ask how much the job paid.
They set a time for the woman to pick up Maria and take her to the couple’s house. The woman said Maria should keep it a surprise and not tell her family.
Maria didn’t know why it had to be a secret, but she was too excited to ask. She was already dreaming about coming back to the farm with a wallet full of hard-earned cash. Maybe she would buy her mom a new dress, or her dad a hat to protect his eyes from the sun …
FICTION:
Witches wear black hats, ride broomsticks, and have warts.
FACT:
Brujo is
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