I’m very proud to have been born in an adobe hut in Las Moras, a ranch in Zacatecas, Mexico, where I also spent my childhood. I have many memories, some happy and others sad, of Las Moras. One of most beautiful ones is that when I turned 5, my Dad starting taking me to the field to help him plant corn. When we would return home at sunset, my Mom and my siblings were waiting for us to enjoy the delicious dinner that my Mom had prepared. A little boy doesn’t need anything else to be happy. That’s why the years that I lived Las Moras were some of the happiest years of my life. I’m going to share other memories of Las Moras. I hope you will like them.

Although my Dad and I would spend the day toiling under a very hot sun, I loved working in the field with him

My Dad and I would start our day’s labors in the field at the break of dawn in the planting season. He would carve out furrows with a plow hitched to a horse and I would toss the corn seeds into the burrows. Although we toiled under a very hot sun all day, I loved working in the field with my Dad. However, since I was very clumsy, I’m sure that, sometimes, I was more of a hindrance than help for him.

Solovino knew when Death was lurking about

When I was 8, a Black, stray puppy that I named Solovino, wandered into our hut and into my life. One day, Solovino, my Mom and I went to visit an uncle who was sick with cancer, people said. Since there was no doctor in Las Moras, if anyone got sick he either got cured with home remedies or he died because almost nobody had any money to go to the doctor in Tlaltenango, the nearest town to Las Moras. We returned very happy from my uncle’s house because my Mom was sure that he was going to recover. According to her, he looked much better than when she had seen him a month before. At midnight, Solovino let out blood-curling howls. Sadly, the next day, my uncle’s family told us that he had died at midnight. From then on, I realized that Solovino knew when Death was lurking about. Thereafter, whenever someone died in Las Moras, I would know it immediately because Solovino would announce it.

When Death was stalking me, Solovino saved my life twice

One morning, while Solovino and I were out collecting firewood for my Mom, Solovino began to growl and became very nervous. Suddenly, a coyote darted out from behind some shrubbery towards me. Solovino charged him like a bolt of lighting. After fighting with Solovino for a few minutes, the coyote ran off. As the weeks went by, Solovino changed from being cheerful and playful to grouchy and quick-tempered, and began to drool. Then, he disappeared. When I found him a few days later, he was dead. Since we had been inseparable, I didn’t understand why he had left me. In time, I came to realize that he left me because he knew that while the rabies had been killing him, Death had been stalking me. I’ll never forget that Solovino saved my life twice and that he gave his life for mine.

Finally, the “Big Deal” has arrived . . . at last

After marrying a girl from another ranch in a church in Tlaltenango, my uncle José Paz was going to bring his bride to Las Moras for a celebration in a brand new car that my uncle Luis had brought from El Norte. Since there were no roads in Las Moras, days before the wedding, several people pitched in to clear out a path for the car to pass through. On the wedding day, as the car was approaching, me and lot of people from Las Moras lined up along the new road to see the “Big Deal.” That was the first time that I saw a car.

The time for bathing has arrived . . . oh well

There was no running water in Las Moras but there was a water well and a stream near our hut. In the rainy season, when the well and the stream would swell up, there was water for everything. But in the dry season, when the stream would dry up and the water in the well would recede, water from the well was used only for cooking. In the dry season, every so often, my Mom would fill up a tub with cold water from the well. With that water, my brothers and I had to bathe. Since I was the eldest, I was always the last one.

Our family left Las Moras hoping to start a new life with a better future