Remembrances of Our Family’s Extraordinary Journeys

This little book’s foundation is a result of my sharing the stories of my 6th Grade experience in Maneadero’s village school with 6th Graders in an American ‘village school’ for a two hour presentation. The school was Pickering Valley Elementary School in Byers Village, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and this original presentation came about in a very swell, neighborly way.

My Family, The Francisco Ayala Family, will be introduced because I do want to honor my Parents and Family – all of them extraordinary. This will be in a few chapters because I experienced my Family with my Papa included, and then, regrettably, without him. The beginning of my fantastic voyage to the 8th Grade also begins in these chapters.

Then I will share about the Villagers themselves! These were the most special people God ever gave me the pleasure and privilege of getting to know and love. Just imagine … loving a whole village! And even more amazing – to imagine a whole village caring about and loving me – simply because I was a child … because the Villagers cared about and loved children!

It occurs to me that the Orderliness in the Village of Maneadero and the Village Values are two sides of one coin – they are inseparable. Parents knew that one of the most important provisions they could afford their children was a good name/reputation – this was one of the highest values in any village. Whether they were the poorest in a village or came from a family that was wealthy, no family wanted to have children that would start adult life with a tarnished reputation. It mattered much that when people stepped out of their homes, heads could be held high as opposed to being bowed down in shame.

My Parents were, for the most part, migrant farm workers and my Father also worked in copper mines in Arizona and Montana. You notice the birthplaces of the children are in two different states. This is because my Parents and Family worked on various farms and ranches in Arizona and California. Our Family went to where there was work available. I will mention here that this astounds me to this day … families packing up all belongings and moving to wherever there was work. Oftentimes our Family was separated for a few days while G-GF Pancho was seeking work. When work was found he returned, gathered up the Family and off everyone went to live and work in a new location.

My Family did this and quite often more than once within a year. School was important to a point; more important was keeping our Family together, and working to provide necessities. The novel and resulting movie “The Grapes of Wrath” are a good depiction of this type of life.

In Los Angeles I attended school in the Los Angeles City School District. I attended Kindergarten to 6th grade, graduated to 7th Grade, and then I attended junior high school for one semester, February to June of 1957. I then attended a Roman Catholic School for a complete 7th Grade, two semesters. (Yes, it is true, if you do the math I attended 7th Grade for three semesters … and this is the beginning of my fantastic voyage to the 8th Grade!).

The Midnight Messenger. Our Montana adventure came to an abrupt end. It seems to me it was nighttime and I remember a gentleman coming to our home in the hotel. He spoke English and Grandma Lupe didn’t. We were all awake and the man told Emilia to tell Grandma Lupe the reason he was there was that there had been a mining accident and Grandpa Pancho, along with several other miners, had suffered very, very serious injuries, had been taken to the hospital and would be having surgery. I don’t remember anyone crying, just Grandma Lupe being very serious and Emilia trying to interpret as exactly as she could.

The Recommendation. Because of my lack of experience in reading and writing in Spanish, and since every subject had to be dictated in Spanish, and since the Literature book would be in Spanish, the Director and the teacher had recommended that I start out in 4th Grade. I asked my Mama to please repeat that last part … I was to start out in 4th Grade.

Yes, Luis was very happy to be back home with his Mama.

Yes, Doña Lynnda was very glad to have gotten some chores done.

And Tata Che? Well, he started counting his pleasures as he slowly walked back home: he was a help to his neighbors – a rare thing for someone of his age; he was able to hold a baby in his arms again – a very rare and most enjoyable thing; and he was able to pray for this little baby boy, Luisito – a rare privilege!

All in all, this had been an unusually delightful, worthwhile day … gracias a Dios!

I have shared about my Parents, my Sisters and my Brothers with you. I think you understood just a tad of their combined influence on me because of their ‘gifts of self’. I state they are extraordinary because they all sacrificed, all eight of them, in their own ways to keep us together as a Family.

I know from reading other peoples’ stories and watching documentaries that this was no small task in America, especially with America going through The Great Depression, hard times in general, and World War II with its resulting rationing, that other families split apart, they fell apart.