The Teacher

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I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old, we used to be frightened if we met a mestizo, we used to say that the guasha (mestizo)* was going to take us away, because in those days there were not many mestizos around here and we were frightened of them because mestizos were important. As far back as I can remember San Antonio had a primary school up to the first grade. There was just one teacher in the whole village.

We didn't have trousers, nothing, just cotton pants, our parents gave us 2 cents, it was a coin called a guatila, so we could go and buy our sandals. If our father didn't even have enough to buy us some sandals, then he nailed truck tires and strips of leather together and in this way we got new sandals.

When Ávila Camacho** was in power, there was just one tiny room for the pupils. How can I explain... our father didn't want us to go to school to learn. Our father didn't want us to go to school, he wanted us to help him in the fields. However, I started school in 47, and in 48 I finished first grade so I was able at least to write my name.

In the second grade I knew how to write my name, but the teacher used to hit us on the hand with a ruler, he enjoyed it, he did it because we didn't pay attention, well the thing is the teacher made us copy a few letters on the blackboard and then he would go and have a few drinks.

He would then turn up and say: "OK, write Lalo". Lalo is not a difficult word, but for someone like me who doesn't know it's really difficult. How could we write Lalo if we didn't even know the five vowels? He would teach us for a while in the morning, we scribbled in our classmate's notebooks, the teacher would leave and when he returned we handed in the sheets of paper scribbled with vowels.

Then the teacher would get angry and there were times when he would scare us. Other days he would have us hold out our arms and he would put red bricks in our hands. If there was no good reason it was a terrible punishment, but it was a good punishment for eight or nine year olds.

* Guasha, mestizo, someone of mixed indigenous and Spanish blood.
**Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of México, 1940-1946.