‘to hell with this mother
come here and talk to me

TEACAPAN, SEIMALOA,
Mexico — Ask who is the
greatest living Mexican and
you will of course get many
answers.

Some will say President Salinas
de Gortari who has turned the
economy around. Others will
name Octavio Paz who won the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Most
people will name a soccer star.

Our neighbor Leticia’s can-
didate is her father, an 80-year-
old retired farmer who lives in a
little village in the neighboring
state of Nayarit.

He became a widower many
years ago and raised his three
daughters by himself. To do this
he had to work 12 hours a day
without Sundays off.

Two daughters are married and
one elected to remain single, gct a
job and care for her father. He
finally gave up farming two years
ago.

Leticia had a premature baby
yesterday, throwing the
neighborheod into some conster-
nation when her pains began so
early. Today, however, she was
well enough to ask to walk to the
telephone office in the plaza and
phone her father.

““What’s the trouble now?" he
shouted.

In the Spanish speaking world,
this is all wrong. Ever since Alex-
ander Graham Beil introduced his
device for talking on wires with
electricity, people here have said
**Bueno” when they pick up a
telephone.

It means good. It means the line
is good. It means I hear well, lt
means I am well, It means al} is
well. It is said sweetly. Boowayno.

Except by Leticia’s old dad who
says ‘‘What's wrong row?"

This shows that Leticia’s dad
approaches life differently from
other psople. Realistically, some
might say.

“*This is Leticia, Father.”

**1 know THAT! I can hear.”*

“*1 just had a baby.”’

“*Why tell me that again? Your
husband plioned and told me
yesterday afterncon when you had

“Well, I wanted to tell you."

“If you wanied to tell me you
had a baby, why couldn’t you get
on a bus and come down here
with it and talk to me like a nor-
mal human being should?”

**Because we are far away and
the telephone is quicker.”

“*The telephone? This mother!’’
(The use of the word mother
demands explanation. In the tone
of voice in which the old man

spoke, the word mother is a
shortened form of a horrid
phrase.

(It is one of the vilest cusswords
Mexicans know. Ninety-nine out
of a hundred Mexican fathers
would never utter it in front of a
daughter, but the old man is not

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like other Mexican fathers.)

**He was shouting, as usual,”’
reports Leticia. *‘He knows thie
phone has to carry his voice a
long way so he always shouts so it
won't use up too much of his
electricity.

“But that’s only part of it.
Mostly he shouts because he hates
the telephosie so much. I could
picture him there, standing
holding it fiercel, in his hands and
trying to strangle it.

“My sister has to put the phone
near his chair, but that is just two
things to make him angry instead
of one. My father claims no house
needs furniture.

“He has always said that the
only furniture you need inside a
house is a bed because everybody
has to sleep. As for anything else,
if his friends can't come into his
house and stand up to talk to him
then they aren’t friends and he

doesn’tcare what they have to say.’”’

“*l suppose you want a cow,”’
the old farmer said.

He had promised each married
daughter one cow for every
grandchild they produce.

Well, said Leticia, it would be
nice. The baby was one month
premature and friends had taken
her to a clinic in Esquinapa, 40

kilometres away, an hour or so
before it was born. There were
charges.

‘*Charges! What do you expect
from bandits except charges? Why
didn’t you have the child in your
own house?”

**Because it was so early, the
public health nurse said I should
be in hospital.’’

**Those mothers! They always
say that.’’

“*Well, anyway, Father, the
baby is well and we are happy.’”’

“Then don’t talk to me any
more on this machine. Bring the
baby down and show it to me,
like a decent mother should. I
don't want to talk any more now.
BAM.”

Leticia was happy as she walked
back to her house with her new
baby. Her dear old dad was
himself, well, and likely to live
forever.

**He makes me confident in
myseif. A strong will is the impor-
tant thing and if you combine that
with forthrightness and honesty
and hard work you will always
master the world around you.

‘*My father is a great man,”*
says Leticia, who had now well
and truly completec the business
of birthing.

The baby who was in such a
hurry (o come into the wartd is
hungry and snarling.

Dansk |

Friday, January 24, 1992 — North Shore News - 9

DR. L. WAYNE HALSTROM ...

is pleased to announce that

DR. ALFRED Y. WONG ...

is now joining our dental practice

at EASTERN HOUSE

#202-126 East {5th St.
North Vancouver

980-5405

(Located in Central Lonsdale)
NEW PATIENTS WELCOME

- MASTER TUNE-UP
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2 Sy

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