Fito worked at the C&H sugar factory in Crockett, California, and Dad worked construction with Mr. Ramirez. Working construction always made you hungry and thirsty so they kept tubs of beef jerky and cans of beer under the car seat. Dad was on the overtime crew that tore down the old Vallejo hospital and everybody thought that’s what made him sick. They were all part of this St. Vincent Church religious club in Vallejo, Los Guadalupanos, which meant they shared food, music, stories, and everything. Sometimes, Lola, Fito’s wife, tried to show everybody how to dance to Huapango music and us kids tried to make those clackety sounds outside by crushing old tin Coke cans around our sneakers and clicking our heels on the sidewalk.
I don’t know where Pat Valencia worked, or Primo either, but all the ladies, including Carmen, Lily, Alice, Lola, Tia Melicia, and Mom, were always...
University of California Press