Lupita Manana

Little is said during supper with the Ruiz family on their first night. Lupita is shocked to learn that her pocho cousins go to school for 12 years. Salvador and Lupita learn they will rise before dawn to travel with Consuelo to the produce fields in Hermilio’s brother Fidencio’s truck. As child workers, the Torres children will receive $2.00 an hour. Lupita and Salvador reveal they speak no English. Consuelo also speaks no English, relying on her children to translate. Salvador mocks Lupita, saying she had wanted to become a profesora, a teacher, before she had to quit school. Though others laugh at her, eight-year-old Irela warms up to Lupita immediately because of this: “She stood at Lupita’s elbow and plucked at her sleeve. Softly, so no one else could hear, Irela said, ‘I like my profesora’” (129).

Before the sun rises the next morning, the Torres children and Consuelo get in the back of Fidencio’s truck and drive to a farm where many other workers are gathered. Consuelo takes them to the boss’s shack. When the gringo boss asks who they are, she replies: “‘Joe Ruiz,’ replied Aunt Consuelo quickly. ‘This is his sister María’” (131). They receive box meals and work through the day harvesting summer squash in 60-foot rows.