The Small Town Life of a Young Girl

           Maria sits back in her chair overlooking her backyard, slowly taking in a deep breath full of the spring flowers in bloom. As she closes her eyes, she still hears the roar of the noisy city below her house at the top of the hill. At the age of 70, Maria loves spending her days reading, watching Spanish soap operas, and cooking for her family. Since moving to America in 1958, she has experienced many wonderful things and is grateful for all the opportunities her and her husband and seven children have received. Now, with all her children grown and living on their own, she enjoys taking long nature walks, going to the mall, and spending time with her grandchildren. Though Maria has become accustomed to her life in the United States and loves it, she can’t help but remember all the fond memories of her childhood in the small quiet town of Jalostotitlan in Jalisco, Mexico. 

I was born in Jalostotitlan, Mexico and I lived there until I was 20 years old. We were a large family. I am one of 11 children. For different reasons, 6 of them died, but it was most recently, me, three sisters, and my brother. I attended only grade school because at that time, there was not a high school. I was born there in 1937 and we only had a grammar school. We only had grade school from grades 1 to 6. School was scheduled so that you went to school from 9 am in the morning to noon and then you had a break and then you went back from 3 pm to 5 pm. So this was a town where people had a siesta, and you would go home and eat then rest and then return to school. There were some people that I was very close friends with and we would usually go out after school and have an ice cream or go and pick up food at the Mercado (market) or just go and hang out. Some of the pastimes we enjoyed were going to our friends’ houses’ or we’d like to play jump rope a lot and we played jacks and we had skates.

Every morning the first thing that we would do was go to Mass, and then we’d come home and eat breakfast and then leave at 8:30 to be to school at 9. Yes, we were responsible for washing our own clothes when we got home and then we were responsible for cleaning up the house and also cooking.          

Jalostotitlan is located roughly about 65 miles away from Guadalajara, the major city closest to my town. Back when I was growing up there, there were about 11,000 people that lived in the town. The population currently is about 75,000. The town had one main street and a lot of smaller streets. On the main street, there was all the traffic that came and went from other towns. That main street is in front of the church. There were two plazas. The church is always the center of the town and in front of the church is the small plaza and around there are the markets and stores. At the main plaza, there were the government offices and you had vendors that would be selling ice cream or nuts or candy. The main plaza is at a different location and it is surrounded by all the bars, government offices, and the restaurants. In Jalostotitlan, you could walk to any one of these places.

The farming industry in Jalostotitlan was very strong and there was a lot of corn, bean and vegetable production.  It was very agricultural. The main industries in this town were shoe making and making clothes. So males would particularly work in the shoemaking and females would go and be seamstresses. They would make most of it by hand and they would sell it. For a long time I worked at home and we would make items. We would stitch and crochet. I also worked 3 hours a day at the local department of water.  I would make the billings for the town and I had an assistant, who would take the billings door to door and bring back the money. I was responsible for ensuring the billings were done and the money was collected in my town.

Part of my life as a young girl, my father and my mother worked on a ranch. It was my grandfather’s ranch, so on Monday through Friday we would live with my grandmother in the town because we had to go to school. Friday afternoon, my mom would come and take us back to the ranch for the weekend. I really enjoyed working with my dad and would help him out in the fields and then selling the wheat and corn.

The gathering place was in the center of town and it was called, La Plaza, or The Plaza where everyone would go to hang out and talk and have fun. Sometimes there were movies but, they weren’t always appropriate so I couldn’t see them. There were 2 main festivals in this town every year. The first was in February and it lasted 3 days and it was called “Carnival”. A lot of countries and cities do this right before Lent. We would have the carnival and during this time there were events you would attend, like the bull fighting or the crow fights and the rooster fights. Then there was the second fiesta that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, so it was 2 weeks long in August.  It started at 5 am in the morning and there would be music at the plaza. Then there would be a mass for both people of the town and ranchers that came into town. And then after that, later on in the afternoon, or early evening, we would have fireworks. Both of these big events in February and August were centered around the church. At that time, there was only one religion and everyone was Catholic.

Yes there were people that were always the “know it alls”. They would always share stories about people if you ran into them. These people were always going around in everyone’s business so that they could pass the news on to whomever they ran into. You would also encounter people that didn’t have a good reputation that would make your life difficult or they would pretend to be your friend, but then as soon as you left, they would be talking about you behind your back, so you knew that these people existed. They’re everywhere.

We would find out about what was going on in the other local towns mostly by radio or there were vendors that would come into town with station wagons that would sell goods. They would also have newspapers and they would hand them out for free so you always knew what was going on.

We always lived as a family in our home with our parents and we didn’t leave home until we got married. It was a very peaceful time living with my family. It was very tranquil and slow paced and I never considered leaving home for any reason before I got married. The life in the small town is very tranquil and very comfortable and you’re not concerned about crime or something bad happening to you. The life in the city is a lot harder.

The town has changed a lot. In the time that I was living there the main street was not very busy and it was just for traffic going in between the towns and any deliveries would be done by mule. Now, they’ve made a new road that goes around the town and everybody seems to have a car nowadays. People that live there are not very content, because they remember how it used to be. It’s almost too crowded and all the hills and hillsides are now populated with houses, whereas before it was just ranch or nature.

I have many friends that still live in Jalostotitlan and I look forward to my visits each year to see them and my relatives and to enjoy the fiestas in my hometown. 

Interviewed by Allessandra Darmiento