April 2000
s m u g
field recordings
by Scout Finch

THE JOSE GUZMAN INTERVIEW, cont'd:

That's pretty cool.

JG: It really was cool. So they met through that, and then they didn't see each other for years. And then once she was in college, they happened to see each other again. So, you know, they liked each other, so they went for it.

And your grandparents just had to deal with it.

JG: They kind of just tried to accept her - what they would call acceptance. Kind of like saying, "Oh, she's here, so we might as well not ignore her but acknowledge that she's here."

So your father came to America first to establish himself, make a new home for his family?

JG: One of the things that you have to understand is that in Latin America, the United States is portrayed as this huge land of opportunity. Way beyond what reality is once you're here. And that's the reason why people don't understand, you know, "Why do they keep coming over, all these immigrants, all these immigrants!" Well, you want to make a better life for yourself. Plus, the way the media portrays the United States, it's like, "Oh, it's easy!" You'll come here and within a year or two, you'll have this house, and this car and this job. That might have been the case 20 years earlier, but it's not now. My dad lived out of his car for months at a time. One time he came back to [where] the car [was] and it had been stolen. So he had nothing left but the clothes that he had on him. He had to live in the street and have nothing to eat for a month. He went two years in a row really, really hard struggling, with hardly any food. He would get up and try to fill himself with water so that he wouldn't feel hunger until he got some food from work. That went on for a couple of years. And then he finally started doing okay. My mom came after that, about three years later. And up to that point, my dad still hadn't seen my younger sister, because he left before she was born. So he had only seen pictures.

But after three years of struggle, your dad finally got reunited with your mom.

JG: Yeah. And the way she came here was a total... She didn't come here with a visa; she pretty much came illegally through. Through a coyote.

Really?

JG: Yeah, 'cause there was no other way and she knew she had to come over here, and -

Wait. What's a "coyote"? I mean besides the guy who wants the Road Runner real badly.

JG: "Coyote" is what you call the guys that help you cross the border. That's Spanish, coyote. In Latin America, that's how they refer to them: coyote.

All right. So how did your mom find herself a "coyote"?

JG: She made her way to Mexico, and then from Mexico she paid this guy. My grandfather gave her the money because he knew that if she didn't [get] over here, pretty soon we might not have a family. So she went through the whole bullshit of riding in a truck, on the bottom, all covered with cement or whatever else was on top of them, so that they wouldn't get caught, and all this other bullshit. She finally made it to Los Angeles and then my dad finally came to get her. When we came here we lived in a garage. Our bed was lifted up and put up against the wall. And then put back on the floor at night to sleep in. It was hard times, man.

I bet.

JG: When people say, "Oh, I'm starving!" I'm telling you man, they don't know what they're talking about. I do!

Did you learn English in El Salvador?

JG: No. There were English classes, but you know kids...

I imagine it's not too different from my high school Spanish classes: "Una hamburguesa, por favor, y un Coca-Cola."

JG: When I came here, the only thing I knew was cat, dog and house.

How long did it take you to learn to speak the language so that you could communicate?

JG: About three months. And it was mostly because I came here and I had an option of going to a Catholic school or going to a public school. When I went to take the aptitude test, to see what level [I] should be at - I guess you would call it an aptitude test. "Aptitude test" is usually for jobs, though.

I know what you mean.

JG: Okay. I was supposed to go to sixth grade. But I took that test, and I was placing at seventh grade level--because when it comes to mathematics and things like that, Latin American countries...I mean, the United States have really let themselves go as far as the educational system.

Yeah.

JG: Maybe when you get to the university level, they're more on the money, but below that, it's not happening, especially in rural areas where you have minorities. So if I were to go to public school, I would have been like skipping a grade, but I would have been in ESL [English as a Second Language]. Which means that I wouldn't have learned the English that I speak now. Versus going to a Catholic school, which my parents chose, because they wanted me to learn the language. That's probably the best thing to do. I had to repeat fifth grade, but I only had three months left in the whole year. My teacher gave me the option of, you know, trying to learn it, or you know, giving up for the year and starting over again. I would have had to repeat it again, which means I would have practically, technically, flunked twice. I would have been left back twice. I'm like, "Dude, I'm not doing that." Mrs. Cowan was her name, and I owe her so much, man. Because she managed to get the eighth graders, for extra credit, every afternoon they would [tutor me]. They would take turns, and I would start off with kindergarten books. I went through "See Spot Run," "Hooked on Phonics"...I went through all those books in a matter of three months so I could, towards the last few weeks, manage to take all the tests and everything in English and prove that I knew the language. So it worked.

scout@smug.com

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