“Ci-sco?! María Guadalupe, ci-sco?!” shouted Ramón as he gathered his things. “We already have so much to eat! And now ci-sco?! We’re going to starve to death!”
“Ramo, or the abandoned ones,” pleaded María Guadalupe while carrying two babies and the other three were on the mat. “Help me. Let’s fight together. We’re going to make it.”
“No!” Ramó pushed María Guadalupe. “I don’t want this life! I want to get ahead! Those children are a burden! They are a curse on my life!”
He took the little savings that Maria Guadalupe kept under her pillow—the money that was meant to buy milk.
“Ramo! That money is for the children!”
“This is my payment for the harm you caused me!”
Ramó left. He took a truck to Mexico City. He didn’t look at his wife or his five children. He was only thinking about himself.
GETTING UP ALONE
María Guadalupe’s life became hell.
To support his five children (Juan, José, Francisco, Pedro and Gabriel), he worked washing clothes in the mornings, selling at the market in the afternoons and washing dishes at a restaurant at night.
The neighbors criticized her. “There goes the old hag. So many children and her husband left her.”
But María Guadalupe laughed.
