American Triumph: 1939-1945: 4 STORIES IN 1

by Susan Martins Miller, Norma Jean Lutz, Bonnie Hinman

  Rosa held her breath as she waited for their response.

  “I see that there is no dissuading you, Miz Madden,” Mr. Decker said reluctantly.

  “Absolutely not.”

  “We will take up the matter at our next regular board meeting,” Mr. Orvid said.

  “You’ll take it up right now,” Mrs. Madden insisted. “School begins soon. We don’t have time to waste with school-board politics.”

  “Miz Madden, I will remind you of our service to the community,” Mr. Elliot said. “If we kowtowed to every whim that someone brings to the board, we’d never make any progress in this town.”

  “We will never make any progress in this town until education is equally available to everyone who wants it. You’re all here right now. Take a vote.”

  “This ain’t the proper way to do things,” Mr. Orvid protested.

  “It’s an efficient way,” Mrs. Madden insisted.

  Suddenly the sky rocked with thunder. Because of the dust, the sky often looked dreary. Rosa had not noticed the rain clouds roll in. As it began to rain, everyone’s eyes turned to the sky.

  “Rain! Rain!” Rather than seeking protection from the rain, children—and even adults—began to dance in the drizzle. Gradually it became heavier and steadier. The morning festivities broke up with whooping and hollering as families raced to their homes to enjoy the rain.

  “We’ve had five inches of rain this year,” Tío pointed out at the end of the summer as he and Papá leaned against the fence and looked out at the field. Rosa could hear them easily from under the tree where she was sitting.

  “Yes, but we should have had eighteen inches.”

  “Perhaps there is enough moisture in the ground to plant winter wheat. I hear some of the other farmers talking about that.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Rosa did not think Papá sounded convinced he should plant a winter crop. A couple of heavy rains made some people think the drought was over. The women talked about it in the shops in town. Even Mrs. Madden talked about it. Her husband was a minister, and many of the families in the church were suffering. He wanted to help them, but he did not know what he could do. He could not clap his hands and make it rain or wave his arms and make the grass grow for the cattle to eat. Mrs. Madden kept their home tidy and cozy, but they had very little money themselves.

  As Papá and Tío drifted toward the house, Rosa stayed under the tree, thinking.

  Rosa could hardly wait for the first day of school. Mrs. Madden had been successful in her crusade for equal education. Some of the parents of white children were unhappy with her, and they did not keep their feelings a secret. Someone had thrown a rock through a window of her house.

  Rosa felt terrible about that. What if Henry had gotten hurt? Surely that would never have happened if Mrs. Madden had not started helping Rosa. If Rosa had been at her own school that day last spring, she would never have met Mrs. Madden, and none of this would have happened.

  But Mrs. Madden was not frightened or worried. She told Rosa over and over that they were doing the right thing. Even Reverend Madden thought so. He preached in his church about justice and fairness.

  Although she was eager to return to school, Rosa was nervous. What would it be like? What if she had not studied hard enough with Mrs. Madden? What about the other Mexican children who did not have anyone helping them? Would the white teachers want to teach the Mexican children?

  Rosa spent the last days of summer going around to the homes of other Mexican families. She wanted to be sure that everyone understood that the children would now all go to school together. If some of the Mexican children were scared, she said to them, “How brave can you be?”

  When the first day of school came, Rosa walked proudly to the school that held all the books and maps and teachers. No one would work as hard as she would. She wanted to learn everything!

  CHAPTER 8

  Sixth Grade

  Rosa liked Mrs. Briggs immediately. As the class filed into the fifth- and sixth-grade room, Mrs. Briggs welcomed each student with a bright smile and a handshake. Two other Mexican children were assigned to Mrs. Briggs’s room with Rosa. Miguel and Beatriz were in the fifth-grade section of the class.

  They wanted to sit by themselves at the back of the class, but Mrs. Briggs pleasantly asked them to take seats near the front. She made sure that Miguel was next to a friendly boy and Beatriz was next to a friendly girl. Mrs. Briggs assigned Rosa a seat next to a girl named Sally Furman. Rosa had seen Sally in some of the shops in town, but they had never spoken to each other before. She smiled shyly at Sally, but Sally did not smile back.

  By the end of the first week of school, Rosa was exhausted. Her worst fears had come true. She was not ready for sixth grade in this school. Her English was not as good as she wished, and she struggled to read and write as quickly as the other children. Rosa dreaded to think what school would be like if she had not studied with Mrs. Madden all summer.

  By the end of the second week, the principal and the teacher agreed that Miguel and Beatriz would be better off if they joined the fourth-grade class. They were not quite ready for fifth-grade work. Rosa, however, was a hard worker. Anyone could see that. If she wanted to stay in the sixth grade, they would allow it. But she would have to be prepared to work harder than any other student. Rosa quickly agreed. She wanted to keep moving forward, not step back to the fifth grade.

  Now Rosa was the only Mexican student in Mrs. Briggs’s room. As she studied her books and worked on her papers, she felt the eyes of the other students on her. She also heard them talking on the playground, so she knew that many of them wanted her to leave their class. Their parents, they said, were going to make the school board change things back to the way they were before. Some of them said they were going to stop going to Reverend Madden’s church.

  Mrs. Madden assured Rosa that the Mexican children were in school to stay. She and Reverend Madden were prepared to insist on equal education even if the rest of the town objected. With enough time, Mrs. Madden said, everyone would accept the new ways. In the meantime, Rosa just had to focus on her schoolwork and not pay any attention to what the other students said.

  Rosa resumed going to Mrs. Madden’s home after school for extra lessons. Sometimes she asked for help with her homework when it was too hard for her to do alone. The multiplication and division problems that Mrs. Briggs gave the class were harder than anything Rosa had ever done, and she had never studied fractions before. Rosa was determined to succeed in sixth grade. In fact, she wanted to be the best student in Mrs. Briggs’s class. Every night, she took books home to study. She sat at a little desk in her bedroom where no one would disturb her.

  The late summer days turned into fall days. The fall days grew brisk, then nippy, then cold. Rosa wrapped herself in the warmest clothes she could find. She had outgrown most of her clothes, and Mamá could not afford cloth to make new ones. Rosa tried not to care that she only had two dresses left and one of them was getting too short.

  Winter blasted into the panhandle of Texas just in time for the Christmas break from school. The temperature was below zero on many days. Sometimes it was hard for Rosa to remember what it was like when the temperature was over one hundred degrees. Somewhere in between zero and one hundred would be much better, she thought.

  On the last day of school before Christmas, Mrs. Briggs handed out report cards. The Mexican school never had report cards. Rosa was not sure she wanted to look at hers. What if her grades were all Ds? Would they make her go back to fifth grade? She carried the envelope with her as she scuffed her way down the street to Mrs. Madden’s house. Without speaking, she handed it to Mrs. Madden, who opened it. Rosa watched her face carefully.

  “Why, Rosa, this is a report card you can be very proud of.” Mrs. Madden beamed.

  “Really?”

  “Really. Look for yourself.” She handed the card back to Rosa.

  Reading: B. Spelling: A. Math: B. Social Studies: A. Science: A.
Writing: B. Mrs. Briggs even wrote a note at the bottom that said, “Rosa is a pleasure to have in our class. She makes wonderful contributions to our class discussions.”

  Rosa gave a big sigh of relief.

  That night, Rosa’s brothers told her stories of the Christmas parties and decorations and foods they had enjoyed in Mexico. On December 16, the first parade of candlelight happened. The children walked through the village with candles every afternoon for nine days. Each day, Mexican children made up a play about Mary and Joseph searching for a place to stay in Bethlehem so Jesus could be born there. Sometimes Mary, the Virgen Maria, rode on a burro, and Joseph, San José, led the burro. Other children played the angels and shepherds. Everyone wore a colorful costume and carried paper lanterns. After the play came the party with piñatas full of fruit, sugarcane, peanuts, and candy.

  In Mexico, all the aunts and uncles and cousins went to church together on Christmas Eve and then shared a huge meal of tamales and corn gruel. When everyone was full, they opened their gifts to each other and played until the wee hours of the morning.

  Rosa’s family had a much simpler celebration in Texas. But they did bring some traditions from Mexico. Mamá always put out the El Nacimiento, clay pieces arranged in a stable. Mamá had Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, three shepherds, an ox, and two sheep. Rosa loved to play with the pieces and tell the story over and over. She did not mind that there were no Las Posadas parades or piñata parties. Rosa was happy just being with her family at Christmastime, especially since little Isabella had been born. But she did wonder about one thing.

  “Why don’t we go to church here?” Rosa asked one day as the family ate supper.

  Papá took a bite of his beans. “It is not the same here. The churches are different. I do not think they want us.”

  “But, Papá,” Rosa protested, “don’t we still believe in God?”

  “Yes, Rosita, we believe in God. But it is not the same. You are too young to understand.”

  “I want to go to church,” Rosa insisted. “We can go to Reverend Madden’s church. They have a service on Christmas Eve, just like in Mexico.”

  “We can have church here, if you like,” Papá said. “You can use the El Nacimiento and tell us the story of how Jesus was born.”

  “No, Papá, I want to go to church!” Rosa repeated. “I want to go to Mrs. Madden’s church on Christmas Eve.”

  Papá looked at Mamá. Mamá shrugged.

  “Okay, Rosita,” Papá said. “We will go to church.”

  Rosa imagined what Christmas Eve at church would be like. She dreamed of candles and music and crowds of people. I wish I had a pretty dress to wear, Rosa thought. But she knew Mamá would not be able to give her a new dress, so she did not ask for one.

  Christmas Eve finally came. The whole family cleaned up and put on their best clothes and their warmest coats. Rosa wore her brown dress. It only had one small patch. Even Tía got ready for church. Without the summer dust storms, she felt much better. Rosa held Papá’s hand and led the way into town. Papá carried a lantern so they could see the road in the dark. Rosa knew right where to go and wanted to be early so they could sit up front.

  Across the church, Mrs. Madden held a sleeping Henry while Rosa held a sleeping Isabella. They smiled at each other. Mamá and Papá did not know all the English words to the Christmas songs, but Rosa heard them humming the tunes. Rosa used a hymnal and followed the words to each song with a finger.

  At home again after church, Rosa’s family opened their gifts. The presents were simple. Papá had done some carpentry work for the grocer in town in exchange for some large oranges. Mamá used some precious flour and sugar to make cookies. When Tía handed Rosa a package wrapped in burlap, Rosa looked up in surprise.

  “You have been a great help with the baby,” Tía said. “This gift is to thank you.” She smiled gently at Rosa.

  “But I love Isabella,” Rosa said. “I love taking care of her.”

  “I still want to say thank you.”

  Rosa opened the burlap package and gasped. Tía had cut down another one of her favorite dresses to fit Rosa. Rosa lifted it out of the package, stood up, and held it against herself. “Tía! Thank you! It’s beautiful! But I know this was your favorite.”

  “You are my favorite, Rosita. This is just a dress.”

  “And now it is time for tamales and rice,” Mamá said. She stood up and kissed the top of Rosa’s head before going to the kitchen to cook.

  Everyone stayed up very late, just like in Mexico. Rosa fell asleep on the floor clutching her new dress, and her brother Téodoro carried her up to her bed. She woke only when he bent over and kissed her forehead. “Feliz Navidad, Rosita,” he said, and Rosa smiled her way back to sleep. “Merry Christmas.”

  Rosa woke after a long sleep. The sun was already high in the sky. She had slept away half the morning. She smiled again as she saw her new dress laid across the end of her bed. This was Christmas Day!

  But something did not feel right.

  Rosa got up and dressed and headed down the stairs toward the kitchen. She walked quietly, not wanting anyone to hear her. At the bottom of the stairs, she sat and listened to her parents.

  Mamá was crying. Why was Mamá crying?

  “We knew he wanted to go,” Papá said. “He is a man now. He makes his own choices.”

  “Just because he is a man does not mean he must break his mother’s heart,” Mamá responded between sobs.

  Gone? Rosa realized Mamá and Papá were talking about Téodoro. That’s why he had carried her to bed and kissed her head. Téodoro had been planning to leave, and now he had left! Rosa jumped off the step and ran into the kitchen.

  “Where is he?” she cried. “Where is Téodoro?”

  Mamá looked up from her tears.

  “How could he leave us?” Rosa demanded.

  Papá opened his arms to hold Rosa. “He has made his decision,” he said. “Téodoro left during the night. He has been talking of nothing but California for weeks. He decided it was time to go.”

  “But we stick together. We help each other.”

  Papá nodded. “Téodoro believes he can help from California. He will pick fruit and send money home.”

  Rosa was silent, her head on her father’s shoulder. After a moment, she asked, “Will we ever see Téodoro again?”

  CHAPTER 9

  Then Came Spring

  Rosa strode toward home with confidence. She loved being in the sixth grade! She was a good speller and had learned to read English words smoothly. Fractions no longer frightened her. Rosa worked hard and was proud of being a good student.

  As she approached the road turning toward her home, her steps slowed. It was her job to stop at the end of the road every day and check the mailbox. She used to be excited about doing that job, wondering every day what might come. But now, she wished she did not have to do it. Every day, Mamá hoped there would be a letter from Téodoro. And every day, no letter came. Téodoro had been gone almost three months, and the family had not heard from him. Mamá’s sadness made her look older than she really was.

  Winter was on its way out, and spring on its way in. Soon Papá and Tío would decide whether to try to plant any crops. They would go out on the range and count how many cattle had survived the winter. Usually Téodoro helped to find the cattle. Most years he found more than anyone else. Rafaél insisted that he could take Téodoro’s place. Perhaps he can do Téodoro’s job, Rosa thought, but no one can take Téodoro’s place.

  Rosa stopped at the mailbox just as she did every day. Empty. Rosa thought, At least I don’t have to give Mamá a bill that we can’t afford to pay.

  As Rosa climbed the steps in front of the house, Mamá came to the door and looked at her hopefully. Rosa shook her head. “No, Mamá, nothing from Téodoro.” Mamá nodded and turned around to go upstairs. Rosa knew Mamá would go to her bedroom to cry. Papá and Rafaél and Juan all missed Téodoro, but sometimes Rosa thought Mamá missed him most of all. />
  Rafaél was sixteen now. How much longer would he stay at home with the family? Juan was fifteen. He loved to take care of the animals, but every year they had fewer animals. Papá had sold the horses and one of the milk cows during the winter, and they could barely afford to feed a few chickens. If a hen stopped laying eggs, Mamá cooked it. The family could not afford to feed an animal that did not give them something back.

  Rosa wished Mamá would cook more eggs for the family. Most of the time, Mamá sold the eggs for money she could use to buy other things they needed. The only pig they had left was going to have piglets soon, which gave Juan something to look forward to. Selling some of the piglets would bring in some money.

  Rosa used to love spring. The season meant fresh air, planting vegetables, spring cleaning in the house, and knowing that long summer days would soon be here. The land was flat for mile after mile. The wheat grew taller than she was and swayed in the breeze, looking like a field of gold. When she was little, Rosa loved to run through the field, hiding from her brothers in the wheat while Papá watched and laughed at her games.

  But this year, 1935, Rosa wished the winter weather would stay. Perhaps it would snow and bring more moisture to the ground. Spring reminded the whole family that they had no crops. And spring meant that the dust storms would start again. Tía would get sick again. Isabella would cry for her mother, and she might get sick, too. Spring meant that summer would follow, hot summer days with no rain bringing relief. Rosa hated the dust storms.

  One day Papá came home from town, and his face was glowing.

  “Hermano,” Tío said, “what are you so happy about?”

  Rosa had not seen her father look so hopeful in a long time.

  “I have learned more about the new project,” Papá said. “The government is going to help with erosion control.”

  “What kind of project is this?” Tío asked.

  “The Federal Land Bank has come to Texas. They have chosen our town for the demonstration project.”