Canned and Crushed

Canned and Crushed — page 5 — 4 CANNED AND CRUSHED Uh-oh Here comes Miss Hamilton now Watch and learn compadres Sandro Yes Are you ready to explain yourself Now here’s something that really bugs me about teachers and grown-ups in general They ask you a question but before you can answer the first question they become a pitching machine and start firing ques tions at you or worse they answer for you Sandro do you make these stories up for attention To get a laugh Do you think you’re funny Of course I’m not going to correct a teacher when she’s on a roll but that last comment was erroneous Now that’s an impressive word isn’t it As you can see I’m working on my vocabulary I could just say false but erroneous made you sit up and take notice didn’t it Yah I thought so Anyway the whole class thought my answer was hysterical even though I wasn’t trying to be funny Abiola practically fell out of her perfect little desk laughing uproariously her long braid waving frantically I think that’s what got to Miss Hamilton Maybe Miss Hamilton doesn’t have a sense of humor It’s a little early in the school year to tell Here’s what I’ve learned in my four years of elementary school experience so far Squeeze your

Canned and Crushed — page 6 — BIBI BELFORD 5 eyebrows together Keep your lips tightly closed and nod your head like you suddenly see things from the teacher’s perspective Miss Hamilton’s shoulders shifted down when I did my little trick and she moved her arms from her hips to crisscrossing her stomach That’s another good sign by the way Okay Sandro Tell me the truth In Charlotte’s Web Fern’s father makes a living by farming How does your father make a living I can see through the window in the door that the class is starting to lose it while we’re out in the hall My friend Miguel shot a three pointer with his crumpled paper wad Jazzy made a fish face at me in the window of the door and Rafe is catapulting pencils off his desk I wonder what Lorenzo is doing over by the sink I’m thinking fast How should I answer this For one thing why is a person’s job described as a living Living is breathing with your heart pumping Is a person without a job dying Are these questions violations of some privacy law Do I need a lawyer Is this a courtroom Raise your hand and tell the truth The whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God Okay I might be overreacting I mean this is only mildly annoying except I do want to stick up for my dad It’s the principle of the thing And speaking of principles I really don’t want to be sent to the principal

Canned and Crushed — page 7 — 6 CANNED AND CRUSHED for a second time in two weeks Miss Hamilton didn’t actually say the whole truth did she Maybe a partial truth will do Or maybe you would call it a little white lie This truth thing can get pretty complicated Promise you won’t go blabbing Then I will tell you the whole truth My dad is officially laid off from his official job He fell off a scaffold while he was putting shingles on a roof He doesn’t have a legal permit to work in the US so he can’t get workmen’s compensa tion or unemployment He was working for a guy who knew my Uncle Pablo You know how that goes I see your mind turning Undocumented worker you’re thinking Illegal Well nothing is as it appears on the surface Remember that Always go deeper The tiny little iceberg triangle you see above the surface is a small portion of the giant mountain of ice underneath big enough to sink the Titanic My dad has an engineering degree from the best technical institute in Mexico City He has the same brilliant inventor ideas as me But here’s the thing my dad comes from the ancient Zapotec people The noblest Mexican Indians Do you know anything about family heritage Well if you do you know that people can get very proud about their family heritage Being the best provider for his family is in my dad’s blood It’s in my blood too

Canned and Crushed — page 8 — BIBI BELFORD 7 Since an engineer in Mexico gets paid two-thirds less than one in the US my dad found an American company to sponsor him after he got his degree but at the last minute the job fell through Did he give up Nope He was packed and ready to go so he just risked everything and came here hoping the company would change its mind after meeting him in person Sounds like a good idea doesn’t it Wrong-o He should have waited and applied for a worker’s permit Now that he’s undocumented everything is complicated I try to ask questions to understand it better but I don’t It’s been five years and now Dad says he can’t compete with the brand new engineers and their technical knowledge He says he needs to go back to school But since me and Girasol and my mom came here to live with him four years ago all he does is work And guess what He makes more money pounding nails in the US than engineers make in Mexico Now my dad is hurt so my mom who is still working on her English got a cleaning job to pay the bills Parents still need to feed their kids and take them to the doctor when they’re sick My dad can’t lift heavy stuff and he rubs his back and grunts when he stands up But does he lie around and feel sorry for himself Nope Remember his ancestors are the Zapotecs the

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