Part 3 animal age 34/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Tío Leon lived in Wisconsin, yet remained a product of our barrio community.Īfter retirement, I briefly went back to work at the Family Detention Center in Dilley, where I taught English as a Second Language. His secret nickname for a neighbor, “La Bruja,'' sent us into bursts of giggles. His tall tales of feeding the Japanese menudo during his World War II service made Paul Bunyan’s blue ox uninteresting in comparison. ![]() Scaring us wasn’t Tío Leon’s only talent. Mom comforted us with, “Son puras mentiras, no le hagan caso.” A skilled storyteller, when we were most engaged, he would stop and ask, “Did you hear that? It’s a lechuza!” Which sent us scrambling indoors. He kept us scared with stories of Lechuzas, an animal-changing sorcerer. His visits were great entertainment for the whole family. I couldn’t wait to write the stories that enriched my childhood.Įvery winter, Tío León traveled to Cotulla from Wisconsin. ![]() I knew even as a child that the monte and arroyo called Mustang Creek in the barrio guarded invisible stories of our unique Mexican American culture mixed with Indigenous roots, flavored with a blend of paganism and Christianity. The few books about Mexican American culture often depicted stereotypes. During my career, I and fellow educators found it difficult to find representation of Mexican-American culture in children’s books. I retired the year before from a career in bilingual education, with a goal of authorship. I returned to Cotulla, Texas, the town of my birth, in 2008. What started as a quest to learn what a memory of a devil scaring the hell out of me when I was a kid, resulted in learning about an age-old play called La Pastorela, or Los Pastores, meeting delightful people in neighboring communities, restoring old friendships, and inspiration for further learning and writing. ![]()
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