 |
Every day after school, his children ran to the backyard and fed and played with the pollitos. |
His Ojos Sarcos
Caryn Hernandez| 1/16/08 | Literature
lthough he is not an old man, he has seen many years come and go, enough years that his once thick black hair has now begun to thin and white hair is visible here and there. His posture is that of a strong man. His hands are now rasposas and callused from years of hard work. His arms and legs are filled with scars, each one with its glorious story. And his copper-colored face ornate with a thick black mustache shows his orgullo, pride, for his Mexican culture. But all of these details put together will never be equal to the charm of his big brown eyes, ojos sarcos is the way his mother refers to them.
Growing up I have seen this man plenty, and I have learned many things from his ojos sarcos.
Years ago as he arrived home from work, he surprised his family with a big brown box on the passenger seat of his truck. “Les tengo una sorpresa en mi troca,” he said to his four children. His children ran to their father’s truck and anxiously opened the box to find 12 pollitos. As the children held the pollitos and caressed them and spoke soft words to them, smiles from ear to ear formed on all of their faces. The man observed his children, and his ojos sarcos shined bright.
Every day after school, his children ran to the backyard and fed and played with the pollitos. Months passed and these pollitos grew to be beautiful hens and roosters and quickly multiplied. But the surprises didn’t stop coming, and the ojos sarcos didn’t stop shining.
There was another day about a year later in which the man took another brown box home. This time it was doves in the box, or guilotas as he called them, and just as the pollitos did, these guilotas provided joy for his children and made his eyes shinier with each passing day. Not too long afterwards, similar events occurred with conejitos, chivos, and even a horse. And each time he watched his children playing and caressing these animals, his ojos sarcos would shine brighter.
But bringing home animals was not the only way this man surprised his family. He would also take small packets home. “Les tengo una sorpresa afuera,” he said on a different occasion. His children ran outside and found the packets. Excitedly, they opened the packets and found semillas de childe. The children smiled at each other, then, wasting no time grabbed a rake and picked a spot to plant the semillas de chile. His children watered the semillas regularly, pulled out the invasive weeds, and when the chile plants began to sprout, the children reinforced the stems with sticks. “Asi Papi?” one of the girls asked as she tied the stem to the stick. “Asi mero mija,” he answered with his ojos sarcos shining brighter than ever before.
The man watched daily as his children cared for these chile plants, and one day, a couple of months after the day he took the semillas de chile home, he watched his children pick the chiles from the plant then run to him, “Papi, ya estan maduros, pruebalos!” his son insisted proudly. The man’s ojos sarcos shined brightly, and he gratefully accepted the chiles, and ate them with great pleasure. But the surprises didn’t stop coming, and the ojos sarcos didn’t stop shining.
On other occasions he took onions, guava seeds, ajos, or chayotes to his children, all of which provided diversion for them and pride in their final product, just as the chiles did. And each time he watched his children watering their crops or harvesting their product, his ojos sarcos would shine brighter than ever before.
Other times, about once or twice a month, the man with the ojos sarcos surprised his children by leading them to the backyard and showing them his special food. It was the children’s favorite dish, carne asada, asada con leña never with carbon. The children waited impatiently for the first piece, but while they waited, they took the opportunity to watch their father skillfully turn the carne as if by instinct, and enjoyed the smell of carne asada mixed with leña. The man cut the first piece of carne asada into four equal pieces, and as he saw his children’s faces upon receiving their piece, his ojos sarcos shined brighter than before. But the surprises didn’t stop coming, and the ojos sarcos didn’t stop shining.
There were other foods that the man with the ojos sarcos surprised his family with, including buñuelos con dulce, garvbazos asados, and a special kind of Mexican bread from a store in Terra Bella. And each time the man saw his children enjoy these foods, his ojos sarcos shined brighter than before.
Looking back, I understand that my father’s ojos sarcos are the keepers of his past en el rancho. I understand that my father’s ojos sarcos shine when he sees my sibling and me riding the horse, cooking with ajo from our backyard, or eating buñuelos con dulce because these were all activities he carried on as a child en el rancho, and now he is sharing some of his past with us. But most of all, I understand that my father’s ojos sarcos shine when he sees my siblings and I accepting these activities because that means we are accepting him.
|
