Life of Tim Rodriguez: A Galician in the New World - Essay Example

Running Header: Life of Tim Rodriguez Life of Tim Rodriguez: A Galician in the New World College Life of Tim Rodriguez: A Galician inthe New World Tim Rodriguez was born on the 5th of January 1927 as the second child and the first son to Ramirez Rodriguez and Maria Rodriguez. Birth of a son was an important event in the Spanish society and the meager dwelling of the family was filled with much rejoice. The family lived in a small fishing village called Nirev, located 4 miles from Pontevedra, the main town center in the “Rias Baixas” area. Region’s distinct geographical feature referred to as “Rias”, the many fjord-like indentations on the coast were important for fishing, and made the coast of Galicia one of the most important fishing areas of the world. Tim Rodriguz’s farther and 200 odd inhabitant of the village of Nirev went to sea every day except for Sunday. On Sundays families attended the Sunday mass at the churh in Pontevedra after a 4 mile walk. As a child Tim enjoyed playing in the beach, collecting sea shells and racing with his elder siblin, Elena Rodriguz who was 2 years elder to him. At the age of 5, Tims mother took him to the stationary store in Pontevedra and got him two books, a bag and a pencil. In the corner store she spent another peso for a lunch box made of tin metal and a small water bottle. Equiped with these he went to the school in Ponteveda which had a prim school mistress who taught them in Galego and has Spanish alferbat lessons which Tim managed to memorize as a bright student. His sister Elena did not attend school, as was the case with many of the female children in the area. When Tim was 13 his farther told him that his treck to school 5 days a week was a waste of effort which earns nothing and the extra expenses his mother is making on books and special clothing and shoes for school was a waste of his hard earned money. He was an excellent student in school and excelled in math and geography. His mother fought for his rights of education vehemently and it was so agreed that he will school for a further two years and will then find a suitable wage earning occupation. His father Ramarez never saw what was so wrong in the occupation he was engaged in and has been handed over from his farther and dated back to many more generations. However Maria Rodriguz, the calm, queite but firecely protective of her son was adament that her son will not be a part of the fishing folk. In 1942 April, at age 15, Tim Rodriguz joined one of the ship building companies located in Ponteveda, as an errend boy. Ponteveda’s ship and boat building industry was flourishing slowly but steadily and it was in Ponteveda that “Santa Maria” one of Christopher Colombus’ ship was built. His first salary was 10 pesos a month and he gave all of it to his mother. She took 3 pesos for household errends and put the balance in the tin box which Tim had taken to shool with is lunch and hid it in the old wooden box which kept their Sunday clothes to the church. By the age of 22, Tim Rodriguz has become a capable wood crafter and able to chisle small schoner boat’s keel to perfection. His amicable disposition, athletic and agile work behavior and interest in learning has allowed him to become a favourite apprentice of the master boat builders in the yard. With his youthful good looks and friendly mannerisms, Tim Rodriguz had a remarkable talent in public relations and managed to establish raport with many of the customers who would visit the yard to inspect the progress of their orders. Some of the customers were of other European origins and Tim Rodriguz sought to strike an association with them more than the native Spanirads. It was probably due to this interest in foriegners that Tim managed to strike a friendship with one of the Italian businessmen who has ordered a large ship which was intended to transport the Italian immigrants to America. Talking to Ambreno Lugiani over the months it took to build the large ship, Tim Rodriguz became increasingly lured by the promised bounty in the land of America. Making up his mind to go in serach of his destiny in the New World, Tim Rodriguz needed 500 Pesos to pay for his journey at a discounted rate which he got for his friendship with the Italian. His mothers savings over the years gave him 1080 Pesos which was a fortune of its own right in the standards of his life in rustic Galegian village. Tim Rodriguz still remembers the taste of the going away feast his mother prepared for the family. Empandas, the Galician fish pies, and the spicy Caldo Gaggego soup with potatoes and Grelo, a local vegetable. The tangy taste of the smooth white Tetilla cheese triangles with Centolla, the king crab mixed with herbs. Maria Rodriguz probably wanted to give the last authentic Galecian meal to her son on that July day in 1950. Arriving in America, Tim Rodriguz settled in with a small Spanish community in Fresno County in California. The area was populated with large Asian immigrant population, mainly the Vietnamese. Although America is named the land of equal opportunities, this was not always the case of immigrants of Spanish, Asian or other Hispanic origins. Finding work was hard and finding employers who had emplathy towrads immigrant workers was even harderTim Rodriguz, realising there is little chance of him getting employed as a skilled boat builder, managed to get employment in one of the historic locations in the Fresno County, the Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill. Fresno’s Sanitary Land Fill was the first of its kind in Amrica and engaged many workers for its innovative dirt handling techniques of trenching, compacting, and the daily covering of trash with dirt. Opened in 1937, the operations of the land fill had progressed over 13 years when Tim joined the work at a daily wage rate of U$ 2.50 He joined a constuction company in Tower District, in southwest of Fresno as a carpenter assitant in 1960 and was soon able to work as a carpenter for the company with his experience in wood craft gained in the boat yard in Ponteveda. In year 1972 he was promoted to the post of a supervisor in the parpentry division which marked his career pinancle and worked diligently in this post untill he retired in 1982 at the age of 55. Although his early years in Amrica was full of hardships, aggrevated by home sickness and yearning for Maria Rodriguz’s tender loving and Elena, his sister’s company Tim grew out of these feelings with the work hardened life he led in Amrica. Although he kept in touch with his family for a long time, his hope for bringing his mother and sister to America never became a rality as Maria passed away in June 1960 due to phynemonea. Tim Rodriguz met his wife Esperanza through some of his Spanish friends in the Fresno locality and married her after 3 months of courtship in the summer of 1959 on 5th July. She was the only daughter of a Spanish family from the Basque region who has settled down in America in the 1940s. She was a beautiful and kind person who made Tim’s life a happy one. She had the nack for managing the household in best possible manner with Tim’s earnings and even saved for a rainy day. She reminded Tim Rodriguz of his mother. He loved both women dearly. Esparanza Rodriguz gave birth to their first child on 07th November 1962, and they named him Orlando Rodiguz. The second child was born two years later and though they hoped for a girl this time, the second child of the Rodriguz family was another boy who was named Fedric Rodriguz. The third child in 1967 gave them their desired daughter Eliza Rodriguz who reminded Tim of his mother Maria. Tim and Esparanza worked hard to give their chidlren a good life and although the living standards of Fresno may be much lower in comparison to most places in Amrican even to this date, Rodriguzes saw their life as a blessing compared to what it would have been in the Galecian fishing village or the the mountain village of Basque country from where Esparanza’s family hailed from. They took the children to the newly opened Playland located in Roeding City park or the Chaffee Zoo on Sundays. Rodriguz wanted to give their chidlren a good education wanted them to thus benefit from better career opportunities. Younger son Fedric was particularly bright in his scool work and Tim Rodriguz was a proud man when his younger son joined the Fresno City collage in 1982. Orlando Rodriuz joined the US Nevy, having been an adent participant in the Fresno county school cadet platoon. Their beautiful daughter Eliza was more artistically inclined and wanted to persue a career in fashion, which Tim Rodriguz was not in agreement with. His Galecian upbringing has left him with undeliable concept of role of a woman as a wife, a mother and a home maker. It was Esparanza who suffered the most when Orlando left Fresno to join his platoon in Guantanama Bay and Tim recalled the day he left his mother Maria in Galecia. When Eliza at the age of 25 indicated her interest in marrying a young business man she has met while working as an assistant manager at one of the fashion boutiques in the luxury shopping complex “Fig-Garden-Village” Tim and Esparanza Rodriguz were both relieved. However, they were dissapointed when Eliza informed them that the young couple does not wish to have a church wedding and will wed at a private ceremoney, reason being the intended groom being an eithest without a religious belief. Tim Rodriguz’s long planning of walking down the ile with his pretty daughter for handing over to the groom in front of the alter was thus lost in his own dreams. Eliza married John Edison an American of British origin in 1992 and moved out to live in California. Fedric Rodrigz, who graduated from college to attend Law School was the pride of Tim and Esparansa’s life and he too married a daughter of an affluent Italian family whom he met during his college years. In year 1998, Esparanza Rodriguz aged 62, fell ill with tumer in brain which has grown past acute stage and spread in its chronic phase. Tim Rodriguz at the age of 71 is too feeble and helpless in taking care of his wife who has taken care of him and his children for the last four decades. The reliefe Tim experienced when his chidlren arrived one by one in reponse to his urgent phone calls, becomes shortlived as they take part with promises to be back in weekends to check on their mother’s condition. Esparanza lieing in her sick bed yearnd for her children’s presence. Tim Rodriguz endured the prolonged pain his wife underwent as the illness took over her and even the administered morphine failed in masking the pain in her face. Each day he sat at his wife’s bedside, hoping Esparanza would be able to enjoy the warmth of her family surrounding her in her last days but ran out of making excuses for their children’s busy schdueles which had no time to spare at their dying mother’s bedside. He wonderd if his children were raised in Galecian country with Spanish values and family bonding, whether he would have been saved from having having to bear this surrow alone by his wife’s death bed. He realized that his children has become a part of ever busy Amrican Way of Life. Esparanza Rodriguz died on 6th July 1998, uncouncious to the world and the grief of her husband of 39 years, exactly a day after their 39th wedding annivasary. Now, at age 78, Time Rodriguz lives in a nursing home in Hanford, still unable to get out of the depression he sunk in to during the lonely vigill at his wife’s sick bed. His chidlren have made arrangemnet to pay for the average facilities at the nursing home which he does not wish to be in. Sitting in his bed, gazing at the drab white walls of his room, memories of the beautiful beaches of Pontevedra in Galecia unfolds in his memory and his only wish now it to join his beautiful gentle wife Esparanza, whom he know could not have gone any where but to heaven. Read More