The Children of Sanchez Read Online Free Page A

the majority of the residents are poor tradesmen, artisans, and workers.
    Two narrow, inconspicuous entrances, each with a high gate, open during the day but locked every night at ten o’clock, lead into the
vecindad
on the east and west sides. Anyone coming or going after hours must ring for the janitor and pay to have the gate opened. The
vecindad
is also protected by its two patron saints, the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Virgin of Zapopan, whose statues stand in glass cases, one at each entrance. Offerings of flowers and candles surround the images and on their skirts are fastened small shiny medals, each a testimonial of a miracle performed for someone in the
vecindad
. Few residents pass the Virgins without some gesture of recognition, be it only a glance or a hurried sign of the cross.
    Within the
vecindad
stretch four long, concrete-paved patios or courtyards, about fifteen feet wide. Opening on to the courtyards at regular intervals of about twelve feet, are 157 one-room windowless apartments, each with a barn-red door. In the daytime, besides most of the doors, stand rough wooden ladders leading to low flat roofs over the kitchen portion of each apartment. These roofs serve many uses and are crowded with lines of laundry, chicken coops, dovecotes, pots of flowers or medicinal herbs, tanks of gas for cooking, and occasional TV antenna.
    In the daytime the courtyards are crowded with people and animals,dogs, turkeys, chickens, and a few pigs. Children play here because it is safer than the streets. Women queue up for water or shout to each other as they hang up clothes, and street vendors come in to sell their wares. Every morning a garbage man wheels a large can through the courtyards to collect each family’s refuse. In the afternoon, gangs of older boys often take over a courtyard to play a rough game of soccer. On Sunday nights there is usually an outdoor dance. Within the west entrance is the public bathhouse and a small garden whose few trees and patch of grass serve as a meeting place for young people and a relatively quiet spot where the older men sit and talk or read the newspapers. Here also is a one-room shack marked “administration office,” where a bulletin lists the names of families who are delinquent in paying their rent.
    The tenants of the Casa Grande come from twenty-four of the thirty-two states of the Mexican nation. Some come from as far south as Oaxaca and Yucatán and some from the northern states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa. Most of the families have lived in the
vecindad
for from fifteen to twenty years, some as long as thirty years. Over a third of the households have blood relatives within the
vecindad
and about a fourth are related by marriage and
compadrazgo
(a ritual relationship between parents, godparents, and godchildren). These ties, plus the low fixed rental and the housing shortage in the city, make for stability. Some families with higher incomes, their small apartments jammed with good furniture and electrical equipment, are waiting for a chance to move to better quarters, but the majority are content with, indeed proud of, living in the Casa Grande.
    The sense of community is quite strong in the
vecindad
, particularly among the young people who belong to the same gangs, form lifelong friendships, attend the same schools, meet at the same dances held in the courtyards, and frequently marry within the
vecindad
. Adults also have friends whom they visit, go out with, and borrow from. Groups of neighbors organize raffles and
tandas
, participate in religious pilgrimages together, and together celebrate the festivals of the
vecindad
patron saints and the Christmas
posadas
as well as other holidays.
    But these group efforts are occasional; for the most part adults “mind their own business” and try to maintain family privacy. Most doors are kept shut and it is customary to knock and wait for permission to enter when visiting. Some people visit only relatives or
compadres
and