"It just doesn't seem that these people understand the idea of ‘fixed income'."
The story goes that when he retired and moved into his new home, he asked around for a maid. He was delighted to find that a neighbor would be willing to share his maid because she was only working in the mornings. It was an unexpected bonus that the maid's husband turned out to be a gardener. And so it came to pass that within a few short weeks of moving to
The maid's father passed away. Because the maid came from a family of rather limited resources and a funeral was an unplanned event, the family could not come up with the necessary funds to cover the demands of the situation. The only solution that the family could think of was to ask for a loan from their kind benefactor and employer. They needed $2000.00 pesos.
This was not an impossible sum for the gentleman. His heart went out to the family and he was touched by their grief and even more touched by the gratitude they expressed for his generous help. However, he did dock the maid and the gardener in order to repay the loan. For the next few months, things went swimmingly. The gentleman from north-of-the-border even got to know the other members of his maid's family, one of which being the maid's youngest sister. She turned 15 a few months after her father's passing.
Without the father's income it was very hard indeed for the family to make ends meet, but everyone thought it important that the youngest sister be afforded the traditional quinceañera. It would help ease her lasting pain and confusion over her father's death. So once again the maid was asked to go to her kind benefactor and employer, but this time to ask him to be one of the girl's Padrinos.
Now, in all fairness, our hero really didn't understand what was being asked, much less what it entailed. He certainly didn't understand the honor which was being paid him. In its purest and simplest form, being a Padrino signifies taking on the responsibility of a child should anything happen to the parents. In other words, it signifies becoming a stand-in parent. For a Mexican family to include anyone as a stand-in parent speaks volumes about the esteem the family has for that person. For a stranger to achieve that status says even more.
But our hero didn't understand this. He thought the family was simply going back to the well. He reluctantly agreed to be a Padrino but when he found out that tradition dictates that the Padrino foot part of the bill for the party, he balked. He demanded to know how the maid or her family was going to pay him back for even more money. They barely had enough to live now. He would have to dock both the maid and her husband all the money they earned for the next year for them to pay back such a sum.
They agreed. Imagine our hero's surprise when a month later the maid brought him the entire sum he had "loaned" them and announced that she and her husband had found other employment. What he never saw was that the maid had never suffered such a rebuff or such an indignity in her entire life, nor ever expected to, much less from some foreigner who was only visiting her country.
When someone asked her about her old employer one day while at the market she simply said, "He drives a new car, he has more lawn than the mercado has space, he goes out to eat five times a week, and he says he doesn't have money. How can he compare himself to anyone from the pueblo? Then he treats me like a thief? I've never been treated so badly by any Mexican man. Of course I'd rather work for that slave driver from Guadalajara. At least she has a heart."
Editor's Note: Welcome back Mr. Bridges; Tom took a hiatus for the month of April, but the rest doesn't seem to have dulled his wit or invective. Anyone interested can reach him directly at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
