It’s hard to imagine not everyone was born into the modern world. At the age of ten, Maria Lopez Gallardo viewed the new world of man for the first time. Before then, she had lived her entire life in an isolated village in Valle de Michoacán O Campo, Mexico. Her upbringing was like that of a child in an Amish community. However, the villagers she knew did not live their lifestyle by choice. Poverty decided their ways of life for them.
Growing up, Maria lived in a much different world most Americans can’t imagine. In her world, matches lit up darkness. One match a day was used to light the firewood in the fireplace. If her family exceeded the one match limit, they wouldn’t be able to cook the next day – matches were expensive and each one had to be used wisely. If not, the entire household would face consequences, and would learn why they need to conserve items the hard way. One time, Maria’s little sister Amparo, dropped the match as she was about to light the fire. It was raining, a storm was passing through, and everyone’s clothes were damp. That one match could have kept them warm throughout the night. Instead, Amparo sat with her family by the fireplace filled with wood, but holding no fire. They huddled together shivering, cold, and hungry until the morning.
There were other notable differences between village life and a modern-day lifestyle. Each family member only had two outfits of clothing, but that was the least of their problems. Having food all the time was the difficult part. Maria’s family owned one cow, and one goat which they milked for fresh milk, a few hens, a rooster, and a pig. However, the cow and goat required a nutrient dense pasture to produce milk. Rich pasture sometimes was available for them to graze on, and sometimes it was not. The hens also needed their food to produce adequate amounts of eggs. The goat needed to grow into adulthood, and then mature to the right age to be killed. As for the pig, it took time to fatten for later eating. It was a game of chance, whether food would make way onto their plates, or not.
Maria was ten when her mother decided to have her peek at the modern world. They walked eight hours by foot under the sun to arrive at the city. It was afternoon by the time they got there. Night was closing in and Maria was terrified. The city flared with light. But this light was not from the sun. To Maria, this place seemed apocalyptic. She began crying and hugged her mother’s left leg, reaching for security. Maria pleaded for them to get out of here. Her mother ignored her pleas and took Maria to a family friend’s house.
Upon entering the house, Maria was exposed to electricity, a stove, and a television. Maria was horrified, her eyes swollen from crying so much, and she wanted to escape but couldn’t. Her head hurt from looking at the television. She was in shock. No one in her family had prepared her for what was in the city. All she knew was the television was a box. How could people possibly be stuck in there and still be alive? she thought to herself. Electricity was just not natural. She wanted day to be day and night to stay night. The stove, before leaking into fire, leaked a horrid odor. She hated how the gas smelled. She wanted to run away and run back into her village. After this visit, like the Amish facing Rumspringa, Maria became faced with a new life choice: she could stay in her village, or she could move forward with the age of modern man.
After this first exposure to the modern world, Maria went back to the village to live with her grandmother. Her teenage years in village society were difficult. The trouble started when Maria met a boy in the town bakery shop. Her mother forced her to get a job in the city as a housemaid because she hoped with a job, Maria wouldn’t have time for a boy. Maria was only a child, twelve going on thirteen, yet she had a job, and a boyfriend. However, it was normal back then to fall in love at thirteen, and marry at fourteen. There was no law against it in that time; it was nothing out of the ordinary. Eventually, after five miscarriages, she gave birth to her first child.
Maria has seen the advancements of the modern world. She knows that people aren’t prisoners of not knowing, they aren’t left to the dangers of the unknown, because there is so much information offered to learn. There isn’t an excuse for ignorance just the lack of discipline in learning. Maria also sees the drawbacks of this modern lifestyle. Youth get stunted by using drugs. She sees how we take steps backward together each time the youth get stuck in addiction. She believes addiction to any substance means you can’t be conscious enough to survive sober. You cannot numb yourself from reality. Maria believes both the old world and modern world have lessons in their lifestyle. She believes people are too disconnected from nature and from their bodies in the modern world – something the isolated villager is never disconnected from. As they are forced to walk (be fit), know hunger, pain, and control their body enough to move pass physical challenges to survive, thrive, or die.
Maria Lopez Gallardo is now a 52-year-old woman living in California. Maria left her isolated village in Michoacán O Campo, Mexico at the age of fourteen. She was shamed and exiled by her mother for kissing her ex-husband in public. Maria has no plans of returning to her hometown. The last time she visited was in 2006, although she did visit a handful of times before that. I asked Maria if she regretted leaving the village she grew up in for her current life. I also asked if she regretted leaving her family. Maria frowned at the question.
“Well, you see, if my exposure to the modern world had never occurred, my answer would be different than the one I am about to give. I don’t regret coming into the modern world. As for my family, my mother abandoned me by exiling me. My family is the family I have made with my children, grandchildren, and husband here. I had to be a slave for five years. I had to fruit pick endless amounts of fruits in the field, under an extremely unethical work environment, and pick a certain amount of weight in fruit for me to be free, and earn a permanent residency. This was during the Ronald Reagan era. I suffered being exposed to pesticides now banned from use and had negative health effects from that. Despite that, my place is here, and I value it because the quality of living in a modern society allows you to thrive,” Maria said.
Maria and her husband
After she said this, I got up from my chair and gave her a hug as she cried softly on my shoulder, saddened from recalling her mother’s abandonment. Finally, she felt free after vocalizing her struggle. Maria is now remarried; she has two children and two grandchildren. I am proud to say I am one of those children.
© RAQUEL CAMPOS
