A hard-working mom of 3 has dreams of a better life
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20050611-9999-1c...
By Luis (?)
June 11, 2005
Susana M?rquez works in the produce section of a Calimax supermarket. She spends her working hours unpacking boxes of fruits and vegetables and
arranging them just like her supervisors taught her. It's a job that doesn't require too much effort, and she can spend the time thinking and
dreaming.
She dreams of buying some land so she wouldn't have to pay rent. If she had a property, life would be easier, maybe she wouldn't have to work so much.
She thinks about her three daughters: Jocelyn, 10; Dariana, 8; and Kenya, 4.
Although she loves her daughters equally, it's the youngest who occupies most of her thoughts, the one who requires the most attention. Kenya's smile;
Kenya's silence.
Her little girl was a year and a half old when people started noticing that not everything was well with her. "It's strange," they told Susana. "She
falls asleep and there isn't a noise that will wake her."
Back then, she lived in the southwest of Mexico, in Villahermosa, and worked cleaning other people's houses. She got home late and tired, and the last
thing she wanted to hear was that her daughter was ill.
At first, Susana tried to ignore reality. Then one day, when her daughter had her back to her, she took two metal plates and banged then together,
creating a loud noise.
The little girl wasn't surprised; she didn't turn around to look at her mother. Susana didn't wait long before taking Kenya to the hospital, and
that's where they confirmed her suspicions: Kenya is deaf.
Unfortunately, her daughter required hearing aids and a special school. For that, one needs money, more than one makes working as a maid.
That's why she didn't think twice when her mother, Bartola, suggested they move to Tijuana. Susana had a brother there, and Bartola was anxious to
visit him because someone had told her he was straying from the straight and narrow. The plan was to spend time with her brother, work a lot, and then
return home and look for a school for her daughter.
But they soon found out that life on the border isn't so easy. Still, there are better work opportunities, especially for women.
For a young woman like Susana, 29, there were many employment options. She chose a supermarket close to a school for the deaf, so she can drop off and
pick up Kenya every day.
Her workdays are long and tiring. Susana clocks in at 7 a.m. and gets off at 3 p.m. She picks up Kenya and then her mother, and they return to a house
they rent in Colonia Buenos Aires, a neighborhood in southern Tijuana. Since their wages aren't enough to pay rent and feed her daughters, Susana took
a night job at a Korean maquiladora that manufactures cell phones. She makes $8 a day in both jobs. Sometimes, it's difficult staying awake at night.
They pass by in front of her, close to 2,000 cell phones per day. It's a job that doesn't require too much effort, and she can spend the time thinking
and dreaming.
She's convinced all her work is not in vain. She notices how much Kenya has improved at the school for deaf children: The little girl now knows how to
ask for food and it's easier to communicate with her.
When Susana dreams, she can see Kenya as an adult, a woman who knows how to survive, maybe a college graduate: a doctor, accountant or lawyer. A woman
who won't have to live through the hard times her mother did. A woman who will find the right man, a person who will respect her and always be by her
side, supporting her.
When Susana dreams, Kenya can hear her. She sees her walking in front of her. She says "I love you" and the girl turns around to look at her and
replies, smiling: "Yes, mom, I love you, too."
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