Escuela Primaria Benito Juarez- Lui

Escuela Benito Juarez, donde pase 6 años corriendo y enfandando a los maestros.

Las Salidas de la Escuela y la graduacion - Lui

What a wonderful day! Graduation is here for my brothers! Those little babies who I held 18 years ago, are done with their free schooling years! Bring on overly expensive college!

Yesterday I was remembering the days of my graduations, and in Mexico los dias de Salida de la Escuela. De verdad no recuerdo haberles llamado graduacion. La Salida de la Escuela mas importante para mi en Mexico fue La Salida de la Secundaria, oh equivalente de Estados Unidos, 9no grado.

For me this graduation was super special, because I was the first kid to make it through and my future in the schools there was bright. I had the 2^nd highest grades in my school, which meant that a scholarship for La Preparatoria was going to be mine.

En la Salida de La Secundaria, como cada salida de la escuela, era un requerimento tener un Padrino/ Madrina. My mom had already told me a list of cousins ready to be Padrinos or Madrinas; but having suffered through uncomfortable silence of 3 hours with my Padrino at my Elementary School graduation was too painful to think about again. So I rebelled and told my mom that I would be finding a Padrino on my own. I was terrified when I told her that, because I knew exactly who I was going to ask. All she said to me was “Fine, but you will have to explain it to your Father”. It appears I was not afraid of my dad either…. Come to think of it, where did all of that bravery go?

I was going to ask Victor to be my padrino. We had met Victor on the street, he worked at the factory down the street from our house, he frequented the store that Don Manuel ran in the room we rented to him. Meche liked him and had once made me go up to him to tell him she said hi….. I was 13, she was 14 and Victor was 18 or 19, really never knew. Victor was a bit taller than me, had dark skin and long curly hair, skinny body frame, small pointy nose and dark brown eyes. My favorite feature of him was his long curly hair, it seemed to dangerous and mysterious, like the singers of the rock bands I listed to at the time…. la Ley, Heroes del Silencio, Fobia… come to think of it Victor looked like a Mexican version of Enrique Bunbury, and by Mexican version I mean with dark skin and dark eyes and that hint of Indigenous fighter.

 I had gone up to him and told him that My sister said hi, and that we should be friends. He had smiled and told me sure, stop by and say hi anytime. I saw him several time after that, after all we had been keeping track of his whereabouts before. All of my friends and I were crazy for him, and he loved the attention we would give him. So one afternoon after school got out, around 7:30 I found Victor on the park bench where he met his girlfriend, and went up and asked him to be my Padrino. I was expecting for him to laugh at me and say no, but he agreed to. Surprisingly he agreed to all of my terms… yes, of course I gave him terms, it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.  He would meet my dad, he would come to a meal at my house and he would walk with me to get my diploma. I also told him that he didn’t have to get me a gift.

My school had prepared a big production of the graduation, there was to be dancing performances, speeches, and our chorus would perform a few songs, accompanied by the best players or recorders at our school… I was one of the recorder players. The class was about 200 kids, called one by one to the podium to receive their diplomas. Our Chorus sang a beautiful medley of love songs, and the recorders played a song about brotherhood and peace in the world. I was a terrible singer, as have always been.  So I was told to not sing, only to pretend to move my lips… which worked out perfectly, I didn’t know the songs at all.

180 names later, I walked across the stage on my uniform, we were all required to wear our uniform, with my padrino walking next to me. I had the biggest smile on my face and still remember all of the girls who had been so mean to me for three years, crying their faces off as they were sure they would never see each other again. I wasn’t sad about not seeing them ever again, I knew that was happening because I was moving to PA; but I was sad about the life I was leaving behind, the careless days of being a teenager, the days of talking about silly things with my dear friends Elizabeth and Teresa, and the days of chasing after boys after school. And today… 15 years later, I look back and think about how wonderful that ceremony was and wonder how my brothers will remember their graduation, their high school days and most important, how will they move forward in their lives.