Posted in My Friends

I met Rosa last spring. It wasn't the best plan to make friends the way I did, and I'm ashamed now to admit I did such a foolish thing as take Taffy and run away. However, I don't regret meeting Rosa and her family. Her family--mother, father, and brother Joselito--came to California to try and escape their poor life in Mexico. It is hard for me to believe that Rosa was once one of 5 children. The other children died from illness or as babies. It is a very hard life for some folks south of the border.

It's a good thing for all of us that Rosa's father found me after a rotten thief stole Taffy. I taught them English and translated for the family while they looked for work. This was not enjoyable work. Picking beans and other crops is hot and sweaty, and we got paid hardly anything! The Garduño family finally ended up working on the Circle C, and now Rosa and I are friends. We can't see each other a whole lot, since her mother makes her do a load of work in the "big house," as she calls our ranch house.

Rosa is about my age, with shiny black hair and the darkest eyes I've ever seen. She's always cheerful and smiling, in spite of the hard times her family has been through. Rosa is shy, but maybe that's because she doesn't speak English very well. She's also cautious, while I'm impulsive. It would be a good thing if I listened to her warnings. But unfortunately, by the time I've figured out I should have listened to her, I'm already in a heap of trouble.