Taking responsibility

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

November 15, 2007 12:05 am

— Editor’s Note: This is the second of three stories about the Mejîa family of Ottumwa.

OTTUMWA — On a recent visit, Ellianna Mejia was picking up clothes as she listened to music. No one had asked her to do any cleaning.
“I just like to help around the house,” she said.
She tossed the clothes into a white laundry basket as she went. When it was full, she grabbed it up and headed for the door.
“We don’t have our washing machine yet,” said her mother, Maria.
Having friends nearby comes in handy; her “comadre” lives just down the street, and she has a washing machine. That’s where Ellianna takes the basket of wash.
Comadre — there is no commonly used English word for the concept of a close female friend like this. But since madre is the Spanish word for mother, it looks like it could be a co-mother, and that’s pretty close, Maria said.
“What do you call it in English when someone is the godmother of your child?” she asks.
The answer, she was told, is simply “godmother of my child.”
“Oh. Well in Spanish, they are our ‘comadre.’”
“Write that down,” said that day’s interpreter, Lorena Perez. “That’s very important.”
“Yes,” said Maria in English. “Important.”
When Maria was ready to go shopping, she waited for her close friend, her comadre, to come over. They both hopped in Maria’s Ford Explorer and went to the store.
Her comadre has a car, but why should they each drive separately?
“This way, I am not alone, and it is more fun,” Maria said.
When it comes time to make tamales, a friend invites Maria to her house. Pots of water are already boiling on the stove.
Outside, Katie is with friend and neighbor, Star Rios.
They are busy raking the yard. Are they looking to make a few dollars?
“No,” said Star. “We’re going to rake them into a pile and jump in them.”
“Take a picture when we jump,” said Katie. “But not yet. We have to check for sticks.”
Every time they jump, one of the kids grabs the rake and rebuilds the pile.
Inside the house, the two women work non-stop until the food is done; with two people, the cooking and prep work goes quickly in the steamy kitchen.

Hard work, responsibility
Though it’s more common for the family to have guests on weekends, friends stop by to visit Franklin, 16, which is usually a good indicator that he’ll jump in his car and head out soon.
He’s not just hanging out, he said. When he’s not going to soccer practice, he’s usually heading to his job at Hy-Vee. He works hard to be on time for both activities.
Being part of JROTC at Ottumwa High School, he said, has helped him learn responsibility.
“Right now, I’m platoon leader, the one who commands the class,” he said. “I teach them marching, make sure they follow the rules. It’s a big job.”
From push-ups required for the use of any cuss words to making sure no one stands around with their hands in their pockets, the rules sound strict for a group of teens.
“... And we can’t say ‘yeah,’ we say, ‘yes, sir,’” explained Franklin, who had just picked up his uniform from the cleaners. “You have to respect the uniform.”
He said leadership is a serious responsibility. He’s a junior looking out for freshmen in JROTC.
“You have to take care of every student in your class,” he said.
He is more occupied watching out for their well being than his own. He said he has not run into racism at the high school.
“Sometimes the [other students] call you a pickle or jalapeno on Wednesdays, but that’s the day we wear our uniform,” he said.
And that’s a cross all JROTC cadets bear.
How about in the community?
“I don’t know. I think people look at me as a teenager, not a Hispanic teenager,” he said.

Television, music and food
When Maria gets out of work at the packing house, she heads over to Douma Elementary to pick up Katie and Ellianna. Katie runs to the car; Ellianna, a teenager as of today, walks a little more casually on her birthday: She’s 13 now.
When they arrive home, it’s time for a snack. Maria makes some coffee and tears off a piece of bread from Lopez Bakery in Ottumwa to dip in the coffee; Ellianna heats up a mug of her favorite drink: warm milk.
“Mom, how long?” she asks in Spanish as she looks at the microwave.
“About a minute,” Maria answers, also in Spanish.
Because Maria knows guests are coming, she grabs a broom and sweeps up; she doesn’t like a mess.
“I don’t think this [house] was such a good purchase,” she says.
There are some stains on the ceiling, and the appliances in the kitchen, which she had been told were all in working order, are inoperative. Even food shopping is tough without a refrigerator to store fresh food. She’s set up a microwave, and a small electric skillet, as a temporary kitchen. But that’s no way to make a home-cooked meal for five people or any of the frequent guests who pop by.
She needs a stove, an oven, even a new gas line into the kitchen.
Worse, she saw a few cockroaches, which upset her until she sprayed them out of existence. Maria keeps a clean house.
And it is slowly coming around to Maria’s standards, starting to go from a house to a real home. There are paintings hung from the walls, decorative lamps and proper furniture to relax on.
And of course, there’s the television, which is usually on in the background. Ellianna likes music videos, even when she’s not right in front of the TV. If she’s helping with housework — something she finds fun — she still likes to listen to music.
The TV or stereo are often left on, even when people are sitting around visiting with each other. No one is watching the tube, it’s just on for some background noise.
“If the music is too loud, it bothers me,” said Maria. “But usually, the television doesn’t bother me. The only time it’s off is when we aren’t home.”
That’s because as one show for one family member ends, the next family member comes in to watch their own show.
On the Spanish-language channels, Maria likes the news and, if she has a chance, there are three prime-time soap operas. Because of work and home responsibilities, she usually just catches the last of the three. On English-language television, she especially likes the Food Network.
“I like to see what they are making,” she said. “See, what is that?”
On the screen, Rachael Ray is preparing something in 30 minutes; Ellianna and Maria discuss whether they could make such a meal.
And that brings up a favorite topic in the Mejía house: food.
On Sundays, the family heads to church, then Mom and the girls go out to eat. The range of food runs the gamut from a simple meal at Burger King to something more exotic at one of the Chinese restaurants in Ottumwa
“Ching Dow!” calls out Ellianna. “That’s my favorite.”
Maria likes both Chinese restaurants in town, but the key is eating in Ottumwa. On a family trip to Des Moines, they went to eat at a buffet where Maria had a bad experience.
“There was something that looked like a tamale. It was wrapped in a leaf, like a banana leaf. And there was frog meat in it!” she said, burying her head in her hands.
Hang on. How did she know it was frog meat?
“It was black ... black meat. They had wrapped it up to disguise it,” she said.
A visiting neighbor was laughing. Another guest told Maria frog meat is usually white, but she wouldn’t be swayed.
When she tastes something fried, she claims she’s afraid someone may have put frog in it.
Ellianna couldn’t stop laughing at the story, and it was hard to tell whether Maria was 100 percent serious, 100 percent teasing or somewhere in between.
“Mami! Stop!” called out Ellianna, who had stuck her fingers in her ears. “I like that food!”
“No, really, breaded food, now I’m afraid there is something hidden in there. I won’t eat anything breaded because I can’t tell what it is. Something [coated] so they can disguise it.”
When she goes out to eat, she tends to stick with items she can recognize: shrimp, a burger, roast chicken.
Besides food she can’t identify, Maria said she likes to enjoy a nice meal.
“I like all food,” Maria says with a laugh. “The only food I don’t really like much when we go out to eat is Mexican food.”
That seemed surprising. Is that because she has it so much at home, she wants something different when they go out?
“No, I don’t make much Mexican food. [Remember], I am not Mexican. We are from Honduras,” she said.
Friday: More from the Mejîa family.
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.

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