Monday, March 8, 2010

Los colores

Marisol fell in love at an early age. The first time she saw him on the playground, she knew he was special. He had lots of dark shiny hair, caramel skin and light eyes. All the other kids liked and respected Daniel. He was a leader and had a way of knowing just what to say and when to say it. Marisol couldn't help smiling everytime he caught her eye.

Junior High was rough. Her parents split up when her papi when to jail on illegal gun charges and assault. Lots of people started coming to her house, at all times during the day. Marisol recognized some of the people by the colors they wore, always black and gold.

She wondered why everything changed all of a sudden. Her madre started wearning lots of gold jewelry. There was always food in the house, but now all the cabinets were full, all the time.

Marisol's hermana Ana Maria began dating a man everyone feared, his name was Juan. Juan was Daniel's hermano mejor. He was tall, muy guapo y peligroso. Whenever she saw he had a gun in one had and his pager in another. Marisol was scared of him, but was happy he when he came over because he brought Daniel with him.

Ana Maria got pregnant at the end of her senior year. She graduated and had a baby boy all in the same month. Juan and Ana Maria moved into their own apartment. Now it was just Marisol y su madre. Soon she began to spend all of the time con Daniel and his friends. All of them wore black and gold too.

One night Daniel asked her to deliver a package for him. Marisol loved him so she didn't even question what was in it. When she arrived at the building a group of girls were there. They were gang members, but for some reason she wasn't scared. One of the girls came up to her. She called herself Loca, she even had it tattooed on her arm. Loca took the package from her and told Marisol to sit down.

Loca went into another part of the building. When she came back she was smiling. The other girls started laughing and smiling too. Everyone looked at her. Loca touched her cheek and said "You did good mija". That was the first day of Marisol's new life.

2 comments:

  1. So much to think about!?!?! I work at a busy hospital ICU in LA, we often hear this story, but the ending sometimes is at our hospital after being shot, usually the other gang is aiming for the boyfriend and hits the girl instead. Sometimes it will be a gunshot to the head. It won't be the boyfriend who visits, cries at her side and helps to "clean" her up. Usually its the mother.

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  2. That's a shame. I wish our youth would break the cycle and end this behavior. It must be difficult to see "the other side" of this story day after day. Gracias y abrazos

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