A Chicano Family in Costa Rica

I went to Cartago yesterday to get a few things at Aeropost (that had been flown down from Miami) and a few groceries at a WalMart store there.

At Aerropost I met Moises, who invited me to his house to meet his family who fixed me a nice, simple meal.

His family consists of his mother, his wife, and his two daughters, who are about 12. He is the man in the family but has not worked for years.

His mother is the head of the family and was living in the US. There must have been a man in the family at one time, but he has vanished. This is typical of marginal communities in the US, the men cannot support a family, and are often alcoholics.

Her only asset was her son, who joined the American military and became a paratrooper. Three years later, he got a medical discharge and the whole family was living off of that.

Somehow, he could not explain how, they were living in a small house in Costa Rica, and remodeling it constantly, using local help.

This whole scene is hard to describe and includes a small black poodle, who protects the family from harm.