Dinner in Esparto

A dark figure is waiting on the grass as my headlights pour over the sidewalk. I park and get out cautiously, 'Who is this guy?' I think to myself. But as I get a few steps closer he talks and I recognize big Héctor in a dark hoodie. He says he's been sent out by Chyca to wait for me. He leads the way to the entrance, an old door covered in cracked paint, and in moments opens up a different world.

Outside the houses are typical suburbia with green grass and trimmed shrubs. Except for that funny door not much is out of place, or at least not that I can see in the dark. The world inside is completely different however. There is so much new to take in I can't seem to see it all fast enough, I don't want to appear rude. In the foreground, two saggy couches are placed at an angle infront of a TV which is being watched by many tiny pairs of eyes. The kids are draped everywhere: on the floor, on the couch, behind the couch, on the arms of the couch, on top of one another. Behind them is a messy kitchen with a trashcan that is overflowing with old food and cellophane. A scrawny light bulb hangs above a wooden table that is piled with fruit. In the background, a dark hallway leads way to a web of rooms and from the dark recesses, people shuffle by every few minutes. Some faces I recognize from the farm and we say a quick greeting, both smiling simultaneously to see the other one out of their element.

As soon as I step in the room the kids swarm. "Uncle Héctor, who is this you brought?" one tiny kid yells. Another, tugging at my sleeve says, "What's your name?" and then without pause rattles off the names of all the other kids introducing himself last, proudly. Of course all the names go in one ear and out the other but I remember one little girl who sometimes comes with her mom to clean at the farm. Two girls I've never met before come up to me and hug me, I pat their heads and ask their names. They smile and ramble on about something completely different.

Next, Chyca, little Héctor and I pile into her huge black SUV and we drive to Woodland where she shows me her favorite store to buy dresses. I pass my hands over the plastic fabric and fein interest at the pink, diamond-studded, tulle-covered dresses she loves so much.

I make an excuse to move on and she brings me to the place I've been wanting to come to for so long, La Superior! It's a huge grocery store, stuffed with all the foods that remind me of Mexico. It even smells a little bit like Mexico. So does Chyca's house. I run my hands over all the different candies I never get to eat and pick up a few packs of the tamarind ones. She buys meat for pozole and I ask a worker for atole so I can drink it for breakfast. We leave and Chuy's in the parking lot in his big muddy truck. I run up to his window and say, "Guess what we just bought?" He laughs and guesses right away.

When we get back to Chyca's house she's got a trunk-full of groceries and I help her bring them down while she carries little sleeping Héctor back in. I put the bags down in her kitchen and I can feel my stomach grumbling a little bit, I wonder when we're eating dinner. She motions to me and we push through the throng of kids back on to the front steps. We're going over to her sister's for dinner. The air is cold and I wonder how long it will take to walk there but we turn at the house directly next door and go in through a side door. Mari is standing there in a big orange shirt, laying out the shrimp empanadas she just made onto the table. Her house has the same smell but the walls are not as bare as Chyca's, they're covered in baby pictures and a glamour shot of her and her husband whom I recognize as a face from the crew. A couch blocks off the living room and I can see somebody's lying on the ground. 'Won't we wake him up?' I ask. But they laugh and say "Oh, him? He sleeps through everything, don't worry." I've never felt like this before; in seconds, I know everybody and somehow we totally skipped over the normally obligatory first few minutes of awkwardness and standing around. It's probably about nine o'clock and I'm sitting there surrounded by more children while chowing down some hand-made food, awesome. We talk for a few hours and when it gets too late I make an excuse about having to work tomorrow. I drive home full and content.