Coffee, Sugar, Firewood and Meat

This is the second story from my father about the adventures of two brothers (Rafael and Gabriel) from a very poor family of 10 trying to make a living in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Coffee, Sugar, Firewood and Meat

“Café, azúcar, leña y carne” That was the standard request from their older sister, Chita, when he sent Rafael to the store to buy the food for the evening.  Rafael’s mother died after the birth of his younger brother Roberto and Chita (Chita was her nickname her first name was Maria de Jesus) took over the household responsibilities and his eldest brother, Salvador became the one who maintained order in the household.  Chita, would give Rafael 20 Mexican cents and before she could say what she wanted him to buy, Rafael would say: “Don’t tell me, coffee, sugar, firewood and meat.”  He would take the 20 cents and the 10-year old would run to Don Alfonso’s market and butcher shop down the street. 

Don Alfonso liked Rafael and would always favor him.  When he came in, Rafael would ask him for 3 cents of liver. Don Alfonso would look at him wearily and say nothing.  He would go to the “cooler,” a area in the corner of a bench with a fan blowing on the wet burlap covering the meat whose evaporation kept the meat underneath a little cool.  He took out a whole steer liver, cut it in half and wrap it in old newspaper handed him the package and charged him three cents.  “I suppose you want coffee, firewood and sugar also” he grunted.  “Yes sir” Rafael would respond meekly.  It was his standard order two or three times a week and Don Alfonso knew it by heart.

Don Alfonso had fresh meat every day hanging in the butcher portion of his store.  It would be brought in every day by the slaughter house, but that was only a small portion of what he sold.  He also had a delivery of fresh meat  very early every morning his other supplier would bring a whole steer, cut into quarters, along with the liver, the heart, the brains and other organs as well as the intestines already rinsed.  He did not ask the source of the other suppliers, but he knew they were poachers.  He turned a blind eye to the sources because they were much cheaper and Don Alfonso could sell the meat cheaper to the people that really needed it.  This was the only way that very poor people like Rafael’s family could get a source of protein.  And why not!  He felt he was doing a public service, somewhat akin to a modern day “Robin Hood.”  If his “services” would allow the Rivera family of 10 to eat for 20 cents, why not buy form these poachers?

Don Alfonso had a beautiful daughter and over a short time the daughter fell in love with one of the poachers.  She did not know what they did but Don Alfonso forbids her to talk to that man anymore.  He cancelled his “poacher” source for a while and instructed the poachers to hold off on bringing beef.  His daughter was very upset and was depressed for a long time.  One day while Rafael and Gabriel were at the store they noticed the daughter going to the back yard.  There happened to be a pit being dug for an outhouse toward the back of the yard and they followed the daughter to see what was going on.  The daughter was carrying a can of kerosene.  She jumped in the pit, drowsed herself in kerosene and set her set on fire.  The motion was so fast it seemed like an instant.  In total panic, Rafael and Gabriel ran to tell Don Alfonso that her daughter was burning.  They were jumping, yelling and screaming “your daughter is burning, your daughter is burning.”  “What are you talking about” Don Alfonso said and he ran to the back the back yard.  The flames had engulfed the whole pit and the daughter had stopped screaming from the pain.  Several people from the store and his wife came to help but by the time they put the flames out with buckets of water, the daughter was dead.  Rafael and Gabriel could see the pieces of flesh come off her arms and legs as they pulled her out.

It was a tragedy.  Don Alfonso’s wife never was the same again.  Don Alfonso closed the butcher and the store, but he reopened the store some months later with the help of his brother.  Rafael never saw Don Alfonso’s his wife come out of the house again and the rumor was that she died insane some years later.