TELLING THINGS AS THEY HAPPENED Evangelina Corona Cadena Documentación y Estudios de Mujeres, A.C. First Spanish edition, August 2007 First English edition, August 2016 Contar las cosas como fueron by Evangelina Corona Cadena © Copyright English edition, Mexico, 2016, by Documentación y Estudios de Mujeres, A. C. José de Teresa No. 253 Col. Campestre, Tlacopac 01040 México, D. F. Tel. 5663 3745 Fax 5662 5208 Printed in Mexico ISBN 9781370970858 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION FOREWORD I RECALLING MY ELDERS II PEASANT CHILDHOOD III PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAID IV A FAMILY OF WOMEN V A HOUSE OF MY OWN VI THE SEAMING PROFESSION VII THE 1985 EARTHQUAKE: A BEFORE AND AN AFTER VIII THE SEPTEMBER 19 NATIONAL UNION OF THE SEWING, DRESS, GARMENT, SIMILAR AND RELATED WORKERS IX LEARNING A TRULY CHRISTIAN LIFE X ECCLESIASTICAL INCONGRUITY XI THE SHADOWY AREAS OF POLITICS XII BACK TO WORK XIII THE NURSERY: THE APPLE OF MY EYE XIV THE GREAT PARADOX XV CLOSING WORDS XVI CHRONOLOGY OF EVANGELINA CORONA FOUR "CRAZY THOUGHTS" INTRODUCTION You are a special women You came to be important You have been friend of all of us You don’t deny anyone your support You have been generous until today You already chose this path Achieving many improvements Ignoring your destiny You were born in a poor crib But you have become a leader. A very rocky road You have traveled Laughing at everyone You have lived neglecting yourself Expecting nothing A white soul you have had. You comb grey hair To fight you have learned Giving all the years you still have of life This organization you have defended This organization you have defended Nothing in exchange you have asked Support and love to all you have offered. Congratulations on your birthday * Acrostic given to Evangelina by one member of the union. Translation to English as close to the original as possible. I want to express my most extensive and sincere appreciation to Patricia Vega for her toilsome work in rescuing my memoirs. Evangelina Corona Cadena FOREWORD My name is Evangelina Corona Cadena and I just turned sixty-eight years old. In fact, never before I had felt such an interest in recounting my life because I think that we are not used to read the experiences of others; what we do is to read life itself, every day, just while dawn is given to us. Nonetheless, Rosendo Sánchez, a teammate who was also a member of the September 19 Seamstresses Union, constantly phones me to ask me that I write my memoirs. —Look partner, you just cannot let all your experience to get lost. You must tell it so others know that things can be done—he insists and he insists before me. —What for? I haven’t done anything special. Who can be interested in someone unknown who’s just one more in the world and has nothing outstanding, except that she simply went through a radical change in her daily life?—I always answer him. —No, partner. You must accept the fact that you were recognized by the people, that the citizenship acknowledged that you did positive things. Accordingly, that’s what can be useful to other persons—he contradicts me. —But I’m not a lady, and the truth, I don’t know how to write! —and end of the discussion. I am pleased and honored that the DEMAC companions are certain that my experiences can be useful for society and for the generations to come. Thus, from an invitation and the decision to facilitate this process, there was no longer any objection on my part to express, recount or share what I have lived. Without having them planned, these stories have emerged of the everyday life in which I have lived. However, I think that experience provides you with things that you cannot convey because you have no words to express what you live. More than successes, what I have had are abrupt changes in my life, changes I never expected. I never imagined that I would be the Leader of the Seamstresses Labor Union, I never thought to be part of the Chamber of Deputies, I never set myself as a goal to be part of the Council of Elders of my church, nor I dreamed of visiting other countries or competing for a mayor’s office. The problem I have is that I cannot write (I studied until the third grade of primary school) or well, rather, I don’t know how to keep the track of what has been written. If, for instance, I write what I’m going to say, the very moment I’m giving the speech, preaching or speaking in public, I depart from what appears on the page, and then I have to find a way to continue, but only with my own feeling, not with what is written. Somehow, what is happening this day becomes the framework that I use to shape my speech, both at a social and political level, but also at a religious level. That’s why I never write. If anything, a few brief notes. This is why I had refused to write my testimony. Nonetheless, taking the experiences off the drawer in which they were put away and share them today has been a kind of very beneficial therapy. However, before going into details I want to say that I am part of a family of eight siblings and that the religious aspect is what has kept us together. We gather in different places, but we all profess the Evangelical faith, the Christian faith, and we all assume the religious commitment whatever the place where we are living. Therefore, I think that we must wake up with joy and with our eyes raised to heaven to see the wonders that God allows us to see. And if we have problems from time to time, we should cry when we have them. And if we have pain, then we have to heal ourselves. But we must never let us feel out of sorts. We must overcome everything. Every moment brings its own advice; every moment brings its own inspiration; every moment brings its flavor, be it pleasant or unpleasant. Cuaxomulco Municipal Map Source: INEGI. Geo-statistic Division, Topographic Maps 1: 50 000 Tlaxcala SCT Center, Motorways I. RECALLING MY ELDERS To begin, I might say that I am a countrywoman. I come from the State of Tlaxcala. I was born in San Antonio Cuaxomulco in 1938. My parents were peasants: he was Donaciano Corona Cervantes and my mom’s name was Felicitas Cadena Cadena. And, as I said, we are eight siblings, five women and three men, all with the Corona Cadena family names and biblical given names: Jahaziel, Efraim, Bithynia, Eliezer, Eliacim, and then my twin sister Noema and I, Evangelina, and finally, Nehemiah. There were other two little children who died. San Antonio Cuaxomulco was a very small peasant village; at that time there was no electricity nor the buses entered; it was like a small ranch with houses scattered, one over here and one over there. Logically, now it has expanded a little, but anyway it still remains a province. I don’t throw away the fact that the village has outdone itself a lot since it became a municipality, and since there were more schools; but up to what I knew, there were only a primary and a secondary schools. However, due to the difficult economic situation that my parents lived, unfortunately at the village almost all the siblings could just study until the third grade of primary. Some were able to half study a little more, but it was on their own account, here, in Mexico City. An encounter in Mexico City As I’ve said, my father’s name was Donaciano Corona Cervantes and my mother’s Felicitas Cadena Cadena. My father was born in the State of Tlaxcala and my mother in the State of Hidalgo. But they met each other in Mexico City, because such is destiny, and they got married in 1922. And when they went back to the village, around 1928, they already carried a girl, my oldest sister: Jahaziel. I can’t say I saw it because I was not yet born, but my dad told us that he left the countryside to work as a bricklayer in Mexico City. He used to tell us that he had the chance to build the National Palace corner which overlooks the street of Moneda. He also worked at the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco Bridge and some other constructions in the Federal District. I think that the natural survival spirit that all humans have drove him to defend his coworkers and that caused him problems with the contractors at the time and, as they started to plot against him, he decided to return to Tlaxcala, to the countryside. My father used to tell us that in several occasions they asked him: —And you, why do you have to defend those workers? As my dad was very punctual and responsible at work, the engineers held him in high esteem and used to name him boss of the other construction workers. But the contractors did not like that he defended all the workers; they told him to think only about himself, and thus he began to have problems.