SMOKE SIGNALS
Smoking siempre hacido a part of my life. As a young child, yo me acuerdo the adults
would roll up their own cigaritos. I remember las mujeres y los hombres, using ‘Prince Albert’
or ‘Golden Grain’ punche. Mi abuelita was very fond of the 'Golden Grain' que venian in little
sacks. Empappa, mi abuelito enjoyed smoking su pipa. Every time I see a man smoking a pipe, it
reminds me of him.
Imitating los adultos, was also a part of growing up. Poor Gramma, siempre se le cababa,
her punche, pronto, even after she hid it. We already knew all her hiding places y los robabamos
un poquito at a time. Stealing matches was a little harder, pero siempre tenian a box of fosforos
to light the lumbre en la estufa, and would take one or two, cuando podiamos. We had our own
little stash hidden in a secret place. El rancho was a very big place, about 117 acres, y podiamos
hide and play anywhere we wanted to. Our favorite place was by el zoterano, cerquita del
común. Very convenient, if we were ever caught, podiamos decir que we were using el común.
El zoterano was always full of homecanned goods, potatoes, dried meat and vegetables. They
also, had smoked ham and let’s not forget moonshine y homemade cerveza. Many a time, we
would steal una botella de cerveza, and would all drink from it having a good time bebiendo y
chupando cigaritos. To get rid of the evidence, we'd toss everything into that old stand-by, el
común. I'm surprised we were never caught, que yo me acuerdo, but they were getting
suspicious because we were always tan contentos and never fought. Un día, we overheard
Empappa talking about missing bottles of beer y les dijo a las mujeres to keep an eye on us. Of
course, we quit stealing su cerveza and gramma’s tobacco.
That really didn't keep us from smoking though. Un día, they took us to my aunt's house,
who lived in town. Mi prima y yo had seen her mom, mi tía, hide her saquito de punche under
los colchones. We wanted to smoke, pero todos estaban in that room, chupando y platicando.
Teniamos que buscar a way to get the tobacco in a way that they wouldn't see us. Sooo, nos
vestimos with some long skirts and started dancing. En ese tiempo, the song “One, two, three la
Conga” was very popular. Bailabamos cerca de la cama, lifting our skirts and legs up in the air,
cantando, “One, two, three la Conga” and every time we got to the corner of la cama, we'd pull
out the punche a few inches at a time from underneath the mattresses. Swirling round and round
lifting one leg en el aire, we'd dance by the adults, so they wouldn't get suspicious. They thought
it was cute, until they caught us. Y, no nos fueron pescado, if we hadn't dropped el maldito
punche.
Back en el rancho, the adults already knew about our little raids, so they kept a sharp eye
on us. What they didn't know was, we still had some fosforos hidden in our secret place. Cuando
we felt like smoking, we would go to the fields y nos escondiamos behind the tall chicos. Habia
muchos dry bushes y manure, where the farm animals had roamed. Usabamos this materials,
corn husks y the old catalago from el común, to roll our own huge cigarros that sent smoke
signals up en el aire. Quien sabe que other mugrero we used to smoke y nunca nos enfermamos
or got caught. s long as we weren't too close to the corral, Margaro, our talking magpie didn't
tattle on us. Creo que, that is the reason mi hermano, hermana y yo don't drink or smoke.
Alfie, now 71 years old, began writing chidlren's plays while working as a nutrition worker with the school
district. She writes about her gente and the community that raised her in Salt Creek, a barrio of Pueblo,
Colorado. She writes as she speaks, in Spanglish, and in her unique voice, she shares her rich memories of life
with her extended family and many siblings. Alfie, married to Alfred Salazar for 50 years, is an active member
of the Genealogy Society of Hispanic America and a volunteer for the Pueblo City-County Library District. She
is also a member of the Compañeras Poetry Circle.