Down on the Farm

During the week, Hugo and I have the typical "how was your day" conversations. On weekends, however, we become a traditional Salvadorian family; spending hours talking and telling stories. This past Sunday, Hugo talked in-depth about what it was like growing up on his grandparent's farm. I thought the stories were interesting and wanted to share. These stories are mostly about farming with his grandpa. I'm interested to hear more about what it was like day-to-day on the farm. When I get that information, I'll pass iti along!

When Hugo was two years old, his father was granted a temporary residence card for the US. Hogo's mom, Margoth (pronounced Margoat), wasn't interested in accompanying him to America. So, Hugo's dad took off without the family.

Jobs were extremely difficult to come by in El Salvador. And, child care was expensive. Margoth soon realized there was no way she could financially support her and Hugo without some assistance. So she turned to her parents for help. Margoth decided the best thing she could do for her son was to send him to live with her parents on their farm in the mountains. Margoth stayed in the city and worked full-time. She sent money to her parents to help pay for Hugo's necessities and Margoth visited the farm on the weekends.

Margoth is the second oldest child in her family and had Hugo when she was fairly young. When Hugo moved to his grandparent's house, his grandma had given birth to her sixth child (Jaime, pronounced Himay) only three years before. Her seventh child (Maritza) was born a year before Hugo arrived. Even though these children were his uncle (a year older than Hugo) and aunt (a year yonguer), they grew up like siblings. Also living at the farm was another of Huog's aunts (Sonia, two years younger than his mom) and her son (Christian). In total, there were seven people living in a two room house.

The house was a very basic structure. The cement floors were a bit of a luxury at the time - most houses had dirt floors. Thick, cement walls kept the house somewhat cool during the hot summer months. Bamboo poles supported clay tiles on the roof. The layout of the house was somewhat unique. The house only had three rooms - two bedrooms and a ktichen. The bedrooms were fairly large and could accommodate several beds in each room. The kitchen was a long, narrow room. Along the entire lenght of the back wall, a concrete ledge served as the cooking area. All meals were prepared over an open fire. With very little ventilation in the kitchen, the room was always thick with smoke and the walls were permanently covered in soot. All three rooms opened onto a covered porch that ran the length of the house (there were no interior doors or hallways). On the porch, a large dining table served as the gathering place for the family. On the edge of the patio (half covered by the roof, half exposed to the outdoors), a large sink had been constructed out of concrete. This traditional sink (one shallow side, one deep side) was used to wash dishes and clothes. Because of it's location at the edge of the porch, rain water would spill into the larger portion of the sink and provide water for washing.

There was no running water in the house. Each day, the family had to venture down to the river to bathe. The women piled all their necessities (clean clothes, soap, towels, etc.) into a large bowl. They balanced this bowl on their heads as they walked down to the river. If there wasn't enough rain water accumulated in the sink, water had to be hauled from the river to the house. Hugo's grandma and aunt took turns washing the family's clothes. With seven people and lots of dirty farm work, doing laundry was no easy task. Some distance from the house was an outhouse. A six foot hole had been dug through the rocky mountain terrain for the outhouse. As the years went by, new outhouses were built in different locations. The old hole was covered and the structure was moved to a new hole.

The house didn't have electricity either. In order to utilize as much daylight as possible, the family would rise at 4:30am and go to sleep around 8:30pm each day. Hugo's grandpa ran a tight ship...everyone was expected to be at family dinner every night. After dinner, the family would play games by candlelight. Chess, checkers, and card games were the family's favorites. When they weren't playing games, the family would sit around and talk.

Because there wasn't electricity, there was no way to keep food cold. The women would go to town regularly to purchase groceries. Food could only be purchased for that particular day. When a trip to town wasn't possible, the family would enjoy things from the farm - eggs, chicken, milk, rice, fruits, vegetables. Staples in Salvadorian's diets are tortillas and (refried) beans. These food provide a nutritious meal without needing refrigeration. Most farm families would grow their own corn (to be ground into tortillas) and beans. They had large grain bins to store these foods all year long.

Hugo's grandpa (Victoriano) loved to farm. Once, he was offered a short-term job (six months) in the city. The company provided room and board for the week. On the weekends, he would go back to the farm. Victoriano lasted less than a month. He couldn't stand being away from the farm! Through the years, Victoriano grew many different crops. He also farmed many different plots of land. Some pieces of land were several miles away from the house. Victoriano left early in the morning to go to work these fields. Hugo, Maritza and Jaime hiked several miles up the mountian to bring Victoriano breakfast and then had to hike back to the house. Because he started work so early, Victoriano finished by 12:30pm and relaxed during the hottest part of the day.

Two crops Victoriano always planted were corn and beans. There were several different varieties of corn. Through the years, Victoriano had tried just about all of them before settling on J5. Some types grew too tall and were damaged by the wind. Other types produced husks that were too strong. When husking the corn (by hand), they were simply too difficutlt to open. Finally, Victoriano found a type that was just right for him...kind of like Godlilocks and her porridge! When the boys (Hugo and Jaime) weren't in school, they were expected to help on the farm. Hugo helped his grandpa plant corn once...and only once. When the corn began to grow that year, it was very obvious which rows Hugo had planted and which rows Victoriano planted. Victoriano's were straight and evenly spaced. Hugo's rows were crooked with huge gaps in between plants. In some places, several sprouts were trying to shoot out of one hole. Instead of planting one seed in each hole, Hugo had dumped a handfull! From that point on, Victoiano decided to save the boys for harvest time.

Harvesting corn was a multi-step process. Once the ears of corn reached maturity, they had to be dried. Farmers did this by bending each stalk of corn in half. The ears of corn would then face downward. Then if it rained, the water would run right off and not go inside the ear. After the corn was dried, Victoriano and the boys plucked the ears from the stalks. They boys helped haul the ears of corn (still in their husks) to the house. They piled the corn at the edge of the porch and the women spent days husking and shelling the corn. After the corn was husked and shelled, it was stored in a huge grain bin. Throughout the year, the women scooped out the amount of corn they needed, ground the corn by hand, and made tortillas.

Once year, Victoriano didn't have enough money to puchase seeds. He went to the bank for a loan and used his house as collateral. This was very risky; most farmers were only able to grow enough corn to feed their familes for the year. They rarely had enough left over to sell. Luckily, Victoriano was an excellent farmer. Not only did he have enough corn to feed his family that year, he had enough to sell to cover the loan and had extra money to buy seed for the following year.

Other than corn, Victoriano also tried his hand at other crops. For several years, he grew rice. He also grew sesame seeds (used to make a popular drink, horchata). Sesame seeds were very difficult to harvest. The plants were very delicate. If they weren't handled properly, the seeds would fall off the plant and be lost. On year, the plants had been harvested and left in the field overnight. That night, it rained and washed away the seeds. Almost the entire crop was lost. Yuca was another plant Victoriano grew. The popular vegetable was the root of the tree. To harvest yuca, the roots were dug up. Afterh the roots were removed, the trunk of the tree (or it's branches) were re-planted. New roots grew and the process was repeated over and over.

One year, Victoriano partnered with a neighbor. They helped each other plant the year's crop. Each man had two sons. All four boys were about the same age...16. The neighbor had a wooden plow. The men wanted to use this plow to prepare the fields for planting. Usualy, the farmers dug individual holes by hand. This plow would make things much easier! Unfortunately, horses (and even cattle) were hard to come by. Because neither man had the necessary livestock to pull the plow, they decided to use their sons. One man rode on the back of the plow to control the depth. Two boys pushed the plow. The boys worked in a tag-team fashion...two boys would do a down-and-back and then trade places with the other two boys. The down-and-back break was much needed by the youngsters. Hugo said it was particularly unpleasant when the plow hit a rock and the wooden cross peice was thurst into their chest!