photo of Mexican man the sierra norte
Mexico
 
GLOSSARY
Mexico glossary

Francisca

(MEXICO 25)

Sex

female

Age

74

Occupation

flower grower

Location

El Punto, Ixtepeji

Date

9 November 2001

 

transcript

Section 1
Francisca is known affectionately in El Punto as Dona Pancha. Like many people in her community, she makes a living from flower-growing. Her relationship with flowers began when her husband died, and, even though time is not forgiving, this relationship continues, and has even intensified. The water and the earth are like witnesses and silent accomplices. Her sons and grandsons will have a similar story.


Do you live here in the community of El Punto?
Yes, here.

And have you always been living here?
It’s not very long since I arrived here, because I used to live in La Cumbre. I lived in La Cumbre, but since I got sick – I had [severe] nose bleeds [through high blood pressure] – I came here. They – [my son and daughter-in-law] - were already here, but since I got sick I didn’t want to risk being alone and I came here. And so now, I am here with them - yes, with my son and daughter-in-law, here I am. But we haven’t stopped going to see the florecitas (little flowers) because they are planted at La Cumbre. In La Cumbre we have florecitas and here we have only a little bit of cartucho (non-indigenous flowering plant, Argylia radiata). We only have the house down here, but there in La Cumbre we have cartuchito, there’s margarita (daisy), flor blanca (literally, white flower; frangipani), rellena – [the margarita] has one yellow petal, one white petal. But since the blight came, they’ve all dried up.

What blight was that?
Who knows? Because the dry leaves curled up, the stems of the flower, all the branches; and we had to clean everything. We had to take off the dry leaves to [be able to] sell [the flowers]. It is gone now, the flowers have gone. We have only cartucho now, cartucho is all we have, and that one is not bothered by anything. Well, the cold [affects it], when the frost comes; yes, the frost gets it, but up till now it hasn’t bothered the plant because there hasn’t been too much frost.

Do you have any treatment for the plants against the frost?
No, we have nothing. We have nothing [to] protect them. Since they are in the open fields, they can’t be protected, and that’s how it is, yes, that’s how it is.
Section 2
How many hectares have you planted?
One, I think. Yes, one hectare.

Then besides the cartucho what other flowers do you have?
The juanita, another little flower… show it to him [she gestures]. There is the rojito (literally, “little red”; flower), two only. I put it in between the juanita, that’s what it is called. We plant it in September, and recently we went to clear it, and then we leave it. In May it will give flowers - that little white one is margariton, but the frost bothers it, it burns it.

Do you have this one at La Cumbre?
La Cumbre? All, all the flowers are in La Cumbre. Everything is in La Cumbre; here we don’t have others. There is little space here for planting flowers; it’s not possible. That’s why everything is there [in La Cumbre].

And do you need much water for the flowers?
No, [they survive] just with the humidity. No, we don’t have water, there is no watering, that’s how it is. That’s why one side of the cartucho is fading; the other side, only at the front, has barely started to flower. But when there is snow and frost, it burns it; it all collapses! But when there is no frost, it is very beautiful; it gives plenty [of flowers], but it doesn’t need water, only the humidity.

And since when have you been planting flowers?
Since long ago. My son was five months old when my husband died; then I went to La Cumbre. My mother said to me, “You’d better go. Your sister has a lot of flowers there. You cut them and take them to Oaxaca to sell, so that you can bring your things [and settle here]” That’s how I went to La Cumbre. And then I said to my mother, “I think I will ask for some land above the road, where I can plant well.” “That can be done,” she said. “Go and ask for it and they will give it to you; then you can plant flowers.” That’s how I got a little plot of land above the road. And later I asked for the other place where the cartucho is; that’s at the other place. And I put a little rancho (small farm) there in order to live in it, that’s what I did. And now, how long has it been there? How many years? Thirty-three years, oh yes; [no] – 31 years, that’s how long we have worked it.

And how did you learn to plant?
[From] my mother, my mother, because only they did that! The cartucho and the margarita with one white petal and one yellow petal; and then later the rellena. We went with her to Ixtlan; we went to buy some brasaditas (a bundle of poles [?]: cantidad de varas que se alcanza a caregar con los bracos). They sold the flowers but [the flowers] weren’t delicate, because they got better later, they grew very prettily later. But what happened? What I said - that it didn’t grow well - was because the blight came and all the leaves dried up and the ones that still have the blight are in Tierra Colorada. Those still have it. In La Cumbre we don’t have [the blight] any more, but several of us had had it, because we only nailed down [?] the branches, then they grew. And I say so because my mother taught me how to plant flowers, and when they’ve grown, we take out the weeds, we put in some soil. Now they are growing. Yes, that’s the job we have to do.
Section 3
And the soil, where do you get it from?
Right there. We dig with a charcoita (farming tool), we prepare the ground and break up the soil, as the earth here is reliable, the soil is loose. We only take out the weeds, then the soil is loosened and we put in some good soil right there.

Do you use any chemicals to make it grow?
No, nothing, [it grows] just by itself. No we don’t use anything, because we say if we put more money [into this], and if it doesn’t work, it would be better to leave it.

Has it worked like this?
Yes, like this.

And did your mother sow?
My mother, she sowed; but she has died already, it has been years since my mother died, 15 years.

Did she live off that?
Yes, she only worked with flowers.

Did she have corn or any other crops?
No, she didn’t sow crops, no. The same is happening with us now. Before, yes, we sowed a little on tierra caliente (literally, hot lands; area or zone in the territory of Tiltepec with a hotter climate), but already we weren’t cultivating much. When my son built the house, he told me, “Look, I think I won’t sow any more. When am I going to sow and when am I going to build the house? So we’d better leave the sowing.” “Ah, that is good,” I told him. “If we have supported ourselves by flowers only, by working on them during the week, and if he can finish the house in two years, since he thought of making it big, with two floors…” And in two seasons he did finish the house. And since last year he has organised himself; and we went to the land of his father, his late father, and on the tierra caliente they sowed and now there is cultivation there, but only on tierra caliente.

Only corn?
Yes, corn. Yes, corn. We scattered some beans, and I tell you I will see tomorrow if there are any beans, if they are ready to be cut. If there are, it always needs to be (siempre quiere vuelta). But at La Cumbre we don’t sow crops, only flowers.

And when you go to La Cumbre do you go alone?
No, [I go] with my daughter-in-law and my daughter who live up there, and with them we share crops. I say to her, “Some for you, and some for us, because I can’t even work it by myself - neither can you.” And we get together and we go. We look for one or two mozos (helpers); it is hard to get those now! Her sister, her niece, if they are motivated they go, and we can take out the [weeds]… and we can go faster, and then when we are satisfied that we’ve taken out the weeds, we wait for the flowers.
Section 4
Very nice - and how is it going? How are the sales?
Sometimes good and sometimes not too good. Because there are weeks when it is dead all week, and only at the fiestas [can we sell anything]. The flowers were a little expensive, but everything else… Sales are going to go down until Christmas when it gets better. The fiestas are coming, they start on 8th December, [the fiesta] of the Juquila Virgin, then comes Soledad (fiesta in honour of the patron saint of Oaxaca, or [rather, first] Guadalupe (the Virgin of Guadalupe Hidalgo), then Soledad, then Christmas, then New Year, all that month it will be good. When that [season] passes, sales go down again; that’s how it is.

Do you only sell cultivated flowers in December or mountain flowers too?
Yes, we sell [mountain flowers too]. Yes, we sell those.

Which flowers are those?
Flor amarillita (literally, yellow flower; wild flower), de nińo (“child’s flower”; wild flower), poleo (“pennyroyal”, wild mint with medicinal use), laurel, palm… You need lots of things to make the manojitos (literally, handfuls; bunches of flowers). Two or three branches of laurel and then the palm, and then the poleo and then the little flower, flor moradita (literally, purple flower), if there is any. But when it is cold there are no flowers. But when there are, there is the amarilla, the flor de nińo – because people like that one a lot, like the flor amarilla – but we sell it, and a little of paxle (wild flower) – a little of each thing.

When do you start gathering the wild flowers?
At the last minute, because they don’t last. For example, now for the 8th it has to be done two, three days before and no more; because then the flower will be over, because it doesn’t last for many days, no. The poleo is picked on… Yes, to sell it on Saturday, it is picked on Wednesday or Thursday, to take it [to market] on Saturday.

And Saturday is market day?
Yes, Saturday.

And where do you go? The Mercado de Abastos (literally, supply market)?
La Merced (a market in Oaxaca); I go there only, and my daughter-in-law sells at Abastos. Most people go there: my daughter goes there, my [other] daughters, the one that lives there, and the one that lives over there. We all go there. And I go with the other daughter I have up there. We go to La Merced. Since the little market changed, we’ve been going there for the whole day; we sign up and we get together with everybody, all the people from the market give us a place. And we gather with all the people because they don’t let just anybody in – it’s not that easy - and that’s why we are signed up. Only us. Yes, we have a place.
Section 5
Do they charge you for the place?
Yes, we pay only for the day we go, 2 pesos for the day. And the ones who sell daily, they pay daily; but all the people know they are selling every day, that’s how it is.

And for example the paxle (wild flower), how do you get it?
Well, we gather only what we can because since those are big trees… Only what is there. Or sometimes people throw it there. Or if it is on the floor we pick it up, but only what we can reach; because the trees are big and we can’t reach them. That’s why with my mother we carried a stick, and with it we pulled it down. She said, “Take a stick for pulling the one up there.” And that’s how we gather it. It is difficult to gather, it is very thin.

Those monjita (literally, little nun) flowers, don’t you sell those?
Yes, but it is very far away where they are. The orchid, too, is very far, and it is high up. The men – they can get it down; we can’t.

And do you sell those?
No, we don’t sell them. Who knows where they are from? They were brought some 15 days ago; they brought monjitas. It would have been Saturday when they went to bring them, but I think those are the ones from Mixteca. Yes, those are from there. Up over there, there are monjitas.

Listen, what do you know about the forest herbs used for food or for medicine?
Poleo (“pennyroyal”, wild mint with medicinal use). Poleo and laurel too for medicine. Poleo; also marjoram. Yes, those are good, because they are “hot” herbs. If you’ve got a pain, if you have a stomach ache, poleo, poleo tea [is used].

What are the hot herbals for?
If you have air in the stomach, hot things are for air in the stomach. Yes, a cup of tea will do the job. But I see that legally now it is only doctors [who can treat people], just doctors, and sometimes the illness doesn’t respond; then [there are] doctors, pills… it’s changed a lot.

And before, how did you cure yourselves?
[We used] only herbs to drink or we stuck a leaf on the stomach. If you are very hot you stick a leaf on the stomach, and already you cure yourself. But I say, now [it is not done] very well, because [there is] just the doctor.
Section 6
Do you still use the herbs?
Not very much, not any more, because now that I am sick, I am just taking pills. I am only on pills, and I told the doctor, “I want to leave you. How many, how many years have you been bothering me? For five years I have been taking pills and more pills!” And now I went early and he gave me a prescription… those I am taking are for [blood] pressure, those I take. Now he prescribed that I should take three, that is why I went there, to La Cumbre and told the woman, I said to her, I said “I take three: one very early, one at noon, and other one at night - because I have high blood pressure. I have 180 over 90, that’s my blood pressure – [on the other hand] when it was 140 over 60, it was very steady.” In a little time it went up. It’s been three months since I have had it this high… And the same [doctor] told me, “Take three pills daily, three pills for a month, and [leave] the herbs on one side.” Yes, that’s what happened, I got used to only pills. I take a lot of pills, and that’s how I am; and I don’t pay attention to the little herbs. But there are some, yes, there are.

Then people here just go to see the doctor?
To the doctor, right away! To the clinic, right away. When they start vomiting, or have pain, [they go] to the clinic right away; and there they give you a prescription, you buy it. Or if it is serious they send you to Tlacolula. So it is only medicine [that is used].

When you got sick when you were a child, how did your mother cure you?
I never got sick. That’s why it took me by surprise when I got high blood pressure, because I didn’t have a headache, I didn’t feel anything. But soon [with my work] that’s how it was… I went to cut little flowers and when I bent over, and took my flowers from the basket to put them in another basket, then I felt hot, very hot. “God!” I said when I saw too much [blood] pour [from my nose]! They weren’t drops, it was a flood! It was Thursday and I had come here. It was good that my son-in-law was here, and he said “Let’s go to Oaxaca.” “Or let’s go to El Punto,” I said, “because my son is there and I want to tell him.” And when we arrived I told my daughter, I said, “I’ll get off here, I will tell her to get me some warm water.” I washed myself because all the time I had on these clothes, and I had a brown shawl, made of four [sections?]. It was no longer drops [of blood], it was a flood. We came to Loma Grande… we came when it got better, but I still felt hot. I told my Aurelia, “I’m getting off, I am going to take a bath.” “No,” she said, “let’s go like this because then the doctors can’t say that you don’t have anything [wrong], so we’ll go and they will see.”
Later we arrived and the doctor was resting when my son-in-law called him, and the nurse said - since she was there at the front - she said “Call him, he’s right there.” And he knocked on the door and he said to me, “Do you have high blood pressure?” “No” I said, since that was in January and it was in December when I got my pressure checked. “It happened in the place where the paxle is.” And he said, “Do you want your pressure checked?” And I didn’t want it, but my daughter said, “Yes, you tell them; give him 5 pesos, 10 pesos” so that they could check me, and tell me, “No, you are very well.” And I was very confident about that and I told the doctor “I’m not suffering… what…”
When he checked me, he said “No, the pressure [is too high]… give thanks to God that you didn’t die at that place.” I said, “When I went out I went to see my daughter, she told me to go, but it sounded as though there were crickets singing. And I said “Where is that sound from?” And he said “You have to see how bad the high pressure is. It is lucky that you got out of there. If not, there you would be… or you could be an invalid.” “My God!” I said, “look what is happening to me.” And I still had my flowers and my daughter said, “And now your flowers, hey! You are only thinking of your flowers.” “Take them,” I said, “you will leave on Saturday.”
On Friday I was very quiet, just lying in bed; and then on Saturday all that bleeding from the nose, it started coming again. Then I told her, “Pancha!”, I said, “it is beginning again.” And she said, “Holy Mother of God! I am going to see Juana to see if she can stay with you, I’ll go soon to see the nurse.” And then it was Saturday, the doctor wasn’t there. And I told her, “You go.” She went to see my [other] daughter, she came to be with me and she went to call the doctor. And she [the granddaughter] came here, she gave me some alcohol, she put cold wet cloths on me, and it seemed that I got calmer. After a while she said, “I am leaving, it is over now.” “Ah good,” I said, but later it began again! And where could we go? Because it was Saturday and the doctor wasn’t there. And at last, my son told me “We’d better go to Oaxaca.” But I told him, “No, we won’t go.” “Yes, Rufina just arrived,” I told him, “and she checked me.” But later it began again and then he said, “We’d better go. Which car should we go in?” “No,” I said. “Yes”, my sister told me, “Yes.” And suddenly, I told her, “The car is not there. The one [who can] take us, that one went to sell flowers. But they have another little truck. Yes, he left me the keys, let’s go.”
And so we went, then we arrived there. Since my daughter lives at Ixcotel - she is working there - my son said, “Let’s go to see my sister, to see where she took her comadre (godmother) when she said she got high pressure.” “Ah well, let’s go then,”[I said]. But arriving at the San Agustin crossroads, we met my son-in-law. They were coming from Oaxaca, and she (my daughter) was already with her daughter - my granddaughter was there too - to see who was going to hold the cloth [under my nose] for me, who was going to hold it here, to see how I was. There we found them, and they stopped. “We are going,” said my son, because the nosebleed began again. And I said to my daughter, “You get off, you’d better go with the child.”
Later in the afternoon, when it got dark we arrived at the doctor’s, and the doctor said to me, “What pills [do you take]?” I said, “These.” And he told me, “These won’t do you any good, I will give you an injection.” “OK,” I said, “the injection is going to calm me.” Then the doctor said, “Leave your car there, I will take you to the hospital there at the San Juanito; because there they will operate on you.” “Holy Mother!” Since I didn’t know about (didn’t trust) doctors, I said “Where are you taking us if the night is drawing in already?” We went, about five people attended me - three doctors, two nurses - so that they could be able to cure me. But do you think I stayed for long? I arrived Saturday night, [then] Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, until Wednesday, they could monitor me. It wasn’t a great flow then, but a little bit, then a little bit [again] and so on. Who knows how many things the doctor gave me? Because until Wednesday they could…who knows who else they called, they even called the cardiologist, for him to call another doctor. It cost my son a lot since it was private, but they monitored me. And since then I’ve continued with my pills, but I say it bothers me. And I’ve said to the doctor “I want to stop taking my pills, they bother me because they are irritating. Yes, they are.” But he said, “No, you can’t stop taking them.” And even worse, he gave me three to take a day.
Section 8
And now when you go to your flowers, do you go alone?
I go by myself, yes. The doctor said, “It’s not safe for you to be on your own.” But I said, “What!”

Well yes, it would be better if you could go with someone, in case anything happens. How old are you?
Seventy-four.

Seventy-four, and are you still working?
I don’t feel like staying [behind]. What I mean is, if they go, if they go with me I go. I even make the fire, I heat up the meal, I warm it up… They are working, and I go.

Do you want to feel useful?
Yes, now I told [the doctor], I go because I go to see my sister. My sister also makes bread, she is sick too, with high blood pressure too. She has been ill for… how many years, did she say? 13 years. [It’s been] 13 years that my sister’s been ill. And I said, “I will go to see my sister later.” But then I went to my house, and I said “Let’s see what there is.” And I cut some parsley - because I have everything there - then I got a handful of poleo (“pennyroyal”, wild mint with medicinal use) to eat with beans, and all that I’ll be gathering. But the truth is I don’t like just staying at home.

Are you up and down? Constantly on the move?
Yes, that’s what I do.

Very good that you are still active, but you have to take care of yourself.
Yes, you are right.

And how do the men see the work with the women. You, who work in the fields, is it all right that you earn your money by yourselves?
Most of them don’t go out [to work].

And before, you said that your mother also cultivated flowers?
Both of them. My father helped by carrying the bags of cartucho. He used to cut and cut and cut, and grandfather carried the bags. At night they sat down to dinner. They had things to do. And that’s why here, not all the women go [out to work], just some of them. My daughter, she works with flowers. There goes my son-in-law, he is taking the car, they are going to gather flowers, they will bring them [back here]. The other one lives up there, likewise she has her flowers up there, she is going to bring them on her back. She goes [there] and she ties them up like that. And the man (her husband), since he is doing his [community] servicio (cargo position), he said, he says, “I am thinking, I think I won’t be able to work any more.” But what did he do? Thank God he could [work], and now his servicio is about to finish; he had a cargo (unpaid community position) for three years.
Section 9
Was he looking after the bienes comunales (community property)?
Yes, he was there for three years, while she just went to cultivate her flowers. Because that brizia (flowering grass), that one that is standing there, that one is planted, and people say that in three years you can take the root out, and there were a lot of roots, and then [split it and] transplant it again. Some say it has up to three roots; water it and of course it grows. She has that one, and a little bit of cartuchito. There is no margarita (daisy), there is nothing else, only those flowers.

Have you ever chosen plants from here from the town to cultivate and then sell them?
No. Only cartucho (non-indigenous flowering plant, Argylia radiata), that’s it, but not from the field.

I like getting to know people of your age, who are still moving about working. It is not easy, is it? But I think that with your experience, it’s going to be useful for your grandchildren, for your children.
Oh yes, I say to my daughter-in-law, I say to my daughter with whom I cultivated the cartucho, “Did you plant it? Did you plant the root? Did you get it out, did you weed a row, did you put the plant in again? Because it becomes too weak– as it has a lot of seeds - and then the flower comes out very weak (with few blooms).” And my daughter says “Let’s get it out, then we can go and clear [the field].” Ah well! Because I had wanted to do it for a long time, but [my husband] with his [servicio] work couldn’t do the work [in the fields], and then the women organised themselves and they went to clear it.
There were lots of oak trees, just thin ones. They cut them down, they laid them down [on the ground]. Just four or five big trees were left. And he called his brother who lives here, and he went with the chain saw and cut them down; now it is all cut down. I said to him, “Now let’s burn them, I am afraid the fire will spread to other places.” “No,” he said, “some day I will go and do it… in a while.” But another man arrived and said “I have burned the wood already in the night - it was freezing.” “Good,” I said, “If not, it wasn’t going to burn any more. Let’s go to gather all the wood that’s left, let’s burn it again and let’s plant the roots.” They went to collect plants. The roots were all piled up, and we went. They dug the soil, they made some holes, and I was with my daughter and her son. We went to plant the roots; we all went.
Then I said to him, “I am not good for this… It will be very beautiful work”, I said, “but you will have to keep going; if not, the bushes will come again.” Because that happened when I got sick, I left all my flowers, I could not attend them, and it became just weeds. And the juanita didn’t bloom, because I hadn’t looked after it at all. After that my Aurelia said, “Could there be juanita there?” I said “There is!” But I hadn’t looked after it; it just stayed like that. She said to me, “Let’s go and clear a little piece of land. Let’s go into the forest, among the bushes, and let’s go and sow them.” “Yes!” I said, “you go if you want.”
They went to clear, to gather some flowers, and they did it like here, just a little square, but since it is very good land, it grew very well. And Aurelia said, “Let’s clear another square, let’s sow more.” Yes, well, we changed it, we left the place where we cleared and we went to the other plot, and we sowed again, and that one is going to be in flower for May 10th. My Aurelia said, “I think we have cleared it enough for [it to last] until January.” I said, “No, because it has a lot of bushes, and the blooms stay thin, there is a lot of mostaza (mustard) [growing like a weed], we have to go to get it out.” And we did what we could, and we looked for a mozo to go with us and that way we could do more, and in two days we did it. “Now. Yes,” I said, “Now it is ready, now we can do something else, let’s go and look for some paxle, let’s gather some to sell for Christmas.” And then there is work, and then I go, because I go out to the field and I keep going. One side and the other side, that’s how it is.
Section 10
Well if you are happy this way… because you know a lot about all this, don’t you?
Yes, we know about everything, because as I said, when I was at Ixtepeji with my husband, in the field I only sowed, planted beans. I had other jobs, I sowed wheat, we sowed. And now, yes, when the time of harvest came, I gathered it up when it was time. And then I didn’t do those duties, those tasks, because when he [her husband] died my mother said to me, “What are you going to do? You are alone here, let’s go to La Cumbre, even to cut half the flowers, for your children, because where else are you going to get something [to live on]?” She talked to me firmly: “You are not accustomed [to supporting yourself], he used to do everything, and now you have to see,” she said. Oh my God! I didn’t know what to do. I said, “And now what?”
But thanks to my mother, because she was accustomed to the cold… Then came the Holy Week fiesta, and she said, “You are going to sell laurel, poleo (“pennyroyal”, wild mint with medicinal use), paxle by the roadside. We should go on Fridays.” It looked beautiful, on the first Friday we had eight sacks, we delivered six and we sold two. But you should see that now we don’t, because now there was a lot - not any more; the sales have stopped. Then it was every Friday: we started on the first Friday, even during Holy Week. We would just come back from Oaxaca, and then we had to carry it there again. To bring laurel, one day palm, another day poleo, then we had to make piles, in amounts that the animals could carry, and then we’d go. During Holy Week we went on Holy Wednesday, we went on Jueves de Dolores (literally, Thursday of Pain; Maundy Thursday), and that’s it. But as I said, when I lived in the town it was different work - in the field, but not like this, with other seeds.

Do you prefer [growing] flowers or what you did in Ixtepeji?
Mostly I like [growing] flowers. Every eight days I go to Oaxaca. As I say to my son, if a cent comes in, the only thing that happens is that it stays there, because then one has to buy things, and now everything is expensive. I say, if I were to save the money, yes, the flowers give good money, but what are we going to eat? That’s what it’s for, and that’s what happens every eight days. But now I don’t go. Only my daughter goes to carry this small amount, because there isn’t very much. It will be eight days from now when I get to go.
Section 11
Which is the season in which you sell most?
We sell every eight days, at quite low prices, but we sell.

In Holy Week, which ones do you sell?
I sell laurel, only laurel.

And from the forest?
From the forest there is the laurel, poleo, palm, a little purple flower, if there is any. All that sells during Holy Week. And if there is cartuchito that one sells, that’s my job.

Well that’s a nice job, is it hard?
Yes, because the cartucho is heavy. I tell you, when I was young, I used to carry 40 dozen; but since I got sick, I tell you, I don’t do any more carrying. I help them to tear it off, to tie it up, but not carrying; not any more. And it is very far away down there, and there I go with them anyway. And that’s why I took everything up there. I planted some roots of azucena (type of daylily). That’s why I have come here and now I will get it out. But now it can’t be done, because they are sowing again down there, and we go down there, but they carry all the sacks. When four leave… six have already left… [it takes] three trips to get it out to the road.

And from there how do you take it to Oaxaca?
In the little car, with my son. Now he will bring it here with the car, or with the pasajero (a bus) only, when there are two or three sacks.

Well then, I congratulate you because you are very well, you don’t look sick and I hope soon you can leave the medication.
Well, you say right, I hope it goes down. Because they say that if I have it at 140 over 70 it is better, but now I have it at 180 over 90, that’s how it is. But three months ago that’s how I had it, now it’s two months and it’s the same. But now the doctor told me, “You are the same.” And I said to him, “It is not coming down, is it?” “No,” he said, “Now you have to take three pills, and come in if you feel anything bad, or have a headache.” But thanks be to God I don’t have a headache, it has not bothered me. But he says I still have high blood pressure.

Take care of yourself, thank you very much for your time.