We appreciate the little things. And that makes all the difference.
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My house was empty
My father gone working multiple jobs to keep us in food
I remember my father’s two-story house,
big yard,
pigs and sheep, five dogs
That was the ranch where we
played cops and criminals
we had walkie-talkies that didn’t work
it was a huge plot of Mexican soil
and it was fun
but when I turned 6
Dad got us US papers
and we moved to Venice, California
I didn’t feel empty or alone
because my dad was with me
a hardworking electrician
My mother worked hard, too
After she dropped us off at school
she cooked, cleaned and did laundry all day
She also cleaned my uncle’s house
and at 2:30 she waited for me outside my elementary school
we walked to nearby Mark Twain Middle School to pick up my brother
Two years later we moved to 99th Street in Inglewood
never expected our neighbor would shoot at the cops
but he did
Four years later we moved again
75 miles north to Lancaster
There we added a new member of the family,
My sister-in-law
We only lasted two years there
We moved 50 miles south to Sun Valley
Where we’ve added another new member to our family
My niece who is always running around
messing up the living room
Every day around six
I’d watched my father struggling to take off his work boots
my mom cooking
sister-in-law helping
oldest brother lying down in his room
watching movies, waiting to be called to the table for dinner
My middle brother, as usual, showered, dressed and sped off in his Jeep
gone with his friend Luis to record some TV show about music
I’m the youngest
I flop down on the sofa and watch Youtube videos
Sometimes my niece comes in and bothers me
I don’t know how I’ll react when my brother moves in next month
He has twin girls.
The family will grow
So far, so good
What I hate is that I’ve have always lived near airports
LAX, General William F. Fox Airfield in Lancaster, and now Bob Hope Airport in Burbank
The constant groaning of engines and squealing of tires is annoying
There’s never any real peace
But the one thing I know for sure,
The one thing that matters most
is that I’ll always keep my family near me
no matter how we grow
or where our next move takes us
By Randy Chavez
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Photo: Getty Images