DONA APOLONIA MENDOZA

Recorded by Romelia Gomez, Field Reporter

Dona Aplonia doesn’t know in what year her family came to Bisbee, but insists that they were one of the first families in Zacatecas Canyon, for their rude “jacalito” was one of the three then comprising Zacatecas, most of which was covered with trees and bushes. She was one of four children, three girls and one boy, of this family who came from Sonora with their mother.

Apolonia and an older sister attended school at Central for a short while, during which time she says they learned nothing at all, so their mother took them out of school so that they could help her in earning the family’s living, which she did by taking in washing from families living on Chihuahua Hill. Apolonia’s duty was to go back and forth bringing and returning the laundry. Often during these occasions she was offered a dime by Mexicana families so that she would take lunches to their men-folk from Chihuahua Hill to the smelter, which was then in Bisbee. She earned many dimes going errands like these.

Another one of her tasks was to draw the water used for washing the clothes from a little well near their home in Zacatecas. This she did by taking it up in a pail, for the well was very small and quite shallow. Once, while engaged in this task, some of her playmates mischievously pushed her head first into the well. This in itself was nothing dangerous, for ordinarily she could have gotten out quite easily, but in falling she accidently loosened a rock, which fell and struck her on the forehead, making a bad cut of which is still seen a faint scar. Her playmates pulled her out quickly, badly scared by the sight of blood on Apolonia’s head. They never attempted any more pranks like this one after that.

Her mother not approving of dances, the girls were never taken to any, nor were they allowed to go to shows or fiestas of any kind. They never attended church services either, but this was because they didn’t care to or didn’t have time.

She says that in those days Zacatecas residents were frequently haunted by “espantos” (ghosts) while walking through the street at night. Her brother and a friend were once badly scared upon the apparition of a dark-robed “ghost”, who ran after them way up to their house; then disappeared. She herself never saw any of these “espantos”, probably because she was scared to go out through Zacatecas at night.

When Apolonia married, at the age of 12, she and her husband moved further down, on Brewery Gulch. Her husband was a “lenero”, and owned about seven burros which he used for hauling the sacks of wood, which he sold at $ .25 or $1.15 each. When he went off and deserted her, leaving her with two small daughters, she was left with no alternative but to go out to work. She has been working ever since, doing house-work in many different homes. Now she works only one day of the week as a domestic in Warren, while her daughter, also left by her husband, with five children, does the same kind of work. They live quite poorly at Brewery Gulch, in an old house for which they pay $3.00 monthly.

Dona Apolonia doesn’t know her own age, but she looks as if she were about fifty years of age.

This family is definitely of the lower, poorer, uneducated type.

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