DON MIGUEL SERNA

(Chihuahua Hill)

Recorded by Romelia Gomez, Field Reporter

Don Miguel came to the U.S. in 1907, settling first at Douglas, Arizona, where he lived for two years before moving to Bisbee, in 1909. He came from Villa-Hidalgo, Jalisco, at the age of 27 or 28, leaving his parents behind. He settled at Zacatecas Canyon, making his own little thatched-roofed hut, in which he lived for eleven years.

He obtained work right away, as pick and shovel worker in the construction of a city-water pump at Tombstone Canyon, at which job he worked for six months. At the completion of this job he started selling wood, for this purpose acquiring eight burros. At this time wood-selling was a profitable business, for almost everyone burned wood as fuel. Also, there was much wood on the hills to be had for the taking. At first a sack of wood cost $ .25; later, when the demand for it was greater, he sold it at $ .50 a sack.

Don Miguel often went up into the hills with his burros for a stay of two or three days, until he had loaded them all with wood, after which he came to sell it into town. He recalls that one time, in the year 1914, Bisbee had a great snow-storm, the snow falling more or less steadily for three days. At that time he, with two other Mexicans, was up in the hills, gathering wood with their burros. They put up a tent and kept a fire burning continuously during the storm, exhausting all the wood they had gathered, in order not to freeze to death. On the third day the tree to which they had hitched their tent fell over, as did many other trees on the hillsides, because of the weight of the snow. Luckily for them it stopped snowing that day, and they came home without any wood at all.

Mr. Serna has used his burros for hauling ore at different little leases, being contracted for this work, which he says is very heavy. The work consists of shoveling up the dirt-ore which the miners dig up from underground, into the cajones, or boxes which are then strapped on the burro’s backs. Then the burros are led to the place where the ore is dumped off into the box cars. For these jobs he used to get $5.00 a day when times were good; now the most he can get is $2.00.

Mr. Serna always liked his burros and gave them good treatment, so he was very sorry when he was forced to sell all but one of them. He remembers some of their names, which he gave them: “El Trigueno”, because of its copper color, “El Pardo, the gray one, “Baby”, the one he got when it was two years old, “El Alazan”, because of its cinnamon color, “Sam” and “Billy”. The one he now has is called “Chanata”, meaning some kind of bird. This one he uses in an occasional day’s work hauling ore or in bringing home the fire-wood. He is sometimes called to chop wood at the lumber yard which lies on the street below his little hut on Chihuahua Hill.

He moved into this little dirt hut from Zacatecas Canyon about nineteen years ago, when the owner, a man named “Lorido” moved away and left it to him. There is only one little room, in which he does his cooking and which contains a little cot in one corner. There is a tiny little yard fenced around, which is cluttered up with fire-wood (old pieces of lumber given to him by the lumber yard) and tin cans which he collects to sell. There is no room here for the burro, which is kept in a stall further up on the hill. He gets his water from the home of Mr. Blackburn, a neighbor who befriended him and interceded for him when his little hut would have been torn down by the city.

While in Mexico his parents wouldn’t let him miss a single Sunday’s Mass, but here in Bisbee he goes to church only occasionally, having no one to prod him into going often.

Don Miguel has always lived a lonesome life, never having been married or had many friends. He never liked to dance, but does enjoy hearing music from the radios of the neighbors around him. He especially likes to hear guitar-playing and all kinds of Spanish music, although he doesn’t play any instrument himself. The movies don’t interest him at all, and he hasn’t attended one for over fifteen years. He reads very little, as his eyes bother him, so his time is spent mostly in working, doing any odd jobs that will help in earning his living so that he ll not need for charity.

Mr. Serna cannot speak English and has to make a guess at understanding it when Americans talk to him. He is sorry that he never learned the language when he was younger.

He absolutely doesn’t believe in superstitions and says that if he has heard stories or legends like that he has forgotten them.

Mr. Serna likes Bisbee very much, nearly as much as his native land, which he would visit if he had any relatives living there. He is now 60 years old.

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