1) Fran Esquibel is originally from Atoka in Southeastern New Mexico; her memories of New Mexico were pleasant and very strong. She came from a large extended family, which left a strong positive impression on her life. When Fran was growing up, people in her family tended to look after each other. Some of her common household chores were laundry and feeding chickens and milking cows.
2) To the Esquibel family, being Roman Catholic essentially defined the make up of the family character. Religion was very much apart of the make up of the rural New Mexico life. Fran's father introduced his in laws to the Mexican Catholicism that had not been apart of their culture. In addition, he introduced the family to the Virgen de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and her divine Son; Christ. .
3) Part of Fran's memories of her strange new environment includes experiences of hunger and deprivation for the first time. She missed having fresh food, she had to grow accustom to eating in the school lunch program with the processed food, which she loathed. Her housing situation is cramp and over crowded. .
4) Because in California her parents Mexican identity represented a poor existence for her, in New Mexico she was apart of a unique way of life although it was rural. She began to feel somewhat "ashamed" that her parents were from Mexico, resenting her true ethnic identity because it California it meant she was a poor minority, with not much of a future. .
5) At home because of her parents insistence Spanish was the common language. Yet because school required that, she spoke English during the day. She slowly began to oppose any her parents attempt at any control because she was slowly coming of age and wanted to exert her own independence. The stress and tension was because she was in a family that was attempting to survive in an environment that made it difficult for minorities to make it. The primary stress was over financial matters.
