21 Feb Elizabeth: Beauty is as Beauty does

Black hair….black, black hair.  Fascinating to see it if you are a very white, blond human.  And it came with the prettiest face. Elizabeth could have been an Aztec princess; she just needed a crown of flowers on her head with her black waist-long hair cascading down her back.  I was her teacher and her remarkable beauty distracted me, and all the teenage boys in her freshman high school class. Even the girls liked her because she was quiet, warm and helpful. It didn’t hurt that she was the brightest in the class and willingly assisted all who needed to understand the schoolwork.  Also to a new student coming from Mexico, she had learned very quickly that the newest pedagogical rage was cooperative learning; she felt she was doing her part sharing her homework assignments just before classes started. She was eager to help her classmates who had jobs at home or elsewhere and who usually did not have time to complete the homework.

Elizabeth had crossed the border with her mother and siblings the year before.  I learned about that harrowing trip much later in her high school career. She was my student for four years to graduation.  This wasn’t unusual in our small 200 immigrant ESL program; I had several certifications and a program was built around classes that taught English while covering the core subjects needed for graduation.  She excelled in all subjects and had a mystically calming effect on students, especially the ever energetic boys in her classes with me. She was friendly and mature while most of the boys were friendly and young.

That trip to cross the border from Mexico to Arizona, and then to Virginia to join their father  included her mother, several siblings and a baby. She spoke of her voiceless horror when her mother, too exhausted to carry the baby, let a stranger take the baby across.  Once in Arizona the appointed ride to Virginia had disappeared with the prepaid money. They were able to call the father in Virginia and then wait for three long days while hiding out in a strange and unfamiliar place.

In her junior year Elizabeth became aware of her good looks.  She did not change her attitude towards her schoolwork or her work ethic.  But she had grown up and realized the limitations of her educational opportunities as an undocumented immigrant.  She became pregnant, she dropped out of school. But true to herself, she came back after a year, after a baby, and finished school.  At graduation she received a special Principal’s Award given to students of exemplary character and exceptional grades achieved through hard work who overcame extraordinary challenges to successfully finish school.

After graduation she moved to North Carolina with her baby and husband to pursue better employment opportunities there.  However it broke my heart that (yes) she was working but (oh, no) as a cleaning lady. I didn’t see Elizabeth for many years.

 However as I was retiring, and determined to leave the area with 2 suitcases (and boxes of important papers),  I reached out to many people to help empty the house of any usable item they might want.. Elizabeth came with her sister Brenda and helped a great deal.  Elizabeth was the same young woman I remembered. She now had two children, and I think from the interaction between mother and children on those last visits, they were aware that they were the  “chosen ones.” They had been given an exceptionally beautiful mother, body and soul.  

She also met the requirements under Obama’s executive order known as DACA.  That once closed door to documentation and opportunities in America once again was (perhaps) slowly and creekingly opening.