My path downhill

Let's see, where was I? oh yeah, Chevy's. The days of being a happy dishwasher, heh.

At that time I lived with my grandmother and her sister, and her two sons (my so called cousins). I slept in the livingroom on the floor, wasn't too bad.

Technically she was my great-aunt, or something like that, not sure where she fit in the family tree cause I never bothered much with that sort of thing. I caller her aunt even tho she was my grandma's sister. She was kind, but it didn't take me long to notice her sons controlled her, specially financially. The old lady would work, just as my grandma did in a factory.

Then all I could see were latinos working in small basement factories in Brooklyn or in larger ones in Manhattan.

After a year (I think) Chevy's closed down, my cousin got another job somewhere else, don't remember where. I ended up in a few factories, and I was terrible at it, I didn't last long anywhere I went.

Finally I started working in restaurants, as a dishwasher of course. I was fast, sometimes I would help the cook when needed.

It was early on when I realized that my lack of english was a serious problem, not only for communication, but I couldn't get a better job because of it.

I could hear the broken english within my family, who had been here for decades. I wanted to fit in. So...I made a logical decision...stop speaking spanish (except to my grandma and her sister cause they were elderly and did not understand english too well) for a whole year.

I became the target of jokes by my 'cousins', was called arrogant, that I was wasting my time. Well, at the end of that year, my english was improved so much that my pronounciation was better than theirs, and I was very happy about that.

My reading skills had also improved, I was able to read and comprehend newspapers, magazines and most of the text on TV.

Grandma was very proud of me, however if was after that year that I pretty much separated myself from the family emotionally even who we were living together.

I guess that is enough for today.