How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water (19)

I worry about La Vieja Caridad because I can smell the cancer on her, just like with Glendaliz, but she won’t check the blood. But she is right; I can’t make her check. Learn this from me: If you try to fix something that somebody do not want to fix they will hate you for it. To offer help is OK. To push, no.

So you see, if I go to work in El Barrio, I can’t make dinner for her. And that’s no good for the present. Ha!

Why you can’t help me find a job close to my apartment, like in the hospital? That way I can walk to work. Hernán told me there was an opportunity to work in the hospital. Not in his kitchen; in another kitchen in another building. You heard about that job? No? He doesn’t even know if they advertise because, I told you, for everything around here you need a key. Can you find out for me? Because I need your help for this.

Maybe you know Hernán. No? Everybody knows Hernán. He’s bald like an egg, with hair that grows out his ears. Not ugly. Just not the kind of man that you would be wow, right away.

In the hospital, Hernán is loved. I don’t recommend hospital food to nobody. I don’t know how people feel better drinking that hot and dirty water they call soup. Everybody knows for the sopa to be good you have to boil the bones. The nutrients are in the bones. You need the salt to activate it. A lot of garlic and onion. Some carrots or auyama and celery for sure. And when it’s hot-hot and it has been boiling for an hour, you strain it. And if you want to go crazy put a little vinegar to make it alive, but also vinegar cures everything. It makes a difference when you cut the vegetables and think, This sopa is going to make you feel better. Sometimes I ask myself, with all the schools people go to, all the money in this country, why people don’t know how to make a good sopa. It’s sad to heat a soup from a can or mix powder into hot water.

Learn this from me: Eating food from the streets will kill you. It’s dead food.

And this is why Hernán is especial—in the good way. Hernán’s cooking is better than any restaurant. Even when the hospital says no to all his ideas, because dique the budget, he knows how to resolver. He saves the scraps from the vegetables and puts them in the caldo. Nothing is wasted in his kitchen. He makes the hospital food good because he cares.

And you know why Hernán is such a good cook? Because I invent in the kitchen and I teach him everything I know. That’s right!

Write that down: Cara Romero likes to invent.

I am not surprised that that test said I am an Innovator. I’ve been thinking about that test. How it says I’m good at helping and I’m good to organize. And I think that’s true about me.

An example? Hmm. I have many examples of when I organized in the factory. I will tell you this one. Every day, we had to make a certain number of lamparita pieces. Then one day, they increased our numbers. El jefe had pressure to meet the orders. He didn’t want us to talk, because if we talked, or listened to the radio, we were more slow. I was always good with my numbers but Lulú, no.

This is the thing, when Lulú was working in the sewing factory downtown, the télele-télele of sewing machines ruined Lulu’s wrists; that vibration is a killer. That’s why I got her a job in our factory. And for a time she was doing better, but again she was feeling the pain. In her arms, her neck, her back, from sitting many hours. I felt the pain too, but I’m accustomed to it. Lulú likes to complain.

Me, I’m a fast worker. El jefe would say, Cara give me 3000 pieces, I made 5000.That’s why they called me La Maquineta. I was proud of my numbers too. But if I went too fast, Lulú, Do?a Lilina, and Do?a Altagracia looked too slow.

Hurry up, el jefe told las do?as, that have almost seventy years and had the arthritis in the knees and the hips. He said this to Lulu too, when she dropped the merchandise to the floor because she couldn’t feel her fingers.

Go to the doctor, I always told Lulú. And one time, she did. But the doctor said she should take a vacation to rest her hands and arms. He said to apply for worker’s comp. Ha! The factory wanted to lay off people. Most of the people on probation never became permanent. Even before the crisis, we heard of factorías going to other countries. And we liked our job. Some of the jefes were good to us. Well, they paid us very punctual every week. And overtime.

The doctor said that if Lulú couldn’t take a vacation, she should take short breaks through the day. The doctor said we should all take breaks, even for one minute: a break every thirty minutes, to stretch the legs and the hands. Very important. If not, we’ll have the pain. Sitting all day is more bad for the health than smoking a cigarette. But we’re not permitted to stop working so we can stretch our legs. And no note from the doctor was going to convince el jefe. Look, when they started laying off people, we never stopped, even to use the bathroom.

Now you will see why I’m a good organizer. I made a secret meeting during lunch. I told the young ones what the doctor said. And if the jefes won’t give us the breaks, we have to steal the breaks. If we work together, we can do the job, and not destroy our bodies. Also, because some people are slower, when we finish our quotas, we should help the others. It worked. We took turns to take small, one-minute breaks and still made the numbers without el jefe noticing. We were like a family and took care of each other. The new girls didn’t understand this in the beginning, but when they paid attention to me, they became one of us.