The backyard of my hostess is where she "talks to God." I could see yerba buena, romero and ruda in pots made of tin cans and placed in bigger tin cans that had hundreds of holes punched in geometric patterns. The pots surrounded a shrine to Santa Rita, patroness of impossible causes. She buried a stillborn child there, years ago, and for that reason will never move. Her son, a widower with grown children, lived with her and tended her needs.
When he invited me to visit, he had told me, "She liked your story about the woman cibolero, and wanted to tell you about another strong woman, my grandmother. She knows some of the old herbal remedies - when we were babies during World War II that was the only medicine we knew."
After a few minutes of introductory chatting, my hostess launched into her story; "My mother was a leader of a guerilla band during the revolution. She was not an Adelita, as portrayed by macho historians. Mariano Azuela, in his book "Los de Abajo," reflects the attitude toward the women of the revolution - portraying them as either opportunistic whores or saints and angels with hearts of gold desperate for the protection of strong men. The truth is very different - soldaderas were the foragers and cooks for the armies of Villa, Zapata, Obregon and Carranza. If it had not been for the women the men would not have eaten. When needed, the soldaderas also fought, and some, like my mother, became respected leaders of soldiers. Many of the soldaderas followed their husbands, while others were single and were hired by the officers to cook and clean."
"When Mercado retreated to Presidio in 1914, my mother defied orders and remained in the mountains to fight the Villistas. After she studied the situation and procured weapons she slipped across the Rio Bravo at night, and managed to evade the U.S. Army guards around the refugee camp. She then convinced over 50 men to follow her back to Mexico. They harried the Villistas for weeks. Villa was a popular folk hero, but my mother mistrusted him. She felt her opinion of him was proved correct by his execution and brutal slaughter of ninety Carranza soldaderas and their children at Santa Rosalia Camargo in 1916."
"Soldaderas and their children were a third of the total number of the people in the armies of the revolution. In camps the armies broke up into family and regional units. If the army stayed in camp very long, the soldaderas would set up nichos in rocky arroyos and place religious and family articles and pictures in the little shrines. They would light candles and pray for the success of their cause. My mother left her first-born in such a camp - dead from a fever at age 2. Then her first husband was killed. After his death she became a leader because of her grief."
"She wanted to die, so she would ride her horse into the heat of a battle in what appeared to be a suicide attack, but she always came out unscathed. Everybody began to believe she was touched by the hand of God, and began to follow her advice. It was not the only time a woman became a leader. Petra Herrera led the storming of Torreon in 1911 - and she even organized a woman's fighting unit that at one time had over a thousand members. La China led a band of woman in Morelos - all relatives of slain Zapatistas. When some of General Pershing's soldiers pushed into Parral, 12-year-old Elisa Grienssen gathered up the women and children, who then collected all the guns left in town and surrounded the Yankee troops. When Major Frank Tompkins found himself surrounded, she ordered him to shout "Viva Villa" and then told him to take his troops out of town, which he did."
My hostess became tired as she talked, and her words came slower and slower, until she fell asleep. Her son and I sat in silence for a few minutes. From my seat I had another view of the backyard. Most of it was shaded by a huge old mora (fruiting mulberry). Along the back of the fence was a higuera (fig) and a granada (pomegranate.) In this longer examination of the yard, I also notice a large old washtub with filled with a huge old popotillo. Had she dug it up, or raised it by seed? I have only known one person to successfully transplant one, and only one modern native plant wholesale grower regularly has it for sale.
In the aridlands the walled garden is where humans create their version of paradise. Hispanic garden design originates in Moorish (North African Muslim) design. Moorish gardens are divided into quarters, with a focal point in the center (and in the gardens of the more well-to-do, the focal point is a fountain.) This yard had the Santa Rita statue in the center.
"Please open my eyes so I can find the path I need." Startled at the words, I looked at my hostess, who had awakened. She smiled, and continued, "That has always been how I start my prayers when I visit with her and ask her to intercede for me."
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