Immigrant

As a child

Lorenzo

Baltasar lived in the southern part of Spain, along the coast of the Mediterranean. During his childhood he used to go fishing among the shallows, grabbing any fish that had been caught up during the tide changes. His relatively carefree childhood came to an abrupt end when, in the summer of 1942, Francisco Franco, a fascist dictator, came to power during the Spanish Civil War. Lorenzo and his family, including his little sister Bonita, had barely enough money to make it across the Atlantic towards the promise land: America.

Compared to the war torn Spain, America seemed a beautiful and peaceful land, but this illusion was soon torn away as the Baltasars moved into a tiny apartment in Boston. Lorenzo was sixteen when his family moved, old enough to get a job and begin to take care of his family. The father, Arturo, struggled through three jobs, all of which paid so low that they almost covered rent. Soon Lorenzo was forced to work his own jobs, mostly running odd jobs for neighbors and family friends. This was very different from his earlier untroubled life, but he soon learned to cope with this change. With his help the family survived the ordeal of living in a big city.

The racism so common against people of Southern European descent hurt Lorenzo as a child, there was one instance where he was walking down a street to return a pan his mother had borrowed from a friend. A few 'tall white kids', as he called them, kicked the pan out of his hands and beat him down. They called him cruel names, and then left him to cry home.

Lorenzo had to endure this constant torment as he grew up, but it was nothing compared to what his parents suffered. In Spain Sofia Baltasar had been a loving and caring mother of two, educating and raising them from birth. In Boston she had to work five hours a day sewing up uniforms for the men in action. Instead of taking care of Bonita and Lorenzo, she was busy working to keep the family afloat. But despite every force trying to tear them apart, somehow they would gather every evening and eat their 'late lunches' as a loving family.