Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 63

Decatur, Illinois Sunday, February 24, 1991 PAGE D5 Family strives to preserve Mexican heritage JpjiaiOSOwooasaoai I-J I in mil jC Jirf fi i 'v. TV Mil i i "1 mm -amtmmrm xidm. By THERESA CHURCHILL Staff Writer ARCOLA Jaime Garza journeyed from northeastern Mexico to Central Illinois in 1969. Like the dozen or so Mexicans who came before him and the scores who came after him, Garza fled unemployment in one broommaking capital to find work in another. In Cadereyta, Mexico, he earned less than a dol-.

lar an hour for his broommaking skills if he could find a job at all. Now the 58-year-old Garza earns about $7 an hour working for Libman Broom Co. in Areola. Fidel Silva, who followed a truck hauling broom corn to Areola in 1967, is believed to be the first Mex ican to find work there. In all, about 250 Mexicans live in Areola today, with many employed by Libman or one of the other broom-making factories in town Warren Brothers Broom Co.

and Thomas Monahan Co. WHILE MANY IN THE first generation had little formal schooling and many of their children dropped out of high school to help their families, college beckons for the third generation. Of Garza's six surviving children who came with their mother to join him in Areola in 1971, just one son, Raymundo, went on to graduate from high school. Federico, who was 15 at the time of the family's arrival, bypassed Areola schools entirely to work at Libman Broom Co. Three sisters and another brother eventually dropped out of school.

Each, however, has since earned a GED high school equivalency certificate. All six either have jobs or are enrolled in college with the dream of more opportunities for their offspring. "It will be different for the grandchildren than it was for us," says Rosarip Barrientos. Indeed, the difference began right away. When the family settled in Areola, they left behind a two-room concrete house with a tin roof and moved into a five-room wood-frame house Garza had rented.

Today Garza and his wife, Isabel, own a seven-room house. BUT THE GARZAS ALSO left behind a way of life. His English still too poor to describe the culture shock, Jaime Garza talks in Spanish and his daughters translate: "The women are very liberated here. An American woman goes to a bar; Mexican women don't." Jaime and Isabel tried to preserve their culture at home. Nothing but Spanish could be spoken in the house, and the couple kept a tight rein on their children, forbidding sleepovers with friends and, later on, dating for the daughters.

Her words translated, Isabel Garza explains, "We didn't want our kids to pick up American values." The elder Garzas still live much like they did is Mexico. Even though Isabel also works at Libman Broom she does all the housework and insists FAMILY TIES: Isabel Garza lifts the cover off a dish at mealtime, while from left, Maria Barrientos, Her-linda Kauffman, Micaela Kauffman, Emmanuel Barrientos and Joshua Chavarria prepare to eat. that men and children be served first at her dinner table. Their adult children, however, do things a bit differently. While daughter Rosario is quick to serve husband Manuel his supper, he often does the dishes.

And English is the language theyuse with their three children. "They understand Spanish, but they don't speak it," she explains. AS THE MEXICANS have become more familiar to their American community, acceptance has grown. Daughter Herlinda Kauffman was 7 when the Garzas came to the United States. She remembers the pain of her classmates calling her "spic" or "greasy Mexican" but says the taunting faded by the time she reached high school.

"Now the fact that we're here is no big deal," she says. Still, even the younger Areola Mexicans haven't given up their entire heritage. The Garzas report that children's birthdays are often celebrated with pinatas. And the Rev. Peter Paul Bertoldo of St.

John's Catholic Church notes that wedding receptions are accompanied by the traditional Spanish rice and ta-males. "Whenever they have a wedding or a baptism," he says, "they go in pretty big with it, and they always have their food." That's certainly true of the Garzas. "We still don't eat American food much," Herlinda says. Indeed, 11 members of the family recently sat down at Jaime and Isabel's house for a spicy meal of chocolate chicken (mole), Spanish rice, fajitas, tortillas and salad. Explains a smiling daughter, Graciela Chavarria, "Us Mexicans think better with our stomachs full." Photos by Darrell Goemaat RICH HERITAGE: Broommaker Jaime Garza and his wife they did in Mexico.

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