[HEW] It is said that there are many alter-egos for Rolando Hinojosa in the Condado de
Belken, among which Jehú Malacara is included. How much of Jehú’s religious experience is Hinojosa’s?
In your work we find references to all the sacraments of the Catholic Church and even see children serving as altar servers. This reference would imply a consistent presence of Catholic Education in your generation and that of Becky’s children.
Taking this into account, were all children born into Catholic families enrolled in this education? Are there any generational breaks?
[RHS] In re Jehú’s religious experience in my work.
None; ours was not a religious family.
My father knew all the prayers and I once heard
him recite many of them, however, we did not attend mass or church as a family.
My mother, during World War II, went to mass and I was dragged along with her, but none of this influenced me as far as religion and credence were concerned. She ceased to go when World War II ended. And that was it.
As for my father, he was taken to church when he died, and that, too, was it. In re Mother, a fine person, generous, witty, and much loved and respected by those who knew her, but she, too, was not religious.
Religion was not a subject in our home.
As for Jehú’s religious experience, that was his, a fictional character, but nothing to do with me or us.
As for as other churches, the Mexican American Protestants consisted of Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists along with some of the other sects. Two of them
had fine brick-built churches except for the Presbyterians but theirs was a fine looking building and well-kept. The Mormons also came to the Valley, and some Mexican Americans converted or accepted, but that was all I knew about them.
[HEW] You once mentioned in a private conversation that there were two Catholic
Schools in the valley. Was religious development left up to those institutions? Were parents or grandparents involved in this part of this religious experience? Was religious education free and in what language did it take place?
St. Joseph’s for the boys and Villa María for the girls. My two sisters married Brownsville men, one was a Catholic, the other a Presbyterian; in the latter, my brother-in-law law met with friends at a local hotel on Sunday mornings, but the group didn’t attend church. My other sister
married a Catholic and attended Mass and were friends with one of the priests, but that was about it. Their children attended Brownsville public schools.
The two Catholic schools mentioned above were not free. Many of the Mexican American students at St. Joe’s (I knew a bunch) spoke English with a strong Spanish intonation. Why? Because, among the teaching Brothers, many came from Central America.
Others spoke English without a Spanish intonation.
[HEW] One of the most studied Mexican popular devotions is that of altar making and
novenas.
Did you experience these during your childhood?
Where these types of popular devotions encouraged by any priests?
Where the Oblates of Mary Immaculate included within the priests you were acquainted with?
If so, what was your experience with them?
How did men see such popular devotions - novenas, altars?
[RHS] In re altar making and novenas, until your questions, I had no idea parishioners
were engaged in such matters. If they did, they must have been the ones who lived close or closer to the churches.
In my hometown*, there were two Catholic churches, one for Anglos and one for Mexican Americans although some Anglos attended the Mexican parish. At times, I attended with my mother during W W II and that’s how I saw them. But this was irregular: as a teen ager, I caddied at the Mercedes golf course on Saturdays and Sundays.
My father? As said, he was taken to the church the day he died.
I don’t know about my older brothers and sisters, but as for me, I didn’t go through the ceremony of a first communion. We weren’t anti-church, we just didn’t attend.
As you can see, I had no truck with the Oblates; we were indifferent. In the army, here in the States, I went with a bunch of Catholics one Sunday, and that was it. While overseas, I didn’t attend at all.
[HEW] As for the presence of Protestantism in your work and in the Valley, what
[RHS] In re Tomás Imás, I would place him in one of the smaller sects not with Baptists,
et alia. As for Jehú, I’d have to place him with Catholics, but that too was sporadic until he met the Mexican American minister who was raised ‘up north.’
When I wasn’t playing ball in the neighborhood, I would listen to adult men's conversations in the evenings; they met across the street from our house. (Mercedes had a population of 6300 at that time).
I don’t think religion was ever a topic; to them, at that time, the ‘40s, the subject, often enough, would be town gossip as well as mention of the Mexican Revolution of l910, work, or lack of work.
[HEW] To your knowledge, did Protestant pastors and churches share any particular
concern with priests in the Valley?
[RHS] I doubt the priests met with the Protestants. There was no hostility I heard of.
A family last-named García and the de la Cerdas were Presbyterians. The boys I knew were Genaro García and Segundo and Santiago de la Cerda. We knew each other because of school and the size of our hometown. We weren’t close friends because they didn’t live close to us or in our neighborhood.
I know nothing about the Protestants sects and not much more about the Catholics.
[HEW] Lastly, do you have any final reflections about the presence of a strong Catholic
component in your narrative? [College Station]
[RHS] As for the strong Catholic component appears in the KCDT, I
have no idea why it appears so much.
I was not baptized until I was almost four-years-old. My godparents lived in San Diego, Texas (it’s in Duval County in South Texas). My godfather and my father had been partners during The Mexican Revolution (buying, selling, and trading horses) and remained friends until their deaths. How they met, I have no idea.
I come from a family of readers; of the five of us, four went into teaching. As a young woman, my mother helped her mother, (Martha Phillips Smith) teach English to the Mexican American kids at the ranch. My mother, raised among Mexicans, was bilingual and bicultural: reading, writing, etc.
Rolando (* Mercedes).