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Program
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Classic Program
Senior Focus
Crossing Borders
Volume 6, Number 2 - Spring 2008
What prompts Josie to
leave after months of physical and emotional abuse? Will Ramón succeed
in wheedling her back? Do they still love each other; how does a
romance sour? To what extent does the community bolster Josie’s courage;
to what extent is she a model of bravery to them, particularly to the
young narrator?
In different
venues—with female and male readers, with adults, with teens—this
story yields a rich array of responses.
Project Home
We reread the passage where Josie can’t do right even when
she did do right by Ramón. An older woman in the circle added
that like most bullies, Ramón is a crybaby; she then jumped forward to
the final paragraph rereading how he pathetically relents and pleads for
Josie to stay with him. “I had a bully for a boyfriend but got rid of
him fast; it’s better to be alone.” It appeared that most of the
participants concurred with this observation.
Some of us thought that Josie decides to leave for the baby’s
sake, but she couldn’t have done it without the help of her neighbors.
“What would have happened to her if she was alone? He would keep beating
her,” another woman answered. A participant then reread the section
where Josie still shows her love for Ramón, leaving him rice and beans
on the stove. “He’ll be lost without her,” she exclaimed. Most of the
women thought that Ramón would never change and that Josie was better
off without him.
Finally, we read a stanza from Robert Creely’s poem, “Ballad
of the Despairing Husband,” “…My wife and I lived all alone/contention
was our only bone./I fought with her, she fought with me/and things went
on quite merrily./But now I live here by myself/with hardly a damn thing
on the shelf/…”
“…And that’s what will happen to Ramon,” commented one woman.
--Lawrence McCarty
Lancaster county Youth Intervention Center
The
memories are sweet and hard; by turns excruciating or exhilarating. The
day Alex saw his uncle overdose. The day Diana decided she did not want
to feel ashamed and afraid any more. The day Alyssa realized she has
fought every single person who said they cared about her. The day Nate
saw his mother being beaten but felt incapable of stopping it. The day
Roberta came to know that if she returned to that house for one more
day, either he would kill her or she would kill herself.
"The
Day It Happened” allows us to look at these defining moments in our
lives; to re-examine the harm or hurt in order to acknowledge the
strength it takes to bear witness to these moments in our lives. I hope
it also allows us to gain a sense of healing and, perhaps, to find a
healthier, safer way forward.
--Scott Feifer
Morales', "The Day It Happened,"
Hits Readers' Hearts
“My grandmother would have hit him over the head with a rolling
pin,” declared a participant in Women of Change, part of Project HOME in
Philadelphia. “Josie’s problem is that she put up with his bullying too
long,” added another woman.
Whether it is with women at the Domestic Violence Services Shelter or
the young men and women in juvenile detention at the Lancaster County
Youth Intervention Center, there comes a moment in our discussions when
we consider our own personal "day it happened." And there comes a
potent, poignant remembering of defining moments in our lives.
Sometimes they are moments of clarity born of chaos. Sometimes
inspiring acts of independence ignited by frightening acts of violence.