Los Cuentos Hispanos (Molina)

Molina, Silvia. Repasey escriba. 2007:pgs. 27-29.

 “La casa nuevo”

Escritora: Silvia Molina

Translation by Sydney McKnight

Before I read this story, I asked the ninth graders to think about the following questions:
Did you ever move into a new house? If so, compare and contrast characteristics of your new home vs. your old one.
If could move into a new home, what would it look like on the interior as well as the exterior?
What do you think about the families who are less fortunate who dream about owning a decent home?
What do think about the people who have lost their home? What would you do to help?             A little girl did not believe in luck. She said that her father always did, and that it became a sickness. Her father won the lottery, and the family was going to move into a new house. La calle de Melchor Ocampo, where the family was going to buy a house there, was clean, exotic, and a dream. However, the little girl and her family lived in San Rafael. San Rafael was dirty, consisted of two bedrooms, no running water, and no bathroom. The little girl could not wait to move into a better place.
             When the little girl saw the house for the first time, she loved the fence with the white paint, and the house smelled fresh. She held onto her father’s hand to entire time as he showed her the house. He showed her new room. Her new room consisted of many compartments for her clothes and toys. The little girl said that she was so happy because she finally had a room to herself. She did not have to sleep with her brothers anymore. In addition, the little girl saw her twin sisters’ room, her brother’s room, her parents’ room, laundry room, dining room, kitchen, and most importantly the bathroom. The little girl was extremely excited because she could finally put her entire body in a bath tub, and sit on a toilet seat without having to go outside and use the canteen
             The little girl was so excited about the new house. She said that when she will return to school, she will write a composition describing her new house versus her old one. The little girl finally let go of her father’s hand because she went back upstairs to view her room again. However, the little girl described a man in a suite (the real estate agent) ordering her to close the bedroom door. The little girl is confused, and she asked her father why she was not allowed to see her room anymore. Unfortunately, the end of the story reveals that the father could not afford to make a settlement on the house after all.
              The ninth grade students were shocked. I asked what their thoughts were about the story. Half of the class believed that the little girl’s father had good intentions, and the other half said that the father had bad intensions. For an exercise I had split the class evenly in ones and twos. The ones had to explain in Spanish why they felt that the father had good intentions, and the twos had to explain to their partners in Spanish why they felt that the father had bad intentions. When the class period was over, I had the students write their responses to the questions above in Spanish for a homework assignment.