For more than twenty years Javier’s brother
Alcides had epileptic seizures, but there was no doctor to help him in Nicoya,
and there was no money to go to San Jose until 1958, when Javier was
twenty-two and had saved six months of his salary from his first job.
Then he, his brother, and their mother set out for San Jose. (Por que nadie vino de San José? A
causa de la dificultad de hacer el viaje?)
This involved a horse, an ox-driven cart, a
raft, a train, and a taxi over about 225 miles, most on land and about five
miles on water. They had to leave in the morning because there was a
change of tide, when there wasn’t enough water to take the raft on the river
between Puerto Jesus and Punta Arenas. So they first took two horses from
Nicoya for about 7 miles through the bush (se llama “the bush”? Era una
selva? Muchos arboles, nada de caminos?) to a wider space,
where they took an ox-driven cart to Puerto Jesus. Then they took a raft
for four hours to travel about five miles to Punta Arenas, where they spent the
night. The next day they took the train—electric, not charcoal-fueled--from
Punta Arenas to San Jose, where they took a taxi to Pension Palma, where he
asked his mother and brother to stay inside so they wouldn’t get lost, and he
set out to find a doctor. He found an eye doctor (?Como lo encontraste?) and
offered to pay him if he could direct them to a doctor who could help his
epileptic brother. The doctor refused the money but directed Javier
to a Doctor Cuevas, and once everything was arranged, Javier took his
brother and their mother to see Dr. Cuevas The doctor gave them
three medicines for his brother, and all seizures stopped for a year, at which
time they started again. Javier telegrammed the doctor to find out what
to do, and the doctor told them to wait two days until the body had forgotten
that it “knew” the medicines and could fight against them.
The next time Javier took his brother to San Jose, they went by plane—a DC 10,
and it took fifteen minutes instead of a day and a half to make the distance of
one hundred and twenty-five miles.
This story represents to me part of what I love in Javier—his spirit and his
way of finding a solution. The journey to San Jose seems almost heroic
and mythic to me, but there are other things Javier has done that also impress
me because they show an individual, brave approach—actually bravely approaching
individuals he didn’t know. For example, parking around City College was
frustratingly difficult, and one day he noticed an elderly woman out in
her yard, and she didn’t have a car parked in her driveway. He explained
that he was a teacher and would pay her $50.00 (?) a month (a semester?)
if she would let him park in her driveway. She was very happy
to get the money and to make it look as if someone was coming and going from her
house. For several years, he had a break between classes and wanted to
rest without having to go home. He spoke to a janitor who gave him the
key to a tiny attic room where Javier could lie down. This “finding a
way” goes way back to his childhood, when in order to see movies (Perils of
Nyoka and other wonders) he became the drummer boy, walking around the
square in Nicoya and beating on a drum while another boy followed behind with a
sandwich board giving the address of the man who showed the movies in his home
for the five cents that Javier and the other kid didn’t have to pay because
they worked for the establishment. He worked as an altar boy and made more
money than a school teacher (?) because he served at marriages, funerals, and
every other rite of passage. Once, when he saw a man repairing
bicycles, he told the man that he could do that and showed the man, who then
gave him a job repairing bicycles. He gave the money he made to his
mother. After all, he didn’t need money if he could play drums and get
into movies free. He says that growing up his brother got all the
attention because of his special needs, so he learned to fend for
himself. When he was sent off to high school in Liberia (Costa Rica), he
was only twelve (?), and he was scared. He cried whenever he was
alone. Other people were accompanied by their parents, but he didn’t have
anyone, so he just found groups and joined them without waiting to be
invited. Later it was clear that he was blessed. When he had a wife
and four children to support, he went for an interview at Los Gatos, and the
director turned out to be a Mormon missionary who had served in Costa
Rica. Once he found out that Javier was from that country, he conducted
the whole interview in Spanish and offered Javier a job on the spot. He
also got Javier credited for previous teaching, and with that extra sum of
$5,000, Javier made a down payment (25% of the cost!) on a house in Fremont—one
of the homes where he still lives. The second year, when the Mormon
director couldn’t offer Javier any classes, he contacted the director at Terra
Linda and told him about Javier and what a good teacher he was. Before Javier
arrived at Terra Linda, he had already been hired. Then, a couple of
years later, there was one full-time position open at City College and 122
applicants. Javier got the job!
He says his philosophy in life is “Se amable, y pone mucho esfuerzo.” Be
kind and try hard. He seems to live by his philosophy.
