Monday, May 19, 2003

Seemed a day like any other. The mailman, a man in his early 20s, enters Jefferson at around 1:15pm to deliver some letters at the office. Less than a minute later he leaves the office. However, the mailman remained on campus: he sat in front of the entrance and conversed with Mrs. Ruvalcaba, the person who’s in charge of Jefferson‘s entrance gate until 1:30pm. They seemed so comfortable with each other.

Mr. Sanchez shows up at 1:25pm, five minutes before he’s supposed to start watching the entrance. A lady comes through the gate and perhaps seeing Mrs. Ruvalcaba busy talking to the mailman, she directs herself to Mr. Sanchez, and he politely asks her to sign her name so she could enter the office. Once she did that, he gave her permission to come in.

As the lady walked away, Mrs. Ruvalcaba said to Mr. Sanchez “This is my territory! It’s not 1:30pm yet!” Mr. Sanchez reminded her that she’s not one to wait until 1:30pm and then leave; it’s typical for her to go home early. Words went back and forth. Suddenly the mailman got up and said, “Are you arguing with my mother?!”

So it turns out that the mailman is Mrs. Ruvalcaba’s son. Since Mrs. Ruvalcaba doesn’t get along with Mr. Sanchez, I doubt the mailman and Mr. Sanchez will look at each other the same way in the future. They used to greet each other with a handshake. It’s already a fact that Mrs. Ruvalcaba’s daughter, also an employee at Jefferson, dislikes Mr. Sanchez. That has been the case for some time. This isn’t the first time Mr. Sanchez and Mrs. Ruvalcaba argue.

Mr. Sanchez has tried to let bygones be bygones. For Christmas, he brought her a gift even though they weren’t getting along. Before showing it to her, he discussed his intent with someone. That someone advised him not to offer the gift to her because she’d turn it down. Mr. Sanchez didn’t think she’d be so rude as to do that. He offered her the gift, and sure enough she rejected it. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Mrs. Ruvalcaba does not exert control over what she says. On one occasion, Jefferson‘s principal passed right in front of us without saying hi. As soon as he was far enough she said, ” Ay, que burro! No saluda!” She was calling him a dunce for not showing a manners.

Today, when her daughter offered me a soda, Mrs. Ruvalcaba said to me “Verdad que es muy caballera? Ya no hay hombres en este mundo. Bueno, queda mi esposo.” She was saying that her daughter was very polite, and at the same time stated that there were no more men left in this world, except for her husband. I just chuckled and said, “Yup.”

When the daughter returned from fetching the sodas, Mrs. Ruvalcaba shared the news with her: another argument had taken place. I bet the daughter dislikes Mr. Sanchez even more now.

Mr. Sanchez sympathizes with the mailman. He said that being his mother, he could not just sit there and watch someone argue with her. At the same time he adds that if he weren’t as big as he is, the mailman would have probably reacted differently… perhaps shove him.

I would have done things differently. I would have taken my mother aside and I’d have asked her to calm down. I would not take a punch at someone blindly, simply for the fact that he has upset my mother. I must consider whether or not my mother’s actions are justified.

Even if I find the guy at fault, I probably would not resort to violence. What would I gain from beating up the guy? Not enough. I’m not one to leave a job half done… I’d have to finish up the guy, and that would ruin my life.

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