Juan Conde Pena’s Life 2

Juan Conde Pena’s Life 2

Presentado por; Iris de La Rosa Vélez, 2014

My years in school were memorable

My years in school were memorable. Since that first day, I have enjoyed going to school and sitting on a front seat. My best friend, Julio, sat behind me. Both of us were supposed to learn to write our names at the same time. But my friend didn’t learn to write his own name; he learned to write mine.  Whenever we took test, there were two papers with the same name, but with different handwriting. This incident created confusion until the teacher discovered it. Thereafter, she taught my friend, Julio, to write his own name. As for me, I enjoyed all the subjects, especially mathematics. I liked mathematics so much that I fell in love with the teacher. I was heartbroken when she didn’t feel the same way. Later I realized that I was too young (thirteen years old) to have a romance with a woman who was 26 years old.

I suffered various bad accidents

During my adolescence, I experienced the following accidents. As I was pasturing a bull, it started to run; and when I tried to hold it, I tripped on a large rock and fell. The fell was so severe that I was unconscious for a while. When I regained consciousness, I felt such a terrible pain in my chest that I could hardly breathe. With great difficulty, I stood up and walked home. When I arrived there, my mother tried her home remedies, but none helped. Then she took me to a well-known spiritualist in our neighborhood. This man knew what I was suffering from; thus, he prescribed the tea of a plant (named piringa). Immediately after drinking that tea, I started to feel better. My mother considered it a miracle, but later I found out that that particular plant had been used before to treat others with my condition. The other accident, in which I was almost killed, happened to me on a rainy day. I went swimming in a nearby river. Although the river was overflowing, I dived in. The current was so strong that I lost control, and the water pulled me into an undercurrent.  As I was about to be sucked under; a man miraculously appeared and pulled me out.  This incident makes me think that God has always been watching over me.

During my youth I was restless and looking for excitement

When I was 15 years old, I joined the Puerto Rican National Guard because I was desperate to experience some adventure in my life. I spent two and half years them, but nothing adventurous happened. I learned discipline, the military commands, and how to fire a rifle, a carbine, a caliber 45 gun, and bazooka. Once every year, I went to a camp for two weeks. Being in the National Guard gave me a sense of independence because I could earn my own money, and could get away from home. During my first year, everything seemed exciting. I went to meeting vividly an experience I had when we were activated for the first time. One day I felt so homesick that I started to cry. When my sergeant noticed it and asked me it, I told him that I had a toothache.

I moved to the states- my first job

I continued to thirst for something more exciting to happen in my life. Therefore, when I was seventeen and a half years old, I moved to New York City. I remember flying with Pan American. At that time, I was madly in love with a girl who was also making the trip. The flight, which took close to nine hours, appeared to be like a dream to me. Upon arrival at the airport, we boarded a cab that took us to my uncle’s home in the Bronx. I remember speaking to an English speaking man for the first time. He found us place to stay while we waited for my uncle to come home from work. I only stayed in New York City for three months because my oldest brother Lupe, was waiting for me in Concord, Massachusetts. He had already secured a farm job for me.

I started working in the fields;; picking tomatoes, digging up carrots, and cutting celery, cabbage, and onions. The living conditions and the work in the fields were intolerable for me. I lived with another fifteen men in a two-story house. We slept on bunk beds in a large room on the second floor. To this date, I cannot imagine how we managed to share a toilet and a couple of showers. Outside, the cold weather made our work in the fields very difficult. It penetrated the two layers of clothing I wore. Many times, I felt as if my toenails were being pulled out. Working inside was better except when we peeled onions. The onion’s essence rose and caused us to have teary eyes.

 

The farm work was not my ideal field- so I returned to the city

After working on the farm for four months, I returned to New York City.  I moved in with my uncle. He was very glad to have me because he had just purchased a grocery store and needed help. He lived in a three bedroom apartment with his wife and three children in the South Bronx. Since all the bedrooms occupied, I slept in the hall on a couch. I rose every morning at five o’clock to go work, and I had to work until nine o’clock in the evening. Sometimes, the work became unbearable. Many times I had to carry boxes filled with groceries to a 4^th or 5^th floor because they didn’t have elevators in those buildings. Although I worked many hours for seven days a week, I do not remember ever getting paid- my dear uncle took advantage of my naiveté. Nevertheless, the good Lord did not forsake me and sent me a friend to get me out of that predicament.

 

Living alone for the first time

My friend helped me find a job in Manhattan. It was in a small factory where I worked with two men reconditioning radio and television tubes. I had a terrible experience my first day on the job because I did not know how return home. Thus, I boarded the subway that I thought was to the Bronx, and I ended up in Brooklyn. When I realized that I had takes the wrong train, I kept changing from one subway train to another, and I because more and more lost. Finally, I got out of the subway and took buses. After taking several buses and asking several people for directions, I arrived at my uncle’s apartment about four hours late.

I felt very good to earn my own money. Although I earned only $32.00 a week, I had money in my pocket and a sense of independence.  Immediately, I went to live on my own and rented a room for $5.00 a week. It was a very small room with a small bed, an old dresser, a chair, and a table. I shared a kitchen, refrigerator a stove, a dining room table, a shower and a toilet with the other tenants. My independence caused some problems because I started experimenting with alcohol. I spent most of the money I earned drinking in bars. As a consequence, every Monday morning I was without a dollar in my pocket. Luckily, the restaurant’s owner, where I ate my meals, extended me credit. Not only did I buy meals from him on credit, but he also lent me money for transportation and packed lunches for me. Thus, I depended on his kindness to help me subsist throughout the week. Now I understand that the independence that I seemed to enjoy in the beginning was curtailed by my alcohol habit.

 

 

I was desperate looking for employment

I worked at this job only three and a half months because the business went bankrupt. During the last week three, the tip of my right hand ring finger got caught in a machine, and was severed. Although my foreman helped me complete the compensation papers, I did not file a claim because I did not compensation office. My economic situation worsened when I could not qualify for unemployment insurance because I hadn’t worked the required quarters. Fortunately, I managed to save money that I use to play rent and carfare. Although I looked desperately for a job every day, nothing materialized. As a result, I could eat only one meal a day because I did not want to spend the rent money on food. I pictured myself sleeping under a bridge in the cold weather, and this was a frightening thought.

While I was experiencing this precarious situation, my Lord inspired me to visit a friend whom I had not seen for years. When this friend learned about my situation, she invited me to come for dinner every day. This experience reminds me of Kings 17ː6 when God sent a raven to feed Elijah when he was hiding from Queen Jezebel. I had supper with this kind lady and her family until I found a job. I went to work as a kitchen helper, in a country hotel up in The Blue Ridge Mountains in Reading, PA. This wonderful experience strengthened my faith in God.

I washed pots and pans in a hotel Pennsylvania

I helped the pastry chef prepare and serve the desserts. Additionally, I washed huge pots and pans. Since we didn’t have any entertainment, I decided one day to go swimming in the Black and White Lake. Although I couldn’t see the other side, I dived in to swim across it. While I was swimming, I got cramps in both legs, and I couldn’t turn back because I was already in the middle of the lake. I summoned all my strength and turned on my back and with great difficulty I managed to swim to the other side. Once there, I discovered that there wasn’t a road nearby. So, after I rested for a while I swam back. That horrible experience taught me not to swim alone. When the summer season ended, the pastry chef invited me to go with him to his next job in Florida, but I was already tired of washing pots and pans, and I returned to New York City.

 

I returned to the big city

With the money I had saved, I rented a furnish room in the Bronx and immediately began searching for a job. I visited an employment agency that sent me to a company that worked for the Defense Department. This agency charged me a fee amounting to 10% of the first week’s salary, for which I had to make a down payment. When I arrived at the Defense Department Company, I found a long line of the people waiting to be hired. I immediately inquired if they had been referred by the employment agency, and most of them said, ‘’no’’. Therefore, I completed the employment from and returned to the agency to have my deposit refunded. They refused to return my deposit at first, but at my persistence, they relented. The following Monday, I started on my new job. I had to solder together certain parts that were later used in different defense equipment. My supervisor never told me about the use of those parts because it was confidential information.

 

I returned to Puerto Rico take care of my father

After working at this place for about a year, my mother wrote to me that my father had suffered a heart attack. Immediately, I took a two week leave of absence and flew to Puerto Rico. My father was very ill, so I didn’t return to work at the end of the two week leave. Instead, I went with my mother to the spiritualists because she believed that the spirits could heal. Those charlatans prescribed a series of home remedies but none of them helped, and my father’s health continued to deteriorate. We finally decided not to continue wasting our money on them.

My economic situation worsened because I had spent all my money. I couldn’t even buy an airplane ticket to return to New York. Consequently, I accepted a job as a watchman for the Eastern Sugar Company where my father had worked many years. This company gave me the job as a favor to my father. At this job, I walked from one the sugar canes. At twelve o’clock every day, I had lunch with my cousin who was working in the mills. I worked at this job for a few months, saved some money, and bought the plane ticket to return to New York.

 

I experienced a terrible airplane accident

In 1951, there was only one major airplane, Pan American, and some smaller airlines flying to the states. Since I didn’t have enough money to fly with the major airline, I bought my ticket with a small airline to fly to Florida and then to New York. When I arrived at the airport, the plane wasn’t ready to take off, and the mechanics were fixing it. Therefore, they took us to a nearby hotel for the night. The following day the plane was still out of service, so we waited until night to take off. Finally, we started our flight around 11ː00 p.m., and everything went fine for about fifteen minutes. Just when we thought that everything was going smoothly, one of the two engines caught fire. The night darkness made the fire more ominous. Since about half of the passengers had made other flying arrangements, and our entire luggage had been sent on another plane, the plane was lighter than usual and the pilot was able to land the plane safely. Thank you GOD.

Although the attendants insisted that we stay and board the same plane the following night, I returned home. I must admit that I was too scared to fly on that plane, but most of the other passengers stayed and flew on it. A week later, I went to pick up my luggage, and a week thereafter, I bought a plane ticket with Pan American Airlines. It was the most horrible flying experience I have ever been through. I kept watching the engines throughout the eight-hour trip; and every time I saw sparks coming from them, I thought that they were going to burn up.