The First Years of my Life
It is a difficult task to relate the events of the first years of one's life, as in reality one has no recollection of those first years, when a tiny…
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The First Years of my Life” from When I Was a Girl in Mexico by Mercedes Godoy, 1919.
It is a difficult task to relate the events of the first years of one's life, as in reality one has no recollection of those first years, when a tiny baby or child, but knows them only from hearsay and things told so many times by elders that gradually they seem really remembered and pictured most vividly in one's mind.
We resided at that time for several years in Mexico City. My brother who preceded me and the one who came after were both born in that city. My parents often made trips to the interior of the Republic and also to the United States, principally to San Francisco, where my mother's parents lived.
I can remember vaguely the large house where my grandparents lived and where my mother and father were married. It had a pretty garden with flowers, which I loved to pick. I also liked to sit out there in the garden with my grandfather and listen to the stories that he told me. We went back there in later years several times, the last time being a few months before the terrible earthquake and fire of 1906 which nearly destroyed the whole city. They say it has changed very much and is greatly improved, though I liked it and admired it as it was before, with its hilly and busy commercial streets, and lovely residential sections and parks.
So it was that since a baby I have been traveling frequently and I have always enjoyed it, as it is most interesting and instructive. The defect one acquires is restlessness when remaining too long in the same place or city, missing the change of scenery, friends, and habits. Nevertheless traveling in different countries and visiting the various cities is very beneficial to the young and old, for in that way they become acquainted with other nationalities, customs, and languages, and see personally many interesting and historical places or things.
I was a very delicate baby and had intermittent fevers when about two years old, so the doctor prescribed a change of climate and my parents took me to Toluca, a pretty little town near the capital. From there we went to San Antonio, Texas, where my father was sent as Mexico's representative to the Exposition at that city. Of course I cannot remember anything about my stay in these places, but a few years later we revisited these two cities. Toluca is a very clean city and is high up on the mountains.
The climate is colder than in Mexico City. All along the road from the capital the scenery is very picturesque and interesting, though not as beautiful as that of Vera Cruz, which I will describe in another chapter later on. The scenery of Toluca, however, is well worth seeing, especially for those who love nature's beauties. San Antonio, Texas, I found to be an attractive city. Being so near Mexico it is generally full of Mexican families, and we have seen several of our friends while there. The only drawback I found was the climate, as it seemed very hot most of the time.
When I was a little girl nearly all the children in Mexico, especially girls, went to private schools or had teachers at home, either because they considered that the public schools were deficient or because their parents did not care to have them mingle with the lower classes. The girls did not pursue studies that would fit them for any professional career, but no doubt this has changed lately, as women in Mexico, as in all parts of the world, are holding more positions and learning how to support themselves.
Since then the public schools have improved and increased greatly, so that larger numbers of children of the well-to-do or middle classes attend them.
The Mexican public schools are similar to those in the United States, consisting of primaries, high schools or preparatory schools, and institutions to train students to become teachers, and members of other professions, as medicine, law, engineering, etc.
Here I may add that since I was a little girl, the most approved methods of teaching have been introduced and adopted, and at present some of the private educational institutions in Mexico can afford to children the same facilities that are given them in other countries. Still, owing to the desire of acquiring the English language and of training the children along active lines and pursuits, many of those who can afford to do so send their children to the United States, especially the boys for engineering and other scientific studies. Families residing in the States of Sonora, Sinaloa, and other Western States of Mexico are apt to send their children to educational institutions in California and the other Pacific Coast States, while those residing in other parts of the Republic send them for that purpose to New York, Massachusetts, and other parts of the United States, and some of them to the city of Washington. In this way the English language has been fostered in Mexico and children nowadays are taught English instead of French as in former years.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of Mexican boys and girls is their liking for literature, and from an early age they show a fondness for reading books by ancient and modern authors of Spain, their mother country, as well as by English and French writers. A great many have read extensively the works of American authors, some of their favorites being Washington Irving, Prescott, Longfellow, and Poe, and one finds a great number of writers and poets, both young and old, in Mexico.
Godoy, Mercedes. When I Was a Girl in Mexico. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1919.
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