A Short Biography of My Life
By José Molina
My name is José Molina, I was born in a
village called “San Jose” which is approximately seven kilometers from Chalatenango, El Salvador. In 1968, at the
age of seven, I started working with my
father Patricio, who was a farmer. We
cropped corn, rice, jicama, beans, and
squashes. This place was one hour and a
half from where we lived.
In addition, we had domestic animals such as oxes, cows, horses, pigs,
roosters, hens, and ducks. We used the
oxes to plow the land and horses to
carry the heavy things from the farm
to house. In 1976, when I was twelve
years old, I left home because my father treated me very badly. He beat me
up almost everyday because he did not
want me to go to school. Therefore, I
had to leave home. At first, I lived in
Chalatenango. I started working at a
store and I had to distribute beverages
to the other stores. Also, I had to go
the Capital city every Monday to buy
more drinks when we ran out.
In 1979, when I was sixteen years
old, I quit the job and I moved to the
San Salvador Capital. After a few days,
I enrolled in for the Army. In the long
run, I was stationed at 1st Brigade located in San Salvador. Eight months afterwards, they sent me to the 3rd Brigade located in San Miguel city of the
West Zone where the small cities, val-
ley, and villages
were conflict areas.
On March 31,
1983, when we were patrolling the road
from Chapeltique Town to Ciudad Barrios Town, we were suddenly ambushed
by the guerrillas. First of all, I heard a
landmine‟s explosion on the side of the
road. After, I heard grenades, machinegun and rifles. At that moment, nine soldiers died and six were shrapnel
wounded, including me. I got shot twice
one in my right calf and one in my left
arm. Also, I got some shrapnel from a
mine in part of my body. This mine is
well-known as “Claymore Mine.” It
means an antipersonnel mine, a landmine
in the shape of a convex disk that is
placed above ground and detonates
horizontally. It is designed to kill or
maim approaching personnel.
Finally, in 1990, I decided to come
to the United States to work and support my family. In 1992, I received the
bad news that my father had died, so I
could not go to see him before he was
buried. Now, I am here in the U.S.
working and studying English as a Second Language at Carlos Rosario Charter
School.
Teacher: Michael Price
ESL 7 Morning
Spring 2009
49