Literary Arts Magazine Spring 2010 | Page 50

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