El Lector

by William Durbin

  “Testing.” Parsons tapped on the microphone and spoke. “Testing oneski, twoski, threeski.” Laughing, he turned to the sound engineer, who sat behind a panel of electric switches and dials.

  “The level’s fine,” the engineer said.

  “Let’s start with this.” Parsons handed Grandfather a typed page. “You go first, and then we’ll try Miss Lorente.”

  Grandfather scanned the paper. “You want me to read this?”

  “Since we’re planning a Spanish story hour, we’ve worked up a little commercial,” Parsons said.

  “Selling soap?” Grandfather frowned.

  “Give her a shot.” Parsons patted Grandfather’s shoulder.

  Grandfather pulled a handkerchief from his vest pocket and dabbed his brow. He started reading the commercial, but Parsons stopped him. “Could you hold the paper to one side? You’re covering up the mike.”

  Grandfather moved the paper and leaned into the microphone. It made a loud squeal. “Whoa!” said Parsons. “That’s a bit too close.”

  As Grandfather read the commercial, no one paid attention to him. Bella had never heard Grandfather’s voice sound so weak and raspy. Parsons kept whispering to Mr. Howard, and the woman at the piano bench continued to rehearse her lines. Bella wished that Juan Fernandez were there to quiet everyone by ringing his bell as he did at the factory.

  Grandfather coughed, and he looked very gray and pale.

  Parsons looked up. “Everything okay, gramps?”

  Before Grandfather could answer, Bella reached into her purse and pulled out a worn volume. She walked to Grandfather and put the book in his hand. Then she turned to Parsons. “Señor García would prefer to read from a novel.”

  “But we really need to see how the sponsor’s material matches up with—”

  “This will only take a moment.” Bella stepped aside.

  Grandfather looked Bella in the eye and nodded as he took his place in front of the microphone. “I will now read for you The Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight, Don Quixote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes.”

  When Mr. Howard heard the change in Grandfather’s tone, he waved for Parsons to be quiet. The soundman looked up from behind the control panel, and the woman in green set down her script. Grandfather read in perfect Castilian Spanish:

  “In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I do not wish to recall, there lived a little while ago one of those gentlemen who are wont to keep a lance in the rack, an old buckler, a lean horse, and a swift greyhound. . . .”

  Thus began the tale of Cervantes’ gentle knight of La Mancha, a man who took it upon himself to right the wrongs of the world. Bella smiled as Grandfather continued. Though Quixote blundered through life, his heart was pure and his intentions were noble. And like Roberto García, through the most difficult of times, he remained a man of honor.

  As Grandfather’s deep, resonant voice continued, the woman at the piano bench stood up and quietly made her way to Bella’s side. She leaned toward Bella and whispered, “Who is that man?”

  “That is Roberto García, the finest lector in all of Ybor City,” Bella said.

  When Grandfather finished his reading, the staff stood in silence. Bella applauded, thinking of the loud clapping of chavetas that such a performance would have brought at El Paraíso.

  Mr. Howard whispered something to Parsons; then he approached Grandfather. “That was a fine reading,” he said. “I can’t understand the lingo myself, but you just might fit the bill.”

  Parsons looked at Bella. “And I’m sure that Miss Lorente would be willing to handle the commercials.”

  “Certainly,” Bella said.

  Howard extended his hand to Grandfather. “So what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

  “You’ll have to speak with my manager.” Grandfather winked at Bella.

  CHAPTER 29

  Hidalgo’s Iesture

  As Bella and Grandfather turned the corner by their casita, he whispered, “Look sad.”

  “But why?” Bella stopped when she saw Mary waiting on the front porch along with Mama and the children.

  Grandfather walked slowly down the sidewalk, keeping his head down and shuffling his feet. He led Bella right past the Lorentes’ until Juanita yelled, “Grandfather!”

  He turned, pretending to be confused. Bella could see the worry in Mama’s and Mary’s faces.

  “Did it go badly?” Mama asked.

  Grandfather suddenly doffed his hat and turned to Bella. “Thanks to this young woman, I’m going to be an electric lector.”

  “Hooray!” Juanita and Isabel ran and hugged Bella and Grandfather. “We owe a lot to Mary, too,” Bella said, squeezing her friend around the shoulders.

  “I’m so proud of you all,” Mama said.

  The following Saturday morning Bella was at Grandfather’s house when someone knocked.

  Bella walked to the front door. It was Cesar Hidalgo.

  She was surprised when Grandfather extended his hand and said, “Welcome, Cesar. May I offer you a chair?”

  “I can’t stay. I only wanted to do a small favor out of appreciation for all your fine readings.”

  “You don’t owe me anything.”

  “I’ve been saving up those quarters I refused to pay you.”

  “But I thought—”

  “I admit I’ve cursed you for being Spanish in the past,” Cesar said. “But I decided that twenty years is too long to hold a grudge. Besides, your work has given me much comfort.”

  “I was simply doing my job,” Grandfather said.

  “A job artfully done, señor,” Cesar said. “But on to the business at hand. Since I have only myself to provide for, I decided to put all my quarters to good use before I left town.”

  “You’re leaving Ybor?”

  “I’m taking the train to Trenton, New Jersey, today. The union secretary told me about a factory up there that respects workers’ rights. But if they don’t treat me properly, I’ll move elsewhere.”

  “I know you won’t be afraid to speak your mind.” Grandfather chuckled.

  “The truth is important to me. As is honor. So if you would do me the honor of accepting a gift as payment on an account that is long overdue, please come this way.” Cesar waved toward the front door.

  “It’s not like you to talk in riddles, Cesar.” Grandfather shook his head as he stepped onto the porch.

  Bella was ready to yell, “No! Don’t trust him!”

  But Grandfather shouted, “I don’t believe it!” and ran down the steps.

  Aunt Lola was walking up the sidewalk!

  Lola gave Grandfather a big hug; then she turned and embraced Bella. “It’s been a long time, dearie.”

  As Lola and Bella both wept, Grandfather turned to Cesar. “I don’t understand. How could you have?”

  Cesar grinned. “Ybor politicians will even listen to us Cubans if they see our wallets are fat enough.”

  Lola patted Cesar on the shoulder. “Can you believe it? Cesar bought them off,” she said. “A guard came to my cell early this morning and said the judge wanted to see me. At first I thought they were going to rough me up. I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’

  “The guard got a funny look on his face and said, ‘I’m not supposed to say anything, but I think you’re getting out due to medical problems.’ ”

  “Does your head still hurt?” Bella was worried.

  Lola laughed. “ ‘Medical problems?’ I told him, ‘There’s nothing wrong with this head other than a few loose screws.’ ” She tapped herself on the temple.

  Cesar chuckled. “A doctor friend agreed to write a letter and help out.”

  Lola said, “The guard took me to the judge’s chambers, and the judge said that due to my chronic pain, he was ordering me released with full credit for my time served. He said the only condition I had to follow was not to consort with any former or current members of the Tobacco Workers International Union.

  “For a minu
te I thought about making a ruckus over what was clearly an under-the-table deal. Then I decided I could do a whole lot more for the other workers if I was free. Especially since the trial is due to start any day now.”

  “You agreed not to associate with the union?” Grandfather asked.

  “I agreed not to ‘consort.’ ” Lola winked. “But I have no idea what that means.”

  Cesar said, “She already stopped at the union office.”

  “Tía Lola!” Bella said.

  “Nobody else in this town would ever hire me except the union,” Lola said.

  “The police will put you back in jail,” Bella said.

  “I don’t think so, dearie.” Lola winked again. “Not when I happen to know the name of a certain prominent judge who is clearly living off bribes.”

  “I must be catching my train,” Cesar said.

  Lola turned and hugged Cesar so hard that she knocked his hat from his hand. “I owe you a bunch.”

  “Perhaps you’d like to accompany me to New Jersey?” Cesar smoothed the ends of his mustache as he picked up his hat.

  “I’ve seen the winters up north,” Lola laughed.

  “If you ever change your mind,” Cesar said, “the union office in Trenton will know how to find me.”

  “I’ll stop by if I’m ever in the neighborhood.” Lola kissed his cheek before he turned to go. Then she threw her arms around Bella and Grandfather. “I plan to beat a drum on every street corner until we raise enough money to throw those crooks out of city hall.”

  Bella smiled. Though Lola’s face was still thin and pale, her eyes had a hint of their old spark.

  CHAPTER 30

  El Lector of the Air

  For the first Spanish Story Hour program, Grandfather performed the stories and Bella read the commericals. “Good afternoon, radio listeners.” She began the show standing in front of the microphone while a background singer hummed. “Welcome to WTAM’s Spanish Story Hour, brought to you by Super Suds, the miracle dishwashing soap that is guaranteed to protect the smooth, white loveliness of your hands.”

  When it was Grandfather’s turn, Bella whispered, “Just think of this microphone as your new lectern.”

  Grandfather nodded. When he began, time stopped. “What a voice,” someone whispered from the corner of the studio, as every person in the room turned and stared. At the end of the program even the janitor applauded.

  Bella and Grandfather were still excited from the performance when they got off the trolley and walked up the street toward home. As they turned onto their block, Bella was startled by a shout. “Here they are!”

  It was Tía Lola. Everyone from the neighborhood had gathered in front of the Navarros’, and the moment they saw Grandfather and Bella, they applauded and cheered.

  Juanita and Isabel ran up and hugged Grandfather. “We all listened to your program,” Juanita said.

  “You were wonderful,” Isabel said.

  “And so were you.” Mama smiled at Bella.

  “It’s time to celebrate.” Lola waved toward a table on the sidewalk that was heaped with food.

  “Doesn’t this remind you of the big Christmas party Mr. Ybor gave the workers in the old days, Grandfather?” Pedro said.

  “It’s even better!” Grandfather said.

  When Bella brought her first paycheck home from the radio station, Mama said, “I can’t believe how much our fortunes have changed. First Lola gets out of jail. Then this.”

  “They’re paying me as much as the factory did,” Bella said, “and I only have to work on Sunday.”

  “Best of all”—Mama hugged Bella—“you’ve helped the Lorentes earn back their dignity.”

  “And reading those commercials is a holiday compared to working in the stripping room,” Bella said.

  “It’s also much better for the smooth, white loveliness of your hands!” Mama laughed.

  Lola worked day and night at the union office. She wrote letters and made phone calls to raise money for a legal defense fund. It made no difference that the court threatened to charge the union with racketeering. “Can you imagine the nerve of them,” she told Bella, “when they’re the ones who’ve been taking bolita payoffs all these years?”

  The first night when Mama invited Lola to dinner, Lola mainly talked about the workers who remained in jail. She never said a word about herself until Pedro asked, “Was it hard?”

  “Was what hard, honey?” Lola asked.

  “Jail,” Pedro said.

  “Let’s just say there’s nothing worse than losing your freedom. Imagine being locked in a cell half the size of your bedroom, with one tiny window, and not knowing if you’re going to stay there ten days or ten years. And a bunch of stupid cracker guards—” Lola stopped when she saw Juanita’s eyes fill up. “But my biggest problem was that I do not look good in prison stripes.”

  Juanita and Isabel both ran to the other side of the table and gave Lola a big hug. “Please don’t ever go back there, Tía Lola,” Isabel whispered.

  Lola hugged both girls. “Don’t worry your pretty heads.”

  “How’s the new lawyer doing?” Grandfather asked.

  “Instead of telling us what we want to hear like that first crook, he says we should expect to lose this trial because we have no chance of a fair hearing in Tampa. He knows the appeals court will be stacked against us too. But he’s confident we’ll get an honest ruling before the Florida Supreme Court.”

  For his third radio program Grandfather invited Bella to read de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” with him. Though they’d practiced several times at home, Bella was nervous. Her role, that of the vain Mathilde Loisel, was the most important part in the story. Reading commercials had been simple, but she wanted to make Grandfather proud.

  Grandfather introduced the story and began reading the part of Monsieur Loisel, a clerk who receives an invitation to a fancy government party. Thinking Mathilde will be happy, he hurries home with the news.

  “And what do you suppose I am to wear to such an affair?” Bella leaned toward the microphone that stood between her and Grandfather, and she read in her harshest voice, tears trickling down her cheeks.

  “Why, the dress you go to the theater in. It—it looks very nice to me.” Grandfather stammered to show the clerk’s confusion.

  The talk between Grandfather and Bella went smoothly as the crafty Mathilde used her tears to secure a new dress and to borrow a diamond necklace from a friend.

  Bella admired the way Grandfather countered Mathilde’s anger with gentleness. After a lifetime of using his booming voice to fill the corners of a factory hall, he’d learned that the microphone could pick up the softest tones. With whispers Grandfather breathed life into the character of the sad clerk.

  Toward the middle of the story Bella stumbled badly. Then she tried to make up for it by reading so fast that her words ran together. After all their practice!

  But Grandfather smiled and spoke even more slowly than normal. “Take a breath, my dear.” Grandfather touched her arm and pretended his speech was a part of their script. “Enjoy the special flavor of each word.”

  “So pace is the key to proper delivery, monsieur?” Bella asked with a smile, staying in character.

  “Pace is the key in life as well, mademoiselle. For our silences speak as loudly as our words.” Grandfather beamed.

  The heart-wrenching conclusion of the story was met by applause from everyone in the studio. Grandfather bowed to Bella and said, “Superbly done.”

  As they walked to catch the trolley a short while later, Grandfather said, “The enemy has treated us well today.”

  “The enemy?” Bella asked.

  “The radio,” Grandfather laughed. “The machine I so hated has suddenly become our friend. You’re doing wonderfully well. Next week I think we should try a more challenging work.”

  “Such as?”

  “Our listeners might enjoy it if we continued our French theme with a reading from Hugo’s
Les Misérables. Would you be willing to play Cossette?”

  “But of course, Monsieur Valjean.”

  Grandfather and Bella had just finished their first rehearsal of the Hugo reading when Lola stopped by with news of the cigar workers’ case. “The decision finally came.”

  Bella could tell the news wasn’t good.

  “We lost on every count,” Lola said. “Now we can only hope for the court to show mercy.”

  The sentence was a shock to all of Ybor. “They know how to kick us when we’re down,” Lola said.

  “How bad was it?” Bella asked.

  “The workers were sentenced to a total of fifty-three years.” Lola shook her head. “Fifty-three years in prison for stepping into the street without a parade permit.”

  “You will file an appeal?” Grandfather asked.

  “Yes, but how do we keep their hopes up in the meantime?”

  “If anyone can lift their spirits, you can,” Bella said.

  Bella worried about Tía Lola. What if the police decided to make an example of her? Would her threat to turn in a crooked judge be enough to save her from a second trip to jail?

  Despite these fears, in the weeks that followed, Bella enjoyed doing the female voices in classic scenes from Don Quixote (she played Dulcinea) and Zola’s coal mining story, Germinal (Bella read the part of Catherine). One big surprise was the number of listeners who wrote letters to WTAM, praising The Spanish Story Hour. And residents of Ybor often stopped Grandfather and Bella on the street, saying, “Señor García,” or “Señorita Lorente, it is an honor to see you. I so enjoy your program.” Then they would mention their favorite reading from the previous week.

  “This is a miracle,” Grandfather said to Bella one afternoon. “In my largest factory I read to four hundred workers, but through the magic of radio we are reaching many more.”