The Children of Sanchez Read Online Free PDF Page B

underestimate their courage in bringing forth as they did the many painful memories and experiences of their lives. To some extent this served as a catharsis and relieved their anxieties. They were moved by my sustained interest in them, and my return to Mexico year after year was a crucial factor in increasing their confidence. Their positive image of theUnited States as a “superior” country undoubtedly enhanced my status with them and placed me in the role of a benevolent authority figure rather than the punishing one they were so accustomed to in their own father. Their identification with my work and their sense of participation in a scientific research project, however vaguely they conceived of its ultimate objectives, gave them a sense of satisfaction and of importance which carried them beyond the more limited horizons of their daily lives. They have often told me that if their stories would help human beings anywhere, they would feel a sense of accomplishment.
    In the course of our interviews I asked hundreds of questions of Manuel, Roberto, Consuelo, Marta, and Jesús Sánchez. Naturally, my training as an anthropologist, my years of familiarity with Mexican culture, my own values, and my personality influenced the final outcome of this study. While I used a directive approach in the interviews, I encouraged free association, and I was a good listener. I attempted to cover systematically a wide range of subjects: their earliest memories; their dreams, their hopes, fears, joys and sufferings; their jobs; their relationship with friends, relatives, employers; their sex life; their concepts of justice, religion, and politics; their knowledge of geography and history; in short, their total view of the world. Many of my questions stimulated them to express themselves on subjects which they might otherwise never have thought of or volunteered information about. However, the answers were their own.
    In preparing the interviews for publication, I have eliminated my questions and have selected, arranged, and organized their materials into coherent life stories. If one agrees with Henry James that life is all inclusion and confusion while art is all discrimination and selection, then these life histories have something of both art and life. I believe this in no way reduces the authenticity of the data or their usefulness for science. For those of my colleagues who are interested in the raw materials, I have the taped interviews available.
    The editing has been more extensive in some cases than in others. Manuel, by far the most fluent and dramatic storyteller in the family, needed relatively little editing. His story reflects much of its original structure. The Manuel story perhaps more than the others, however, loses a great deal in transcription and translation because he is a born actor with a great gift for nuance, timing, and intonation. A single question would often elicit an uninterrupted monologue offorty minutes. Roberto spoke readily, though less dramatically and more simply, about his adventures, but he was more constrained and reticent about his inner feelings and his sex life. In the case of Consuelo, a great deal of editing was necessary because of the superabundance of material. In addition to the taped interviews, she also wrote extensively on various incidents about which I had questioned her. Marta showed the least facility for extended monologue and for organization of ideas. For a long time she would answer most of my questions with a single sentence or phrase. In this respect she was like her father. With time and encouragement, however, both of them became more fluent and had their moments of eloquence.
    Manuel was the least inhibited in using typical slum slang, with its profanity and strong sexual metaphor. Roberto, too, spoke quite naturally but he would often preface some rough expression with a polite “By your kind permission, Doctor.” Marta, too, spoke her natural idiom. Consuelo and her