BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 53
let us ride? But our men were good. When the little
legs of the ninos were weary our men carried them on
their backs. And when the three women who were far
gone in pregnancy could walk no more our men made
stretchers of twigs and carried them, taking turns. Yes,
our men were good, but now they are gone. We do
not see them any more!"
"The soldiers had to tear me away from my husband,"
said another, "and when I cried out they only laughed.
The next night a soldier came and tried to take hold of
me, but I pulled off my shoes and beat him with them.
Yes, the soldiers bothered the women often, especially
that week we starved in Mexico City, but always the
women fought them back."
"I have a sister in Yucatan," said a young woman under
twenty. "Two years ago they carried her away.
As soon as we arrive I shall try to find her. We will
keep each other company, now that they have taken
my husband from me. Tell me, is it so terribly hot in
Yucatan as they say it is? I do not like hot weather,
yet if they will only let me live with my sister I will not
mind."
"To whom do all these bright little tads, these mucliachos,
all of the same size, belong?" I inquired.
"Quien sabe?" answered an old woman. "Their
parents are gone, just as are our babes. They take our
children from us and give us the children of strangers.
And when we begin to love the new ones, they take
them away, too. Do you see that woman huddled over
there with her face in her hands? They took her four
little boys at Guadalajara and left her nothing. Myself?
Yes, they took my husband. For more than thirty years
we had never been parted for a single night. But that
made no difference; he is gone. Yet perhaps I am lucky;