Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

tears.” I never thought studying Spanish would give
me empathy for a padre! But how do you conjugate
the verb ser (“to be”) when you have been declared
extinct? How do you produce the formal usted when
the priest teaching it rapes you?
I want to know: when did my ancestors begin
dreaming in Spanish, making love in Spanish? When
did our tongues convert? I know our first words were
a foreign prayer: Amar a Dios—the only instruction
necessary before baptism with magical water, sign of
the cross between blows. Amar a Dios.
Wednesday: Names
Someone asks, “Why do so many Spanish surnames
end in “-ez”? La profesora smiles and explains that
“-ez” means “son of,” like the suffixes “-son” and “-
sen” in German and Scandinavian languages. “Por
ejemplo, Fernández is the son of Fernando, Martínez
is the son of Martín, Rodrí-guez is the son of
Rodrigo…and then, pues, people give their children
names por protección de los santos. For many
generations, mujeres se les dio el nombre María y
one of the names of La Virgen, like Esperanza
(hope), Concepción (conception), Dolores (pain),
Encarnación (incarnation). Virgen María de los
Dolores…”