(An elegant, dignified woman in her fifties. Salvadoran accent. Sitting in a conference room at Fathers & Families—a nonprofit dedicated to helping recently released inmates transition back into the community, offers help finding jobs, etc. She volunteers here regularly. Swivel office chair. Musician is onstage. He sometimes interacts with the actor.)
But it’s—I think it’s the way…you raise your kids. What they see around the family. I never heard too much about drugs at that time, but it was more about baggy pants and you start being in gangs? That’s what I was worried. (Listens to a question.)
I don’t see nothing in the pants; what I see is butts all the time. You can see the underwear! I don’t have the slightest idea why the kids do it. And I—I don’t think I would let my kids do it. I wouldn’t let them. No! I woulda ripped every single pants. Knowing myself I would have done it!
One of the parents told me that [my kids] used to go to their homes? And change. Then I became very good friends with their parents. And we all used to communicate. And I think that was the key. One of the mothers [is] the one who told me [that my kids were wearing baggy pants]. And that’s when I went to the school and say—I say, “What are you doing with those pants?” Or “How are you doing to those pants?” They say, “Oh, Mom, these are my friends.” Say, “Come on, don’t make me embarrassing here at school.” Say, “Okay, we gonna talk when we get home.” And we talking, I tell him, I say, “Okay, I’m gonna meet you halfway. Not that baggy. A little bit loose. But I don’t want you to be going to nobody’s house and change.”
I feel that I was a very strict mother. And I was very involved in their school. And their—anything that it was involving my kids, I was very involved. Very involved.
At nighttime, I used to go and smell them, and—yes. To see if they were not smoking or drinking. Oh, yes. I did so many things to keep my kids outta trouble. And thanks to the Lord, I think I did a good job.
We moved to Vallejo, and from Vallejo, that’s when I started having problems. ’Cause they were in that age, at thirteen, fourteen years old? That—that the um—the…the school [was] calling me, that they didn’t come to school. And that’s when I used to communicate with the teachers all the time. All the time. At least once a week. I used to call. And they knew. They knew that Mommy was gonna come.
Uh, with my daughter? Gah, was worse with her. My concern was for my daughter not to become pregnant. She was very beautiful, yeah. What I did is that I start take her to model—modeling? Modeling. Yeah. From there I used to—uh, she compete from San Joaquin. Miss San Joaquin here? She didn’t win, but that open the doors for…She went to uh Miami, Cancún. She, uh, won in Cancún? Miss Cancún? And—and the reason why I did that was the requirement was to be in school. And not to be pregnant, not to have kids.
I used to even—we were having some goose? Goose? I think it’s what you call goose, they’re worse than dogs? The kids used to, you know, they used to get up at nighttime? Take the cars out?
The goose? The goose? The geese? The geese? The goose or the geese? Geese, yes.
The dog—they knew the dogs, they didn’t bark or anything, but the geese? Oh no! That’s when I find out they were taking the car, too. And you could hear—the geese, they don’t stop. When they see a stranger, they go, “Voo, voo-voo, voo.” And one time I woke up. I say, “Wow, what is that noise?’ And heard the garage door. And I came downstairs, and…I call the police on my own kid. And his friend was begging me and, “Mrs. De Santiago. Please don’t—don’t—don’t—don’t call my parents. Don’t call the police.” I say, “I have to do it.”
It was a gift, that someone gave me? And I did not know that they were that [good]—they worse than dogs. They are so good. They died. But I, uh—they did so good on me that when—how do you say, when you stuff it? [They did so good on me, that when they died] I sent for them to be stuffed. And I have them in my house. And they know, my kids know. They say, “This is Rosita and this is Frankie.” They know, because they have memories.
I had to move from Vallejo. I say, “I have to move from here.” ’Cause I—I didn’t want none of my kids to go to jail. You know, you start seeing a lot of things, in the news, I don’t want none of my kids…none of my family. Who wants that? Nobody.