September approached and still I had made no headway with my father about going to college. He said Europe. I said New York. He said he wouldn\u2019t spend a penny to educate me in the United States. I asked him how long I had to stay in Mexico. He said until I decided to act wisely. Not caring what that meant, I made up my mind to see about getting away myself.<\/p>\r\n
I had no money, but Tomas\u2019 father had asked me if I would teach his son English, so I accepted, receiving a modest fee. Probably because Tomas proved an apt pupil (and we pal\u2019d around together quite a little, too), others heard of his rapid progress in speaking at<\/span> English, and I soon found myself with more applicants for classes than I could accept. I raised my fee. When the schools opened, I was offered two positions as an English instructor\u2014one in Se\u00f1or Luis Tovar\u2019s business college, another in Se\u00f1orita Padilla\u2019s private finishing school for girls. I was able to take them both, since Se\u00f1orita Padilla\u2019s classes were in the mornings and Se\u00f1or Tovar\u2019s in the afternoon and early evening.<\/p>\r\n I used the Berlitz method, all instruction entirely in English, and I found that it worked very well. My students really did learn something, and we had lots of fun together, besides. Very shortly, the mayor of the town sent for me and asked if I would give private lessons to his son and daughter at home.<\/p>\r\n The daughter was about sixteen and very beautiful, but the son was as bad a fifteen-year-old youngster as ever decided not<\/span> to learn a word of anything. Result, neither girl nor boy got much beyond the words door<\/span> and chair<\/span> that winter, and I don\u2019t think they cared. They were rather spoiled, cream-colored children, who played tennis with a doctor\u2019s family, browner and more Indian-looking\u2014one of the few Indian families considered \u201caristocracy\u201d in Toluca, where Spanish blood still prevailed in the best circles and the exaltation of things Indian had not yet triumphed\u2014for Diego Rivera was still in Paris.<\/p>\r\n As a teacher of English to the \u201cbest\u201d families, I met a great many interesting people and my funds for escape grew apace. For the first time in my life, I had my own money to spend in decent amounts, to send my mother, and to save. All that winter I did not ask my father for a penny. And I knew by summer I would have enough to go to New York, so I began to plan my trip long before the winter was over. I dreamt about Harlem.<\/p>","rendered":" September approached and still I had made no headway with my father about going to college. He said Europe. I said New York. He said he wouldn\u2019t spend a penny to educate me in the United States. I asked him how long I had to stay in Mexico. He said until I decided to act wisely. Not caring what that meant, I made up my mind to see about getting away myself.<\/p>\n I had no money, but Tomas\u2019 father had asked me if I would teach his son English, so I accepted, receiving a modest fee. Probably because Tomas proved an apt pupil (and we pal\u2019d around together quite a little, too), others heard of his rapid progress in speaking at<\/span> English, and I soon found myself with more applicants for classes than I could accept. I raised my fee. When the schools opened, I was offered two positions as an English instructor\u2014one in Se\u00f1or Luis Tovar\u2019s business college, another in Se\u00f1orita Padilla\u2019s private finishing school for girls. I was able to take them both, since Se\u00f1orita Padilla\u2019s classes were in the mornings and Se\u00f1or Tovar\u2019s in the afternoon and early evening.<\/p>\n I used the Berlitz method, all instruction entirely in English, and I found that it worked very well. My students really did learn something, and we had lots of fun together, besides. Very shortly, the mayor of the town sent for me and asked if I would give private lessons to his son and daughter at home.<\/p>\n The daughter was about sixteen and very beautiful, but the son was as bad a fifteen-year-old youngster as ever decided not<\/span> to learn a word of anything. Result, neither girl nor boy got much beyond the words door<\/span> and chair<\/span> that winter, and I don\u2019t think they cared. They were rather spoiled, cream-colored children, who played tennis with a doctor\u2019s family, browner and more Indian-looking\u2014one of the few Indian families considered \u201caristocracy\u201d in Toluca, where Spanish blood still prevailed in the best circles and the exaltation of things Indian had not yet triumphed\u2014for Diego Rivera was still in Paris.<\/p>\n As a teacher of English to the \u201cbest\u201d families, I met a great many interesting people and my funds for escape grew apace. For the first time in my life, I had my own money to spend in decent amounts, to send my mother, and to save. All that winter I did not ask my father for a penny. And I knew by summer I would have enough to go to New York, so I began to plan my trip long before the winter was over. I dreamt about Harlem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-132","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/132\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/thebigsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}