Alicia Franco, cont'd

Clodomira "Cleo" Figueroa Alicia's mother

I found a lot of Anglos, lots and lots of Anglos. Some of the places that I went to had caregivers there that would tell me: "What are you doing here? Why are you here? That's not your relative, is it?" They'd give me a scornful look and say: "What are you doing here?" I would go away upset, again doubting my decisions, not only mine, but my brother's, because it was a group decision. I had people that I didn't even know or didn't even know me telling me: "What are you doing here? Why are you bringing your father here? You aren't like me, you have no business coming here." That was very hard to deal with.

Terrible rotten daughter… What are you doing? Why are you doing this? It made me feel small, not worthy. It was horrible. I would go home and cry.

(Latino culture dictates) you take care of your own, do it at home. You sacrifice whatever you have to sacrifice but that's what you do. It didn't matter what my life was like. It didn't matter what I believed or what I had to do. Strangers telling me what to do, making my life miserable, because I couldn't make a decision to make things different, to help my mother, so she could have a little more peaceful life. She couldn't deal with him no more. We couldn't deal with him no more. We put up fences to keep him in, because he would wander, he'd get lost and we had to find him.

It didn't matter to people…. It doesn't matter what you have to do; you have to do the right thing and take care of your own. Basically, that's what they all thought. You could see it in their faces; they didn't have to say anything. The look would tell you everything.

The Franco Family

We had to do this for my dad's health, for his safety, for my mother's health, for her safety. We had to. He just couldn't be taken care of at home anymore. So our search began and continued for months. One place wasn't good enough, another place was too expensive, other places - you just had those bad vibes, other places people were attacking you. It's just constant. We'd just cross out the names of the places on our list with a short note why and what I didn't like about that certain place. We went on. We wanted it here, and we wanted it close, and we even went over to San Inez, which is over the mountains. We ended up coming to Villa Alamar and the Friendship Center.

Now my dad's gone, I still have my mother and my aunt. I'm taking care of my grandkids and my young son who needs care (laughs). When some body needs to be taken care of, you take them in and take their room. In our culture it's always the females who take over the roles. If you're a girl, that's your job. It's what's expected. You don't have to ask, you don't have to be told. It's what's expected of you. And that's what's happened.

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