Song of the Mockingbird: My Journey with Josefina

Señor Montoya appears in the doorway, and we all rise to our feet respectfully. It’s time for prayers. I follow Josefina and the others to a narrow table at the back of the room, an altar covered with an embroidered cloth where everyone kneels with Josefina’s papá in the center. Ana and Tomás slip in at the back, and we all bow our heads. Señor Montoya prays, his deep, musical voice rolling over me as I peek through almost-closed eyes at the candles and the brightly painted saint figures on the altar. I remember seeing figures like these at the museum in Santa Fe. Dad told me they were saints carved from wood.

The family’s faces look peaceful and refreshed as they pray, and I sense this is a very important time of day for them. When they finish, I follow Josefina and her sisters to the doorway. Señor Montoya says he’s going to check the animals for the night. Tía Dolores comes over and tells me there’s a harvest fandango in the village tomorrow night. Josefina and her sisters will go in the morning to help prepare, and she asks if I’d like to join them.

Josefina exclaims that I must come, since fandangos are so much fun. This is the party they’d mentioned earlier. I open my mouth to say yes, but Tía Dolores keeps talking. Señor Montoya is also traveling to Santa Fe for business tomorrow, to ask officials there if anyone knows of a family in a village who has lost a child. Josefina and I could go with him instead, though we’d miss the fandango. Tía Dolores would come along in the wagon, and we’d all stay overnight. If we choose the fandango instead, Señor Montoya will take a horse and return by evening.

Josefina says it’s my choice, the party or the trip. Part of me pictures the modern Santa Fe I know, its streets lined with shops and offices and the cathedral soaring overhead, though I know the city must have looked different back then. Still, I love parties, and my body almost aches for laughter and music after feeling low since we moved. Having Josefina as a friend has already perked me up.