Ah, the parade. We were working a project, and the president of the school committee rushed over where I was in the midst of keeping things running, and said, “Samuel! The school is having a parade and we need you to be in it with us!” “When?” I asked. “Now! Right now! They are assembling. You must come with me!” So, I went with her, and she took me to her house. “I have a Pancho Villa costume for you, so you can be in the parade.” So she took me into a bedroom, and on the bed was a serape, and two bandoliers, and a sombrero. There was also a skirt on the bed. While she bustled off and came back with a toy rifle, I picked up the skirt, and when she walked into the room, I held it in front of me, posing like a woman on a tv show, and curtsied, and just to joke around, I said, “Dona Delia, I don’t want to be a Pancho Villa. I want to e a Maria. Don’t I look pretty with this skirt?” And I pirouetted around the room. She became completely still, staring at me. Then 10 seconds later, she smiled and ran off again, Returning in a couple minutes with a strapless bra, a couple of tennis balls, and a cute green off the shoulder blouse. She was chuckling. Well, what could I do? I put the Maria clothes on, and she pinned in some braids, and rouged my lips and cheeks, and off we went. She took me to where the parade was assembling, to meet my Pancho Villa, one of the kids father, Polo. He was kinda stunned at first, but got into the spirit. The kids were loving seeing me in a skirt. The parade set off and we went twice up and down the Colonia, with me blowing kisses to al the parents and families out watching the parade. I was famous for about a year after that, with people coming up to me laughing and greeting me as Maria, in the supermarket, at the school, and on the street while walking around. I am not sure about how political incorrect that may have been, or how it made the people feel about Amigos de las Escuelas, the group I was working for, but it opened doors to me and made the work I did there a lot more fun.